I have a Dell monitor with destroyed pins. I cut a cable from another monitor, same size screen. All the wires have matching colors/sizes on both ends except these: 1- from the monitor there is one smaller size dark brown wire 2- from the plug there are two wires, a smaller one, color purple, and a heavier wire, color gray. Do I need these? Will I burn my house down if I don't hook these to something? If all is OK, do I just use regular solder on these? The job won't be neat but, oh, well. I just want to see what is on my PC again! Gramma thanks you all!

Hi, Go to tommyspinouts.com and get the pinout for the cable if you don't already have it. It will tell you the purpose of the wires. Modern ultra intelligent Monitors use all but one of the 15 possible pins and that's the KEY. Extra leads have to do with Monitor Identity and communications with the comp. Major leads are still the same, so it will work, but you may not have all the functions of the monitor like adjustments from the monitor. A good source of the proper cable is a Monitor cable extension with at least 14 pins on each end. Good Luck, Jim

Thanks Jim. I couldn't get that site to come up but I do have a printout from I forgit where, that has a 15 pin ID, which is what the monitor had, and what this patch cable end has. It shows what each pin is but doesn't give colors for a lot of them. Another confusing, but maybe moot description. e.g. Pin 1 shows "Red". Pin 6 shows "Red Return (coax shield)" but there is only one red wire. But then again, the plug end has 15 pins, but one cut cable end has nine wires, and the other cut end has eight. How does that Outer Limits tune go again? I am so confused but think I will just put the ends together and go outside the house to plug everything in. I just don't want to blow up a PC! You think my PC will be safe?

You're taking a chance relying on the color codes. I don't 'think' there is an agreed upon standard for the monitor wire color codes. But the RED wire 'should' be a coax and the coax shield should connect to pin 6. The Blue (2) and Green (3) shields should connect to Pins 7 and 8. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

I said 'RED wire', but I really meant the wire that carries the red color signal (pin 1), not the color of the wire. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

I really have no idea what wire goes to what pin. I can't get the pin end off. I might just give up and adopt the kick-it-to-the-curb-add-to-the-landfills philosophy. And in the future allow no children near the back of my PC. Or I might just take a chance, glue the matching ends, and report how high the smoke rose. Can I borrow your PC? Thanks again for all the information!

Hi Again, The color wires are usually individually shielded. The shields should also be connected as well as the main shield. Shield connections don't really have to be fancy. I usually use a small jumper wire. The Color shields would be called the returns as well as the common lead for the other sigs. Just means the other side of the signal connection. They like to use separate returns to prevent signal mixing. There is no standard for the wire colors except the 3 color leads are usually the same as the color they serve. Hope this helps, Jim