Gain access to laptop without seeing the display

Gain access to laptop without seeing the display My friend's laptop went through a car crash recently. Everything still works as far as I can tell, except the display, which is cracked beyond recognition. I've tried external monitors, including the Fn+VGA/LCD key, but it seems the VGA port also got messed up. I've taken it apart to look for trivial circuit board damage, which I didn't notice.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 237

Total answers/comments: 3

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Guest [Entry]

"You can do an unattended Windows install. To get remote access after the install, you can either do the same VNC trick or turn on Remote Desktop as part of the install.

Installing Windows XP unattended using nLite

Installing Windows Vista unattended using vLite"

Guest [Entry]

"If you gained control with VNC, did you try changing the display settings from within windows (right-click the desktop, go to properties...)? It could be the Fn+VGA/LCD thing just isn't working right.

To be honest, I'm not really sure the point of formatting and doing a fresh install if you can't actually get at the system to begin with. If you're determined though, I'd just recommend pulling the hard drive, putting it in another laptop (or a desktop using a USB enclosure or a 2.5"" -> 3.5"" adapter), and just reinstalling from another system. Then use your VNC to complete the install and load drivers once you put the drive back."

Guest [Entry]

"if you want to try to actually access everything from the machine you can try something like this: http://www.usb-ware.com/usb-2-vga-adapter.htm assuming the machine still boots, but you just don't have a screen.
Please note I am not pushing this site to buy, I just wanted to show a USB to VGA display device.

My other recommendation is that if you just want the hard drive then you can get a good USB external hard-drive extender from most online computer stores."