What Is VGA on a Laptop?

VGA

Originally video graphics array presented a resolution of 640 pixels or dots to the viewing screen in the horizontal direction and 480 in the vertical, with either 16 or 256 colors, depending on the operating mode. This original version of VGA is now referred to as base level and is used to boot computers with analog displays and troubleshoot them in "Safe Mode." Since the development of digital video interface in 1999, laptops have slowly changed, but both VGA and DVI were available at the time of this writing.

Super video graphics array increased the resolution to 800 pixels by 600 and other versions increased resolution higher, adding different letter prefixes for resolutions up to 1,600 by 1,200 and higher. But since the connection port remains the same and the signals work on all monitors, many people continue to refer to the signals and connectors as VGA. The letter designations are rarely included in laptop analog video descriptions and are more often identified only by their resolution. The higher the resolution, the better the picture.

Some laptops have a secondary video output for external screen presentations. A common use is for training or sales presentations where the operator sends video to a projection or wide screen and speaks to an audience. A VGA connector does not carry audio and cannot be used to play sound on a television set that has a VGA input port. You can use the VGA port for video, but if you want audio, you need to plug an adapter into the laptop's headphone jack and use RCA push-in cables to an audio input in your home entertainment system.

Shortly after the development of VGA, video game manufacturers started using the format also. However they used a different connector. All VGA connectors have 15 pins, but for computer applications they are arranged in three rows of five pins each and for game applications, one row with eight pins and another with seven. Both types use a trapezoidal "D" type connector with retaining screws on the sides. Don't confuse a laptop's VGA output port with a nine-pin digital serial port, which has the same size and shape but with one row of five pins and another with four.