Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMac As a External Display for PC?

J

J007dreamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2013
3
0
Hi All,

Im sure this questions been asked but couldnt find any recent info about it..

I want to use my 27inch IMAC that I just purchased as a display for my Dell Laptop when i work from home.
The older model had a "display mode" IM not sure if the new ones still do ?

I tried a TB to VGA connecter but both the IMAC and the PC screen just flash when connected. Its like they almost see each other ...

Is there any special cable or part that I can purchase to make this happen ? I need my dell screen to display on the IMAC for work. :)
Any help would be great since I really need this to work.


Thanks so much.
 
OK So .. Did you really read that before even posting it with a rude reply? Because i looked thru every one of those post last night and that thread is about finding a way around the problem. The last post on it was months ago....

And Im wondering if anyone has since found a way around it. There are people posting in that thread that say windows 8 might actually be the answer..

people are trying to find ways around it. There are almost always ways around things. I believe there is also a company trying to come out with a TB option for the PC but im not sure if they were able to.

The basic answer is easy to find. I was hoping the people on this forum that know computers and MACs would have a insightful answer..
I like to keep a open mind..
 
Send a complaint to Apple. If enough people complain, hopefully Apple will offer a firmware update!
 
J007dreamer said:
Hi All,

Im sure this questions been asked but couldnt find any recent info about it..

I want to use my 27inch IMAC that I just purchased as a display for my Dell Laptop when i work from home.
The older model had a "display mode" IM not sure if the new ones still do ?

I tried a TB to VGA connecter but both the IMAC and the PC screen just flash when connected. Its like they almost see each other ...

Is there any special cable or part that I can purchase to make this happen ? I need my dell screen to display on the IMAC for work. :)
Any help would be great since I really need this to work.


Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

As others have pointed out, there is no way directly hook up the iMac to the Dell for use as a display. However, you might consider consider a VNC solution to remotely access your dell over your home network (see here: http://www.realvnc.com).

Another route you could consider is to create a windows partition on your iMac and set up your dell so you can remotely access your work files.

Hope this helps

D
 
Mac32 said:
Send a complaint to Apple. If enough people complain, hopefully Apple will offer a firmware update!
Click to expand...

It is not something that can be fixed with a firmware update. The Thunderbolt signal is encoded and decoded by Intel hardware. For video via Thunderbolt, a Displayport signal from a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPU's integrated GPU is mutiplexed into the signal generated by the Intel Thunderbolt controller. When a discrete GPU is used, its signal is routed through the integrated GPU to produce the Displayport signal for the Thunderbolt.
 
drambuie said:
It is not something that can be fixed with a firmware update. The Thunderbolt signal is encoded and decoded by Intel hardware. For video via Thunderbolt, a Displayport signal from a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPU's integrated GPU is mutiplexed into the signal generated by the Intel Thunderbolt controller. When a discrete GPU is used, its signal is routed through the integrated GPU to produce the Displayport signal for the Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

You're wrong, there are motherboards with technology which allows the user to route the output of the discrete GPU through the thunderbolt connection (via the motherboard). Asus made at least one model with this function, can't remember the name of the technology right now, but check youtube, it's there. Bottom line: it should be possible to use the iMac as a monitor for an extern Windows PC. I saw a video on youtube where someone did this with the Apple Thunderbolt display, and it worked! For some reason Apple f...ed up with the thunderbolt iMac.
 
Last edited:
That Asus device was nixed by Intel and taken off the market. It worked by routing the video card's displayport output into the PCIe bus for multiplexing into the Thunderbolt signal.

There are some laptops with Thunderbolt that use a totally Intel solution, and are therefore approved by Intel, as are Macs. I've seen reports of some success with this type of PC and 2011 iMacs.

The OP wanted to route VGA into Thunderbolt, which is totally impossible.
 
drambuie said:
That Asus device was nixed by Intel and taken off the market. It worked by routing the video card's displayport output into the PCIe bus for multiplexing into the Thunderbolt signal.

There are some laptops with Thunderbolt that use a totally Intel solution, and are therefore approved by Intel, as are Macs. I've seen reports of some success with this type of PC and 2011 iMacs.

The OP wanted to route VGA into Thunderbolt, which is totally impossible.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? I know there was a seperate Asus thunderbolt addon device that was taken off the market because of Intel, but was also the motherboards that featured the gpu->thunderbolt also retracted? If so, that's new to me. Hmm, looks like Intel doesn't want thunderbolt to become successful...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back