What can i do with an old laptop screen?

[captjackdaniels80]

I recently became the owner of a very old toshiba laptop that was out of comission, and thought I'd rip it apart to get the screen out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45709379@N06/4194229142/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45709379@N06/4193471805/

Now that I've done that, I'm at a loss for what to do with it, because the connection is uses is foreign to me. Its a 30-pin something...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45709379@N06/4193470089/

and a smaller connector:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45709379@N06/4193470597/

I was hoping I could either use this as an extra display, or else use it for the DIY projector thats floating around on here somewhere.

Anyone have any idea what to do with these connectors?

 

[r_manic]

Can you find your Toshiba anywhere on this list? http://repair4laptop.org/notebook_picture_frame.html

 

[captjackdaniels80]

The one that I got doesn't match any of these exactly...its a Toshiba Tecra, but not of these models. It looks most like the 8000 on that site.

 

[r_manic]

Go for it then! Not unless you don't want to risk leaving yourself with useless parts?

 

[englandr753]

Here's another nice idea from an old Tom's Hardware project:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/supersize-tv,918.html

They used a LCD screen from an actual monitor. It would seem there should be some way to do this if you can work your way around the connections to the pc you will use to run this. Something to think about...

 

[obsidian86]

i cant find it right now but i found some ideas a while ago the best was using the laptop screen as a digital photoframe

 

[captjackdaniels80]

Go for it then! Not unless you don't want to risk leaving yourself with useless parts?

Hmm...it looks like for these picture frames you need to have the rest of the computer is usable condition. Unfortunately I did not know this before removing the screen. I ripped apart the rest of the computer pretty thoroughly.

 

[captjackdaniels80]

Here's another nice idea from an old Tom's Hardware project:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/supersize-tv,918.html

They used a LCD screen from an actual monitor. It would seem there should be some way to do this if you can work your way around the connections to the pc you will use to run this. Something to think about...

yep, this is the project I actually had in mind, however I'm not sure how he's actually connected the screen to the PC, and, as seen in the pictures of my original post, I really dont know what to make of the connector I have.

 

[englandr753]

It appears you have to make a controller to make this work. Its doable but in my opinion much cheaper to make it from an actual lcd monitor like thg did in the link I posted.