Computer in a Monitor?

T

troycheek

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 22, 2001
Messages
82
I pulled a monitor out of IT's trash pile at work the other day. It's a 19" supposedly-flatscreen CRT (obvious curvature of the screen when sitting right next to my 19" LCD monitor), ViewSonic E90fmb. It weighs literally 50 pounds and I think I sprained something carrying it out to the truck. The screen had several deep scratches and some discolored areas that looked like scorch marks. I obviously didn't think the thing was going to work, but had an inspiration.

The monitor was black and the front bezel kind of reminded me of my LCD monitor. The screen was only about an inch smaller diagonally. I got the crazy idea that I could, with a minimum of dremel work, remove the CRT and guts from the monitor and put my LCD monitor in there. I also figured that there was enough room in that monster for a full-size ATX motherboard, power supply, hard drive, and a DVD burner. Then I noticed that one of the "deep scratches" in the screen wiped right off. With a little glass cleaner and some buffing, I discovered that even the "scorch marks" were just oily stains. I plugged it in, and it turns out that my useless trashed monitor is perfectly functional. Not only that, but I finally got the DualView thing working, so now I'm running dual 19" screens. (Well, one is a true 19" LCD and the other is an 18" viewable CRT, but so what?)

I guess unless this monitor gives up the smoke sometime soon, I'll have to scrap plans to gut it. Can't force myself to kill a working monitor. Never thought I'd be hoping for a monitor to catch fire. :)

P.S. Just remembered that I still have an old beige 19" monitor that I retired when it developed a squiggle down the left side. It's the reason I bought the LCD. I might have to dig it out and see what the front of it looks like.
 
That would have been cool but it has been done numerous times using an iMac. Congrats on your find though.
 
I'm in the middle of working on that very mod using a 15-inch monitor.
I've been looking around and hadn't seen anyone do it yet.
(the imac mod isn't the same thing, imo, since the imac case is actually *intended* to hold a computer)

Way to go on the "new" monitor!!
 
that has been done several times.

Would just warn you to be verry carefull, Up too 10.000 Volts in there so don't get fried.
 
Lord Berzoid said:
Would just warn you to be verry carefull, Up too 10.000 Volts in there so don't get fried.
Click to expand...
Meh, if he discharges it first he'll be fine (I guess thats the part to be carefull about though :p )
 
That would be sweet. I'd like to see one of the worklogs of someone who had done it before though. Would be neat to see how much effort it took ;).
 
Unknown-One said:
Meh, if he discharges it first he'll be fine (I guess thats the part to be carefull about though :p )
Click to expand...

Absolutely. It was an old monitor that had been sitting in the garage for a pretty long time, but I still took precautions. Opening up a monitor is never something to be done lightly as they can be lethal. :eek:

If anybody has seen a worklog of a project like that, i'd love to see it. I've been all over every casemod site I can find, but have never seen one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top