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Difficulty: HardDisplay Cables and Connectors

A systems technician is deploying new desktop workstations equipped with graphics cards that feature DVI-D Dual-Link ports. During setup, the technician attempts to connect legacy analog VGA monitors using passive DVI-to-VGA adapters previously used on older systems. However, the adapters cannot be physically inserted into the graphics card DVI ports. Which of the following explains why these passive adapters fail to plug into the workstation's DVI-D ports?

  1. The graphics card features DVI-D ports, which lack the four pin sockets surrounding the flat grounding blade needed to accept DVI-I or DVI-A connector pins.Answer
  2. B
    DVI-D ports operate at a higher bandwidth standard that automatically disables analog video transmission, requiring an active Thunderbolt protocol converter.
  3. C
    DVI-D ports only support single-link resolution bandwidth, whereas analog VGA signals require a dual-link pin configuration to display video.
  4. D
    The graphics card ports require a firmware update to enable DVI-D to VGA passive conversion across the PCI Express bus.

Answer

The graphics card features DVI-D ports, which lack the four pin sockets surrounding the flat grounding blade needed to accept DVI-I or DVI-A connector pins.
DVI-D (Digital) ports do not transmit analog signals and physically lack the four pin receptacles (designated C1, C2, C3, and C4) located above and below the horizontal grounding blade. Passive DVI-to-VGA adapters feature these four physical pins because VGA requires analog RGB signals. When attempting to insert a DVI-I passive adapter into a DVI-D port, these pins collide with the solid face of the DVI-D port, physically blocking insertion.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the signal requirement of the monitor and adapter type
VGA uses an analog signal. Passive DVI-to-VGA adapters rely on a source port that provides analog pins (DVI-I or DVI-A).
Passive adapters do not convert digital signals to analog; they merely re-route existing analog pins.
2
Inspect the physical port specification on the new graphics card
The graphics card provides DVI-D (Digital-only) ports.
DVI-D interfaces carry no analog signals and omit the four pin sockets (C1 through C4) surrounding the horizontal blade.
3
Determine the cause of the physical connection failure
The passive adapter's DVI-I plug has four analog pins around its flat blade, which collide with the solid plastic face of the DVI-D port socket.
Physical keying prevents users from plugging analog-carrying cables into digital-only outputs.

Key Concept

DVI Pin Configurations and Signal Types (DVI-D vs DVI-I vs DVI-A)
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Display Cables and Connectors

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