Hot to make a broken G5 into external display

I have installed a 20" G5 display into my G4 (lamp style). The screen fit right in and I am using a $30 inverter from ebay. I was originally concerned the the LVDS G5 would not work with the TMDS G4 but it does.
I was going to use this as an external display until I pulled out the ribbon cable from my the side of the 20" G4 LCD assembly (i am going to try to fix it though).
So, it would be rather simple to use a broken G5 as an external display. You would simply have to solder a DVI cable to the board where the LVDS cable goes into. I am looking for another 20" G5 or G4 display to do this to. I have been looking on ebay but nothing yet. So, if there is anyone that has a broken G5 with a known good display, I would be willing to purchase or give better details on what you would need to do, which would involve some intricate soldering a working inverter and a 12v power supply (like from a laptop).

LOL, yes I understand that . the cool thing is, it can be done. I have found plenty of discussions on the net on if it can be done and yes it can. And yes you would have to have some soldering skills. Also you need the pin configuration of the display but that is not too hard to find.
When I get around to finding another display or fixing the little ribbon cable on the G4 LCD I have, I will post pics and pin diagrams.
I know there are alot of broken G5's and G4's with bad logic boards that this can be done on. Although most all of the posts I find are over a year old

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  • Mid 2010 15" MBP becomes unresponsive with black screen while plugged into external display?

    I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro, which is 15" and has the 2.66GHZ i7 processor configuration.
    Had it for almost a year: No problems
    Until about a month ago, laptop began becoming slow to boot, crashing. checked the harddisks, were corrupted and it needed a complete re-install of Snow Leopard. Did this and it seems to be ok ALTHOUGH:
    I recently purchased a TEAC LCD TV which i have been using as an external display for my macbook, but have found that while the LCD TV is plugged in and i am using a dual-screen setup my computer and BOTH displays will quite often go black, and macbook will become completely unresponive
    This sometimes happens apparantly randomly, but mostly happens when i have been using the external display for a while (30mins+) and use the "Display all Windows" feature of OSX.
    I am connecting the macbook to the LCD TV with an Apple Mini-DisplayPort to DVD-D adaptor, which is then plugged into a DVD-D to HDMI adaptor
    (As TV has no DVD-D input and i didnt (at the time) want to spend $50 on a Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor) Could this multiple line of adaptors be causing a problem? surely it wouldnt cause the macbook to die...
    Can anybody help me? i have looked all over the internet for anyone with a similar problem with no avail.

