Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hello,
Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that I
can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?

Thanks!
Ken

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:50:59 GMT, ken <ken@nospam.com>
wrote:

>Hello,
>Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that I
>can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
>output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?


No, it's not _reasonably_ possible. A Google search
would've revealed this.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

ken wrote:

> Hello,
> Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that I
> can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
> output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?

No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD driven
directly by the notebook electronics.



>
> Thanks!
> Ken

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

In article <42cc1fc4@news.bezeqint.net>, Tal Fuchs says...
> Isn't it possible to take the LCD screen from the laptop and connect it as
> an LCD screen ?
> I have an old Compaq Armada that I want to use it's screen
>
Very nice. No.


--
Conor

-You wanted an argument? Oh I'm sorry, but this is abuse. You want room
K5, just along the corridor. Stupid git. (Monty Python)

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

David Maynard wrote:

>> Hello,
>> Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that
>> I can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
>> output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?
>
>
> No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD driven
> directly by the notebook electronics.

If the laptop is functioning can he use the whole laptop as a 'screen',
or is there no vga/dvi-in on most laptops? Alternatively, could he use
some sort of remote access software to display the PC on the laptop
screen? Maybe running 2 machines defeats his purpose though. Just curious.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 20:15:41 +0100, aleX
<aleX@no-email-address.com> wrote:

>David Maynard wrote:
>
>>> Hello,
>>> Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that
>>> I can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
>>> output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?
>>
>>
>> No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD driven
>> directly by the notebook electronics.
>
>If the laptop is functioning can he use the whole laptop as a 'screen',

no

>or is there no vga/dvi-in on most laptops?

no


> Alternatively, could he use
>some sort of remote access software to display the PC on the laptop
>screen?

no, again not practical. You'd run whole notebook for the
OS and have bad screen lag. It might seem barely tolerable
for a moment but not good enough for any regular use. If you
needed faster processing for something, you'd want to run
the laptop yourself and remotely access that OTHER system
instead of the other way around.

To put it comprehensively:

Reuse laptop screen? NO.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

kony wrote:

>>>>Hello,
>>>>Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that
>>>>I can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
>>>>output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?
>>>
>>>
>>>No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD driven
>>>directly by the notebook electronics.
>>
>>If the laptop is functioning can he use the whole laptop as a 'screen',
>
>
> no
>
>
>>or is there no vga/dvi-in on most laptops?
>
>
> no
>
>
>
>>Alternatively, could he use
>>some sort of remote access software to display the PC on the laptop
>>screen?
>
>
> no, again not practical. You'd run whole notebook for the
> OS and have bad screen lag. It might seem barely tolerable
> for a moment but not good enough for any regular use. If you
> needed faster processing for something, you'd want to run
> the laptop yourself and remotely access that OTHER system
> instead of the other way around.
>
> To put it comprehensively:
>
> Reuse laptop screen? NO.
>

Thanks, I appreciate your advice. I was using a laptop with a CRT
monitor as a bigger screen (ie the other way round from what the OP
wanted), but as has been said a CRT is a 'monitor proper' whilst a
laptop screen is just a laptop screen. Your info is useful for me so I
know what works/doesn't work in the future.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

aleX wrote:

> David Maynard wrote:
>
>>> Hello,
>>> Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that
>>> I can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's
>>> video output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?
>>
>>
>>
>> No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD
>> driven directly by the notebook electronics.
>
>
> If the laptop is functioning can he use the whole laptop as a 'screen',

No, he can use it as a laptop.

> or is there no vga/dvi-in on most laptops? Alternatively, could he use
> some sort of remote access software to display the PC on the laptop
> screen?

Sure. You can run remote access software on any PC and that includes
'small' ones, like a laptop.

> Maybe running 2 machines defeats his purpose though. Just curious.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Kony,
Thanks for the info.

Can you explain what should be done to be able to use it's screen ? After
all it is a screen, isn't it ?
Some electronic is no problem for me.

Thanks,

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:4edrc15s4f844vakanhdcqmlqm4qvv5aiu@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 20:15:41 +0100, aleX
> <aleX@no-email-address.com> wrote:
>
>>David Maynard wrote:
>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>> Does anybody know how to convert a laptop into an lcd monitor so that
>>>> I can plug a different computer into it and have that computer's video
>>>> output display on the laptop lcd? Is that even possible?
>>>
>>>
>>> No. The 'screen' in a notebook is not a monitor. It's a bare LCD driven
>>> directly by the notebook electronics.
>>
>>If the laptop is functioning can he use the whole laptop as a 'screen',
>
> no
>
>>or is there no vga/dvi-in on most laptops?
>
> no
>
>
>> Alternatively, could he use
>>some sort of remote access software to display the PC on the laptop
>>screen?
>
> no, again not practical. You'd run whole notebook for the
> OS and have bad screen lag. It might seem barely tolerable
> for a moment but not good enough for any regular use. If you
> needed faster processing for something, you'd want to run
> the laptop yourself and remotely access that OTHER system
> instead of the other way around.
>
> To put it comprehensively:
>
> Reuse laptop screen? NO.
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Ken,

