Can I use a late 2013 iMac as a monitor for a Dell laptop?

Question

Can I use a late 2013 iMac as a monitor for a Dell laptop?

Hi Guys,

I work in my employer’s brick and mortar office three (3) days per week. I work from home two (2) days per week.

For working in my employer’s brick and mortar office, I have a Dell desktop (OptiPlex 5250 All-in-One, manufactured on August 16, 2018).

For working at home, I have a Dell Latitude 5520 laptop. It has an HDMI port.

I use Bomgar / BeyondTrust to connect my Dell laptop to my Dell desktop.

At home, I have a late 2013 iMac, Catalina OS. It has two thunderbolt ports. I believe these are Thunderbolt 1 ports.

When working at home, I would like to use the iMac as a monitor for my Dell laptop.

Is this possible? If it is possible, which keyboard would I be using? Would I be stuck using the laptop computer keyboard?

If it is possible, what kind of cable(s) and / or adapter(s) would I need?

I’m not sure I’d be willing to install new software to do this, but if it is simple enough, I might consider it.

I have read some similar questions on the Apple Community forums and it looks like, unless you have a 2009 or 2010 iMac, you can only go Mac to Mac, but I thought I’d try to ask this question very specifically for my

situation.

Thank you in advance and I appreciate your time!

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 20, 2024 8:18 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Servant of Cats

Level 8

35,357 points

Mar 20, 2024 8:33 PM in response to anonymous-imac-user

anonymous-imac-user wrote:

For working at home, I have a Dell Latitude 5520 laptop. It has an HDMI port.

I use Bomgar / BeyondTrust to connect my Dell laptop to my Dell desktop.

At home, I have a late 2013 iMac, Catalina OS. It has two thunderbolt ports. I believe these are Thunderbolt 1 ports.

When working at home, I would like to use the iMac as a monitor for my Dell laptop.

Is this possible?

No. Late 2013 iMacs do support Target Display Mode, but they require Thunderbolt input. You can't convert HDMI output from the Dell laptop into Thunderbolt input for the iMac, so that would kill things right there.

On top that, Apple added several restrictions around Target Display Mode.

The iMac that is going to be the Target Display has to be running High Sierra or earlier.
The other machine has to be a Mac.
The other machine has to have a release date of 2019 or earlier.
The other machine has to be running Catalina or earlier.

Your proposed configuration wouldn't meet any of those conditions.

I have read some similar questions on the Apple Community forums and it looks like, unless you have a 2009 or 2010 iMac, you can only go Mac to Mac, but I thought I’d try to ask this question very specifically for my

situation.

Only 24" and 27" iMacs from 2009 and 2010 accept DisplayPort input. Those Macs did not have Thunderbolt. Every Mac that has both Thunderbolt and Target Display Mode requires Thunderbolt input.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,494 points

Mar 20, 2024 8:39 PM in response to anonymous-imac-user

+1 to the no answer. If your employer's computer needs an external display either convince them to get one for you or you will need to buy one on your own. Macs are computers, they are NOT external displays for other device. You can find external displays easily for about $100 for decent quality devices.

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Answer 3

Mar 20, 2024 8:47 PM in response to anonymous-imac-user

I see that your tag line says that you have a 21.5" iMac.

A 21.5" Early 2015 or Late 2013 iMac would have had a resolution of only 1920x1080 pixels. You can get 24" 1920x1080 monitors with IPS screens and near-100% sRGB coverage for $150 or less. (Maybe half that if you don't care about image quality at all.)

A 21.5" Early 2015 or Late 2013 iMac can drive an external display with a resolution of up to 2560x1600 pixels. The Thunderbolt 1 port has a Mini DisplayPort connector and doubles as a Mini DisplayPort. So if you bought a monitor such as a 24" 1920x1080, 24" 1920x1200, or 27" 2560x1440 pixel monitor that had both a (Mini) DisplayPort input and a HDMI input, you could use that monitor as a second screen both for your iMac and for a laptop.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2024 9:59 PM in response to anonymous-imac-user

anonymous-imac-user wrote:

Thank you for the info!

If I did get that second monitor, would I have to use the laptop keyboard?

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000131895/dell-latitude-e5250-visual-guide

Looks like the laptop has three USB-A (USB 3.0) ports – two on the rear, and one on the right hand side. You could presumably plug in a full-size USB keyboard and mouse via those ports.

The laptop might also have a proprietary docking connector for a particular type of Dell dock. I do not know if using such a dock would make things more convenient for you – and if so, If your employer would be willing to supply you with a compatible dock for home use.

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