How to turn an old iMac display into an external monitor

May 21, 2016

We've had an old iMac display hanging around for about seven years now. My fiance's iMac died long ago, due to the notorious overheating issue with the graphics card. After digging it up in the basement, I decided to see if I could turn it into a monitor. It's a great display, and I hated to see it collecting dust. So I Googled my way to an answer. Here are the parts you'll need:

1 x LCD controller board
1 x 24v power supply
1 x power cable (regular ol' computer cable)
1 x dead iMac display

Besides the iMac display, the parts cost me about 80 bucks. Considering the quality of the display, it was well worth the price.

e-qstore on Ebay has everything you need for this. Just give them the model number of your display (there's a label on the inside), and they can get you the right controller. I have a 2007 iMac, and their LCD controller worked perfect. I had to specifically request the power supply. They didn't have it on their Ebay store, but they did carry it. They were even nice enough to tell me that I was missing the power supply from my order! They will be getting a great review from me.

The reason you need the LCD controller board is because the iMac display is just an LCD screen. There's nothing there to handle inputs, or really do anything with the display. If you took apart a monitor, you'd find a controller board in there.

After you make the purchase, wait about three weeks for the package to arrive. It was shipped from China, so with customs and all, it can take a bit of time.

Now keep in mind that my parts are specifically for a late 2007 24 inch iMac. Your's will be different. The parts are pretty easy to plug-and-play. The hard part for me, honestly, was just doing the research to find the parts that I need. I learned a lot during my research!

Here are the parts you'll get:

I'll upload an album of pictures for all the parts, if you'd like to look at them more in depth.

The first thing you'll want to do is hook the monitor buttons up to the LCD controller board:

Notice the two empty pins there! Next, you'll want to hook up the power cables to the LCD controller board:

Now you'll start hooking up cables to the power supply:

Make sure your ground is... grounded (don't worry, it is properly attached now):

Now on the iMac, there's two ports you'll be plugging into. One requires the LCD controller, and the other provides power to the backlight. The LCD port is easy. Just make sure your keys are lined up (aka notches that make sure you plug thins in the right way):

Now comes the scary part - the inverter for the backlight. The capacitors on this thing will hold a charge for a long time. They will definitely send more than 24 volts through you, or so I've heard. Basically, respect it, be afraid, and be safe:

Now, we start hooking things in! The first one is the LCD controller. I got a board with a short cable, so I had to be careful to not yank things around:

Next, plug in the inverter cable:

Make sure you don't switch this side up with the one plugged into the power supply. If you do, the backlights will go POOF pfffftttzzzz...

Here's what everything looks like hooked up: