A thought about laptop screens

**GWRedDragon** · 09-17-2004, 10:31 AM

Every week it seems someone else is asking if they can use a laptop screen with a normal PC. Usually the answer is don't bother, or go buy a $300 controller that only works with 800x600 screens. However...

I have a nice Dell laptop which is out of warranty. The hard drive controller on the motherboard is shot. I'm using the hard drive in my PC now. The laptop itself also has a Geforce2Go in it, which obviously has a built in driver for the laptop screen. The video card is most likely integrated into the motherboard, though I haven't actually checked. Now, that card is definitely AGP. What is, in theory, stopping me from finding all the correct traces and soldering up an AGP connector to the motherboard, cutting where those traces go elsewhere, and plugging the geforce into a desktop motherboard with an AGP slot? And, if the card is NOT integrated into the motherboard, why can't I just take it out and solder up an AGP connector (assuming it doesn't have a standard one)?

**bosstone74** · 09-17-2004, 10:40 AM

YOU do that and let us know how it works out!

**gospeed.racer** · 09-17-2004, 10:48 AM

Some people have been able to do things that leave people like me scratching their heads in amazement. If you can find the correct way to wire this card, you may be in luck, but it will require some expertise that may be difficult to come by. If it has agp video, chances are it is a separate card, like the one I attatched. Good luck and keep us posted

**Enforcer** · 09-17-2004, 10:57 AM

If it is AGP, it will probably be a laptop version. ie won't have the same amount of pins/connectors.

**mindscream** · 09-17-2004, 11:03 AM

You might want to take into account that laptop MBs are multi-layered and you might not be able to get to where you need to solder.

Just FYI

Mind Scream out

**GWRedDragon** · 09-17-2004, 11:44 PM

Here's my Geforce2Go. In fact, it is not built into the motherboard; it has a 180, yes one hundred and eighty pin connector. What in the world could all those pins be for anyway? I'm pretty sure AGP cards are only 66 pins per side, or 132 pins. Perhaps there are a lot of extra power pins...

**Enforcer** · 09-18-2004, 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by GWRedDragon

Here's my Geforce2Go. In fact, it is not built into the motherboard; it has a 180, yes one hundred and eighty pin connector. What in the world could all those pins be for anyway? I'm pretty sure AGP cards are only 66 pins per side, or 132 pins. Perhaps there are a lot of extra power pins...

See my above post

**GWRedDragon** · 09-18-2004, 02:48 PM

Mystery connector: 180 pins.

AGP 2X: 66 pins per side, 132 pins total.
Video connector on back of PC: 15 pins.
TV connector on side of PC: 7 pins.

Assumption #1, shown true: All ground pins will read as continuous on a multimeter with the system case.
Assumption #2: All +3.3v/+1.5v pins will read as continuous with each other.
Assumption #3: The pins in this connector are most likely in the same order as a standard AGP connector, in some order of sides first, with the connector pins preceeding or following in some arbitrary order.
Assumption #4: The connectors that go to the video card are directly connected (or connected through diodes, as it somewhat appears) through the motherboard to the video card, and can be tested accordingly.

Given this, my theory is that I should be able to determine the pins by checking the cont values on the motherboard for each pin against the AGP specification pinouts. The engineers at Dell SURELY couldn't have simply put all the pins in an arbitrary order, and even if they did the probability of that being the case and ALSO having it be a match to the AGP pinout for ground and power is about 0.

Now, the wires coming off of this connector are VERY small. It would help me a lot if I had an extra pair of connectors of this type that I could solder a bunch of wires to, but I'm not ready to mutilate the motherboard just yet.