Can I use these things as external monitors?

May 23, 2014 5:43 AM

I now have two PC laptops that are in the state of "it sounds like it's working but the screen is dead." I tried the take out the battery, hold down the power button trick, and the reboot and hit the F4/5/8 key on both to no avail. The next step in troubleshooting always seems to be connecting it to an external monitor.

I have access to 1) a working PC laptop 2) a working MacBook 3) a droid. Can any of these be used as external monitors? If so, how?


I also have a computer at work...can a laptop be connected quickly and discreetly to this monitor to troubleshoot, or is this the sort of thing that seems easier than it is and is more likely to get me in trouble than solve my lappy woes?

Should I just buy a monitor? How can I find a cheap one?

Thanks!

posted by Calicatt to Technology (3 answers total)

Laptop screens generally can't be used as external monitors without a lot of manual rewiring (of the solder and disassembling laptop kind) and damage to the laptops themselves. So, don't try that.

Screen at work: most likely easy and quick - if your laptops have the same port as the cable used for your work laptop, which (as long as they're not ultra-light laptops) is fairly likely.

It's not likely to get you in trouble at work, nope.

Method: unplug cable that goes from monitor to desktop at the desktop end. Attach to laptop. Try laptop. Then plug cable back in.
posted by Ashlyth at 5:50 AM on May 23, 2014

Use the work monitor. You just have to unplug the cable from the back of your computer.

You can also often buy cheapo used monitors for next to nothing on your Gumtree/Craigslist equivalent.
posted by katrielalex at 5:56 AM on May 23, 2014

Have you tried holding down the power button while the battery is still in? Are these windows 8 laptops? I've had people come to me with windows 8 laptops that were stuck in some weird state of partial hibernation, and holding down the power button once it was 'on' so that it did a proper power off, and then turning it back on, fixed things.
posted by one4themoment at 7:09 AM on May 23, 2014