I need help modding this 15" LCD. If it is possible????

[SemiCycle]

Hey guys.

I've had 2 Gateway profiles laying around for a while. One of them works fine, but it had a dead cdrom and only a 433Mhz cpu. The other one wouldn't even post, but had a dvd drive and a 500Mhz cpu. I swapped over the dvd and the faster cpu to the working profile, but now I have this great LCD screen with no use. Since I'm piecing together my Lian-Li PC-70, I'd love to find a way to mod this screen and flush mount it on the right side of the system for some possible lan party goodness.

The motherboard in the profile uses a standard ATX power connector, and the screen power is part of the cabling, so getting power to the screen should be a piece of cake. Get the video signal may be much harder. I'm going to post some pictures of the screen, power supply, cabling and motheboard. If anyone can give me an idea of getting video to the profile, I would appreciate it.

INFO:
-The LCD connector on the motherboard has 21 pins
-Motherboard is an Intel BP810
-Here is the pdf for the motheboard
ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/oem/75130601.pdf
-On page 14 you can see the board layout, but the LCD connector is the the white block under section "A". There is no mention of the pin layout for lcd connector anywhere in it.


http://supcontent.gateway.com/support.gateway.com/s/Profile/3500585/350058501.jpg

Here are the pictures of the profile 2 disconnected.

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/01.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/02.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/03.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/04.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/05.jpg

[SemiCycle]

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/06.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/07.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/08.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/09.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/10.jpg

[SemiCycle]

Holy crap, I think I may have found something. Is It using a modifed SCART connector??

http://www.jeacle.ie/publications/articles/scart/

http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/eprebel/SoundAndVision/Engineering/SCART.html

[SemiCycle]

I've done some more digging and I've found a good amount of info on the LVDS connector (21-pin) and LCG flat panels. Maybe LGC manufactured the screen for Gateway.

Anyone have any ideas?

I also found this.
http://www.semicom.co.uk/manufacturer/protech/9156t/prox9156T.pdf

I may be getting closer. But how do I convert an LVDS signal to/from an RGB or DVI connector.

http://www.trans2000.com/manual/adboard_manual.pdf

[ZachM]

Don't LCDs need a controller module? My fear is that it is integrated into the motherboard somewhere. Finding a compatible one might not only be hard to find, but expensive. That's my thought. Hopefully the controller is on the back of the LCD somewhere, so all you will have to do is some wiring. Good luck.

[SemiCycle]

Hum. Good point. Well I'm sure the controller is not on the motherboard, because my motherboard is an exact duplicate of the one in the Intel PDF. I opened up the back of the screen and I believe I found what you are speaking of

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/11.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/12.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/13.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/15.jpg

http://members.cox.net/paynejip/profile/16.JPG

[Mark620]

The part listed as "video to a sideboard" is your CCFL controller - the two yellow wires are for brightness control. Unfortunately the video controller is on the motherboard. See Page 24 of the MB manual. Also Note there is a standard VGA Port on the MB...They are not very close and there are no direct traces between them. Also Note how many traces run directly from J2 to J3 on that circuit board.

[SemiCycle]

Originally posted by Mark620

Unfortunately the video controller is on the motherboard. See Page 24 of the MB manual.

When you say video controller, do you mean the integrated video? If so, that doesn't sound so bad. You shoulf still be able to feed a signal from a different video card, right?

Originally posted by Mark620

Also Note there is a standard VGA Port on the MB...They are not very close and there are no direct traces between them. Also Note how many traces run directly from J2 to J3 on that circuit board.

I did notice the motherboard in the pdf showed the d-15 connector for a monitor. I'm not sure what you are trying to explain to me here though. Please forgive my ignorance. Trying to mod a monitor is new to me.

[Mark620]

Originally posted by SemiCycle


When you say video controller, do you mean the integrated video? If so, that doesn't sound so bad. You shoulf still be able to feed a signal from a different video card, right?

Without a special controller the chances are 0. :(

Originally posted by SemiCycle

I did notice the motherboard in the pdf showed the d-15 connector for a monitor. I'm not sure what you are trying to explain to me here though. Please forgive my ignorance. Trying to mod a monitor is new to me.

If the d-15 and onboard video controller used the same signals the two connecters would be in close proximity to each other and have traces(connections) that would be direct from one to the other.

You may get lucky because there were a few LCD's that did not require a special controller. You will have to find the pin specs on yours.

Also you might want to look at the sticky above....
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=181128

[SemiCycle]

I missed that sticky.. thanks alot for your input.

[Captain Slug]

The system configuration is so non-standard that unless you can find specific documentation from gateway, it will be impossible to make a stand-alone screen.

If it's Scart, it might be convertable but I highly doubt that it is since it doesn't look like there's enough I/C or signal conversion hardware with the screen itself.

If it's LVDS (or an EARLY variation) you'll have a really hard time finding a controller that's specifically made to work with the product family that your screen belongs to.

If it's anything else, it won't be worth the hassle.

At best you could sell the parts on eBay.

[Forbin80]

I am trying to do this EXACT same thing. I recently was trying to upgrade a Profile 2 for my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, and I changed out the memory and now the thing won't even display ANYTHING! I don't know if it's the monitor or not, but I can't afford to buy this woman a whole new computer. I found this monitor on ebay and as a last resort bought it, but it cost me 76 bucks. Now I'm afraid I'm going to get it and it still won't work, and I'll be stuck w/ 2 flatscreens. All I need to build this woman a new computer is a case and a monitor, and if I can adapt this monitor, I'll save myself some $$$.

The weird part is I looked at your info and you're in hampton roads too: I'm in Virginia Beach.

Small world.

Anyway if you find any information on this, please post it, and I'll do the same. Hopefully we can do this.

[SemiCycle]

Yup, it is a small world.

I remember bumping into a post of a guy that pulled the cmos battery from his non-posting profile 2 and got it working again. Give that a try.

[Forbin80]

Yeah, unfortunately that was the first thing I tried, I also found that thread. I checked the battery w/ my multimeter before changing it and it was fine, but I changed it anyway just in case. Still didn't work. I've tried everything I could think of and the monitor seems like the problem. I should get it in the mail tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[tbones1337]

try holding down insert..

[Barn_Angel]

ick, and i thought my 22" CRT re-wiring was a gross mess...good luck with this one.

[Mico]

Hmm...I looked for a while, and decided to email Gateway to see if they can supply information on the card used, etc, etc. I doubt I'll get an answer, but I tried.