"yes, but it may not be optimal."
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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2004: non-IT person loses the cable that came with their device, has to harass IT/their tech friend to even know what type of cable they are missing, goes to a store and pays a massive mark up for a cable that is not functionally better than a cheap one but the brick and mortar stores do not stock any cheap ones. Next year they will upgrade some component or another and need to buy an adapter for the cable that will also have heinous markup. A year after that they upgrade the component on the otherside of the cable and this time have to throw the cable and adapter in a box of loose cables.
2024: non-IT person loses their device cable, shrugs and plugs in their phone charger cable... it works and is 4 times faster than the lost one, it will serve until the new one arrives they just ordered from a "top 11 usb -c cables to buy in 2024 list" they found on the first page of google, they could of got a better deal if they asked you but it's still a good enough cable and cost 1/4 of an aux cable in 2004. they still have a box of random cables in their cupboard but they didn't need to dig through it, they know what usb-c looks like from handling their phone 18 hours a day.
could have*
More like do nothing. Sure if everyone follows spec nothing will break from using the wrong usb-c cable in the wrong usb-c port but it's common to end in a situation were literally nothing happens.
USB-c manages all those protocols when you plug it in.
It will always pick the best one depending on the available hardware.
Yes, but I'm pointing out how the cable is part of it in ways that wasn't true for many older standards. So if I plug a non-data cable into a data USB-c port (say a digital camera with AAA / LR6 batteries) into a computers USB-C port then nothing happens. Same if I try to charge the camera by plugging it into a USB-c wall plug. Or if try to plug my phone into the USB-c charging port on my laptop, no matter the cable since neither phone nor laptop has the function to charge other devices. Etc etc.
I work IT and while I don't work directly in support anymore I still get people at the office coming to me for support because I used to and we've outsourced it now. So I know first hand how confusing USB-C is to average users.
Even if you use a data cable, it might not have the pins/wires for usb 1.1 fallback meaning a keyboard or mouse won’t work with it. Or it might support low power only. I had to buy a usbc cable tester to validate which ones might actually work with what.
My favorite is that not all chargers support all voltages. I have a few that do 5v, 9v, and 20v, but if your device asks for 12v, you’re out of luck, you either don’t get anything, or it fails back to 9v which isn’t enough to accomplish what the device wants to do (like charge). Still, it’s standards compliant!
The standard explicitly allows but doesn’t require support of any subset of standards so you never REALLY know what that cable or charger in your hand or the devices you’re holding can actually do without finding specs in docs… It’s really infuriating. The idea of USB-C is better than the reality, which makes the push to standardize on the connector not nearly as cool as it could be.
I have a portable switch dock (it's the size of a small power brick) and the cable that came with it broke. Finding a cable that supports the exact spec that the Switch needs to both get enough power to put it into docked mode and transmit the video signal took a few tries.
Plug a USB-C screen into a USB-C port. Will it work?
Maybe? If the manufacturer has wired the port to the GPU for DP/HDMI alt mode it might.
… but you’ve used this display on this laptop before?
Try another port! Nope, still nothing.
Maybe it’s the cable? Rummage around through your cables and try a few out. Hope you don’t have any from the 2010s because there’s a good chance they’ll ruin your device.
The screen works! But performance is terrible, why? It’s running in DisplayLink mode.
You give up and suffer through.
The most common thing I see is people confusing usb-c with thunderbolt, and using the former on docks and expecting it to provide power and transmit data.
Some commonly used adaptors aren't possible if they follow the spec.
ps2 ports were identical for keyboard/mouse so they had to color code them
only the mouse is shown here.
The RCA and 3.5mm audio jacks are all the same as well, but color coded.
Sometimes they were. And cables weren't, so if you didn't know any better you'd be plugging your headphones into Line Out. And good luck telling blue and green apart in low light while wedged between the desk and the wall.
Yeah. Haha! To be more fair, the top character in this chart should be trying to figure it out by feel, while crunched under a desk, and getting blasted by line noise.
hisses protectively from atop a musty hoard of green USB to ps/2 adapters
*plugs USB into Ethernet port
If something fits it doesn't mean it matches.
If it fits you must acquit!
*scrape...*
I have an ingenious system for this: I put my 20 Usb c cables in a box and if I want to transfer data to one of my devices I try a couple of cables from the magic box until it works.
This man is too dangerous to be left alive.
I just don't bother transferring data over a cable anymore
If the shape matches
What about 3.5mm jack
looks down
sad trombone noises
plugs in 2.5mm jack
Not sure whose fault it is but the ports on the AMD-based framework laptops are a mess. The framework 16 has four different specs across its six USB-C port and the framework 13 has three different specs across four ports. Meanwhile their intel-based laptops have four identical ports with USB4, USB-PD and Display Port.
I must be living under a rock because this is the first I've heard of USB 4. Is it just a speed bump or does it affect the type of data that can be transferred? In my experience I've had issues using a usb 2.0 flash drive to use a live image of a Linux iso in a 3.1 port
It bumps the speed and officially supports Displayport and PCIe protocols being tunneled through.
Also, as a tiny nit for seemingly no other reason than to piss us all off, they have decided the "correct" way to write it is "USB4" (no space). This is in contrast to every previous version of USB such as "USB 3" (space).
I would have been better off not knowing about the spaces
It's basically ThunderBolt 3 without the licensing.
According to a different thread "USB 4" is in fact "USB4".
I heard UB40 but we might have been in different threads
Huh, I thought it was WD40
I use 5W30 myself.
4WD gets you through
Don't forget USB On the Go protocols! shudders
Apple can’t catch a break. Either they didn’t do anything to help USB c come to market or they caused the massive pita that is the USB c spec.
thabk goodness 2004 avoided the activex and browser toolbar phase
My colleague was terrified that she lost her drive files for this exact reason. Had a USB-C cable, needed a Thunderbolt cable.
What about when the shape is similar? What does IT have to do then?
Color
You can find VGA in all sorts of colors.
2004:
User: "I moved my PC to another desk and now my monitor is off. The hard drive is making noises though. All the power cables are in haha. I made sure the connections were all nice and tight it's a bit strange."
IT: "Okay I want you to follow the video cable from the monitor to the hard drive. It should have a BLUE connector at the end.Can you see the label where it is plugged in?"
User: "..yes it says 'serial', I think?"
IT: "Aha. I'll drop around this afternoon with a spare monitor. That Trinitron monitor you've got will need to go away to be repaired."