Gadgets Advice Superthread!

Weekly /r/Gadgets Advice Superthread!
Using Old Dell Laptop Screen for a Monitor
Windows Explorer stops responding when an old hard drive is plugged in
I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them.

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 11:07 PM PST

Hey, gadgeteers! Here is this week's thread where we can all post up discussions, comparisons and advice on various gadgets. For specific questions we highly recommend you also look at the list of related subreddits since you are more likely to find an answer in a specialized subreddit.

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Using Old Dell Laptop Screen for a Monitor

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 12:45 PM PST

Fellas,

My buddy already tried this in the past but gave up on it. I have a Raspberry Pi that I would like to use and do not have an available open slot for an HDMI on my existing monitor. I have an old Dell Inspiron 5421 that is around 7 years old and it has damage to the board. Would it be possible, and what would I need to do to turn the screen (which still works fine) into a monitor for my Raspberry Pi?

Thanks for any advice,

Nick

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Windows Explorer stops responding when an old hard drive is plugged in

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 05:36 PM PST

Hey guys,

Alright, so the hard drive from the laptop in my previous post was taken out of the old laptop. It ran Windows 8.1 at the time. I plugged the old hard drive into a SATA cable and plugged the other end into a USB port on my new laptop that runs Windows 10. The drive will show up in Windows Explorer as "D: Local Disk". The drive says it has no files and when I right click and try to format it, Windows Explorer stops responding and I have to restart it from the task manager. Am I doing something wrong? Is the Windows 8.1 hard drive trying to run Windows 8 boot files while Windows 10 is running on my current PC? I am not sure what is causing the hard drive to stop Windows Explorer from accessing it. The hard drive has no obvious damage and doesn't click or make noises either. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks guys,

Nick

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I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them.

Posted: 29 Dec 2019 10:58 AM PST