    UPDATE: This has happened to my macbook again while not plugged into my external monitor and with nothing else plugged in to it expect a USB mouse.
    Here is a status report from when i rebooted about 15 minutes ago (Plugged into TEAC LDC, went to 'show all windows' crashhhh..) dont know if there are any clues in here:
    Interval Since Last Panic Report:  55156 sec
    Panics Since Last Report:          4
    Anonymous UUID:                    FA994096-76F6-4198-ABA6-2B55C2074E1F
    Wed Apr 27 23:52:45 2011
    panic(cpu 2 caller 0x5b9efc8f): NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0x00000100: CFG 0xffffffff 0xffffffff 0xffffffff, BAR0 0xc0000000 0x7e705000 0x0a5480a2, D0, P2/4
    Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
    0x5aa31c38 : 0x21b510 (0x5d9514 0x5aa31c6c 0x223978 0x0)
    0x5aa31c88 : 0x5b9efc8f (0x5bc0523c 0x5bc75840 0x5bc143cc 0x0)
    0x5aa31d28 : 0x5bb0a5d3 (0x90bd804 0x7424004 0x100 0x0)
    0x5aa31d78 : 0x5bb015cc (0x7424004 0x100 0x5aa31da8 0x5b9df76c)
    0x5aa31da8 : 0x5c224965 (0x7424004 0x100 0x438004ee 0x5afc4322)
    0x5aa31ee8 : 0x5bb29250 (0x7424004 0x734d004 0x0 0x0)
    0x5aa31f28 : 0x5b9f8e23 (0x7424004 0x734d004 0x0 0x0)
    0x5aa31fc8 : 0x5b9f5502 (0x0 0x9 0x0 0x0)
    0x5aa32178 : 0x5b9f768e (0x0 0x600d600d 0x7027 0x5aa321a8)
    0x5aa32248 : 0x5afb9a25 (0xc1d00041 0xbeef0003 0x13b55680 0x71)
    0x5aa322e8 : 0x5afb9f9d (0x44ca4000 0x13b55680 0x7804804 0x0)
    0x5aa32328 : 0x5af91e0b (0x44ca4000 0x13b55680 0x7804804 0x0)
    0x5aa32358 : 0x5afb95d2 (0x44ca4000 0x13b55680 0x7804804 0x0)
    0x5aa32378 : 0x5af91418 (0x44ca4000 0x13b55680 0x7804804 0x0)
    0x5aa32398 : 0x5afb9f48 (0x44ca4000 0x7804800 0x2 0x2)
    0x5aa323d8 : 0x5af947b9 (0x44ca4000 0x7804800 0x0 0x9ea1800)
    0x5aa32418 : 0x5af92269 (0x44ca4000 0x44b86000 0x44e4a000 0x88aa700)
    0x5aa32468 : 0x5afe4ddf (0x44ca4000 0x44b86000 0x44e4a000 0x88aa700)
    0x5aa324f8 : 0x5afd65a9 (0x88aa700 0x9ea1800 0x0 0x1)
    0x5aa32558 : 0x5afd6810 (0x44b86000 0x44b8677c 0x9ea1800 0x0)
    0x5aa325a8 : 0x5afd6ce4 (0x44b86000 0x44b8677c 0x5aa328cc 0x5aa3286c)
    0x5aa328e8 : 0x5afd3aaf (0x44b86000 0x44b8677c 0x1 0x220677)
    0x5aa32908 : 0x5af9b5a1 (0x44b86000 0x44b8677c 0x13b8d940 0x5051f7)
    0x5aa32938 : 0x5afd5572 (0x44b86000 0x5aa32a7c 0x5aa32968 0x5046b1)
    0x5aa32978 : 0x5af9f8de (0x44b86000 0x5aa32a7c 0x5aa32a7c 0x5aa329e0)
    0x5aa32ab8 : 0x5afd8ee6 (0x44b86000 0x0 0x5aa32bcc 0x5aa32bc8)
    0x5aa32b68 : 0x5af9bc93 (0x44b86000 0x0 0x5aa32bcc 0x5aa32bc8)
    0x5aa32be8 : 0x56a738 (0x44b86000 0x0 0x5aa32e3c 0x5aa32c74)
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    0x5aa32c88 : 0x56b88b (0x44b86000 0x10 0x5aa32cd0 0x0)
    0x5aa32da8 : 0x285be0 (0x44b86000 0x10 0xbc06088 0x1)
    0x5aa33e58 : 0x21d8be (0xbc06060 0x8c135a0 0x1fd7e8 0x5d43)
        Backtrace continues...
          Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
             com.apple.GeForce(6.2.6)@0x5af90000->0x5b045fff
                dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(6.2.6)@0x5b989000
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.2)@0x5ac4d000
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6)@0x5349e000
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.2)@0x5b504000
             com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal(6.2.6)@0x5c0ee000->0x5c502fff
                dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(6.2.6)@0x5b989000
             com.apple.NVDAResman(6.2.6)@0x5b989000->0x5bc76fff
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6)@0x5349e000
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.2)@0x5ac4d000
                dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.2)@0x5b504000
    BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer
    Mac OS version:
    10J869
    Kernel version:
    Darwin Kernel Version 10.7.0: Sat Jan 29 15:17:16 PST 2011; root:xnu-1504.9.37~1/RELEASE_I386
    System model name: MacBookPro6,2 (Mac-F22586C8)
    System uptime in nanoseconds: 20724823936206
    unloaded kexts:
    com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver    207.10 (addr 0x5ab3d000, size 0x36864) - last unloaded 20288128184598
    loaded kexts:
    net.osculator.driver.OSCulatorIOKit    1.4.12
    com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch    54 - last loaded 20335073956689
    com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor    1.9.3d0
    com.apple.driver.AGPM    100.12.19
    com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC    1.54
    com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver    1.2.0
    com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X    7.0.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient    3.5.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver    1.9.9f12
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphics    6.2.6
    com.apple.driver.AppleHDA    1.9.9f12
    com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver    1.1.6
    com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl    1.0.17
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB    6.2.6
    com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor    3.0.0d4
    com.apple.iokit.AppleBCM5701Ethernet    2.3.9b6
    com.apple.kext.AppleSMCLMU    1.5.0d3
    com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl    2.8.68
    com.apple.GeForce    6.2.6
    com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43224    427.36.9
    com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin    4.5.0d5
    com.apple.driver.AppleLPC    1.4.12
    com.apple.filesystems.autofs    2.1.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons    200.3.2
    com.apple.driver.AppleIRController    303.8
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard    200.3.2
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCardReader    2.5.8
    com.apple.BootCache    31
    com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib    1.0.0d1
    com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient    2.6.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage    1.6.3
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub    4.1.7
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI    4.1.8
    com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM    1.4.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager    160.0.0
    com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI    4.7.1
    com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort    2.1.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons    1.3.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleRTC    1.3.1
    com.apple.driver.AppleHPET    1.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS    1.6
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC    1.3.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC    1.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient    105.13.0
    com.apple.security.sandbox    1
    com.apple.security.quarantine    0
    com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall    2.1.11
    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement    105.13.0
    com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver    2.4.0f1
    com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver    207.10
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard    141
    com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard    141
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileReadCounterAction    17
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileTimestampAction    10
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileThreadInfoAction    14
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileRegisterStateAction    10
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileKEventAction    10
    com.apple.driver.AppleProfileCallstackAction    20
    com.apple.iokit.IOSurface    74.2
    com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager    2.4.0f1
    com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily    10.0.3
    com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib    1.9.9f12
    com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily    1.8.0fc1
    com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib    1.3
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController    1.0.8d0
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP    2.0.3
    com.apple.iokit.AppleProfileFamily    41
    com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController    1.9.9f12
    com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily    1.9.9f12
    com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family    314.1.1
    com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily    1.10
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMC    3.1.0d3
    com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily    4.5.0d5
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI    1.0.8d0
    com.apple.nvidia.nv50hal    6.2.6
    com.apple.NVDAResman    6.2.6
    com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport    2.2
    com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily    2.2
    com.apple.driver.BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController    2.4.0f1
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController    2.4.0f1
    com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily    2.4.0f1
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMultitouch    206.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver    4.1.5
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    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice    2.6.5
    com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub    4.1.8
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    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice    2.6.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily    1.6
    com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily    1.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily    1.6
    com.apple.driver.XsanFilter    402.1
    com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI    1.2.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily    2.6.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient    4.1.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily    4.2.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily    4.1.8
    com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily    2.0.4
    com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime    1.4.0
    com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily    1.6.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily    1.1
    com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet    6
    com.apple.kext.AppleMatch    1.0.0d1
    com.apple.driver.DiskImages    289
    com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily    1.6.2
    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform    1.3.5
    com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily    2.6
    com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily    1.3.0
    Model: MacBookPro6,2, BootROM MBP61.0057.B0C, 2 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.58f15
    Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, PCIe, 512 MB
    Graphics: Intel HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, Built-In, 288 MB
    Memory Module: global_name
    AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x93), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.9)
    Bluetooth: Version 2.4.0f1, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
    Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
    Serial ATA Device: TOSHIBA MK5055GSXF, 465.76 GB
    Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898
    USB Device: Hub, 0x0424  (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfa100000
    USB Device: Internal Memory Card Reader, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8403, 0xfa130000
    USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c  (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000
    USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8218, 0xfa113000
    USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x0236, 0xfa120000
    USB Device: Hub, 0x0424  (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfd100000
    USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0xfd120000
    USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac  (Apple Inc.), 0x8507, 0xfd110000

