Tim wrote:
Wolfgang Gill wrote:
So, now, tell me how that equates to being wired "straight through"?
Well, if a cable isn't "crossed" it's "straight-through", even if not all pins are connected.
Hint: Don't argue with an electronics engineer about basic wiring.
Not arguing, myself. But I have built a lot of different kinds of cables.
I've build literally 10,000 of machines (Probably more, lost count after the first 1000 or so). And only 1% have failed due to hardware faults, and cabling wasn't one of them. It's NO use to explain things into GREAT detail to people that have little understanding of the concepts as it is, and confuse them even more.
It's a very bad, VERY BAD, idea to outright lie to people. Do not tell
"Lie" is a very strong word in any language.
false people information as if it were fact. Over-simplifying things to the point that they are wrong is misleading. The people who take you at face value later have to unlearn all the bad information that they found out, which is a difficult thing to do.
Finding the balance between flooding a newbie with more info than he can assimilate and giving completely accurate information is a delicate operation.
If one is hiding parts of cables out of the way, one should be careful how it's done. Kinking or mangling cables can produce problems. If you're *never* going to use the extra length, I'd suggest just cutting it off.
Now that's the part that's misleading.. "Cut it off if you don't need it", that's a REALLY, SMART thing to say to people that bearly understand this concept at all. (**Shakes Head**)
If you know how transmission lines work, and bear in mind the frequencies involved, taking excess cable and rolling it up, folding it up, bundling it under drives, etc., can lead to all sorts of problems.
So can cutting it off, in my experience.
I repeat, if you're NEVER going to use the excess, it's fine to cut it off. Doing so will do NO harm to the signalling, and can remove a plethora of wierd problems that people may encounter due to stuffing cables into any spare space.
True in theory, not so true in practice. I've seen cables which were cut in this manner develop short circuits from whiskers from the stranded wires touching in weird ways which are not easily seen with the naked eye. Expecially in 80 wire cables, the stranded wire is *quite* thin. So I wouldn't recommend it for someone who had never shortened a cable before, unless he had some guidance nearby. Thinking about someone just getting out a pair of scissors or dikes and whacking away makes me cringe.
Also, it means that one cannot use CS (not that I want to) without further surgery on the cable.
I take comments that "I've built thousands with no problems" with a grain of salt. How many PCs get problems that the builder will never hear about? Lots. How many problems go undiagnosed? Lots. How many people magically fix their systems by fiddling with the cables? Lots.
True. When I have a problem with a machine, the first thing I do is remove and reseat all connectors. We used to do this regularly with the RAM on the board. Anyway, memory gets removed/reseated, and everywhere there is a significant connector it gets at least jiggled if not removed/reseated. Solves a lot of problems.
[snip]
Mike