I'm sorry so many people are apparently ragging on your idea; it's not
that it _can't_ be done it's just not easy to do, or done as far as
I've seen. If you really really wanted to, and had the technical
expertise, you could create a driver board with a raw lcd driver ic,
connector, power supply, etc with [sx]vga input. However the
practicality of this contraption might be limited, and you would likely
spend a lot of time, as well as money designing and building a circuit
to do it.
I have however heard of a few designs for the hardware floating around,
most use specialized ICs that are difficult to get your hands on, even
if you can get the schematic. http://store.earthlcd.com might have
some pre-built ones that might work for you, though it wouldn't
guarantee it, they mostly carry controllers for smaller lcd panels,
give them a look if you're interested, let us know if you find
something that works.
In case you didn't already know, don't let others discourage you,
everything is doable (well almost), just how much effort you want to
put into it.

-john

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Is it possible to use it as a DVI screen ?
Is there any way to use the laptop MB as the controller ?

"-john" <jhaskins@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1120809516.086971.324260@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Ken,
>
> I'm sorry so many people are apparently ragging on your idea; it's not
> that it _can't_ be done it's just not easy to do, or done as far as
> I've seen. If you really really wanted to, and had the technical
> expertise, you could create a driver board with a raw lcd driver ic,
> connector, power supply, etc with [sx]vga input. However the
> practicality of this contraption might be limited, and you would likely
> spend a lot of time, as well as money designing and building a circuit
> to do it.
> I have however heard of a few designs for the hardware floating around,
> most use specialized ICs that are difficult to get your hands on, even
> if you can get the schematic. http://store.earthlcd.com might have
> some pre-built ones that might work for you, though it wouldn't
> guarantee it, they mostly carry controllers for smaller lcd panels,
> give them a look if you're interested, let us know if you find
> something that works.
> In case you didn't already know, don't let others discourage you,
> everything is doable (well almost), just how much effort you want to
> put into it.
>
> -john
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Tal Fuchs <fuchs_t@bezeqint.net> wrote:
> Kony,
> Thanks for the info.
>
> Can you explain what should be done to be able to use it's screen ? After
> all it is a screen, isn't it ?
> Some electronic is no problem for me.
>
> Thanks,
>

I'm not Kony but, I have a few suggestions. You will first need to find
out the signals being supplied to the screen. Most LCD have some sort of
Row-Column type driving circuitry. These displays usually have a frame
marker line, a line marker line and a pixel clock in. Other signals it may
have includes a signal invert line. It could also have up to 4 or maybe
even more DC biasing signals for the row-column driver. The rest of the
lines will consist of VCC for for the logic and perhaps a separate supply
for the LCD the rest will be digital data lines. Finding which signal si
which would not be too hard if you had acess to a logic analyser, but it
would be nigh on impossible without one( unless you find a data sheet of
the LCD). After that it all a matter of driving the screen with the right
signals.

Thats all I can think of for now. If I come up with anything else I'll
post more.

--

Wing Wong.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005 07:58:02 +0200, "Tal Fuchs"
<fuchs_t@bezeqint.net> wrote:

>Kony,
>Thanks for the info.
>
>Can you explain what should be done to be able to use it's screen ?

No, Google it.


>After
>all it is a screen, isn't it ?

Exactly. It's JUST a screen, remotely like taking a CRT
tube out of an old monitor then wanting to direct wire it to
a video card output.

>Some electronic is no problem for me.

Even if you were the designer of the circuit & board for the
particular laptop screen, it would still not be worthwhile.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On 8 Jul 2005 00:58:36 -0700, "-john" <jhaskins@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Ken,
>
>I'm sorry so many people are apparently ragging on your idea; it's not
>that it _can't_ be done it's just not easy to do, or done as far as
>I've seen. If you really really wanted to, and had the technical
>expertise, you could create a driver board with a raw lcd driver ic,
>connector, power supply, etc with [sx]vga input. However the
>practicality of this contraption might be limited, and you would likely
>spend a lot of time, as well as money designing and building a circuit
>to do it.
>I have however heard of a few designs for the hardware floating around,
>most use specialized ICs that are difficult to get your hands on, even
>if you can get the schematic. http://store.earthlcd.com might have
>some pre-built ones that might work for you, though it wouldn't
>guarantee it, they mostly carry controllers for smaller lcd panels,
>give them a look if you're interested, let us know if you find
>something that works.
>In case you didn't already know, don't let others discourage you,
>everything is doable (well almost), just how much effort you want to
>put into it.


