There are a number of electrical connectors found on the side and back of a typical laptop computer. These are hardly ever even spotted by most users, however, by understanding what these ports are for and how to utilize them can substantial enhance the power of a typical laptop. In this article consideration will be given to the commonest and most practical connectors situated on current laptops.

Most laptop users could probably recognize a USB port that can be located on almost all modern laptops, however USB 1, USB 2 and USB 3 are usually available. The USB 1 and USB 2 ports look similar having 4 pins within a rectangle slot. The USB 3 is the recent addition having 9 pins inside a rectangular slot. Basically, the slowest is the USB 1 and the fastest is the USB 3, however, USB 1 and USB 2 are pin compatible so that gadgets can be interchanged. USB 3 is the latest design, but is not pin compatible with the USB 1 and USB 2 connections. The USB ports are definitely the most versatile connectors on a laptop, permitting connection to the most number of input devices from a RAM drive to a WI-FI dongle etc. Often, connection can be made successfully with the the least effort, just installing the software driver and connecting the device.

A few of the latest laptop computers use a HDMI connector for connecting the laptop to a modern TV. The vast majority of older laptops have a VGA video output connector to output the video signal to the majority of standard TVs. The HDMI can be identified as having a rectangular connector with a pair of rows of pins, one of 9 pins, one of 10 pins making a total of 19 connections. The VGA connector can be identified as being rectangle with rounded ends and having three rows of 5 pin holes. The benefit of the HDMI connector is that more connections are utilized to interface the laptop computer to a Television or monitor resulting in improved picture quality.

Various types of sound connectors and arrangements have been used in laptops over the years. The simplest connection is by a phono plug supplying mono sound or a dual phono plug providing stereo sound. Recently a single stereo jack has been used along with a microphone input and line input. Audio input and output can easily be recognized as the jack and phono sockets are always seen as small spherical openings or connectors.

For connecting directly to a network or connect to the internet nearly all laptops use a network or RJ45 connector. It has 8 pins surrounded by a square plastic or metal cover. The cable is locked in and released by a springy plastic clip. Some of the older laptop computers use a smaller 4 pin connector created for a dial-up modem to telephone connection that was formerly employed for internet connection.

When inserting an cable great care must be taken to make sure that the plug is not inverted as damage to a laptop computer connector is expensive to repair and could render the laptop computer completely useless.