January, 2010

14
Jan

Restoring 30 inch Cinema Display

by aran

A couple of years some thieves figured the best way to disconnect an €1800 30″ Apple Cinema Display was by cutting the video cable. Since then, the screen has been sitting defunct in a corner, taking up space. Today, I decided to at least have a go at repairing the beast.

The 24 pin DVI cable was cut off pretty clean, about 10 cm from the connector. The other end wasn’t too long either, as about 20 cm from the cut the DVI cable merges with an USB, Firewire and power cable to join into one big cable that goes right into the monitor. Replacing the entire cable would require taking apart the monitor, which is sealed shut. For a while I figured I would break open the DVI connector and re-attach it. But God knows what I would have found inside there. If anything, probably very little room to use a soldering iron. So I decided to strip the insulation of both ends and solder them together.

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