Be discouraged.

After dozens if not hundreds of hours and hundreds if not
thousands of dollars, you might have a crude prototype that
is junk compared to a $200 desktop screen bought whole.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

-john wrote:
> Ken,
>
> I'm sorry so many people are apparently ragging on your idea;

For good reason.

> it's not
> that it _can't_ be done it's just not easy to do, or done as far as
> I've seen. If you really really wanted to, and had the technical
> expertise, you could create a driver board with a raw lcd driver ic,
> connector, power supply, etc with [sx]vga input. However the
> practicality of this contraption might be limited, and you would likely
> spend a lot of time, as well as money designing and building a circuit
> to do it.
> I have however heard of a few designs for the hardware floating around,
> most use specialized ICs that are difficult to get your hands on, even
> if you can get the schematic. http://store.earthlcd.com might have
> some pre-built ones that might work for you, though it wouldn't
> guarantee it, they mostly carry controllers for smaller lcd panels,
> give them a look if you're interested, let us know if you find
> something that works.
> In case you didn't already know, don't let others discourage you,
> everything is doable (well almost), just how much effort you want to
> put into it.
>
> -john
>

He didn't ask if he could rip parts out of a notebook and then reuse them
in making a monitor of his own design. He asked "how to convert a laptop
into an lcd monitor" and a laptop isn't a monitor nor is it 'convertible'
to one.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hey all, Thanks for all the feedback. Clearly it is not at all
practical. I was mostly wondering if it was a simple electrical
conversion, which apparently it is not, or if there was some sort of USB
or other device that could be plugged into a laptop which would then
receive the video input from another computer through a regular video
cable and through software display that input on the screen.
Ultimately I would want to be running a Xinerama display across the two
screens so using remote console software like VNC would not work.

Of course as people have suggested it would be much easier and cheaper
to just by an LCD monitor. But what bugs me is that LCD Monitors don't
get resolutions of 1600x1200 until they are at least 20" screens. Both
my laptops (inspiron 8200, and inspiron 8000) have 15" LCDs with that
resolution. In a xinerama configuraion it's nice if the two screens are
roughly the same size. So why is it that for a long time laptops have
been able to drive high resolution 15" LCDs but you still can't get that
with an LCD monitor? Surely I'm not the only one that would value that?

Thanks for all the posts.
Ken


David Maynard wrote:
> -john wrote:
>
>> Ken,
>>
>> I'm sorry so many people are apparently ragging on your idea;
>
>
> For good reason.
>
>> it's not
>> that it _can't_ be done it's just not easy to do, or done as far as
>> I've seen. If you really really wanted to, and had the technical
>> expertise, you could create a driver board with a raw lcd driver ic,
>> connector, power supply, etc with [sx]vga input. However the
>> practicality of this contraption might be limited, and you would likely
>> spend a lot of time, as well as money designing and building a circuit
>> to do it.
>> I have however heard of a few designs for the hardware floating around,
>> most use specialized ICs that are difficult to get your hands on, even
>> if you can get the schematic. http://store.earthlcd.com might have
>> some pre-built ones that might work for you, though it wouldn't
>> guarantee it, they mostly carry controllers for smaller lcd panels,
>> give them a look if you're interested, let us know if you find
>> something that works.
>> In case you didn't already know, don't let others discourage you,
>> everything is doable (well almost), just how much effort you want to
>> put into it.
>>
>> -john
>>
>
> He didn't ask if he could rip parts out of a notebook and then reuse
> them in making a monitor of his own design. He asked "how to convert a
> laptop into an lcd monitor" and a laptop isn't a monitor nor is it
> 'convertible' to one.
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Send these people an email
PCI LCD controller:
http://store.earthlcd.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.108/.f

I was looking for the same so a can stick an old Dell Latitude LCD to
my PC case

No I am not mad, it a PC for streaming radio shows from gigs, so
easier to carry

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 23:32:25 GMT,
kb@4o4.co-dot-uk.no-spam.invalid (4over4) wrote:

>Send these people an email
>PCI LCD controller:
>http://store.earthlcd.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.108/.f
>
>I was looking for the same so a can stick an old Dell Latitude LCD to
>my PC case
>
>No I am not mad, it a PC for streaming radio shows from gigs, so
>easier to carry

Buying a multi-hundred-dollar controller card so you can rip
a bare (frameless), old/dimmed, low-response LCD out to
reuse it when the end result is that it's more time and cost
to implement than a brand new LCD MEANT for the purpose?
You're mad.