hdmi cable almost melted

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Level 1

4 points

hdmi cable almost melted

hi all,

I just got a second monitor for my macbook pro 2012, bought a thunderbolt (minidp) to hdmi to plug it in, worked fine first night using it. I went to sleep and left it plugged in, macbook closed. In the morning i came to wake up my macbook and turn the new monitor on - it turned on for a few seconds then turned off, and i realised the hdmi cable has almost melted, i almost burnt my hand removing it!

So i guess the hdmi cable is fried (Hopefully not the monitor hdmi in). What would have caused this? it's a cheap cable from ebay but I've got a feeling it could be the macbook. It's a refurbished 2012 non-retina model, the previous refurb i bought actually blew an hdmi socket on my tv when i plugged it in (again, cheap cable) and they replaced the macbook. Is there a history of thunderbolt ports frying cables? will buying a better quality cable solve the issue? I would have thought HDMI, carrying a digital signal, isn't supposed to get hot/carry much voltage at all. all other usb/audio/ethernet/audio out cables don't get hot at all.

any help will be much appreciated!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 10, 2019 1:55 AM

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Answer 1

jaychevalait Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 11, 2019 2:33 PM in response to jaychevalait

ok i've figured it out, my refurbished macbook came with a 3rd party magsafe which i think shorted my thunderbolt port. the thunderbolt socket is now dead (tested the cable and etx. monitor on another macbook and worked fine). have tried another TB to HDMI cable (amazonbasics branded) and a TB to DVI adapter, and nothing. not even the flicker when it recognises something is plugged in. all other sockets (usb, ethernet etc) still work.

what are my options? can i run an ext monitor some other way?

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Answer 2

Aug 10, 2019 6:06 PM in response to jaychevalait

Cheap electronics is never a good idea. Pay up for decent electronic parts and accessories. Try to obtain well respected branded items. Even well respected branded items have been known to cut corners as well, but usually they are your best bet especially when you are connecting expensive equipment.

It is hard to tell if any other item is damaged.

Good luck.

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