In the middle of 2018, I bought a HP Windows Mixed Reality headset (VR1000-100) and it's been a lot of fun. It lived up to the promise I saw in 2014 from an Oculus DK2 (Development Kit 2) headset, which set a bar never met by a long series of lackluster phone-based VR systems. Which got a little of play then set aside and never used again. I was far more entertained by the HP WMR headset and its 6DOF tracking for superior immersion. I've been using it on-and-off over the past several years to the point I needed to replace worn out soft foam parts. But that was small potatoes compared to what happened a few weeks ago: plugging a disconnected tether cable back into the headset, something went wrong and damaged the connector. I went to my workbench for a closer look under better lighting.

I see damage in the outermost metal shield, with a corner of the metal bent pack. I see damage in the black plastic with pieces at the bottom of the well, instead of the sides where they belong. And the worst part: 6-8 thin copper pins bent out of place.

Based on damage, I have a guess on the sequence of events: In the middle of a game, I stepped on the tether and this connector popped free to relieve the sudden strain and keep it from doing damage elsewhere. Falling away from the headset, this connector struck something that bent an exposed corner of the metal shield. Not realizing this damage and eager to get back to my game, I plugged the connector back in. The damaged metal shield made contact and started bending outward. As it bent it also acted as a lever pushing the black plastic and copper connectors inward. They made contact with the other end of this connector but in the wrong shape, resulting in shattered plastic and bent pins.

As this device is long out of support from HP, I headed to eBay to see what I could find. I found a few pairs of controllers, some complete sets purported to be in working condition, and many headsets with some variation of "Not working, for parts only: broken cable." I guess this is a common failure for these headsets! I had hoped to find an aftermarket replacement cable, but no luck. And I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars for a secondhand set, I'd rather put that money towards a newer VR headset.

Back to the workbench, I thought I had nothing to lose by trying to repair the connector. I pulled out a set of fine-tipped tweezers. They were designed for SMD work but they were also able to reach inside this connector to pull out pieces of shattered plastic and bend pins back into an approximation of their intended positions. The 7-8 bent pins no longer had plastic backing to apply pressure for optimal electrical conductivity, but they were close to their intended locations and maybe it's good enough.

Using needle-nosed pliers, I tried to bend the outer metal shield back, but I could not return it to its original shape. Eventually metal fatigue was victorious with the tab breaking off entirely. I accepted my defeat and switched tactics: I filed down remaining jagged edge after adding some tape to protect conductors from metal shavings.

I carefully plugged this connector back in and there were no untoward crunching sensation or sound. I'm pretty sure this connector should never be separated again. I added a label to remind me and then securing the connector with a length of clear heat shrink tube.

I started this experiment thinking I had nothing to lose but, when I had the HDMI plug in my hand reaching to plug it into the computer, I realized I did have something to lose: the computer. What if one or more of these pins were out of place? What if some metal file shavings got into the works despite my taped protection? If I've accidentally shorted power to ground, that would do bad things.

Looking in my pile of PC hardware, I reassembled the guts of my decommissioned Luggable PC Mark II. This time I used a proper PC case and so I could plug Radeon R9 380 video card directly into mini-ITX motherboard without the problematic PCI-Express extension cable. This old Radeon R9 380 does not meet minimum system requirements for VR, but it is still a modestly capable GPU and I wouldn't cry (too much) if it dies.

Plugging the headset into the R9 380, the good news is that an image came up and everything seems to work. The bad news is that I now have this doubt in my mind about the quality of my repair. Yes, it seems to work now, but is it solid or is it marginal? What if one of those loosely-flapping pins start moving around as I am wearing the headset moving around in virtual reality? I am still at risk for electrical faults that can kill an expensive video card. I don't like it, and I'm going to use it as my excuse to upgrade.