POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Headless Laptop Server Time
28 Jul 2024 16:15:40 EDT (-0400)
  Headless Laptop (Message 1 to 8 of 8)  
From: Doctor John
Subject: Headless Laptop
Date: 22 Nov 2013 15:58:10
Message: <528fc562$1@news.povray.org>
One of my laptops is finally dying. At least, the screen is; it has a
beautiful magenta tint.
I'm running openSUSE 13.1 on it (I upgraded two days ago) and I'm pretty
sure it will run a second monitor through the VGA socket on the side. My
question is, therefore, has anyone here tried to remove a laptop screen
and then boot the machine?
I have a feeling it will fail POST, but does anyone know different?
BTW It's a Toshiba A110-274

John (growing a moustache for Movember)
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 23 Nov 2013 01:08:39
Message: <52904667$1@news.povray.org>
On Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:58:23 +0000, Doctor John wrote:

> One of my laptops is finally dying. At least, the screen is; it has a
> beautiful magenta tint.
> I'm running openSUSE 13.1 on it (I upgraded two days ago) and I'm pretty
> sure it will run a second monitor through the VGA socket on the side. My
> question is, therefore, has anyone here tried to remove a laptop screen
> and then boot the machine?
> I have a feeling it will fail POST, but does anyone know different?
> BTW It's a Toshiba A110-274

I haven't tried removing the screen and booting it, but replacing a 
laptop screen isn't difficult - I think I found a spare for an old Dell 
laptop I have around here on eBay for pretty cheap.  I know I found 
motherboards there as well.

Jim


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From: Doctor John
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 23 Nov 2013 06:56:56
Message: <52909808$1@news.povray.org>
On 23/11/13 06:08, Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
> I haven't tried removing the screen and booting it, but replacing a 
> laptop screen isn't difficult - I think I found a spare for an old Dell 
> laptop I have around here on eBay for pretty cheap.  I know I found 
> motherboards there as well.
> 
> Jim
> 

Good point. However, firstly the only screens I can find are in the £60
range and the machine ain't worth that (data's all backed up, so no loss
if scrap it). Second, I was thinking of letting The Feegle have it to
watch Peppa Pig on. If I put a box round it, it would look like Pappi's
machine and he'd feel very grown up. :-)

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 25 Nov 2013 03:20:32
Message: <52930850$1@news.povray.org>
> One of my laptops is finally dying. At least, the screen is; it has a
> beautiful magenta tint.

If the whole screen looks fine apart from the lack of a green component 
in every pixel, then I'd say the issue is before any of the electronics 
actually inside the screen. It might be worth re-seating the flat 
cable(s) between the screen and the main board in their connectors first 
to see if that fixes it. Or if you're unlucky there might be a break in 
the tracks on the actual cable - but that should be easy to test for (if 
you have a meter that can measure resistance) and you might be able to 
pick up a spare.

> I'm running openSUSE 13.1 on it (I upgraded two days ago) and I'm pretty
> sure it will run a second monitor through the VGA socket on the side. My
> question is, therefore, has anyone here tried to remove a laptop screen
> and then boot the machine?

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work, but can't you just disable 
the internal screen in the OS?


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From: Doctor John
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 26 Nov 2013 06:07:23
Message: <529480eb$1@news.povray.org>
On 25/11/13 08:20, scott wrote:
>> One of my laptops is finally dying. At least, the screen is; it has a
>> beautiful magenta tint.
> 
> If the whole screen looks fine apart from the lack of a green component
> in every pixel, then I'd say the issue is before any of the electronics
> actually inside the screen. It might be worth re-seating the flat
> cable(s) between the screen and the main board in their connectors first
> to see if that fixes it. Or if you're unlucky there might be a break in
> the tracks on the actual cable - but that should be easy to test for (if
> you have a meter that can measure resistance) and you might be able to
> pick up a spare.
> 

It's an uneven magenta tint with a bright green spot in the top left
corner when I mouse-over it.

> 
> I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work, but can't you just disable
> the internal screen in the OS?
> 

The problem is POST. I can set the OS to ignore the internal screen.

I'll try some experiments this weekend providing that The Feegle gives
me some space.

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 26 Nov 2013 07:40:35
Message: <529496c3$1@news.povray.org>
Am 26.11.2013 12:07, schrieb Doctor John:

> The problem is POST. I can set the OS to ignore the internal screen.

I'm not sure about laptops, but IIRC the classic POST just checks for 
the precence of a graphics card (or the onboard equivalent), and gives a 
damn whether there's actually a display connected to it.


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From: Doctor John
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 26 Nov 2013 10:21:48
Message: <5294bc8c$1@news.povray.org>
On 26/11/13 12:40, clipka wrote:
> Am 26.11.2013 12:07, schrieb Doctor John:
> 
>> The problem is POST. I can set the OS to ignore the internal screen.
> 
> I'm not sure about laptops, but IIRC the classic POST just checks for
> the precence of a graphics card (or the onboard equivalent), and gives a
> damn whether there's actually a display connected to it.
> 

That is very encouraging. I'm still not going to try until the weekend -
a laptop in pieces would be too tempting a target for The Feegle.

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children


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From: scott
Subject: Re: Headless Laptop
Date: 27 Nov 2013 03:56:19
Message: <5295b3b3$1@news.povray.org>
> It's an uneven magenta tint with a bright green spot in the top left
> corner when I mouse-over it.

You mean the colour tint changes depending on where you move the mouse?

If you want, post a photo of the screen whilst displaying a plain white 
and then plain green background, and I'll see if I can figure out what 
has happened.


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