Use a monitor from an old laptop as a second for my desktop?

I have a laptop that is pretty old, and has been dropped a few times.
Some of the case has been broken off and its is pretty scratched up.
Back to the point, Is there a way I could take off, or even leave the
monitor on, but have it display things form my desktop pc? I can't
really use any networking, or programs to use it, as the laptop is
pretty old and what not. I'm also not looking to spend much money at
all on this, I just didn't want the whole thing to go to waste. If
you know of a way to do this, or have some links or anything, please
tell me. Thanks.

Hi!

> Back to the point, Is there a way I could take off, or even
> leave the monitor on, but have it display things form my
> desktop pc?

The short (and easy) answer is "no".

Laptop displays are digitally driven and everyone has a different
approach to hooking them up and sending the signals to put a picture
on the screen. By comparison, most desktop computers still use analog
signals to drive an attached display.

If (big if) your desktop computer has a digital display output option
(such as DVI) and you can figure out the pinout of the laptop display
panel, you might be able to get it working. You'll also need a power
supply for the backlight tube. You'll need to get a data sheet for the
display panel, have some test equipment to help you reverse engineer
things, and some luck won't hurt.

If the laptop's major functional components and internals work
properly, you might try selling it on eBay for parts or repair. It
might bring more than you'd think, and that money could go to buying a
nice flat panel display that will work with your computer.

William

On 10 Aug, 19:56, zach-564 <zac...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I have a laptop that is pretty old, and has been dropped a few times.
> Some of the case has been broken off and its is pretty scratched up.
> Back to the point, Is there a way I could take off, or even leave the
> monitor on, but have it display things form my desktop pc?

It has been done, usually by clever people writing in German for
Elektor magazine. The interface to flat panel screens is relatively
standardised, and with the aid of some line driver/receiver chips and
a custom cable it should be possible to connect to DVI if not VGA.

By the time you have sourced the parts, worked out how to do it,
fabricated a stand, sorted out the power supply it starts to look less
like a money saving exercise and more like an engineering challenge.

When prices are as low as this: http://www.new-monitors.co.uk/fulldetail.asp?ID=162
and with second hand flat screens going for as little as 30quid at
computer fairs, it hardly seems worth it.