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My son has a PC with no monitor, and an OLD laptop (circa 2002). They both support VGA. Is there an easy way to connect the PC to the laptop such that the PC displays on the laptop's screen? So basically the laptop's internals are not being used, we just want to use its display for a connected PC. The laptop does work, it's just too slow to be useful. But its built-in monitor still works fine.

Is there any way?

HerrimanCoder
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    possible duplicate of [Using Laptop Screen as a monitor](http://superuser.com/questions/87048/using-laptop-screen-as-a-monitor), and/or [Can I use my laptop as a second monitor?](http://superuser.com/questions/15254/can-i-use-my-laptop-as-a-second-monitor) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Apr 29 '15 at 18:28
  • I regularly use remote desktop to access other PCs on my network. This works fine, provided that you don't need access to the BIOS, because you cannot run remote desktop until the full operating system is running. It works when there is no local monitor. – AFH Apr 29 '15 at 18:41
  • RDPing to/from a 13-year-old lappy is not going to be anything like immediate… it would be like trying to control the Mars Rover in realtime – Tetsujin Apr 29 '15 at 18:46
  • LCD televisions often have a VGA input for a PC. – Andrew Morton Apr 29 '15 at 19:12

4 Answers4

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Not likely possible. Normal VGA is uni-directional, so even if you managed to physically connect the PC's VGA-out to the laptop's VGA-out, it would be the electrical equivalent of driving two cars towards each other -- in a single lane!

It may be possible to engineer a bidirectional VGA port that has automatic directional override, but it's either (a) too difficult or (b) too expensive, otherwise most laptops would offer the feature, and then it would already be common knowledge.

It may be feasible to disassemble the laptop and hack the screen's connection to the mainboard, but chances the manufacturer put their own twist on whatever is driving the display, and you won't find a simple "VGA signals go in here" place to wedge in your PC's VGA output.

bernz
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Using cables will not work because the ports on laptops are usually for output not input.
You should consider using Remote Desktop or things like this. If you cant, you are out of luck.
Its better to buy a new monitor, a LCD maybe since LCDs show things almost same as LEDs and they cost lesser. New monitor worth the price.

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You can not use the VGA output connector on your laptop as an input.

However what you can do is use a video grabber. This is a device that takes an input (e.g. from VGA) and turns it into digital information (e.g. to record what would normally appear in the screen. Think of it as an 'image microphone'.

Then 'play' the captured image in real time on the laptops display.


Note that such a device might be more expensive than a new monitor.

Hennes
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to assume the laptop and monitor have one of the following connections yes:

1) serial to serial (like the old printer connections)

2) vga to vga/dvi/hdmi

or you can somehow convert the presumably vga connection on the laptop to dvi/hdmi

linuxdev2013
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  • Per your #2 - vga to vga - how would that work? Are you saying that all I need to do is plug a male-male vga cable to the laptop and the PC, and the PC will magically broadcast its signal to the laptop's monitor? – HerrimanCoder Apr 29 '15 at 18:33
  • if the monitor has a female vga yes it is that simple ---however it will be of lesser quality graphics then the other options – linuxdev2013 Apr 29 '15 at 18:34
  • I plugged the VGA cable from PC to laptop -- and the laptop's display appears, not the PC. What's the trick? – HerrimanCoder Apr 29 '15 at 18:40
  • 1) check that its not on a different input channel THEN 2) set the display settings on laptop to use the external as the default – linuxdev2013 Apr 29 '15 at 18:42
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    The VGA output port on the laptop is not going to work as an input. I'm not convinced this answerer actually understands the question at hand... – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Apr 29 '15 at 18:50