Laptop display as monitor?

Kissker · Post by **Kissker** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:33 am

I have an old IBM thinkpad layin around, and my desktop monitor is old and failing (V and H synchs are failing, lovely distortion in right corner, colour augmenting) so I was wondering.. is there a way to crack open the laptop- build a new "stand" for it, and use it to make my own LCD monitor?

any details on this would be greatly appreciated. On a severe budget as well- I already own things like wires/ some connectors/ soldering gun etc.

List of parts needed and a lil tutorial would really be all thats neccessary.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:38 am

Welcome to the forums.

You should head on over to the screen forum and read the sticky there.

No, you cant use laptop screens for anything other than the laptop they were made for.

but you could use other things if you really wanted.

Kissker · Post by **Kissker** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:45 am

I refuse to believe you under the simple fact there has to be a way- maybe not affordable or practicle- but a way none the less- to convert it into such a device.

Technology is technology afterall- I refuse to simply believe that because of the parts it uses, and the way its soldered that it cannot be done another way to make it work.

Again this other way may not be practical, taking up 100 hours of time to do- or cost effective- such as requiring to buy or make parts that would easily cost more then an already made LCD screen- but there HAS to be a way. I just don't understand the technology enough to figure it out on my own and came here for some input- figuring if anyone knew- it would be Ben.

I don't just want to do this to replace my monitor- I want to do this as a project, a learning experiance, and to customize my PC farther- My "stand" will not be a normal stand for it- more complex and possibly with extras that no other monitor in the world would use.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:11 am

timmeh87 wrote:Welcome to the forums.

You should head on over to the screen forum and read the sticky there.

No, you cant use laptop screens for anything other than the laptop they were made for.

but you could use other things if you really wanted.

Can't you use some older ones because they have analog input from the motherboard? I remember seeing something about that, but only VGA would work and everyone wanted composite.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:46 am

Ok, well I sort of generalized. this question has been answered in more detail like over 9000 times already.

If you had searched very hard, you might have found out that you "could" use it if you could completely reverse engineer it. you would probably construct your own controller circuit for it (not a simple circuit). this is of course just a theoretical situation, as AFAIK no one around here has ever actually done it.

and yeah, some really old screens might take some kind of composite or s-video signal. but I dunno if you would want to use such a crappy screen for anything.

Anyways, in closing, I have a thinkpad - and Ive seen other peoples thinkpad - and they all have their (proprietary) controller circuit built deep into their motherboards. possibly integrated into the GPU.

Kissker · Post by **Kissker** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:53 am

Well i don't just have a think pad either- it was just the one I was thinking on using- I actually have 3 laptops- a Thinkpad (A31) A toshiba, and I forgot the make of the older one- its very very old. dates back when 500 mhz was great.

and these cruddy screens aren't going to be for portable- Heres the full plan- replace my desktops monitor with an LCD screen I have (aka from one of the laptops, or all 3 who knows) and incorperate INTO THE MONITOR USB drives and things like that- easy to access right there format for plug n play. I have styrene plastics and all the tools I need to make the case- I just need to figure which screen(s) I will be able to use.

The old Desktop Monitor is a Micron- dating back in the late 80's early 90's Iam truely surprised it has lasted as long as it has nearly constant use.

I have also found out that one of the distortions is actually cuased by magnetic field radiated from an older TV nearby- removing/turning off the TV fixes it. So its just refresh and synchs.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:57 am

If timmeh says you can't do something, you can't.
You might be able to find one that'll work, but it'll be really old, like 500MHz was just a pipedream back then. And it'll likely be like finding hay in a needle stack.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:27 pm

Kissker wrote:I refuse to believe you under the simple fact there has to be a way- maybe not affordable or practicle- but a way none the less- to convert it into such a device.

Yes, you can use the laptop screen if you get the appropriate driver chip for it and build a board that can accept analog video and decode it for the LCD controller.

This is impractical; for the same money you can get a bigger, nicer LCD from NewEgg.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:20 pm

hey now, I just said it would be impossibly hard.

anyways, you might have some luck with the really old screens. But really old screens typically have really bad response times, they are not good for using as a computer monitor, especially if you play any games.

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:25 pm

I found this while searching throught the internets.

http://kc0wys.homeunix.com/projects/ele ... index.html It would be interesting to see what happens with this guy's project to see if he'll put up some more info on the subject.

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:55 pm

I think I've posted this before, but here it is again.

You can use your old laptop Lcd with this controller if it is on the compatible lcd list.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-TFT-LCD-Panel-L ... dZViewItem

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:24 pm

http://kc0wys.homeunix.com/projects/ele ... index.html
http://old.area26.no-ip.org/?section=ha ... ect=vgalcd
it can be done

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:29 pm

lol, look 2 posts above you. I already posted the first link

kc0wys · Post by **kc0wys** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:28 pm

Hey, I noticed some traffic to my site coming from this forum

IÂ´ll keep you guys posted. I blew the LCD I had due to a supply error (the +5V and +12v lines crossed) but I found 2 on ebay for 14 bucks, so when those come IÂ´ll wrap up the project. Do note, however, that IÂ´m only going to be able to get a color depth of 3 bits, which I believe makes 8 colors total. Good enough for text, though.