Is it possible to use a laptop as a monitor?

I recently passed a desktop down to a family member but i don't have a second monitor. however, they have a laptop with a VGA port, which is one of the display options for the desktop. if i got a VGA cord could i hook up to the desktop and the laptop and use the laptop screen as a monitor for the desktop?

No, sir. I looked into this several years ago on deployment when I wanted to play xbox games through my laptop display. IIRC, there were 1 or 2 laptop models which allowed video INPUT, but they were insanely expensive. Typically, laptops with VGA/DVI/HMDI ports use these only for OUPUT.

Not that it would help you with what you are doing, but I went so far as to try a capture card for my xbox experiment. I was able to successfully get video signal from the xbox to the laptop (through software for the capture card), but the quality was horrendous and laggy. I do not recommend it to anyone

If the laptop is just useless now, I have always wondered if one could remove the LCD panel and mod its video cable to accept input via a standard DVI connector. You would almost certainly destroy the laptop, so I don't recommend that either if it's of any value to you

ninjacore said:

I have always wondered if one could remove the LCD panel and mod its video cable to accept input via a standard DVI connector.

Click to expand...

It CAN be done, but by the time you've done it you're better off selling the laptop for scrap and buying a monitor because of the time invested.

I have always wondered why laptops with video input aren't more common. They would be awesome for IT administrators needing a portable console for working on servers, particularly older/lower end servers without video over IP. Add in functionality to use the built in keyboard/mouse with an external system and it would be about perfect.

As for where to get a cheap monitor, look for a broken down LCD monitor and fix it! Most common problem is bad caps.