Safe to run a laptop without its screen connected?

[Carl Foxmarten]

I've got an old Toshiba laptop in which the video cable from the flat-panel screen to the motherboard is pretty much toast, with a whole bunch of intermittent breaks in the many-wired cable.

I'm getting kind of fed up with it, and am about to connect an external LCD screen to the VGA port on the back.
My main question is: Would it be safe to run the laptop with the screen disconnected from the motherboard?

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite M60-CD4, if that helps.

[Alloud]

Yup. Might be best to get the second screen set up as the primary display before disconnecting the laptops'.
Make sure you know what all the wires are doing; it's possible there's a wifi antenna up there somewhere.

[Sasha]

My main question is: Would it be safe to run the laptop with the screen disconnected from the motherboard?

It could save the power supply from having to run the internal screen's backlight, increasing the life(time) of the laptop. If the cable completely unplugged does not cause any issues, then it is better to do this than to leave a cable that could possibly short together if moved (if that is the case.)

Tigerface.

[tokar]

It could save the power supply from having to run the internal screen's backlight, increasing the life(time) of the laptop. If the cable completely unplugged does not cause any issues, then it is better to do this than to leave a cable that could possibly short together if moved (if that is the case.)

Tigerface.

contact the manufacturer and ask what is included within the ribbon wires.  if there is a wifi antenna in the screen set then you will have to cable connect it.  good luck

[Carl Foxmarten]

Due to the issues I've been having with the screen (among other things), I've already taken this laptop apart a couple of times, so I have some idea of what's where.
(plus, I take apart just about every computer I have evetually anyway)

So far, it does seem to be pretty happy without having the built-in screen attached, and is now running just fine on an external monitor.

Had a bit of an issue, as noted by alloud above, that there are also two wires from the wifi card that also snaked up into the panel.
Fortunately, it was a separate pair of wires, and it was easy enough to take the covers off the panel and remove the antenna, leaving it connected to the base.
(I still use the wireless network every once in a while, so I do kind of need the antenna connected...)