posted
I have a USB headphone/microphone that, by and large, works well. The problem is that the cord stretching from the headphones to the front of my computer is kinkier than a (insert metaphor improper to a family-friendly board here.)
I mean, seriously... This cord has to be five feet long, and it's losing a couple of feet to twisting itself up. It's so bad it sometimes threatens to pull itself loose from the front port.
Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with this? I don't want to damage the cord, but I'm worried I'm more likely to do so by accidentally pulling on it than by intentionally trying to straighten it, and working it between my fingers doesn't seem to do much, even temporarily.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Nope. Unwinding the kinks manually (and not by stretching straight) is the only thing that works. There was a semi-recent mathematical proof that such kinking is an inevitable result of stretching&unstretching loose coils.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
If that's the case, someone did a number on this cord before it was ever put in the box.
The tension on this thing is such that it promptly re-kinks itself after any attempt to unwind it as far as I can tell.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
As a bored tech-support in a previous life, I used to tell users to keep their network cables straight at all costs. Network data is all 1s and 0s. The 0s are OK as they are round, but if you have a kinky cable the 1s get jammed and this will cause a slow down....
It brought a smile to my evil chops to see folks rummaging under desks to improve their bandwidth.
Sorry, not really on topic, but I wanted to share...
Personally I keep the surplus cable on my headphones bunched up with a cable tie. It works for me.
Posts: 892 | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
Warm up the cord to make it more malleable, then hang it up so the headphones are pulling down on the wire. Let it cool, and never kink it up again. Always store it straight, never coil it.
(this worked when I had a similar problem)
Posts: 1314 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
This is why I can't stand how my family is cord winders. They wrap every cord around two fingers and make a little ball of cords. I'm pretty picky about it and fold my cords and use velcro ties to hold them.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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