Older proprietary connector ID

[MindoverMaster]

SCSI, that's what I was thinking of. Yeah, external SCSI. Adapter for parallel.

 

[patonb]

Yha its the docking port... MY BAD ON THE WRONG PARRELLEL PRINTER. It looked like it was a printer, but looking again its a computer.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

I wanna say it's some type of external SCSI, which, there WAS printers made for SCSI, and even some docking stations used SCSI

 

[Rasori]

Hmm, now that I'm home I took another look at this. SCSI seems very plausible, and looks to be the right shape, but from what I've read it comes in either 50-, 68-, or 80-pin variants. What I'm looking at is 120 pins (yes, I counted), 60 pairs on the top half and 60 pairs on the bottom half. Not sure if this means it's not SCSI or if it means I'm counting something wrong, so I'll see if I can show in more detail what this thing looks like.

I can't get a clearer picture than I already have, so I'll see if I can make it work:

Note: (EDITED IN) You may also be able to see from this that there is no separator between the pins, whereas pictures on the web seem to imply each pin for SCSI is in a separate rectangular partition.

Per request for more information:
It's a Dell Inspiron 3500, Model Number TS30T, service tag W242P (unfortunately looking through the parts list for that service tag doesn't seem to be helping and in fact, the parts list doesn't match up very well, leading me to believe this may well be aftermarket installed).

As an example, the parts list on the service tag implies it would have a zip drive which is notedly absent.

I'd love to tell you what software/hardware it was for but I'm not privy to that information at this time. If I get the information (and can't Google an answer for myself) I'll definitely let you know.

Thanks very much for all the help so far! I'd like to believe it's SCSI but like I said the above makes me think it's not so easy

 

[patonb]

Not Its 99% a docking port. It could be the same plug as a SCSI but its to attach to dell's docking port.

 

[Rasori]

There we go, I've got confirmation:

That's a picture used in an eBay listing for an Inspiron Port Replicator III. That definitely seems to match up with what I'm seeing, looks like two slim cards with pins on them, flanked by two bolts with no threads.

I now wonder why I was told it had to have a "special" connector, but regardless I now know I can either track down a similar laptop as a replacement, or take a look at the station she plugs it into and see where to go from there (ie, if it plugs into a port replicator, I can just build a system with the necessary ports, perhaps).

Thanks for all the help!

Edit: Pic source: eBay Listing

 

[kmote]

Glad you got it sorted. Fun game though.

 

[carnageX]

Glad you got it sorted. Fun game though.

"Tune in next week for our next episode of Name That Port!"

 

[MindoverMaster]

ROFL, Carnage. I'll take Proprietary Ports for 400.