I have a 17 inch i mac g5 and as far as i could tell the mobo is fried I got it for nothing, and I love modding and repurposing anything i can. Is there anyway possible that I can use the display as a monitor for something else. I've tried to find the pinout for the connector on the back of the screen once its been tore down. The pinout would be great but also if anyone can give me a conversion pinout, ie imac display to vga or svideo. Also i have all the other parts that go with the G5 if anyone needs them along with 2 1gb and 2 2 gb{idk if it will support it but i know its 400 mhz ddr1 that i was using in a pc server board the 512s i took from the mac originally worked in the pc so why not reverse) of the ram as well as a 256 and a 512. If u need any of the parts just lemme know either on here or if u want a super fast respose just plug my username into yahoo messenger or @comcast.net


TY b100dstar

Hey - repurposing this as a second monitor is a really good idea. I myself actually repurposed the iMac G5 20" iSight as an external monitor. I have never modded the 17" iMac G5, however I am done considerable work with the iMac G4 (17 and 20") and the iMac G5 20", so I am fairly certain that I can help you. The first generation G5s, I believe used the same exact panel as the G4, the LG LM171W02(A4)(M1). I think the later G5s, the iSIghts, used a slightly different variation. I am fairly certain that they are all compatible (the 20" panels were all compatible). Which generation do you have, is it an iSight? The G4s and G5s all used TMDS for their signaling to the LCD itself. TMDS is a digital signal that is used in HDMI and DVI. As such, the LCD can be converted to DVI or HDMI, you would need a Digital to Analog converter if you needed it to be VGA or S-video.

Please see this page of my blog:
http://dremmeljunkie.blogspot.com/2011/01/17-dvi-pinout-confirmed.html
This is the pinout for the 17"iMac G4, I am fairly certain this will work for you. The columns you care about are the first and the last one. The first column is the in number when looking at the JAE connector that plugs into the LCD itself (From Left to Right with the exposed pins facing you). The colors are only relevant to the iMac G4. The last column is which pin on a FEMALE DVI CONNECTOR these should hook up to. Remember you also must power the inverter and the LCD panel itself. 3 pins should connect to a 3.3V or 5V power source and 3 to a ground. In addition you have to add an extra wire using a 1Kohm resistor.

For a step by step guide of how this is done with the iMac G4 see this post:http://dremmeljunkie.blogspot.com/2011/08/guide-step-by-step-17-imac-g4-tmds-to.html

You just need to go by pin number and not color. I can not 100% guarantee success but this should work.

Also, if you have the iSight version, I can tell you how to convert the camera and mic to USB if you are interested.

Hope this helps, Jon