What do I do now?

Had an old laptop that had been rode hard and put away wet, given to me. It had a broken LCD, well I'm not one to just throw something away because it is broken, na, I visit "instructables.com" and find a use for it.

It was kind of neat to examine the LCD assembly. Question is, there are so many neat things in there and I don't have the foggest idea of what I can do with them. Items such as:

1. The backlight assembly, aprox 1/16 dia floresent lamp about 10" long with controlor board. How can you determine the voltage, input and output points and such. Sure would be a shame to "blow" this thing using the "by guess and by golly" method to make it work. My guess is it would make a neat light for a picture or something like that.
2. Two sheets of simi-opeic plastic which appear to be horzontial and vertical orienated somethings.
3. A plastic sheet with at least 34,542 dots on it (that's where I quit counting). This alone would make a good "dot-to-dot" playing board for some "very little people". Need a better idea of what to use it for.

Any ideas of something these items would be usefull for?

Comments

[Mahmoud Alaa]

you should replace the broken lcd with a touch lcd and but the lcd on the keyboard and and secure it with a tape and turn it in to an tablet

[siamonsez]

If the battery still works you might be able to salvage/replace the electronics between where the chord plugs in and the battery terminals. You might not be able to tell if the battery still functions until you have already done a bit of work, but it it does you could cut the part of the case that houses/holds the battery and have yourself a nice portable power source for some other project.

[awz123]

If this was my laptop i would start by scrapping the parts (remove the ram, hardrive) and insert them into my pc. Then I would go about the remaining parts by driving over them with my pick up truck... but thats just me. (the parts would serve your computer well and the demolition of the laptop would bring enjoyment to you)

[northernmagnet]

hmm... try going to a localy owned craft store and show them what you have and make sure its a single person owner never franshised and ask what they would do

[Lowney]

I can't really suggest anything for the individual pieces, but looking at the "Dead Computer Contest" winners will be a good start! Just instructables search "Dead computer Contest"

[emihackr97]

well, you can go outside and collect things to craft something

[skittlespider]

You could test to see if the computer still works by hooking it up to an external monitor.  If it does work, maybe you could rig something up like I did with my old laptop:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bring-new-life-to-an-old-laptop/

[larystoy]

After getting the computer apart it appeared to have gotten dirty and wet, like having been left outside or something. Everything was corroded and rusty, even I didn't think there was anything salvageable in it.

Thanks for the input.

larystoy

[techturtle2]

You can get rid of the rust with Coca-Cola and Qtips. It worked wonders for me.

[skittlespider]

Yeah, if it is rusty, it's too late.  The laptop I used for my project did get wet and dirty once though.  (Luckily it was off at the time, so no shorts)

My dorm room roof leaked all over it.  I took it apart and cleaned everything with alcohol and q-tips.  But luckily I got it all cleaned before rust could happen.  I live in Louisiana, so rust can form very quickly!

[PieMaster777]

if u could find an old NES you could build this :D http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-Nintendo-arcade/

[Bert99]

RECYCLE! GO GREEN!

[Crakur]

"rode hard and put away wet" I havent heard that in years.

I personally would use the MB for something artistic, I saw a guy that had a MB encased in some kind of plastic and made into a clip board, that was cool

[knex_mepalm]

 The plastic sheet have transparent dots? if you can you can make one of those etch-a-sketch dot-to-dot or for note taking, you need some magnetic pieces for that though, recontact me fr more info.

[acidbass]

 you could hook an external monitor or use the old laptop as a new laptop stand or some cool sh*t like that

[bowmaster]

Could you use the sheet with all the holes in it as a curcuit board?

[larystoy]

Darn, they weren’t holes, just "dots". It appears as some sort of grid pixels. Of course if you would like to drill the holes, I will forward the sheet of plastic to you.

The other two sheets appear to be polarized because I was wearing a pair of corduroy slacks one day and noticed I could see the pattern only in one direction when I turned the material.

The rest of the computer was pretty well trashed, the 6 Gig (WOW) HD had a loose part rattling around inside. The CD was only a 24X (Probably take Belgazery's, and Khaos94's suggestion and use parts from it to make the Lazer thingy).

Guess it's on to the next project with this one, thanks to all.

Larystoy

[belgazery]

 try this www.youtube.com/watch or enter a computer throwing competition with it  : )

[khaos94]

Well i don't know if your planning to chop the keyboard half of the laptop too but if you do you can turn a dvd writer into a fairly powerful burning laser. I fitted one into one of those tiny mag light torches and it fit perfectly.