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Falleron

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 22, 2001
1,609
0
UK
I am thinking of getting an imac. However, I was wondering if anyone new if it was possible to detatch the LCD?? I would like to know because if say in a year I changed my computer I dont want to find that I have a good quality LCD that is completly useless to me.

Cheers
 
LCD Screen

It's not designed to be 'unplugged' or removed in any way by an end user. It is connected to the motherboard by internal connectors that are not of any standard that could be just plugged into another system. An electronics expert or hardware hacker might get it to work, but I don't think that's what you were asking.
 
Thats what I thought. Looks like it will have to be a tower when I get my new computer.
 
turnover

last night in my class, one of my students, a retired engineer of 30 years, told me that after two years any computer these days becomes so hopelessly obsolete that it goes kaput

...but one year? who are you guys? gamers? ilm junkies?

btw...congrats falleron in advance on 400 posts
 
Thanks for the 400 posts congrats.

I do play some games, but mostly I do web design, bit of graphics etc. At the moment I am using a 7 year old 8600 powermac + a powerbook 1400 which is about the same age. Ok, they cant run OSX but everything else they can. They are solid as a rock.

The only reason I asked about the LCD is that I think that it would be sensible to be able to disconnect the screen so that if the computer died and was beyond repair then you would not have to chuck an expensive LCD away.
 
apple would lose sales in the future if the screen could be used for another machine...they want you to buy a new machine

but i know an apple techie/rumor site will hack that one

btw...when you reach 500, they will call you a "6502" like the microchip, and you will be there with eyelikeart, mischief, and spikey (and my old jefhatfield character)
 
I am trying to keep the number of posts I make down slightly otherwise I will be up to 1000 by next month!!

Apple has a good trick with the imac dont they!
 
eyelikeart is going to be there in two to three weeks hopefully and i am curious what designation arn and blakespot will bestow upon him

"administrator", "junior administrator", or "mac god"

i didn't want to reach that number first as jefhatfield in case i got the apt title of "blabber mouth"

i admit it...hi, my name is jef, and i am a blabber mouth
 
Its good that there are people like yourself to help sort problems out and give informed opinions.
 
i am just an old jaded cynical worker who wasn't lucky enough to be born in the royal family and with 24 years of full and part time work interspersed with college to break the monotony, i am ready to call it quits

heck, if i were in the military, i could already be retired and at least be paying rent and groceries somewhere in north dakota

but i do have a friend who was retired after 21 years in the us army when he was 37 (lied about his age to fight japan after dec 7th) but he told me he got bored staring at another 25-35 years of life looking forward to reruns

but sometimes, i wish i were him

later today, i will have to show one of my clients how to type in urls on the internet to find sites...again...and it will be my fault if the page doesn't load up as expected...naturally

you see, techies control the speed of electricity and we are to be shot if someone's server 3000 miles away is not working and nytimes.com is not fast on her imac...it's all my fault

whew, i vented...that's the life of a dog,,, i mean techie
 
Mac is an all in one..

If you want seperate components.. BUY seperate components.. if you want all in one, buy an iMac.. don't try to make one into the other..

HOWEVER, that having been said, I did read the tech docs released by Apple, and it looks like (and logically makes sense) that inside the Mac itself, there is a standard connecter with standard signals passed to the nVidia grfx chip. . this means that, of course, the LCD panel can be hacked to work on other systems, but you have to know what you're doing (ie, you need charts showing the lines going into the connectors on both sides and would have to hack up the LCD panel to give it a longer cable wired correctly--not to mention having to probably rig up a seperate power supply for the LCD panel as on any normal tower there would not be power signals coming out of the VGA port, now of course, if it's going to be hooked into an Apple tower, then there are power signals out on the video port..)..AND THEN.. you have to find a way to hold the screen up unless you want to use the iMac as an LCD panel hanger.. probably not worth the effort though...
 
where there is a will, an underworked or out of work techie will find a way

that is for sure

and since the near demise of "that" famous valley, there are plenty of out of work techies with worthless stock options/stock/iras
 
I would think that by the time your iMac truly bites the dust the LCD's will be so cheap it won't justify the trouble of taking out the guts of the thing just to get to the connectors at the base. (Have you guys read the iMac service manual? It's brutal. The base is like the very last thing you get to when you take it apart.)

Anyways, I suppose if the thing is dead you'd wanna keep the screen anyway just to keep around as a spare or sell it FPO on eBay.
 
Side Comment

I was well on my way to making 500 posts three weeks ago, but I realized I was spending all of my time here at work reading rumors and blabber. Plus, spring semester started.

Now I just browse the pages infrequently and see if anything interesting is happening. So far, nothing. Just random rumors about Dell or a G5 or who knows.

I just continue to post so I can make an avatar someday.....

:)
 
i have not seen you, agreenster, for awhile

i keep my posts up because my two jobs are self employed and i teach a senior citizen class for free

my spring semester starts next week, my 23rd year of junior college where i take a class here or there for the fun of it and to learn about a topic where i don't have to worry about grades or degrees or any of that

i hope you don' t let your job or school go to waste, but keep up the good posts her on macrumors and i am sure you will see the 500 mark (6502 designation on macrumors) quite soon
 
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