Convert a laptop monitor to stand alone monitor

[flashes24]

I have an old Toshiba laptop that is no longer operational (the hard drive crashed and would cost too much to get a refurbished HD) and I would like to make it a stand alone monitor for my tower. Does anyone know the steps that is needed to convert the monitor to be able to receive input for display? Or can anyone direct me the proper website?

Thanks,

 

[carpetbelly]

http://www.geocities.com/p9019/lcdpanel

has some interesting ideas on it when I looked into it a while ago (but never got round to doing anything about it as always lol)

Honestly though, with the work needed (and not guaranteed that it will work), the parts needed it is more than likly to be far cheaper to get a budget TFT from ebay or something (unless your notebook LCD goes up to 1600*1200 like I have seen and those might be worth having a go with as that's a lovely resolution).

 

[theEclipse]

flashes-

This is not something that is easily done. It would probably cost more to do this than to get a refurbished hd.

Nevertheless this is the process:
[ul][li]Remove the display from the rest of the laptop and find out who made it. You need serial numbers, ect.[/li]
[li]Search online for an lcd driver board for your lcd[/li]
[li]obtain a converter card to go from vga to whatever your lcd driver board needs for input (usually RCA video, I think)[/li]
[li]mount the screen however you want it and get a power supply for the backlight and other accessories[/li]
[/ul]

Then you still have a crippled monitor for your desktop. Your computer will not be able to detect the monitor correctly (most likely).

If your not expirenced in making your own circuts, I suggest you stay shy of this one because wiring up the backlight can give you a deadly shock.

laptop video cards have a hard wired bus to a built in driver board for the lcd for that laptop. It would be convient if the video card was removable from the laptop motherboard and might make this sort of process easier.

If you want more information check out this site:

http://www.eio.com/lcdintro.htm

they have a forum there too.

Good luck if you go ahead with the project, it should be fun!

Robert Carpenter
"Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose." - C.S. Lewis (Preface to Paradise Lost)
ô¿ô

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[flashes24]

thanks carpetbelly and theEclipse , I will open it up and see what I can do with your information. As for buying an old screen, I looked into that and thought it was out of my league, but thought it would be cheaper (and easier) to convert my old one.

Thanks again,
flash

 

[theEclipse]

Good luck. Post a link to some pictures when you get some progress made!

Robert Carpenter
"Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose." - C.S. Lewis (Preface to Paradise Lost)
ô¿ô

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[ImpetusEra]

I got a 17" LCD monitor on ebay for $68. Just need to be patient and find a good one at a good price. It's more work than it's worth to convert a laptop screen and in the end it might not even work. I don't know what size laptop hard drive you need but you can get a 40GB on ebay for about $40.

 

[flashes24]

I've already checked for a bigger hard drive and found them all to be at least $200. Remember this is a P133 Toshiba laptop, I bought it for typing reports in the library (quieter), then I would bring it home to my home pc an print it up.

 

[BadBigBen]

@flashes24 - this I can not believe, that a mere 2.5" HD would go for 200 bucks or above... they run around 10 to 20 bucks (1gb+) ie.

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-2-1GB-HARDD...831076811QQcategoryZ64480QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

that one goes for $17 ($27 including shipping)...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[flashes24]

I will see if it fits, but I was told that this laptop is so old that hard drives are minimal and not just any hard drive will fit. Now since I do have more experience with computers now, I will take out the old HD and see.

Thanks,

 

[ceh4702]

You need a controller board to control the settings for the screen. Then you need a human-machine interface

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.