exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Well, it's confirmed, the HDMI socket is toast. Looking in under a magnifier with strong light and I can see multiple pins have pushed back, so it looks like an early socket. I'll try to get some pics.

At least I have one on the way. I could steal the one from the BLOD machine as that is new but I think I'd be better off waiting.

Fingers crossed none of the pads inside on the PCB have been damaged.

I must have got lucky when I first plugged it in to get it working.

Shouldn't be too hard to repair...

HigashiJun wrote: 22 Dec 2023 05:56 Shouldn't be too hard to repair...

Should be easy, I've done a couple before.

This is the damage:


You can see the pin top left has bent all the way back and is touching ground, and multiple other pins are pushed back and lifting.

It's very annoying actually, because I checked out the socket before I plugged anything in, being aware that there are known problems with the HDMI sockets on these, and it was just fine. And of course, it worked initially.

What's even more annoying is that it's damaged the plug on my HDMI tester and also damaged the plug on one end of a new cable.

The cable, well not terribly bothered, but the HDMI tester is very annoying, and has taught me a lesson to plug it into something sacrificial like a cable or breakout board. Again, not a difficult fix, but annoying nonetheless.

That's really annoying and seems to be a design flaw in the HDMI standard.

@rubber_jonnie

Yes, it's quite annoying for your HDMI tester...

Even if the fix is easy peasy, it's always something more added to your to-do list.

But glad to know you've done this kind of repair before.

stephen_usher wrote: 22 Dec 2023 10:01 That's really annoying and seems to be a design flaw in the HDMI standard.

It certainly is, thankfully none of the later connectors are like this, but it does somewhat smack of penny pinching.

Oddly the connectors on my PS3's seem rather more robust.

That was a big problem for PS4s, fortunately my consoles sit permanently connected, so I’ve never had the issue.

I did have a similar issue with a Nintendo switch lite that the usb C port did the same as your HDMI and because the user of it thought it was a cable fault, pushed it hard enough to break the socket and half the tracks off the motherboard, making the console toast. Not mine btw, was a work colleagues grand kids.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 Dec 2023 10:06

stephen_usher wrote: 22 Dec 2023 10:01 That's really annoying and seems to be a design flaw in the HDMI standard.

It certainly is, thankfully none of the later connectors are like this, but it does somewhat smack of penny pinching.

Oddly the connectors on my PS3's seem rather more robust.

@HigashiJun

Luckily I have a couple of break out boards that I've been using on the other PS4 for testing the HDMI out, so I was able to raid a connector and fix the HDMI tester. All working now, but I am going to use sacrificial boards from now on when I use it:


I've ordered a new cable, but I'm sure I'll find a use for the old one. This is the damaged cable, you can easily tell which cable was plugged into the PS4!!!



And this it the plug I removed from the HDMI tester:




There is less damage on the HDMI tester plug, but it was enough to make it erratic. Not the end of the world, but god Sony, don't cheap out on HDMI connectors!!

And this is the carnage I found inside:


Luckily, it appears as though the pads are undamaged, so should be a straightforward swap.

@rubber_jonnie

Ouch, looks pretty bad...

Even the plastic inside the connector is fubar.