Powerbook as display/HDD for Powermac????

Question

Level 1

0 points

Powerbook as display/HDD for Powermac????

I am wanting to know if I can buy a Powermac and effectively use my Powerbook Ti as display and hardrive.??
Is this possible.?

I am quite happy with the 15" LCD display of my Powerbook but the hardware needs updating. I want to buy a Powermac G4 and hook it up as the main computer (ie: Startup drive, apps etc). It just seems a waste to toss the Powerbook and buy a completely new display and tower.
I also want the flexibility of still having my laptop..
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Powerbook G4 Ti 400MHz, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Dec 13, 2005 8:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Dec 13, 2005 9:47 AM in response to theboneyking

Hi, boney. No, your Powerbook display can't be used as a monitor for another computer. An engineer/programmer might be able to detach it from the Powerbook, connect it to another computer, and write a custom driver to make that connection useful, but that doesn't sound like what you have in mind. Any connection that would allow the display to be used with another computer would render the Powerbook unusable.

Reply

Answer 2

theboneyking Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2005 12:43 PM in response to eww

Thanks for your reply...
I thought as much.
Alternately though if I connected the two computers via ethernet and used the powermac as the startup disk would it be using the powermac processor or still using the Powerbook?
Sounds as though i may be up for a new computer..
cheers

Reply

Answer 3

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Dec 13, 2005 1:53 PM in response to theboneyking

If you connect the two computers via ethernet, they remain two independent computers. If you wish, you can easily set them up so that each has access to all the files on the other's hard drive. But neither can use the other's hard drive as a startup disk, since each has to start up independently to be visible to the other over the network. And neither can use the other's processor, memory, audio or video circuitry, monitor, etc., under any circumstances.

Using Apple Remote Desktop, with which I'm not familiar, you might be able to control one computer from the other, but it would still be running as a separate computer from the one you were sitting at — you'd just be running it remotely.

Reply