September 11, 2026
Of course I blamed the cable
Before a computer training session in Brazzaville, I connected my laptop to the projector and waited for the image to appear.
Nothing happened.
My first suspect was obvious: the HDMI cable. I disconnected it, connected it again, and checked both ends. The projector was on. The computer was working. The cable was connected. Still no image.
I tried again because apparently doing the same thing one more time was going to convince the cable to cooperate.
It didn’t.
I was getting a little annoyed because this was supposed to be part of preparing the room, not the activity that took over my preparation.
I was checking the wrong thing
Because the problem appeared when I connected the projector, I kept thinking about the physical connection. Eventually, I stopped concentrating on the cable and checked the computer more carefully.
That was where the actual problem was.
Windows was missing the driver needed for the display connection. I ran Windows Update, installed what was missing, and tried the projector again.
This time, the image appeared.
The HDMI cable had been innocent the whole time.
Working with technology does not mean knowing immediately
I teach computer skills, so I suppose stories like this are slightly embarrassing. Only slightly.
People sometimes assume that working with technology means you immediately know what is wrong whenever something stops working. My experience is less dramatic. Sometimes I recognize the problem quickly. Sometimes I test several possibilities before finding it.
Experience has given me more places to look, but it has not removed the possibility of looking in the wrong place first.
What I remember from that morning is how quickly I decided that I already knew the cause. Once I blamed the HDMI cable, I kept checking the cable. Disconnect. Reconnect. Check again.
The useful question eventually became different: What else could prevent this computer from sending an image to the projector?
That was when I made progress.
The projector eventually worked, and I continued with the training. Nothing particularly dramatic happened afterward. But I still remember wasting those minutes on a perfectly good cable.
Now, when a display connection refuses to work, I still check the HDMI cable first. I just don’t interrogate it for quite as long.
