Perhaps the pins in the male connector are bent.

dominusprog wrote on 2024-01-10, 14:35:

Perhaps the pins in the male connector are bent.

They all look fine- the connector on the passthrough catches against the metal circled on the outside of the male connector which is what seems to be stopping it from going in - but it doesn’t appear bent which is what’s confusing me

Try with the card outside of the case, just to make sure nothing blocks the passthrough cable when the card is fitted.

konc wrote on 2024-01-10, 15:32:

Try with the card outside of the case, just to make sure nothing blocks the passthrough cable when the card is fitted.

have just tried that- something definitely strange about the connector on the card?

It seems the metal "cover" of the connector (I can't find a better expression) on the Voodoo is from a female dsub instead of male dsub. Most likely the previous owner switched it by accident.

Remove the screws on both dsubs, then remove the cards metal bracket and then when you have all this done, you should be able to put the cover down too. Do the same with some dead piece of HW equipped with dsub 9 or 15 pin and use the proper male cover on the Voodoo card. If you don't have any garbage HW around, then you can buy something like this connector https://cz.farnell.com/en-CZ/wurth-elektronik … 9way/dp/1841196 and use the cover from it.

havli wrote on 2024-01-10, 16:17:

It seems the metal "cover" of the connector (I can't find a better expression) on the Voodoo is from a female dsub instead of male dsub. Most likely the previous owner switched it by accident.

Remove the screws on both dsubs, then remove the cards metal bracket and then when you have all this done, you should be able to put the cover down too. Do the same with some dead piece of HW equipped with dsub 9 or 15 pin and use the proper male cover on the Voodoo card. If you don't have any garbage HW around, then you can buy something like this connector https://cz.farnell.com/en-CZ/wurth-elektronik … 9way/dp/1841196 and use the cover from it.

All though I can't imagine that ever happening, I kind of thinking you're right, it looks like it ... god catch, if that's the case

havli wrote on 2024-01-10, 16:17:

It seems the metal "cover" of the connector (I can't find a better expression) on the Voodoo is from a female dsub instead of male dsub. Most likely the previous owner switched it by accident.

Remove the screws on both dsubs, then remove the cards metal bracket and then when you have all this done, you should be able to put the cover down too. Do the same with some dead piece of HW equipped with dsub 9 or 15 pin and use the proper male cover on the Voodoo card. If you don't have any garbage HW around, then you can buy something like this connector https://cz.farnell.com/en-CZ/wurth-elektronik … 9way/dp/1841196 and use the cover from it.

As h3nrik said very good spot - I wasn’t even aware the metal shroud came off the connector so easily. After disassembling it does look like it’s been replaced at some point - the one that doesn’t fit is much cleaner/newer looking. I don’t have a spare to swap it out for right now but works fine for the meantime with the shroud just removed I suppose. Not sure why it would have ever been replaced in such a way

Indeed, it is weird. But easy problem to fix 😀 Without the cover the pins could be damaged easily, even shorted, so be careful. But it will work without... well, maybe there could be problem with shielding the cable as it won't be grounded on the card side. Might show some interference on the screen.

It looks like the card shield could just be turned over to accommodate the correct match to the cable shield.
I've had to do that to some similar boards that were assembled incorrectly by the original connector manufacturer.
(alternately they were ordered/specified wrong by the board maker)