hi just wondering what we can use dead laptop for in electronics? my old laptop got a dead screen, but everything work fine. (it has been working for 7-8 years, good enough)

 

Does it have a port for an external VGA screen?

 

yes it have a vga port

and usb, enternet, wifi, pc card port, infer red, j45, old fashion printer port(forgot the name), ps2, i think that's all about it

 

To quote Jim Carry in Cable Guy:

"There's no end to the possibilities"

The old fashion port is a parallel printer port, or LPT. You can program that port by PIN, and its quite fun and easy. Here's an idea for you:

Make a robot of it.

2 stepper motors for driving wheels
1 servo for steering, although this is not necessary .

Install Linux, with Motion. Make a small program and circuit to control the steppers/servo.

Buy a WiFi - dongle

Connect to it via WiFi and have some "remote" fun.

Or make this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxBa5bQfTGc

ED: It had Wifi. Don't buy the dongle

 

What's that Motion thing? Is that a software? Thanks ur ideas, but I don't think I have the skills to do those just yet

 

Motion is a software based motion sensor program. It uses a standard web camera to detect changes. It's highly configurable.

What are your skills then?

 

Year one electronic, Some vb programming, basic Linux, and a lot of whiteware taken apart and put together(some still work, some don't)

 

my old laptop got a dead screen, but everything work fine

Then replace the LCD screen.

 

Connect it to a projector/TV and use it as a media computer. Try Mythbuntu.

 

If you can barely read your "dead" screen, you can replace the backlight assembly instead of replacing the entire LCD. It's pretty easy for Dells. Toshiba has the backlight assy attached to the LCD.