MacBook screen for a second monitor?

I have an original core duo 13" Black MacBook that died this October. The screen is still good and I am contemplating taking it apart and doing a conversion. Has anybody tried this/heard of this being done? I'm still doing research and would appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Peeved Kitten said:

I have an original core duo 13" Black MacBook that died this October. The screen is still good and I am contemplating taking it apart and doing a conversion. Has anybody tried this/heard of this being done? I'm still doing research and would appreciate any help you guys can offer.

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Hey peeved kitten I've done it and seen it done, I used a screen from an old dell laptop and soldered it to a vga cable and mounted it inside a wall going up my stairs, the cable went to another dell laptop that had a broken screen, I just installed a $20 linksys usb wireless adapter (it was really old and didnt come with one built in), and ran the fish aquarium screensaver all day. The best part was that it was a 80gb HDD, and that became my picture "server", I would transfer all pics to it wirelessly and when I had parties I'd just slideshow all the pictures, this was waaaaaaaaaaay before digital frames came out.

Alternatively, those screens could be sold on ebay for a couple hundred easily I imagine, I know my powerbook g4 the lcd went out, and a replacement one is still $600! It's a mint condition powerbook g4 15", and I keep it because it still runs great!

Wow is it really that easy to wire up a laptop LCD? I always though one would need to have a special circuitry of some sort to be able to plug a LCD into a regular VGA.

I'd imagine you could get an adapter on ebay, or somewhere, to go from the connector built into the laptop to a VGA input. The only deal would be supplying power to the screen, AFAIK.

I heard you need an lcd controller ? I have a screen from a dell lattitude atg led and touch screen and its just been sitting here for over a year doing nothing. works, but cant figure oput how to get it working without an lcd controller.

The LCD I used I just soldered it directly to a cut VGA cable and suplied power to it via the original power conduit, there was some trial and error involved but nothing to complex. Newer lcds are going to be different but the same basic paths on the ribbon to it should be similar except power is now on the same ribbon, also power requirements are much lower these days

Right, so your LCD still had it's controller. You really just made the cable longer.

It's a pain in the ***, but it's been done. I think the controllers cost $100 - $200 and probably wouldn't even work with a MBP screen. Just stick it on ebay, you'll be able to buy a bigger monitor with the money.

What it seems like Exempt did was just mount an entire laptop on/in his wall. What the OP is trying to do is just use the screen, and for that you'll need a fairly expensive LCD controller. There are quite a few posts floating around on the topic with some links, try a quick search.

But if the screen still works... Doesn't that mean the LCD controller is working as well... Why not use the one on there and just plug to another computer like Exempt did?
Unless I'm just sleep deprived (I am); and talking nonsense.

The controller is built into the laptop's video card.

...which is built into the system board. So you could use Exempt's method, but it would involve some soldering and such. Once done, you'd still require the system board ("motherboard") of the laptop to run the screen.