The Ultimate Challenge

[mr_anderson187]

im not sure if anyone can anaswer this but ill give it a shot anyway,

use havent let me down yet

ok i have a computer and a latop the laptop itself, has grown useless, because of the newer and more beefy pc, BUT the tft screen on the laptop is usefull, as my current monitor is krap, i guess u knwo wot im gonn ask then

can i get the tft screen off my laptop and use it as a monitor 4 my pc?

i can do a fare bit of rewiring and stuff, and have a spare monitor lead about form an ancient monitor, so can it be doen,

the laptop is a compaq armada,

please help guys,

thanking you
Richard Evans

[Steve]

There are a few things have to think about.

The two main ones are:

Powering it.
Interfacing it.

Now getting power to the thing probably won't be that hard, but if that thing uses a proprietary way of connecting to the lappy then wiring it up to work off a D-Sub connector will be pretty much impossible.

Still, I don't like to spoil fun, so I'd say carefully take it apart and have a look at how the thing hooks up - see what you can work out.

[bmh.01]

Hate to spoil your fun but short answer, it can't be done/not worth bothering.
Long Answer, it may be possible but VERY difficult, the problem is the laptop lcd doesn't take a d-sub/dvi connection so you would need to find a controller card which will cost an easy £200+ (if you can find one) also the blacklight inverter is intergrated on the laptop motherboard with the controller so you'll need to find a way to power the blacklight somehow.
Bottom line its not worth it and it will be cheaper and easier to just buy a TFT.

[Darkmatter]

Ok this is cheating but should give you the desired effect.
http://www.maxivista.com/ This util will give you the ability to turn you laptop into a second monitor via a network card. It has its limitations so its not perfect but it works for desktop related stuff very well.