Help needed to connect a dock – need adapters, but what kinds?

May 3, 2022 11:04 AM

I am not very tech-savvy and I am having a hard time figuring out what kind of adapters I need to get my HDMI monitor to connect to a Humanscale M/Connect 2 dock.

I think I need one to exit my laptop to connect to the hub and then one to connect the hub to the monitor – but if I am honest, I have absolutely no idea! The M/Connect 2 comes with these ports: five USB 3.0 ports, one Ethernet jack, one 3.5mm audio jack, two full-size DisplayPorts and one USB Type-C port that makes the connection to your laptop. (There are also charging-only USB 3.0 and USB Type-C connectors on the right side.)

I have a laptop (a work-issued Dell Latitude 7400 that I am stuck with) that connects to my monitor via HDMI and have no Display Port on either the monitor or the laptop.

This snippet from this article explains my problem, but does not say what adapters I need to buy.

• “I wish the dock came with adapters, because not every laptop works with DisplayPort. If you have HDMI monitors or, like some businesses, older DVI or VGA monitors, youll need to buy some adapters.”

Does anyone know what I need to buy? (Now I wish I had the old M/Connect doc with HDMI, but alas I am stuck with the newer model.)

posted by Lescha to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: You should be able to get a standard DisplayPort to HDMI adapter or cable which are common at Newegg, Amazon, etc. There's a reasonable chance that you can find them at Best Buy or office supply places but they'll be more expensive. If you're using an adapter you need DisplayPort male to HDMI female.

DisplayPort was designed for backwards compatibility so adapting to HDMI is (theoretically) simple (but going from HDMI to DisplayPort means you lose out on the newer capabilities).
posted by Candleman at 11:14 AM on May 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: and you'll want a thunderbolt 3 cable to connect the laptop to the dock. it's extremely similar to (and often interchangeable with) a usb-c cable but there are some minor differences that i wouldn't want to worry about with since you're using a dock.
posted by noloveforned at 12:19 PM on May 3, 2022 [2 favorites]