Making VGA-Dummy Plugs

Making VGA-Dummy Plugs
By Jolly-Swagman

When running Multiple GPU's in one System, especially in Vista or Win 7 you need to have
extra Monitors hooked up to the GPU's in order to have them GPU- Folding@home

Now if you Dont have extra Monitors connected to the GPU's another way is to Fool the OS in thinking there is one there.

Now the way to do this is via a VGA Dummy Plug, connected to the GPU via a DVI-VGA Adaptor.

This is how it is done

First we need a few items

3 x 75 ohm resistors
Soldering Iron & Solder
A Easy Hands Soldering Stand (If you have one, make life simpler)
VGA plugs and casing
DVI-VGA Adaptors ( 1 x for each Dummy Plug used )


The Items


Now we need to Solder 3 x 75ohm Resistors into the Rear of the VGA Plug see pinouts diagram below



Pin Name Description
1 RED Red Video (75 ohm, 0.7 V p-p)
2 GREEN Green Video (75 ohm, 0.7 V p-p)
3 BlUE Blue Video (75 ohm, 0.7 V p-p)
6 RGND Red Ground
7 GGND Green Ground
8 BGND Blue Ground

Now we should have something resembling like this



I usually put some shrink tube on so there is no fear in getting a short circuit

Then we pop the VGA Plug Shell Casing on



Now we have our DVI-VGA Adaptor and our newly made VGA Dummy Plug



Pop then together like so



Now you are ready to install onto your GPU- Video Card

Also here is another quick way, of Utilising DVI-VGA Adaptor to make a makshift Dummy Plug, wherby we just bend Resistors and pop them into the back-side of the VGA Adaptor.



This Method is useful for quick testing but the Preferred above Soldered Method for Long term use!



Hope this has been useful to you!

Thnk You

JS

Very nice!!!

Correct me if I am wrong but we don't need these with the new drivers do we?

I haven't used them since updating drivers.

This should be a sticky!!

I had Jolly re-post this as it was buried in our old install sticky but I felt was a great post and still valid information. This will get incorporated into the new Team 32 Super Sticky.

harlam357 said:

I had Jolly re-post this as it was buried in our old install sticky but I felt was a great post and still valid information. This will get incorporated into the new Team 32 Super Sticky.

Click to expand...

I knew that!


He did do a nice job on the dodads though

You could just be lazy like me and cram the resistors into your DVI-VGA plug.




Jolly's is very pro looking though.

harlam357 said:

I had Jolly re-post this as it was buried in our old install sticky but I felt was a great post and still valid information. This will get incorporated into the new Team 32 Super Sticky.

Click to expand...

Updated

Link here.

It took me long enough to forward that PM.

GIXXERGUY6 said:

Correct me if I am wrong but we don't need these with the new drivers do we?

I haven't used them since updating drivers.

Click to expand...

Drivers for what? My Win7 box will still claim there's no monitor attached and F@H will die if something isn't plugged in...

Quick question, I was in Radio Shack today hoping to score some 75 ohm resistors and low and behold they have none. (Why would they have what I need when I need it? There's a history there.... Them not having things I need) So I bought 100 ohm resistors in the mindset that it's over 75 so it may work. Now bare with me because I have no working experience with resistors. Is my assumption correct in that I can use the 100 ohm resistors? or should I just order some off of fleabay? Thanks

capttripppp said:

Quick question, I was in Radio Shack today hoping to score some 75 ohm resistors and low and behold they have none. (Why would they have what I need when I need it? There's a history there.... Them not having things I need) So I bought 100 ohm resistors in the mindset that it's over 75 so it may work. Now bare with me because I have no working experience with resistors. Is my assumption correct in that I can use the 100 ohm resistors? or should I just order some off of fleabay? Thanks

Click to expand...

They might be close enough to work. However, if you PM me your mailing address, I'll send you 10 or 20 75-ohm 1/4 watt resistors.

capttripppp said:

Quick question, I was in Radio Shack today hoping to score some 75 ohm resistors and low and behold they have none. (Why would they have what I need when I need it? There's a history there.... Them not having things I need) So I bought 100 ohm resistors in the mindset that it's over 75 so it may work. Now bare with me because I have no working experience with resistors. Is my assumption correct in that I can use the 100 ohm resistors? or should I just order some off of fleabay? Thanks

Click to expand...

