How to use laptop as a monitor ⭐️ 【two methods】 ⭐️

It may be the case that we want to take advantage of the old devices that we have at home. After all, they have several components that could be useful to us. In the case of the laptop, we may use its screen to use a second monitor. There are several ways to do it, so we show you two ways, one very cheap and the other that involves a cost.

TeamViewer

We can carry out this purpose using TeamViewer, an application that is used to connect to a computer remotely. To use it, we will need to have the program installed on both computers: the desktop / laptop and the laptop whose monitor we are going to take advantage of.

We just have to turn on TeamViewer on both and it will provide us with an ID and password.

We will use the ID of the other team when we want to connect to it. When we associate with it, they will ask us for their password, which we must put. In this case, we will connect from the laptop, whose monitor we want to use, to the PC we are going to use.

Reuse or recycle the screen

We are in the case that our laptop is very old, does not work or we just want the screen. There is the possibility of removing the screen from the laptop and using it as a monitor or as a simple screen to which we can connect any device with image output.

First we will have to disassemble the laptop to remove its screen. Typically, it will incorporate an LVDS connector and a port. The LVDS connector is essential to provide power to the screen.

With the screen removed, we will see a sticker with barcodes in which we will see different numbers and letters. We have to look at one in particular: the screen model.

With the model in our possession, we have to find a controller. I recommend eBay and AliExpress especially to find them, although Amazon may also have them available. The controllers we need will have several ports: HDMI, VGA, power and USB, for example.

Source: Bon.display

As a tip, contact the seller and send them a photo of the screen you have to avoid buying an incompatible controller. Normally, the power cable will be 12V and the controller should bring the LVDS cable, some buttons (such as the ones shown above) that will allow us to turn the screen on or off, among other things.

Also, we may well need a 1CCFL inverter board to give more power to the laptop screen. It is so.

We connect the connector that comes out of the screen to this inverter board, from the inverter board comes the cable that you see with different colors to the controller. From the controller comes the power cable that is connected to the current. You will need a power adapter of 12V and 2A at least to make it functional. As a curiosity, it may be that you can use a higher resolution than the one you used in your laptop. There are cases in which the screen offered Full HD and much less on the laptop.

This whole process is somewhat more complex and has a very low price for what we get in return. In fact, there are adapters that come with a remote, which is even more interesting. Of course, all the components you will have to buy, surely, on AliExpress or eBay.

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So there is no longer an excuse to throw your laptop away, if it is damaged. You can take advantage of many of its components, such as the screen.

We hope this little tutorial has helped you to take advantage of your old laptop. If you have any questions, let us know by commenting below.

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Have you used any of these methods? Do you know any more?