I have a dream....

What you see below is my latest undertaking. Yes, that is indeed a disassembled dell E1705 strew across my bed. Why is it in pieces (well other than the fact that I took it apart)...I'm looking to do one of two things with it. The laptop is my old portable gaming rig (since replaced by an M1420, I don't game as much anymore). It's got a 1.8ghz core duo, 1 gig of ram (557 I believe), 7900gs, 100 gig hard drive, wireless, etc. The reason its now my "old" portable gaming rig is because the video ram is starting to deteriorate (the result of me overclocking it, though the OC was COMPLETELY stable, that happens from time to time apparently). Its nothing really terrible, other than a bunch of graphical artifacts on the screen, and the occasional lockup caused by it. The laptop is in complete working order, other than the aforementioned graphics card problem. Anyway, I digress, I've always LOVED the LCD on this laptop, its a frigging work of art. I went for the upgraded LCD (WSXGA+) and it's still absolutely beautiful, lots of real estate on it. Since I just had an old CTR crap out on me, I'd kind of like to do something with this if possible. I understand that it is possible, but...well the main problem for me is pictured bellow...how do I turn that plug coming off the lcd into something I use? Or is there another avenue I could pursue with it? I'm still in the planning stages so all input is welcome. Also, I'm looking to do this on the cheap hopefully (who isn't? haha). Another option I was looking at (which it could go this way either way) is making a dedicated picture viewer out of it (even if it did become a second monitor that would more than likely be its sole job, so I'm willing to cut out the figurative, hardware middle man). Anyone want to help me conquer my white whale (I've been wanting to do this for a while)? Any other info anyone wants I'm more than happy to provide.





Note: On the cable there's a little tag with some information listed on it, I'll post that below in case it's of any relevance.

HAQ00 17" LCD CABLE
DC020009VOL
REV:1.0(A00)
HIGH.TEK (C9) 06/05/08

 

It is nearly 100% impossible to get the pinouts for the lcd monitor. You can try contacting the screen manufacturer, but unless you speak Chinese or Korean you are not going to get that far. As for the pins in the VGA cable, they are very small, and I dont think there is a guide anywhere which states what each wire does.
You will be able to convert it into a standalone picture frame, but you know, you dont need a 1.8Ghz dual core processor for that.
I am sorry to hear that your gpu is on the birnk of death.

It would be a great idea, but plausible - most likely not.

K-TRON

 

Could you try different drivers and a custom ventilation job with your favorite flavor of linux to play on to get this sucker back and 100 percent.

 

i remember some guys from some online magazine took a LCD panel apart and put it on an overhead projector to use it as a large screen.

but unfortunately, i can't remember who it was. I'm sure you would be able to get some useful information from that.

best get is google i guess.

 

Yeah, there's 2 problems you face, A) it's a different interface (LVDS) with different interface and signalling so no plug and play.

B) in order to make it work (without buying some ridiculously expensive test box adapter) you will need to work at a close to the metal level, which means you will need to find the pin-out and manually connect the wires to their various components. However seeing as the interface is totally different you have to go beyond where the LVDS connection is and work out an interface fix driving the components if possible (unlikely as LVDS is truly digital).

So in otherwords unlike moding a normal LCD, this is a whole different kettle of fish, and unlikely to be worth it in any way compared to buying a quality 22-24" screen new.

 

Ahh, I thought as much. Well, it seems I'll have to pursue my alternate, use the entire machine as a stand alone image viewer. Thanks for the info, I'll post any updates if I happen to make something of this.