Well, assuming the various flavors of that laptop don’t differ too much in video outputs, the spec says it offers HDMI out. So all you’d need is a regular HDMI cable (“male-male”, but that’s the default), one end of which you’d plug into your 1440’s HDMI out, the other end to HDMI in on your TV. Your TV does have HDMI in?
I think it has a VGA-out port. So what do I do then?
I did buy a Roku. I think I can set that one up easily enough…perhaps I don’t really need to hook it up to the TV. I can already stream Amazon and Netflix and Hulu with the Roku.
VGA to HDMI is a losing proposition, since VGA is analog and HDMI is almost always digital (though I’ve heard rumors some devices can be configured to output analog on the HDMI port - it must be very rare), meaning you’d need an analog-to-digital converter, which wouldn’t be cheap.
If your TV has a VGA-friendly input, you could use that (may be marked something like “RGB D-Sub 15”) but you won’t get HD video with that.
Are you sure your laptop doesn’t have an HDMI or DVI port lurking somewhere? HDMI ports look like this.
I’m sure. I think I’ll just stick with the Roku that I ordered. I cancelled the other ones. Like I said, I have Amazon Prime and Netflix…so that should cover it.
Thank you. 
so it’s an Inspiron 1440? If so, yeah it doesn’t have HDMI out so you’re out of luck.
VGA to HDMI converters exist. There is nothing special about them, they contain a set of analog to digital converters and an HDMI interface. $33 from Amazon. Or with sound.
Some computers will output HDMI through the VGA socket. (Yuk!) For this you simply need a suitable cable (cheap) and need to set the approriate configuration in the computer.
I have a new question about HDMI cables. I’m planning to connect my laptop to my TV using a 12 feet cable. I’m afraid someone will trip over the cable, pulling my TV off the table, or at best bending the connector. Do they make detachable cables, like MacBook adapters, or I think the first Xbox’s controller connections?
I haven’t found any breakaway HDMI cables, but I’ve thought of something. They make converters that do HDMI over ethernet (cat5 or cat6). Ethernet cables have this “feature” where if the plastic clip is broken, the plug keeps falling out of the socket. Soo, if a broken plug works well enough to transmit the HDMI signal, you can use it as a breakaway cable.
Meanwhile, I’m just going to tape my cable to the table.