Hooking up old PC display to my Dell Laptop?

Hello,

So, a long story short, after over a year of owning an Inspiron 1520 I've given up on it being able to work the kind of software I used to have on my old PC for music-creation.

So, I still have my old PC, and would like to use it for this purpose, and so I was hoping to hook up its DISPLAY ONLY to my laptop. So I can just keep the PC itself by my laptop, and plug it into my laptop and be able to see the output of the PC on my laptop (I guess I'd have to plug in a keyboard too, oh well).

Is this possible? My Inspiron only *seems* to have S-video and VGA out ports. Google Searches haven't really narrowed down the best way for me to do this. I just want to be able to use my old PC with my new nice laptop display instead of the old clunky, blurry monitor. Any direction anybody could provide (usb converters, etc) would be great. Thanks!

 

I've not seen anything that would allow you to use your laptop monitor that way. The only thing I could suggest is Remote Desktop

 

You need to buy this software.

http://www.maxivista.com/

 

Sorry dude - notebook displays are pretty much made to send video out, not receive in, unless you have an S-Video IN, and even those are for receiving signals from a cable box to a TV tuner card. Remember that laptops are designed to USE external displays, not to BECOME one for another system. With older displays your options are pretty much either VGA or DVI, and even if you have an adapter, you'd need to have a DVI or VGA input on your system, which your don't.

There is however, one possibility that's a lot easier and that you may have not considered. You could setup your notebook as the initiating system and your old PC as a remote system - using your LAN, connect to the desktop and run the program via remote, even though it's only a few feet away. Since I use WEBEX as a client remote support tool, I do this occasionally - both control the desktop, all system functions, application control, etc. the same as if I was sitting at that PC, and my clients are 3000 miles away on the other coast. WEBEX is too expensive to be used for such a setup, but there are other Remote Support programs out there that do many of the same functions as WEBEX does.

The key is finding the right application for your needs and that doesn't cost a small fortune. There are some that are free if used for non-commercial use - TeamViewer is such a program http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx You might start there.

The other option is to revisit the reason why your program won't run on your new system to begin with. You didn't mention which program, but I'd have to guess it's something like Cakewalk, Sound Forge, Acid, etc. If you're using an older version, then upgrade it to a newer one that'll run on your current system. If it's something that's been discontinued, there are still other options out there. I'm only guessing, but since I've used Sound Forge and Acid and other music creation programs I might know of a solution to your problem if I knew what program you're referring to. PM me with it and I'll tell if you if there's anything that comes to mind.

 

If you have both machines hardwired on a fast network, Remote Desktop is a pretty good solution (granted you aren't gaming or doing anything in true real time). I'll attest that TeamViewer also works pretty well.

You can also use a TV tuner, but u usually lose a fair bit of picture quality going from desktop to TV tuner to laptop. Some TV tuners have significant lag too.