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Can i use an old laptop as a 2nd screen for my macbook

M4CBOOK

M4CBOOK

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
123
0
Beaumont, TX
is it possible to connect my macbook to my old 98' windoze, and use its screen as a secondary display.
 
i don't think your windows laptop has a video input port (not aware of any laptops that do), so there would be no way of outputting your macbook's video onto the pc.
 
LOOK ON THE LEFT SIDE

s_p_25310_5.jpg
 
M4CBOOK said:
The one to the right of the usb
Click to expand...

Exactly what type of video input do you think that is, a VGA input port? I don't think any laptops ever came with a VGA input port. Regardless, as others have said, that's almost certainly a serial port, not a video input port.

However, depending on what you want to use it for, there is still sort of a way. You could add a cheap video capture device onto your laptop which would turn your old laptop into a fuzzy 640 x 480 monitor. It wouldn't be useful for much, but if you were just looking for more screen real estate to throw palettes onto or just a place to throw unused windows, then it might be useful.
 
off topic but nice avatar e! lol, another forum i frequent alot has a prominent member that uses this one

now im gonna be confused to what forum im on as i usually always have them side by side in tabs :p
 

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I'm not super familiar with old non-Mac ports, but here are the ports as I see them. Wikipedia says that VGA video output devices use the female connector, so the port I labeled is a VGA output port. The similarly shaped male port on the left of the picture is a serial port because it has fewer pins than VGA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA
 

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You could always extend your desktop to another machine using Synergy but it'd probably be a real hassle with an old lappy.

I had it working very nicely between my iMac and MacBook though.
 
M4CBOOK said:
OK ITS A SERIAL PORT. is their any other way to use the screen as a secondary display
Click to expand...

See my post above. You can use a video capture device to turn it into a low quality 640 x 480 display. I doubt an old laptop would be able to use a hi-def video capture device even just for real time display of the input rather than actual video capture.
 
Let's rewind a little here. It sounds like your real objective is to have a 2nd display for your mac while spending little to no money. Is that correct?
 
Okay. Is space an issue? If not then you can get CRT monitors for free all over the place.
 
Could you possibly be less conversational and unhelpful in your responses???

http://up.*************/files/1/Images/Smilies/MegaRolleyesSmaller.gif
 
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