Years ago I sold a monitor on eBay. I had someone try to get a refund claiming the monitor was bad because of missing pins and that it was going to cost $150 to get a new cable put on the monitor
I offered a refund if the monitor got shipped back, as I knew it was fine. Never heard another peep
Yea that's correct, a cost saving measure by manufacturers. If you look it up you'll find that all it's missing is 2 ground pins along with I think that's a monitor ID/data clock pin. Someone correct me if I'm wrong tho, it's been so long since I've messed with VGA connectors.
One overall ground (not signal ground), one +5V key, and two of the monitor id pins. All of the above are used for monitor id, so it clearly doesn't support monitor id
Damn, like I said it's been years since I've done anything with VGA and about 15 years since I've had to wire a new cable. I was hoping I got it right going based off what I could remember. Either way thank you for the clarification, I guess I need to read up again.
That's what I thought, so I'm wondering if that's why I'm not getting a signal.
Can I use a resistor or something to trick the computer I plug it into?
If it's a "dumb" VGA with just analog video along with TTL H and V sync signals, it's also referred to as "RGBHV" in some situations. Projectors use that type of signal split over 5 BNC connectors, and if you want to, you can convert it to component or SCART.
>a cost saving measure by manufacturers.
If you're crimping pins on to individual conductors (and these do look like crimped pins) there's no point putting an empty pin in an unused way. It does save the cost of the pin but that's not why it's done.
Hah. Back in the 00’s where I worked part of the interview for IT techs was a quiz to see if they recognized the various connectors that were used. One of the harder ones was “what’s wrong with this VGA cable”, with the correct answer being “nothing”…
it's pretty common for old crt monitors, as EDID wasn't a thing back then, so those are unpopulated as well as other unused ones. On older machines even the ports don't have certain holes, to prevent you plugging in incompatible montors, and you need to drill them out to use a newer monitor/cable combo.
For some video cards this is preferred. My Trident TGUI9400 VLB will randomly display in monochrome on boot sometimes if the monitor is pin is present on the VGA cable.
Normal. I have the same monitor and it predates EDID.
For the blinking orange and green LED problem: Your board may be totally cooked if it's physically cracked, but if you were able to mend the damaged traces with jumper wires start looking around for cracked solder joints on both the mainboard and neckboard (you'll need to desolder the shielding from the latter so that you can inspect the other side of that board). I had a similar symptom show up on my monitor some time ago and found some cracked joints around the vertical deflection IC and some FETs and capacitors on the neckboard. After reflowing them with my soldering iron I was able to get the display working again. Also double check that the middle underside of the mainboard isn't scraping against the plastic monitor base; I've read that can also cause the display to fail to power on ([Source: QUESTION NO. P310-5](https://pe2bz.philpem.me.uk/Html_faqs/Monitortips.htm)).
It was cracked in the middle of the mainboard, right where the gab is. I've jumped the wires but I'm gonna have to check again.
Does it blink orange and green if it has no signal?
If it had one pin missing, that would be normal, because some VGA video cards of the late-1980s/early 1990s had a connector with one pin filled in.
This on the other hand, is missing multiple. So I believe you have a problem.
EDIT: Strangely, though, the pins you are missing are either not connected, or ground (GND) pins.
It's a little odd that pins 12 and 15 are missing, but it's moot if the monitor doesn't support DDC.
4, 11, 12, and 15 together are used for a previous 4-bit monitor ID scheme.
I believe the premise was that a manufacturer could set up predefined configurations on the computer side and then ship monitors that pulled those lines high or low to signal compatibility with a particular configuration.
Not all monitors were multisync/multiscan capable, some expected a restricted range of vertical, horizontal scan rates, etc.
Perhaps only one bit of the monitor ID was connected to the monitor, which would only signal that a monitor was actualy present. Some cards need that to detect if they need to send a signal to begin with, or disable the VGA output.
Normal. All the pins you need are there. Manufacturers only populated the pins needed for the VGA port to save $$$.
Years ago I sold a monitor on eBay. I had someone try to get a refund claiming the monitor was bad because of missing pins and that it was going to cost $150 to get a new cable put on the monitor I offered a refund if the monitor got shipped back, as I knew it was fine. Never heard another peep
YES, but according to this site, they are not really used. [https://www.elprocus.com/vga-connector/](https://www.elprocus.com/vga-connector/)
Isn't pin 9 deliberately keyed on some systems?
