is my spare hdmi cable bad

i have a sony bravia tv. i am using hdmi 2 and hdmi 4 on my tv. hdmi 2 is for my tv receiver and hdmi 4 is for my laptop. my laptop is an alienware 17 r5 and it has a gtx 1080 graphics card. i play games on 1080p. i use duplicate screen for the project settings on the laptop

before i was using a very old hdmi cable to connect the laptop to the tv and it recently spoilt. i threw away that cable. i had a spare black low grade cable and it was sitting unused in my drawer for i think 5 years plus

i used that spare cable for 11 days and all was ok. my laptop was on the whole time during the day and then i closed the laptop lid during the night. during the day i switched between hdmi 2 and hdmi 4 and there were no problems

yesterday the tv was on hdmi 4 and the laptop screen was showing on the tv. it was switched to hdmi 2 for like 30 minutes and then i switched the tv back to hdmi 4. the tv screen was black and it didn't show the laptop screen. the tv detected that the laptop was on because there was a symbol next to hdmi 4 in the hdmi switcher. if the laptop is off then there is no symbol next to hdmi 4. i checked the laptop. it was on pc screen only in the project settings and i couldn't change the project settings to duplicate. it looked like the laptop wasn't detecting the hdmi cable and the sound was coming from the laptop speakers. i unplugged the hdmi cable from the laptop and i plugged it back in. the issue was fixed and the laptop detected the hdmi cable and the laptop screen showed on the tv

today afternoon i closed the laptop lid for like 30 minutes and the tv was on hdmi 2. i opened the laptop lid and i switched the tv to hdmi 4. the same problem happened again and the tv screen was black and it didn't show the laptop screen and again the laptop wasn't detecting the hdmi cable. i unplugged that spare cable and i used another black low grade spare cable and the other spare cable worked

i have 3 questions:-

1) does this mean that the first spare cable that i used for 11 days had gone bad? the problem is with the hdmi cable and not with the hdmi port because if the problem was with the hdmi port then unplugging then replugging the cable and trying a different cable wont work and the tv screen will stay black. am i right?

2) i want to buy a new hdmi cable which is high grade. i am thinking of buying the 2m cable of this UGREEN 8K DisplayPort Cable Ultra HD Gold-Plated DisplayPort 1.4 Male to Male Nylon Braided Cable SPCC Shell, Support 7680x4320 Resolution 8K@60Hz, 4K@144Hz, 32.4Gbps HDP HDCP-2Meter - X0012CG3JP Buy, Best Price in UAE, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah. that cable is designed for very high resolution and a high refresh rate. KDL-42W800B Specifications | Sony Middle East are the specs of my tv. do my laptop and tv support the cable that i want to buy?

3) is the length that i want to get ok? i heard that short hdmi cables are better than long hdmi cables because the signal has to travel for short distances. thus 1m is better than 2m but for me 1m is too short. will there be any performance differences between 1m and 2m? or no because the cable is powerful?

cns00 said:

i have 3 questions:-

1) does this mean that the first spare cable that i used for 11 days had gone bad? the problem is with the hdmi cable and not with the hdmi port because if the problem was with the hdmi port then unplugging then replugging the cable and trying a different cable wont work and the tv screen will stay black. am i right?

2) i want to buy a new hdmi cable which is high grade. i am thinking of buying the 2m cable of this UGREEN 8K DisplayPort Cable Ultra HD Gold-Plated DisplayPort 1.4 Male to Male Nylon Braided Cable SPCC Shell, Support 7680x4320 Resolution 8K@60Hz, 4K@144Hz, 32.4Gbps HDP HDCP-2Meter - X0012CG3JP Buy, Best Price in UAE, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah. that cable is designed for very high resolution and a high refresh rate. KDL-42W800B Specifications | Sony Middle East are the specs of my tv. do my laptop and tv support the cable that i want to buy?

3) is the length that i want to get ok? i heard that short hdmi cables are better than long hdmi cables because the signal has to travel for short distances. thus 1m is better than 2m but for me 1m is too short. will there be any performance differences between 1m and 2m? or no because the cable is powerful?

1) You're right.
3) You won't notice the difference between 1m to 2m. Digital has less signal loss over longer length than analog.

Your link is to a DisplayPort cable. It looks similar to an HDMI cable, but it is not compatible. (Look closely at the connectors.) You want an HDMI cable.

DisplayPort - Wikipedia

HDMI - Wikipedia

Your KDL-42W800B is a full HD (1080p) display., and its specifications don't list any refresh rates above above 60 Hz. You wouldn't get any benefit from an HDMI 2.1 cable (for 8k/60 Hz or 4k/120Hz). Or even a certified premium HDMI 2.0b cable (for 4k/60Hz).

Cables like those rarely fail, in normal use. The connectors (on the cable, TV, or PC) can be damaged.

1) The reliability of any pre-made electrical lead like HDMI is not good, quality varies. I have been using them for over 40 years.You will always need at least one spare to substitute for test purposes.

2) Those are DisplayPort cables, not HDMI. No use for your TV. Microless is obviously clueless listing them in the HDMI cables section.

3) Get the length of HDMI 2.0 spec lead you require. Get a reasonable quality HDMI lead of a reputable brand (and an extra one).

Thanks for your replies. I noticed that I chose the wrong cable by mistake

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bobkn said:

Cables like those rarely fail, in normal use. The connectors (on the cable, TV, or PC) can be damaged.

Now I am using another old spare hdmi cable that I have and it's working ok. If the hdmi port on the laptop or the TV had spoilt then me unplugging then replacing the hdmi cable and trying a different hdmi cable wouldn't have helped and I would have gotten other bad side effects. Am I right?

cns00 said:

Thanks for your replies. I noticed that I chose the wrong cable by mistake

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Now I am using another old spare hdmi cable that I have and it's working ok. If the hdmi port on the laptop or the TV had spoilt then me unplugging then replacing the hdmi cable and trying a different hdmi cable wouldn't have helped and I would have gotten other bad side effects. Am I right?

Don't waste money for another hdmi cable if yours is fine.

teots said:

Don't waste money for another hdmi cable if yours is fine.

The other cable is old and the tips are rusted a bit. Anyway please answer my question. If the TV and laptop are both detecting the other spare cable and there are no bad side effects then does that mean that the hdmi ports on the pc and TV are fine?

cns00 said:

The other cable is old and the tips are rusted a bit. Anyway please answer my question. If the TV and laptop are both detecting the other spare cable and there are no bad side effects then does that mean that the hdmi ports on the pc and TV are fine?

Probably.

"does that mean that the hdmi ports on the pc and TV are fine?"

Quite likely, but they could still be damaged in some small way, dirty, or even slightly out of spec.
Non-technical people can quite easily damage plugs and sockets.

Helmut said:

"does that mean that the hdmi ports on the pc and TV are fine?"

Quite likely, but they could still be damaged in some small way, dirty, or even slightly out of spec.
Non-technical people can quite easily damage plugs and sockets.

ok. but if the port was damaged then i would have noticed bad side effects like discoloration, artifacts, bad resolution...

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i have a can of compressed air. should i spray air in the hdmi port of the tv and laptop or no need?