How do I connect my Dell Studio 15 labtop to my LCD TV?

What would cause an HDMI port on ATI 5750 to blow up when trying to connect to Samsung TV?

• I added an XFX ATI Radeon 5750 card to a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. I upgraded the Power supply for the desktop to an Antec 500w PSU before installing. All cables fit correctly. Seated perfectly in the PCI-E slot. The video card worked great from the first boot, Drivers installed great to Windows Vista, everything was working perfectly until I tried to hot-plug the HDMI out of the video card to a Samsung LCD TV with a 35' HDMI-to-HDMI cable. Upon trying to connect the HDMI to the TV, a giant spark "arced" to the HDMI connector when I got it within a 1/4" of the HDMI input on the TV and I literally smoked the ATI card. The TV still worked fine after unplugging and replugging it in but the ATI card was absolutely fried. What in the heck could have possibly happened to cause this? I' ve "hot-plugged HDMI cables before without incident. Is this a possible cause, though, is hot-plugging? I was connecting a 35' HDMI cable to TV to extend from PC to TV. The cable, PSU and video card were all brand new from newegg and all components had glowing reviews. I got an RMA for the ATI card but in my 15 years of installing hardware as an A+ Certified Technician, this issue has me absolutely stumped and "gun-shy" to try again. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

• Answer:

  All the documentation that came with my TV set said to be sure the TV is turned off before completing any connections. I never have heard of that either and I admit that I don't always adhere to those instructions. I used to sell audio/video at Circuit City and all the training courses we took instructed us to never connect anything to any audio or video equipment unless the equipment was turned off. So I guess there was truth to what they were saying. So thanks, at least, for sharing the experience. I'll be more careful what I do in the future.