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Laptop Guts Make Great Picture Frames
By Jonathan | March 9, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Below I’ve created a photo documentary (uh, sure) of how I transformed my old laptop into a new digital picture frame. Taking apart laptops is not very fun, especially since I was trying not to break anything! There were ~100 tiny screws, parts taped on, and plastic pieces everywhere. I used foam board to help mount all of the components…oh, and of course a little duct tape. All in all I’d say it turned out pretty well. The fact that it works, of course, makes it all that much better!
Here is a picture of the laptop before disassembly
This is where I’ll begin taking things apart
With the top row of buttons removed
Keyboard removed
Heat sink and fan removed (this would prove later to be quite deadly)
After removing the LCD screen from the case
Removing the motherboard from the case, attaching the screen, and firing it up
My dead processor on the bottom
The donor PC
Booting up again
Foam board was used to hold the LCD screen in place. I cut out a rectangle that was a perfect size for the screen. It’s secured in place with some duct tape.
It looks pretty good from the front, except for that flash
Soldering some wire to the [old] power button. Turns out it was too small for my skill so I have a cold solder…some hot glue and electrical tape should be okay…
Securing the motherboard in place with more duct tape. Don’t worry, it’s not touching any of the electrical components.
I drilled a hole in the top of the shadowbox frame for the pushbutton switch, ie, the ‘On’ button.
LCD screen and motherboard in the shadowbox. I cut out some additional pieces of foam board to make sure the back piece of the shadowbox doesn’t press down on the keyboard.
The power brick is right in the middle of the entire length of cord, so I decided to keep it inside the box out of sight.
The nearly finished product. All I need is a nice photo matte to throw in the front to give it that nice, finished look.
Here it is hung on the wall, without a matte.
Lastly, a picture of all the parts I don’t need anymore. Wow. If you’re looking for something, let me know…I’ll make you a good deal!
Topics: do it yourself, howto, technology | 4 Comments »
March 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
You need more pics of personal things… real people
March 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
[...] Laptop Guts make Great Picture Frames – How to make your old laptop lcd a nice digital frame. [...]
March 27th, 2008 at 8:51 am
[...] Laptop Guts make Great Picture Frames – How to make your old laptop lcd into a nice digital frame. [...]
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
[...] [...]