if your laptop has no s-video most likely your laptop came with just a vga out, you'll need to get a pc to tv converter, you can get this from
www.aitech.com, it's called "Maxview pc to tv video converter", their about $70-100, i had one a while back,this comes with a vga ,rca and s-video out, what you'll have to do is connect the vga of the converter to your laptops vga and connect either the s-video or the rca of the converter to your external monitor/tv,someone in the forum suggested a site where you can get a cheaper ($26.00) similar product, i just can't remember the sites name, but it's called "video converter" (LKV 2000 ) i bought one and it does work...i was just wondering why you don't have an s-video,since most Dell laptops has 'em,i have 2 Dell laptops( E1505 & E1405) and bought came with a 7 pin s-video.