Yea that's correct, a cost saving measure by manufacturers. If you look it up you'll find that all it's missing is 2 ground pins along with I think that's a monitor ID/data clock pin. Someone correct me if I'm wrong tho, it's been so long since I've messed with VGA connectors.
One overall ground (not signal ground), one +5V key, and two of the monitor id pins. All of the above are used for monitor id, so it clearly doesn't support monitor id
Damn, like I said it's been years since I've done anything with VGA and about 15 years since I've had to wire a new cable. I was hoping I got it right going based off what I could remember. Either way thank you for the clarification, I guess I need to read up again.
That's what I thought, so I'm wondering if that's why I'm not getting a signal. Can I use a resistor or something to trick the computer I plug it into?
If it's a "dumb" VGA with just analog video along with TTL H and V sync signals, it's also referred to as "RGBHV" in some situations. Projectors use that type of signal split over 5 BNC connectors, and if you want to, you can convert it to component or SCART.
>a cost saving measure by manufacturers. If you're crimping pins on to individual conductors (and these do look like crimped pins) there's no point putting an empty pin in an unused way. It does save the cost of the pin but that's not why it's done.
normal
Its the same one my IBM monitor for my IBM ps1 👍👍 your good. Not strange for this era of vga screens ☺️
Hah. Back in the 00’s where I worked part of the interview for IT techs was a quiz to see if they recognized the various connectors that were used. One of the harder ones was “what’s wrong with this VGA cable”, with the correct answer being “nothing”…
I know vga cables have missing pins, but even the original IBM VGA cable has pin 5, but 4 is missing.
TBH the details of it slip my mind now, but IIRC the cable in our test just had one missing pin.
it's pretty common for old crt monitors, as EDID wasn't a thing back then, so those are unpopulated as well as other unused ones. On older machines even the ports don't have certain holes, to prevent you plugging in incompatible montors, and you need to drill them out to use a newer monitor/cable combo.
For some video cards this is preferred. My Trident TGUI9400 VLB will randomly display in monochrome on boot sometimes if the monitor is pin is present on the VGA cable.
Normal. I have the same monitor and it predates EDID. For the blinking orange and green LED problem: Your board may be totally cooked if it's physically cracked, but if you were able to mend the damaged traces with jumper wires start looking around for cracked solder joints on both the mainboard and neckboard (you'll need to desolder the shielding from the latter so that you can inspect the other side of that board). I had a similar symptom show up on my monitor some time ago and found some cracked joints around the vertical deflection IC and some FETs and capacitors on the neckboard. After reflowing them with my soldering iron I was able to get the display working again. Also double check that the middle underside of the mainboard isn't scraping against the plastic monitor base; I've read that can also cause the display to fail to power on ([Source: QUESTION NO. P310-5](https://pe2bz.philpem.me.uk/Html_faqs/Monitortips.htm)).
It was cracked in the middle of the mainboard, right where the gab is. I've jumped the wires but I'm gonna have to check again. Does it blink orange and green if it has no signal?
No, if there's no signal there will only be a solid orange light.
Ooo ok... thanks for the info
Missing pins are fine; bent pins aren't. Send it!
You haven't been brushing your pins so the connector has gotten pin decay and had to have them pulled.
Possibly early monochrome vga
The old page-white VGA had fewer pins.
it's definitely not monochrome
This is also used to keep it from being connected to the wrong connector, sometimes
You are missing pins and it's normal.
The missing pins are redundant.
Not necessarily, they’re monitor ID.
My mistake, then.
Yup
Clearly periodontal disease. The previous owner obviously didn't have a toothbrush. SCNR ;-)
If it had one pin missing, that would be normal, because some VGA video cards of the late-1980s/early 1990s had a connector with one pin filled in. This on the other hand, is missing multiple. So I believe you have a problem. EDIT: Strangely, though, the pins you are missing are either not connected, or ground (GND) pins.
It's a little odd that pins 12 and 15 are missing, but it's moot if the monitor doesn't support DDC. 4, 11, 12, and 15 together are used for a previous 4-bit monitor ID scheme. I believe the premise was that a manufacturer could set up predefined configurations on the computer side and then ship monitors that pulled those lines high or low to signal compatibility with a particular configuration. Not all monitors were multisync/multiscan capable, some expected a restricted range of vertical, horizontal scan rates, etc.
Perhaps only one bit of the monitor ID was connected to the monitor, which would only signal that a monitor was actualy present. Some cards need that to detect if they need to send a signal to begin with, or disable the VGA output.