[LQQK45]

I'm curious if this is possible, and how much work it would require, etc:

I have an old 17" powerbook that died, but the screen is fine. I'd like to remove the screen, and set it up as an external monitor, so that I can use it as a portable second screen for my mac book pro. I assume that I would need a converter to connect the internal screen connection to the dvi port, and some other connection (maybe through USB?) to give the thing power.

Any hope?

[shifuimam]

This has actually been discussed before.

Internal LCDs are digital and use proprietary connectors. The connection to the LCD usually involves some of 20 pins. If you look at the thread in my sig, there's some details on the connections that go into a laptop LCD. My theory from my own research is that there are wires for positive and negative red, green, and blue signals (each of the three transistors that make up each pixel), the display clock (which I assume controls the refresh rate and whatnot), and power to the LCD (3.3v). In addition to those connections, LCDs will generally have a number of grounding wires, presumably to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI). You would need to figure out the pin configuration of your 17" PB monitor and find some way of connecting wires between that connector and a DVI connector (which you'll have to buy somewhere online) at the appropriate pins.

Some LCDs, though, have a different kind of connector on the back. If it's a weird looking ZIF-type connector or something similar, you're pretty much out of luck.

You could probably use USB to power it. USB cables have four wires - +/- power, and data in and out. The LCD backlight uses a pretty straightforward connector to power it; you'd have to strip a USB cable and solder the +/- power wires to the backlight's connector in some way. This is assuming, of course, that the USB port puts out the right power (3.3v) and will regulate it to prevent from frying the backlight.

All in all, it would be an extremely complex project. Unless you have a working knowledge of electrical components and working with very tiny parts (those pins are impossibly small), you'll risk ruining your LCD and/or your MPB (if you connect your project to test it), or shocking and hurting yourself.

Another thing I suppose you could try to figure out the part of the PB logic board that deals with the display. You could then cut out everything else and just keep the part that ends in a DVI connector to where it ends in the LCD cable connection. No idea if it would work, though.

Again, the thread in my sig - one of the others working on my project to upgrade an iBook LCD fried his logic board with a bad cable.

What's wrong with the powerbook? Logic board problem? Dead HD? It might be worth it to just sell it on eBay and look online for a portable DVI display.

[Eriamjh]

In 9 years, I have never seen anyone hack a notebook or iMac LCD display to use as a monitor.