MacBook question (or: You Guys Are Faster Than Google)

My girlfriend has a mid-2010 MacBook Unleaded (not an Air or Pro or anything) with a dead screen. The new one is on the way for me to install, but the mail lady just left and didn't have it with her, so she's looking at another day of lost revenue without a computer.

We don't have any spare screens lying around she could use, or that would be an easy feature.

What I do have, though, is a slightly older MacBook with a dead hard drive, but with a working screen. Is there a relatively straightforward way I could run the dead laptop as a remote screen for hers until the part arrives?

Do you have a tv or external monitor you could hook up as a display?

Hrm... options, afaik:

0 - if you had set up a remote desktop (screen sharing) solution prior... (they don't have that enabled by default.)

1 - if you have the mini-displayport to vga adaptor, plug in an external monitor, usb keyboard and mouse (doesn't have to be Mac specific), plug it into the wall, slightly open the clamshell, press the power button, close it while it's still on the startup sound. Then you're running it like a mini-desktop.

2 - If you have a USB enclosure, pull the HDD out of the working one, put it in the enclosure, and try booting the dead Mac off the working HDD. I've had lots of success in the past booting a Mac using another random Mac's hard drive.

3 - if you don't, try plugging the hard drive directly into the old laptop.

4 - Disassemble both and try swapping screens. Not sure if this works.

Given that this is an Apple, can you try putting the one with the dead screen into disk mode and boot the one with the duff HDD off it? Usually you'll have to hook the two together with a network or firewire cable.

Mine had a dead screen, I just hooked up an external monitor to it until the new screen arrived.

There isn't an easy way to use one of them as a screen for the other, but there might be a way to use one as a hard drive for the other. If both macs have firewire ports, try this:

• boot up the mac with the dead display while holding down the "T" key to put it in firewire target mode. This basically turns it into a firewire enclosure for the built-in hard drive. There's a specific time you have to press this -- without the screen you're going to be guessing, but look around online and it's probably not too hard.

• plug a firewire cable in between the two macs

• boot up the one with the dead drive while holding down another key (I forget which one) to put it into a mode where you can select the boot drive. You should see the other mac's boot drive, and if the hardware configs are similar enough it ought to boot.

Normally, the choice of boot disk is made by holding down the option key.

As Lesley pointed out, if you have access to a second monitor, that might be the easiest way to deal with this. If you have a monitor plus a Mac keyboard and mouse, you can run the MacBook in clamshell mode.

codrus wrote: There isn't an easy way to use one of them as a screen for the other, but there might be a way to use one as a hard drive for the other. If both macs have firewire ports, try this: - boot up the mac with the dead display while holding down the "T" key to put it in firewire target mode. This basically turns it into a firewire enclosure for the built-in hard drive. There's a specific time you have to press this -- without the screen you're going to be guessing, but look around online and it's probably not too hard. - plug a firewire cable in between the two macs - boot up the one with the dead drive while holding down another key (I forget which one) to put it into a mode where you can select the boot drive. You should see the other mac's boot drive, and if the hardware configs are similar enough it ought to boot.

They don't have firewire ports...

Network cable works, too.