  • Plugging Macbook Pro i7 into external displays looks like crap.

    I have a rather confusing problem with my Macbook Pro. I went out and bought a Samsung 27" display. I am running a generic no-name adapter from the mini port to a HDMI plug into the display. The quality was AWFUL- as in basically unusable. I returned the monitor and came back a few weeks later with the laptop to the store. I spent about an hour plugging the laptop into various monitors throughout the store. Almost all of the monitors- including smaller 24" monitors- looked like crud also except for the upper end models from HP and of course- the $1,000 model from Apple. I wound up buying a 27" HP 2710m monitor. It looked "ok" in the store. I work as a graphic designer so I'm very picky about details. Upon opening a Photoshop doc I could see that things like gradients, shadows, and text all looked funky and wrong. Thus again- the monitor I bought looks like #$@!.
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    I tested the new monitor on a Mac Tower and it seems to do fine. But then again- it looks like crud with the Laptop. The Mac tower uses non-apple 24" displays and they look great. I even plugged the laptop into one of these 24" displays currently used for the tower and again- SAME thing!
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    Welcome to Apple Discussions!
    If you have an i7, it can't be running 10.5.4 reliably. At minimum it can run 10.6.3. So that might be part of the problem if you managed to to load an older operating system on the Mac than the Mac itself can handle. Your My Settings or posted OS link has 10.5.4, even though you are using an i7. If you meant to select 10.6.4, pardon me.
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    http://www.macsales.com/ offers several adapters you can use with your notebook for HDMI. You might want to check with them, or find a non-generic adapter.

