So My Laptop Screen Died, Salvage The HDD?

[Dynasty]

Wahay, my first real PC problem. Had PCs and Laptops for years, now one has finally given up the go for me.

I have my work laptop here so its not a problem using that instead.

Screen just went blue, then grey with loads of little lines, so I restarted and the screen wont come on at all. Took the thing apart, checked the connections and still wont work..so now its sat apart, will still run but the screen is dead, so Ive decided to chuck the thing.

Its an Acer Aspire 5670, and Ive had it for a good 4 years now, so its proven its worth. The specs are pretty damn dreadful (1.8ghz, 1gb RAM, 80gb HDD), so wouldnt get much for selling it anyway. Price of fixing it would be a good couple of hundred £s, and Ive bought a Macbook Pro anyway, just wont get my hands on it for another 2 months as Im overseas. Plus I have my desktop PC at home too.

So, Ive taken the HDD out as, granted, theres a few things on there worth having, but most are on my usb external drive.

Would the best bet be to just keep the HDD and the power cable (never know if that will come in handy at some point), take them home when I leave here and then salvage the HDD? Im guessing it will need some kind of special adapter depending on the connection?
It looks like the pins have a cover over them to adapt to the laptop mobo's connection, can that just be taken off and a universal connector is available?
Then just slave the HDD on my desktop PC and extract whatever I want to my usb external drive like normal?

 

[Quixoticism]

Depending on the type of connection it has you should just be able to plug it into your desktop. Granted, I'm not all that experienced with laptop hard drives.

 

[Ren.182]

It might just be a normal SATA connection. I took the HDD out of my parents laptop to recover some data that they had lost and I could just plug it in my PC's motherboard using a normal SATA cable.

Got any pics of the connections? Or HDD make and model at all?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Also did the laptop have a VGA out? You could have just booted to desktop (on memory) and connected the laptop to an external monitor and used the function > ext display hotkey. I'm assuming your screen is broken and not the video chip on your mobo.

But as said above, a pic of the HDD connection would make things easier.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Two words: headless server.

Perform an unattended installation of your favorite Linux distribution. Connect via SSH or VNC. ??? Profit!

 

[VirusType2]

Example: Acer Aspire 5670

I remember browsing somewhere online that had replacement LCDs of all sizes. Nintendo DS and cellphones even. Seemed fairly inexpensive.


http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=o...e+5670&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&fp=c26c79a56c95bda8

 

[Dynasty]

I'll take a pic of the connection tonight and post it up, along with the details on the back.

I'm pretty sure theres a cover over the pins as an adapter as it looks like it can come off, but I dont want to start yanking things off and not being able to replace it.

The external monitor was my first thought, but then I realised that I:

a) Pretty much won't ever be using the laptop again due to inferior specs and its age, so subsequently;

b) It will gather dust in its box in the attic for all time, cant see myself ever needing it again.

c) Once Ive recovered the HDD I REALLY wont need the laptop again, as Ive already got another laptop waiting at home which is far better. And is all shiny and new, preciousssss.

d) I dont have an external monitor out here to use in my accomodation. Theres plenty in the office, but Im not about to start borrowing monitors.

e) All my movies on my external HDD work on my PS3, so thats fine. Just means I'll be watching them on my portable TV instead of my laptop's damn nice screen.

I know you can send laptops to companies to be recycled, but its in pieces now and I really dont have the patience to put it back together again, so they probably wouldnt accept it. I hate fixing fiddly things.

I dont want to dump it though as thats against the environment etc etc *insert tree hugger joke as appropriate*. I'll probably take it back home, or get it shipped depending on my 20kg weight limit (company pays for it) and wait a few days/weeks for it to arrive, then recycle it somewhere in the UK properly.

 

[Ren.182]

They might still take it if its in pieces. They're only going to take it apart anyway to be recycled. Might as well ask, worth a try.

Get that picture posted and we'll be able to tell what type of connection it is and what you'll need