Inspired Inspiron Modification

[Trainman]

I have an old Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop computer which I would like to modify to be able to position the screen away from the keyboard. I need to have the screen sitting in potrait configuration instead of the usual landscape configuration so that I can read full A4 pdf pages without having to scroll . Cannot stop the guitar to scroll down page in middle of tune delivery .

The Inspiron screen is a good size for me when compared with smaller devices and can be read at a distance. I want an arrangement whereby I have the Keyboard close at hand for control of the gig and have the Screen on a music stand in front of me so that I can easily read the song words and chords.

I have taken the screen out and I note that the cable connecting the screen to the computer is very small with lots of very small wires inside. Is there a method that I could use for extending this wire by about a meter? I show the wire in the image attached .

 

[kellys_eye]

Why not connect an external monitor/screen? The laptop has a socket for one???? You can then mount the display where ever and however you want.

 

[Trainman]

Thanks kellys_eye. Do not have a external monitor/screen.... that is why I was considering cannibalising the old computer for making an external monitor/screen from it. I need the monitor screen to be positioned vertical as if in portrait configuration that is turned through 90 degrees from normal and that way it will take a full A4 page at a good size that I can read from about a meter away and eliminates the need to scrool. It still has the old XP operating system and would manage the pdf's fairly well....... if only I could just extend that cable then I could build a new housing for the screen.

 

[kellys_eye]

The actual signals on those wires cannot 'travel' very far and 30cm would be pushing it.

Monitors are cheap - VERY cheap - and a lot easier to connect to the laptop than fiddling around with screen removal etc. You can mount an external screen in any plane you wish (vertical, horizontal etc) and use your graphics program to orient the image accordingly (CTRL right-arrow is, I think, a common short-cut keystroke to rotate a display. Check your laptop user manual for how to do it).

 

[Trainman]

Thanks kellys_eye for the 30cm warning. Done a knack. Just enough cable there to allow screen and frame to be removed (unhinged) and fixed onto the bottom of the laptop as if opening the laptop and turning it all the way backwards until it is resting against the its underside. Can now run with a separate cheap keyboard from Tesco at €12.00. The modification now allows me to view full A4's on screen sitting in portrait fashion.