  • How to revert back from external display mode to laptop display mode?

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    Hi BorderingOnChaos,
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    In the future, please do two things:
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    2 - This question does not relate to the SteelSeries Engine. The correct place to ask it would be the general "Gaming Notebooks" forum if your MSI notebook is a gaming model. This "SteelSeries Engine" forum is a sub-forum under the "Gaming Notebooks" forum for the purpose of dealing with questions about it---but almost everybody new misses that. The SteelSeries Engine is used to configure keyboard macros and backlighting in MSI gaming notebooks that contain a SteelSeries keyboard as well as accessory devices from SteelSeries like gaming mice and USB headsets.
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  • Broken iMac display - nothing visible - How to set up external display?

    I have a 17" Core Duo 1.83 with a cracked screen. It boots but I can't see anything thru the cracks. I can access the system in Firewire Target Disk mode, which I used to wipe the HD and reinstall Leopard.
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    I guess the ideal would be a keyboard shortcut to use at startup. I've seen on other boards that there is such a shortcut for the Macbook: Command + F4. But it doesn't work with the iMac.
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    My idea is to turn the iMac around with the broken screen facing the wall, then use it with the Dell monitor. Still lots of life left in the iMac with 2GB RAM, works very well with Leopard, still quite fast.
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    Okay, looking good for now!
    I found a thread on Mac Forums. Link: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/184101-help-broken-imac-external -screen.html
    Guy explains how he solved problem of iMac with broken screen, connected to external monitor; you need a second Mac to do this.
    I quote:
    -- What u need to do is drag the menu bar from the iMac with broken screen in Sys Prefs/Displays to the Ext Display - which of course is not possible. So if you were to connect the damaged iMac by firewire to another Mac with an External display - start the damaged iMac in Target mode by holding T key after powering on. Then start the Mac with Ext Display and hold Option Key and select the damaged Mac to boot off - once that is going go into Sys Prefs/Displays and drag the menu Bar onto the External Display to make it the Primary one. Then shut it all down and connect the Ext Display to the damaged iMac and with luck you will be GO. --
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    The setup was in Extended Desktop mode, with the extended desktop on my external monitor. Luckily, a bit of the top of the iMac's screen was semi-visible, and I was able to open Display Prefs. I selected Mirrored Displays at first and then was able to work on the external display (and not thru the cracks). From here, I unchecked Mirroring and selected the external display as the main one. This worked just fine. I have a 23" full HD monitor and it looked great.
    I then shut down both computers, disconnected Firewire, disconnected the monitor from the Macbook and connected it to the iMac. Then I rebooted the iMac. It booted up a lot quicker, but on startup it went back to Extended Desktop, with the iMac's display as the Main one. Again, I was able to open Monitor prefs, then clicked on Gather Windows, which put the pref window on the external monitor desktop too. Again, from there, I could make the external monitor the Main one.
    Question: is there any way to make the iMac boot to where the external monitor is the Main desktop all the time and by default?
    If not, maybe the worst case scenario is that I have to set display prefs to Mirrored before shutting down. Then after startup I could just make the external one the main display again.
    Many thanks David.
    P.S. forgot to say that when I set the external monitor as the Main one in display prefs, it all worked okay, except that when I opened System Preferences, the window opened on the iMac's screen, not the external one.
    Is there a setting to make all windows, in all apps, open on the Main display?
    Message was edited by: moonshot61

  • How do I make a backup of an external disk?

    I have an external disk that is formatted in Mac Extended Journal on which I keep movie files and photos.
    I had some bad experiences in the past with my first MacBook Air (version 2.1) in which external drives kept getting erased without any good reason. I think it's due to the fact that I had to connect a USB cord to another computer when I had an external drive plugged into the MBA because the MBA could not power it on its own.
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    How do I make a clone of an external disk?
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    Many backup utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper can be used to clone drives.  They can also clone boot drive to make bootable clones.  They use "smart" backups in that they only update what has been changed from the previous backup.   That is what you need too since you intend to use USB which is not that fast.
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    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

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    Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
    Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom to say “Thanks” for helping!

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