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I have an old laptop which is out of order. Can I use its LCD screen as a LCD monitor for my desktop PC ?

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details. laptop make/model? desktop -- VGA or DVI, or does it support both? – quack quixote Jan 2 '10 at 7:39
Make : acer Model: Not confirmed (P-II) Interface : VGA and SVGA – Mr-Right Jan 2 '10 at 8:17
laptop make is pretty useless without a model... but the P-II mention helps. look for an original mfg label on the underside of the laptop; it may include an exact model #. this would be most useful for finding specifics on the components. have you already disassembled the laptop? – quack quixote Jan 2 '10 at 9:10
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Make Magezine has a great tutorial on how to do this here: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/03/using_a_laptop_lcd_with_a.html

EDIT: It looks like this link is dead-ish (one can no longer get to the main article).

However, this or this is basically the only part you need to do it.

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+1, nice parts links. that's about what i imagined would be needed. i like the first board -- "serial programming necessary for initial configuration" :) – quack quixote Jan 2 '10 at 14:23
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up vote 4 down vote

This would only work if your computer has a connector that can be used as an input for video signals and is still working.

Laptops have no VGA or DVI connection internally, they have usually have LVDS signals that go to the LCD screen. I would be very surprised if that is different on your laptop. So it does not help to open the laptop. Also, your VGA connector on the laptop usually is an output only, not an input, so it will not help to connect it to the computer since that connects two outputs. Sorry for the bad news.

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would a P-II era (meaning Pentium-II-era, or roughly 1998) laptop be using LVDS? or would it be using something different? – quack quixote Jan 2 '10 at 13:23
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up vote 3 down vote

Maybe

Open it and see what you find.

But beware, they probably don't have any "normal" connectors in there so don't forget your soldering iron.

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