Broken iMac - can I reuse the display?

[El Awesome]

Hi,

my neighbour gave a broken early 2008 24" iMac with a video card failure (fried 8800GS, the usual thing...)

I was wondering if it is possible to use the display and turn it into an external display to use with my own machine? And yes, I have already seen it surely won't be plug and play, but I've got time and a soldering iron and I like experimenting. So is it possible?

If it's not possible... what can I do with a broken iMac? Gut it out and sell those parts that still work?

Thanks!

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hi,

my neighbour gave a broken early 2008 24" iMac with a video card failure (fried 8800GS, the usual thing...)

I was wondering if it is possible to use the display and turn it into an external display to use with my own machine? And yes, I have already seen it surely won't be plug and play, but I've got time and a soldering iron and I like experimenting. So is it possible?

If it's not possible... what can I do with a broken iMac? Gut it out and sell those parts that still work?

Thanks!

Sorry no, it's not usable.

 

[Kyle-K]

I was wondering if it is possible to use the display and turn it into an external display to use with my own machine? and yes, I have already seen it surely won't be plug and play, but I've got time and a soldering iron and I like experimenting. So is it possible?

I'm going to say no, but it isn't out of the question. (It has been done on previous generations of iMac's.) Trust me it's probably not going to be worth it and I'll be honest if you're asking this question you probably don't have the skills necessary to complete this.

If it's not possible... what can I do with a broken iMac?

Your options are to repair it or do what you mentioned below.

Gut it out and sell those parts that still work?

Given all this, I would sell the iMac and put the funds towards a monitor that will suit you best.

 

[El Awesome]

I'm going to say no, but it isn't out of the question. (It has been done on previous generations of iMac's.) Trust me it's probably not going to be worth it and I'll be honest if you're asking this question you probably don't have the skills necessary to complete this.



Your options are to repair it or do what you mentioned below.



Given all this, I would sell the iMac and put the funds towards a monitor that will suit you best.

Thank you for your advice.
You seem to have a good knowledge in this, so please correct me if I'm wrong here:
Apple used regular panels with the same conncetors as other brands. So basically, I should be able to use the controller board of a different monitor with the same panel to get it working? Would even a generic controller board sold on ebay work? SOmething has to be wrong in here because otherwise people wouldn't generally say no...

I found this (french) PDF where someone explaines in good detail how to convert a G5 iMac into a stand-alone monitor. Is it the same with the model I have? I mean it also has a LVDS connector (like most panels)...

Thanks for your help!
And yes, I may not have the skill to do this but first off, I don't care if I fail because it's broken already, and secondly I learned a lot from previous projects by just diving into the cold water and see where I get... pretty much all of them succeeded and I gained a lot from this. So why shouldn't I do this again?