I just got done picking up a smashed display from my Dell Latitude XPi CD Laptop. I was being stupid and put it on a book shelf speaker to keep it from vibrating off of the table. While listening to music really loud, I watched in horrer as I saw the latop fall off and smash to bits on the floor. Woops!!.
That is the second display I have killed in a month's time. First the PB Pismo (don't know how I dropped it, Just knew the display was cracked.) Man, I don't even want to try and fix it since it is so hard going into it. Plus it had a problem where the display would turn white/red/black with a blue line going down the screen (the cable was partly severed, I think.) So I think I'll try and just use it as a desktop. It does have a VGA port on the back of it.
I was really lucky that I didn't do it with my iBook or my PB Pismo. I was lucky to get a display for only $50 USD on ebay for the Pismo.
Hopefully It boots since I don't want to try and get it running. (it would require haulling out a monitor just for it.)
Anyone done anything stupider than I just did. I would love to hear it.
I got out the dell and tried to see what could be done. After about 5 min. I started getting cracking on taking off the display and turning the Dell into a screen-less, portable web browsing kit. Hooked it up to a monitor and it runs. The take-apart took about 45 min. since it is so akward to take apart. I dubbed it the "Headless Dell - Portable Web Browsing kit." "Just add screen."
I was worried that it wouldn't work after such a hard fall. Man, the Ye olde delle's are clunky, but impossible to kill. I have posted some Url's to the pics. below so you know what it looks like w/o the screen.
broken dell screen
Dell screen from the back of the room
lapop with attached external monitor
The headless Dell
This forum addition is being typed on it right now. With an external mouse, it becomes a little easier to work.
So, that was my adventure this week.
Never under-estimate the destructive power of Stupid People in large groups.
Awww, you threw away the lcd withouit even giving it a proper pictography.
A fun thing to do with a laptop screen (espically if it powers up and the back light still works and you can make out some text on the screen) is to do this. Have it powered up and have someone be videoing you. While the laptop is on and running, take a big pointed phillips screwdriver and jam it directly in the middle of the screen as hard as you can. We did that once to a broken screened laptop and it felt so satisifying to jam that screwdriver though the middle of it. It never quit runing either (as you found out, the lcd is techinally a separate part of the laptop connected only with a ribbon cable) and was jsut so awsome looking with the backlight still working and a screwdriver though the lcd lid.
Then we took it apart and replaced the lcd and all was well again with the world.
Before anyone askes me for the pics and video, i have no idea what ever happened to them, it was a friend who had them.
The LCD is sitting in the wastebasket in my room, so I can still do what you described. I will be keeping the bezel though... I might find something creative to do with it. I once took a HD apart and ran it with the lid open to show my friend how a hard drive works on the inside. The thing still runs today (suprising that I had chinchilla and dog hair roaming about the house at that time) I won't keep any important data on it. It was kinda fun to see the thing seek from time to time.
I was cleaning up inside a PC while it was operating, and my right pointer finger got a little too close to the CPU fan. A fan blade caught under the fingernail and broke off of the fan motor.
After placing a bandage on my finger and another fan on the heatsink, fastening it by bending some of the tines and with a few pull ties, I tried to install XP on the hard disk. The PC was laying on its side with the CD-ROM being vertical. The disk was spinning and I tried to upright the case. I heard a grinding noise and turned the computer off. After removing the CD, there was a groove all of the way around the CD. Thank goodness it was a copy....
On a good note, I was given a Celeron 800 processor, and a 20GB hard disk. At least I didn't try to remove anything while it was running!
Jamming a screwdriver though an LCD could seriously hurt! - The currents not much, but still...
Eh.. Just use a big well insulated screwdriver.
No, not really. The backlight itself has about 3KV at very low current, but it's only on th every edges of the display. Jamming through the LCD panel, the highest voltage you're lively to see is 5V, and probably 3.3V or even lower.