desktop with broken vga port

Carlos Montemayor

Reputable
May 28, 2014
41
0
4,530
so i have a desktop at least 8 or 10years old. its a dell tower which i installed lubuntu 13.10 on. so now, its vga port won't work (no display on screen), now matter which monitor i connect or which cable (i have 2) it won't work. any suggestions what to do about it? the options: buying an hdd enclosure or a new motherboard/ graphics card is out, or even throwing it away. i already have a new desktop with ubuntu 14.04 LTS so i dont need to buy a new one. i am considering buying a usb vga adapter, or using a second laptop screen as monitor (but i don't know how).

any suggestions if my two considerations will work? or any other methods? please, i need to make it work, its my oldest computer.... thanks in advance.
 
You cannot use laptop screen as a monitor.

When you start your computer, do you see BIOS / Dell logo on the connected screen?

Even if you buy USB-VGA adapter, you will have hard time configuring it (most probably there are no drivers available for your kernel). I would get cheapest video adapter which will fit yout desktop (most probably you're looking at ancient AGP slot, if any).