Just turned my laptop screen into a monitor for $27

Tahoe916

Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
623
It works and works well! So happy right now. I've been wanting to do this for so long but kept reading about how it just wasn't worthwhile, and was practically impossible.

Found the controller and inverter from a girl in China, $27 on eBay, got it in 4 days which amazes me. Anyways, its a 17" 1920x1200 screen, glossy, absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to figure out what type of frame or casing I'm going to put it in.

Was thinking either just a black brushed aluminum frame, or possibly behind some two way mirrored glass so it looks like a mirror unless its on. Not sure, still drumming up some ideas =)

Some quick crappy pics!

monitor10.jpg

monitor20.jpg

monitor3.jpg

monitor4d.jpg
 
Oh yea, it has VGA, DVI and even its own OSD. The auto adjust worked perfectly too, great piece of kit for $27.
 
that's really cool, and something i've considered in the past. can you post the ebay link?
 
Yea, here's the version for 1920x1200, there are others for lower resolution. It was super easy to setup, and the shipping came from China to CA in 4 days, pretty awesome.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270658532961&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
Congrats on your success, that's a sweet rez for such a small screen, must be razor sharp especially without an anti-glare filter.

And thanks for the link, i bookmarked it, going to mull some ideas over, hmm.

A few years back i had links to an Ebay seller that sold entire controller board kits for dirt cheap, less than $25 shipped for most of them, but he's long gone now...
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Yea it comes with the inverter as well, she knew exactly the board and inverter I needed for my panel type, was really easy.
 
What brand/make is the 17" 1920x1200 screen? Do you know where we could buy one of those too? Thanks for the thread, good stuff!
 
Hmm...Time to buy some dead 17" laptops! :D

Thanks for the link Tahoe916!
 
The screen was salvaged from a dead laptop, right?

Does the controller or inverter get particularly hot?

I need to replace a broken navigation in a car with a carpc and don't like the offerings by xenarc, liliput, etc. Maybe a custom install with this kit would function well?
 
Last edited:
So this is the model number of my laptop screen:

LG Philips LP171WU1(A4)(K2) LCD

I saw some on eBay a couple weeks ago for $140 or so, but if you look at the link from that ebay seller a lot of his listings have a table with a boat load of LCD panels they have had success with. Mine just happened to be on it.

acesea, the controller doesn't get hot at all, the panel is actually really cool as well. I think this would be an amazing setup for a CarPC, 1080p in your car haha! Power requirements are pretty low to so it should work off any ol car power inverter as well. Great idea, you got me thinking now haha.

Maybe a 17" touchscreen conversion kit to go on top and a custom center console...haha, damn you for the ideas! =)
 
Just played some xbox360 on it at 1080p and it looks great, hmm, so many choices lol.
 
Back
Top