As a former radio shack employee, (13 years ago) I was at the start of the "modernization" of the "shack"... Where pushing big ticket items, MSN Internet in store shopping sprees and duping customers to sign up for Sprint Long distance when they come in to buy those resistors. You won't find many small electronics in you normal stores now. But if you are lucky, radio shack franchises it's name out to electronic store people, and you have the die hard Shack'y ol timers that keep those resistors stocked. Or you can resort to the interweb for those pesky little things. But shipping on a 10 cent item is hilarious, unless you buy bulk.

Thank you Jolly for giving me mine 2 years ago... Still workin!

torin3 said:

They might be close enough to work. However, if you PM me your mailing address, I'll send you 10 or 20 75-ohm 1/4 watt resistors.

Click to expand...

pm sent, thank you sir I have a couple of monitors that I can set up in the time being

Norcalsteve said:

As a former radio shack employee, (13 years ago) I was at the start of the "modernization" of the "shack"... Where pushing big ticket items, MSN Internet in store shopping sprees and duping customers to sign up for Sprint Long distance when they come in to buy those resistors. You won't find many small electronics in you normal stores now. But if you are lucky, radio shack franchises it's name out to electronic store people, and you have the die hard Shack'y ol timers that keep those resistors stocked. Or you can resort to the interweb for those pesky little things. But shipping on a 10 cent item is hilarious, unless you buy bulk.

Thank you Jolly for giving me mine 2 years ago... Still workin!

Click to expand...

Yeah I remember the days when I could into Radio Shack and get I needed. Really sucks now. I had the guy at my local "shack" almost refuse to sell me some coaxial because I wouldn't give him my email address. Then he got all huffy and puffy when I didn't want his 3 year warranty. I told him that if I needed a 3 year warranty for their coaxial then I sure didn't want to buy it, and would just go down the road to the electrical supply house. He didn't like that much! I only go there when it's really needed because they are closest, but I never learn that they NEVER have what I need

Norcalsteve said:

As a former radio shack employee, (13 years ago) I was at the start of the "modernization" of the "shack"... Where pushing big ticket items, MSN Internet in store shopping sprees and duping customers to sign up for Sprint Long distance when they come in to buy those resistors. You won't find many small electronics in you normal stores now. But if you are lucky, radio shack franchises it's name out to electronic store people, and you have the die hard Shack'y ol timers that keep those resistors stocked. Or you can resort to the interweb for those pesky little things. But shipping on a 10 cent item is hilarious, unless you buy bulk.

Thank you Jolly for giving me mine 2 years ago... Still workin!

Click to expand...

How could any business survive just selling resistors and capacitors. We are a lucky bunch with a hobbyist's delight where they have an extensive loose part stockroom along with the profit making stuff. pop. 100K which has lasted since 1979 .

Radio Shack is here too but up here it's now called 'The Source'. The pox on blister packs with idiots manning the stores whereas at MG's they know what they're talking about, even with 3 shacks in the area they're doing just fine.

BTW to the OP, you could always put resistors in series or parallel to achieve what you need but it might not fit properly in the connector.

Woh. Still needing dummy plugs for monitors? Win7 with latest drivers should allow you to fold on the extra VC. I just tested my dual card on FAH to see what impact they had on my CPU folding and the two gpu's folding an instance each worked fine.

BTW for those wondering, tested GPU folding on two GTX 470s. Dropped CPU folding ppd by almost 10k, and got 10k on each GPU. So +10k ppd overall. Only problem is that my system went from 300w to almost 800w. +10k for 500w is DEFINITELY not work it unless your despirately trying to wam the house.

tuigi69 said:

Woh. Still needing dummy plugs for monitors? Win7 with latest drivers should allow you to fold on the extra VC. I just tested my dual card on FAH to see what impact they had on my CPU folding and the two gpu's folding an instance each worked fine.

BTW for those wondering, tested GPU folding on two GTX 470s. Dropped CPU folding ppd by almost 10k, and got 10k on each GPU. So +10k ppd overall. Only problem is that my system went from 300w to almost 800w. +10k for 500w is DEFINITELY not work it unless your despirately trying to wam the house.

Click to expand...

I do with a 260 and 470 on my i7 930 machine, I get a message that the second card is not recognized, I can't get them to behave in dual mode otherwise. I still thank torin before you made this post jolly.

I'm not using dummy plugs on any 2 gpu machine. The need for them ceased with the move to 25x.xx and greater drivers.

S@H doesn't require dummy plugs either