Q: My computer has a regular pc monitor plug in with 5 prongs on top, 5 in the middle, then 5 on the bottom. However, it also has one with 5 on top then just 4 on the bottom (only two rows). Does anyone know what this is? And if so, can I get a cable to plug in that end and on the other end have the 5-5-5 to connect to another monitor??
A: While a bit confusing, I do believe the "regular" monitor connector you speak of is an analog VGA-type 15 pin connector. The 9 pin connector should look like a serial port, and if you say it's found on your monitor housing, it must be a 9 pin TTL digital connector for CGA, EGA, and Hercules video adaptors. This would place your monitor somewhere between 1987 and 1992 where people were slowly transitioning from older standards to IBM's VGA. If this is indeed how your monitor looks, I've been searching for just one of these top-flight EGA relics like the NECMultisync II. 9 pin cables are still available for a few bucks at Monoprice, if you're curious, but again, they'll only connect to extremely old computers. If you're speaking of sharing this monitor with two computers, no, that won't work unless you get a KVM switch. Again, the two plugs were needed to support two different computer graphics interface types, not to facilitate monitor sharing.
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