| Forum Home | ||||
| PC World Chat | ||||
| Thread ID: 98787 | 2009-04-07 06:05:00 | Ethernet Port... | Curbd (13334) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 762878 | 2009-04-07 06:05:00 | Basically, a computers internet connection wasn't working a while back, something made me take a look at the ethernet port on the back and with the use of macro photography I can share it with you all :) One of the little contacts had clearly decided to give in, making the component useless! The computer company was contacted, and instead of fixing or replacing the port, they replaced the whole motherboard! :P They say they get repaired, so little to no waste involved. Happy :) The moral of this, connect and disconnect components carefully, they're fragile. Thanks for listening |
Curbd (13334) | ||
| 762879 | 2009-04-07 07:57:00 | Oh, tragic deja vu... I've done this to a HDD. Specifically, the boot drive of my sweet games machine (ok, it ain't sweet by 2009 standards). My carelessness (working from the floor without a light) plugging in a PATA data cable resulted in two of the pins (of 40 pins) being rammed into the guts of the drive. Obviously, it wouldn't run after this. Much sweat and cursing later, I realised the damage done. Using a needle and fine tweezers I was able to sufficiently straighted one pin and force it back out into the body of the interface. The other pin had been torn from it's soldered contact on the HDD circuit board. I straightened it, and soldered it back on, and hapilly, it works still! I'll admit more stupidty by saying that I am still using the same drive as the boot drive. I need to keep in mind the fragile state of the first 2 pins however, and avoid all unnecessary plug / unplug operations with the ribbon cable. I've also toasted a network card by stuffing a slightly smaller plug (forget which type of cable it was on) into a network socket. The bogus plug was only one or two mm narrower than the regular cable, so using the usual 'feel and blindly shove' strategy I wasn't aware of the mistake until it was too late. At least that was a cheap replacement part. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 762880 | 2009-04-07 09:06:00 | Wow, I've been working with computers for a long time now and never seen that happen! Must have been something wrong with the RJ45 plug that you put in the socket or there was something else in there that caused the pin to bend. Paul you most likely plugged in a modem cable (RJ11) as these look very similar and can be plugged into an ethernet socket but, as you found, can damage the outer two pins due to the smaller size. |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 762881 | 2009-04-08 01:47:00 | Yeah - normally teh only way you can damage a RJ-45 jack is if you plug in either the wrong plug (normally Rj-11) or have something stuck in there when trying to insert a cable. Although theres a first time for everything. I've done the same thing with a PATA HDD. Very similar situation, ended up pushing the two end pins right into the hard drive. After much cursing and head scratching, I got a metal paper clip, cut it to the appropriate length (x2), and put the pins into the holes in the plug that corresponded to the stuffed pins on the HDD. Worked a treat, and its still running like that over a year later! I'm not game to ever unplug the ribbon from the drive though, God only knows how far those pins have been pushed in now. It's a miracle it still works! :p |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 762882 | 2009-04-08 07:36:00 | Paul you most likely plugged in a modem cable (RJ11) as these look very similar and can be plugged into an ethernet socketHmmm ... that is remarkable easy to do when reaching behind a unfamiliar laptop. :xmouth: | Jen (38) | ||
| 1 | |||||