Hi-Def Headache

If you saw my last post I mentioned the need to replace a cable in our home theater. Judging from the giant snarl of cables, I am under the belief that when the PO was removing AV components he was not under contract to leave with the house he became very frustrated. This mess of cables was pretty tightly knotted up and by the time I sorted them all I I had found 3 cables that were not even connected to anything. I am assuming he finally threw up his hands in frustration and figured the grief spent untangling the mess wasn't worth his time and he decided to just purchase new cables when he set up in his next residence. Unfortunately another by-product of this frustration was a broken connector on the HDMI cable that ran from the receiver through the wall, up into the attic, down from the ceiling and plugged into the theater projector.

Damaged HDMI cable

I originally thought that this was "no big deal".  As with most any other cord, I figured I could slice the end off of it and attach a replacement.  Uhhh...NOPE!  turns out all of those little wires (19 in total) you see poking out are measured to EXACTLY the same length and though the new cable may actually transmit an image or sound with a new end is attached you run a risk of damaging your component.  

So now I have to run a new line inside the wall.  This realization did not make me happy as looking at the portion of cable I could actually pull out of the wall indicated that there was a good chance the cable was installed before the drywall went in (judging from the amount of mud on the cable) which meant it was possible that the cable could be stapled in along the wall somewhere or zig-zagged so many time that running a new one in the same location would be impossible without tearing out the wall.  With the other issues we have run across, I was prepared for the worst.

After 4 trips into the attic I FINALLY located where the wire came up the wall and across the ceiling to the projector.  I gave it a pretty good tug but it didn't want to budge.  But since we are talking about roughly 35 feet of cable it was possible it was just getting hung up on one turn or even a rough edge of drywall inside the wall.  Since HDMI cables are notoriously fragile on their connectors I decided my best bet was not to try to connect the old cable to the new cable and hope they pull through together but rather to use the old cable to pull a snake up to the attic.  If the snake managed to make its way up then the I could attached the new cable to it and pull it back down. 

After much pulling on my part at pushing on the part of my 9 year old darling daughter we finally managed to extract the old cable into the attic and out of the wall...with the snake taped to it.    Now we had to tape the new cable to the snake and pull it back down into the wall and out to connect to the home theater receiver.  But as I have stated...these connectors break pretty easily so I had to figure out how to pull it through the wall without damaging the new cord.

First we taped the new cable to the snake...and made sure that the protective cover was secure on the end of the cable so that any insulation it encountered wouldn't get inside the connector. As you can see though...this left a pretty blunt end to pull through the "unknown".  I needed something that would reduce the risk of the new cord snagging on something and becoming damaged.

New cable taped to snake

My brilliant solution came in the form of an empty paper towel roll!

Empty paper towel roll taped around connector end of new cable.

By wrapping the cardboard tube around the end of the new cable I could create a funnel shape and prevented the cable from snagging in the wall.  With a bit of tugging by DD and me feeding it down from the attic we finally managed to get the new cable installed...and without damage!

And once again, I got the chance to teach my girl that the only way she will ever know if she truly can't do something is to try it!  I could have easily paid to have someone come in and do this for us...but it is much more satisfying (and cheaper!) to know I did it myself...and my kids get to learn that lesson as well.  

My DIY assistant pulling the new cord through the wall.