Filed under: Hardware, PowerBook, Apple
Rig of the Day: World's thinnest desktop

What do you do with your Powerbook when its display finally dies? Toss it? Just buy a new LCD for it? No. You connect it to that big old CRT you've got sitting around. The result is the world's thinnest desktop Mac.
"2nd Life of a Powerbook" posted by qny.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin Bell said 12:26PM on 2-08-2006
Heh, this is what my iBook looks like. It's screen died over a year ago, the combo drive won't play DVDs or rip CDs, but apart from that, it still works fine.
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ben said 10:40PM on 2-03-2006
I have a 667 DVI tiBook that lost its monitor in a horrific accident. It was given to me in parts, without a monitor, and "dead". I put it back together, brought it back to life, and it lives happily under my television and plays all my music/video content on my surround system and tele.
Anyone know how to disable the monitor that's no longer attached to it? That'd rock. ;)
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Ron Martinez said 11:08PM on 2-03-2006
Now that IS a rig of distinction! Thanks for posting that. Great idea, particularly to someone who occasionally has reason to fire up a beloved old TiBook with a snapped hinge.
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John D said 11:10PM on 2-03-2006
this is awesome.
my 44 month old tibook (667mhz) is still going strong, and i plan on using it for another year or two. if the lcd dies, now i know what to do =D
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minty95 said 1:17AM on 2-04-2006
woah! That is one great idea. Now i know what to do with the ancient laptops gathering dust on my shelves... My wife will be delighted!
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jason mark said 7:28AM on 2-04-2006
Interesting. This is the first "rig of the day" that I've actually found interesting. Cool idea!
(before these I hadn't understood why anyone would care about the "rig of the day")
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JT said 8:37AM on 2-04-2006
This is actually a brilliant idea for a computer built in the keyboard. I'm ashamed I didn't think of it by myself.
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Lewy said 9:37AM on 2-04-2006
Can anyone walk someone through this mod or point to instructions? I have a tibook with a fading LCD and would love to rig it up this way. V. cool.
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ben said 12:46PM on 2-04-2006
To anyone who wants to do this, it's kind of tricky. I was given the PowerBook, sans monitor, in parts. I'd imagine if you want to remove the monitor, you'd just take it apart and pull the monitor off. Before you do this, you'll want to have the computer logging in automatically so you can do all the setup on the new monitor without trouble. You'll also want to set the display to mirror instead of span to the new monitor. This way you'll avoid the trouble I had (I didn't start with a monitor and had to fish for the sys preferences to make my changes).
That should pretty much do it. My blog entry about my half of a PowerBook is here.
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alex said 12:56PM on 2-04-2006
"This is actually a brilliant idea for a computer built in the keyboard. I'm ashamed I didn't think of it by myself."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II
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ben said 1:09PM on 2-04-2006
Bah to no html. http://www.eversinceaugust.org/?p=11 Thar she blows.
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Andrew Witte said 2:49PM on 2-04-2006
JT: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/images/content/72519main_4330APL2.jpg
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scott said 5:41PM on 2-04-2006
lord, just went through this on my powerbook ti 500 last night - getting the display removed required taking the entire machine apart including the logic board.
I used the guide at PBFixit to guide me through taking it apart - http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/21.12.0.html - you'll need a phillips and a #8 torx driver and a needlenose as well.
When it booted it was in mirror mode - a check through http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html showed that cmd+f1 would toggle between mirror and extend mode on the powerbook.
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Brian Ashe said 10:33PM on 2-04-2006
A blind Apple developer had a screenless PowerBook like this. He helped develop and/or test VoiceOver.
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soundboards said 2:16AM on 2-05-2006
What a great idea. Simple, but so effective. My friend still rocks an original TIbook 400 which works well for him as long as he only keeps 3 max applications open. Still productive after all these years.
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