Junk accessories supplied with computer equipment
Junk accessories supplied with computer equipment
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Discussion

Miserablegit

Original Poster:

4,449 posts

139 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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This is only going to be a 1/10 rant at best.

Bought a new HP led 24” monitor for my son to hook his switch into. Nothing fancy.
Opened the box to find the only input cable supplied is a vga cable. Seems utterly pointless.
Not bothered by them not putting an HDMI cable in but it’s a real waste sending cables that nobody is going to use. I have a few old bits of kit that can use vga so the cable goes in a box of other spares I have.

mmm-five

12,395 posts

314 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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They've probably got a surplus of VGA cables in the factory, and it's cheaper to ship them to you than dispose of them properly.

littlebasher

3,968 posts

201 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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I always assumed it was so the likes of PC world could sell you a gold plated HDMI cable made of unicorn horn.

I recently bought my son a 144hz gaming montor - that did come with a cheapo HDMI cable, which is useless as only the DP supports 1080p content at 144Hz

ZesPak

26,155 posts

226 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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Most monitors I've bought were Iiyamas. Most come with VGA, DP and HDMI out of the box.

Only including a VGA cable seems like a cheap trick indeed. Have you checked the "contents" to see if it's not an error?

Miserablegit

Original Poster:

4,449 posts

139 months

Friday 29th May 2020
quotequote all
ZesPak said:
Most monitors I've bought were Iiyamas. Most come with VGA, DP and HDMI out of the box.

Only including a VGA cable seems like a cheap trick indeed. Have you checked the "contents" to see if it's not an error?
Ah, yes, my “main 3” are Ilyama and they did come with a plethora of cables. This wasn’t in the same price bracket so I didn’t expect a cable at all.
As a poster above says it’s probably cheaper to ship them with a monitor than dispose of. I’ll keep my stash for when they become rare and people pay silly prices for them like scsi cables of old!!

Oil Trash

183 posts

107 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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In a different way annoying ordered an HP monitor for Mrs Ot last week and as no mention of any cables also added in a cheapo hdmi cable when I opened the monitor box there was the included hdmi cable - not worth the effort to try and return and guess I now. Have a spare to go with all the other unused old cables In My man drawer

geeks

11,793 posts

169 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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Miserablegit said:
Ah, yes, my “main 3” are Ilyama and they did come with a plethora of cables. This wasn’t in the same price bracket so I didn’t expect a cable at all.
As a poster above says it’s probably cheaper to ship them with a monitor than dispose of. I’ll keep my stash for when they become rare and people pay silly prices for them like scsi cables of old!!
Wait.... people pay for SCSI cables now? st! I dumped a load a while ago! hehe

deckster

9,631 posts

285 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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I wish they didn't supply cables at all. I've got drawers full of HDMI, VGA, USB, phone chargers, whatever, all of which are entirely surplus to requirements. It should be compulsory to have it very clearly stated that every piece of consumer electronics "doesn't come with cables, you will also need to buy one of <xyz>". And anybody that can't read and/or complains should be whipped with the thick end of an RS232 lead until they stop.

Chozza

808 posts

182 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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I reckon the VGA cable might be included as the default "test lead"

Motherboards still (mostly ) have a VGA port .. and you could prove a monitor as working using a VGA , and bypass any driver issues etc with graphics cards.

Even most laptops seem to ship with a VGA dongle .. and the amount of offices that still seem to have projectors/screen in meeting rooms hooked up to VGA rather than making a usb-c, hdmi, dp + all the mini version ... suggest that im going to carry VGA for a lot longer

I have a load of VGA leads in my office drawers...as removing them seems to stop my desk being used as a hotdesk - so i guess people like using them

hungry_hog

2,913 posts

218 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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VGA? Not used one of those cables for 10 years

Did it come with an AOL CD, a box set of Friends and a GAP shirt?

Inexcusable

mmm-five

12,395 posts

314 months

Friday 29th May 2020
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hungry_hog said:
VGA? Not used one of those cables for 10 years

Did it come with an AOL CD, a box set of Friends and a GAP shirt?

Inexcusable
You sure it shouldn't have been a Compuserve diskette.

Miserablegit

Original Poster:

4,449 posts

139 months

Saturday 30th May 2020
quotequote all
deckster said:
I wish they didn't supply cables at all. I've got drawers full of HDMI, VGA, USB, phone chargers, whatever, all of which are entirely surplus to requirements. It should be compulsory to have it very clearly stated that every piece of consumer electronics "doesn't come with cables, you will also need to buy one of <xyz>". And anybody that can't read and/or complains should be whipped with the thick end of an RS232 lead until they stop.
Are we talking DB9 or DB25? I agree it needs to be RS232 - there’s no weight behind a Mac’s rs422 lead!


ZesPak

26,155 posts

226 months

Saturday 30th May 2020
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Miserablegit said:
Are we talking DB9 or DB25? I agree it needs to be RS232 - there’s no weight behind a Mac’s rs422 lead!
Can't we just use a C13 power cord? I've got kilos of those.

Miserablegit

Original Poster:

4,449 posts

139 months

Saturday 30th May 2020
quotequote all
ZesPak said:
Can't we just use a C13 power cord? I've got kilos of those.
Ha! the number of those I have in my "cables drawer" is ridiculous. I kept them as I thought "ooh, if I need one I can just cut the euro plug of and rewire". Have I ever done this? Never....

Same with Apple and those crap headphones they used to supply...


ZesPak

26,155 posts

226 months

Saturday 30th May 2020
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
Ha! the number of those I have in my "cables drawer" is ridiculous. I kept them as I thought "ooh, if I need one I can just cut the euro plug of and rewire". Have I ever done this? Never....

Same with Apple and those crap headphones they used to supply...
I've rewired plenty smile

As for headphones, got plenty of those, even some Nokia ones. The most recent ones with the Galaxy S have been surprisingly good AKGs, so good that I bought an extra pair actually.