Do HDMI cables wear well?

invalid@example.com (mikeymikec), mikeymikec
Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:10:31 +0000
Displays

I have a 3-metre long HDMI cable that I've typically used to connect my laptop to the TV, so the cable gets unplugged and tidied maybe a couple of times a month, but I was surprised when it evidently died recently. I used it to test my desktop PC with a second display and dmesg said that it had no EDID data; initially I thought it might have been Linux / my graphics card being pernickety but when I then tried it in its usual role (laptop + TV), it didn't do anything there either and a spare cable worked. The spare cable also worked for my desktop and the second screen test.

Admittedly I don't recall the full history of this cable, maybe it came second-hand from a customer for example, but I'm curious to know whether there are many people with experiences here of HDMI cables (perhaps ones that aren't just connected once and left alone) dying.

The cable only needed to do 1080p in either case, nothing special there. There's half a chance that my PC might have wanted to do 75Hz...