connecting lcd as second monitor

LeVeL

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I ripped apart a laptop at work today (and I mean took apart EVERYTHING) but kept the LCD screen in one piece because it contains mercury, which is not something that I really want to play around with. Anyways, since the screen is intact, is there any way to connect it to another laptop and setup a dual-monitor gig? Its just the screen, no plastic frame, so its very light and would be very portable (ie I'd be able to stick it pretty much anywhere and it would barely take up any room). There's a connector sticking out of it, which was the only wire actually connecting it to the motherboard when it was still part of a laptop. Ideas?
 
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If the connector for the screen has the same connections as a standard VGA cable's pinout, then you might be able to connect the correct wires to a VGA plug and see what happens.

You would need to find technical specifications for that particular laptop to know what signal the individual wires represent on the screen's connector. And that's assuming they didn't just design their own proprietary connector, which is probably the case given all the crazy stuff laptop makers do to fit everything into as little space as possible.

I remember ripping apart an old thinkpad for gits and shiggles and wanting to use the screen for something else. I never was able to find out what the wires on the connector did, so I ended up replacing a friend's broken screen with it.

Definitely would be badass if you could get it to work.
 
Don't forget that you'd have to figure out the power specifications of that LCD panel; if it's just one connector, that means that some of those pins are power pins as well. Find a copy of the FSM (factory service manual, not flying spaghetti monster in this case) somewhere; I know that most old Thinkpad and HP Omnibook FSMs are online.
 
Don't forget that you'd have to figure out the power specifications of that LCD panel; if it's just one connector, that means that some of those pins are power pins as well. Find a copy of the FSM (factory service manual, not flying spaghetti monster in this case) somewhere; I know that most old Thinkpad and HP Omnibook FSMs are online.

Actually, Flying Spaghetti Monster would work too, but he's very busy.
 
There was a thread on this in a different forum, and while it MAY vary from laptop to laptop, the general consensus was that it would be nearly impossible, cause they all use proprietary connections of various sorts.
 
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