Laptop Technical Question

[NWI_Irish96]

There's some proficient techies on here so I'm hoping to get an answer:

My laptop was 6 years old so I decided it's time for a new one. Same brand (HP) same size, but much faster with more memory.

The one thing I neglected to do was ensure that my new laptop was a touch screen. It isn't.

Is there a way to fix this or am I just stuck? Is swapping out the screens from the two laptops something that can be done?

[Scott5114]

You theoretically could, assuming the laptop's motherboard supports touch input (I'm not sure exactly how that works) but it would be enough of a pain in the butt that it might be easier to just return the laptop and get one that comes with a touchscreen.

If you're not already used to using a touchscreen laptop and just want one because that's just something newer laptops tend to have, none of the people I know of who do have a touchscreen have found it to be all that useful. Most Windows software isn't designed to be used with one, so it's basically like having a horribly imprecise mouse unless you get a stylus of some kind.

[NWI_Irish96]

You theoretically could, assuming the laptop's motherboard supports touch input (I'm not sure exactly how that works) but it would be enough of a pain in the butt that it might be easier to just return the laptop and get one that comes with a touchscreen.

If you're not already used to using a touchscreen laptop and just want one because that's just something newer laptops tend to have, none of the people I know of who do have a touchscreen have found it to be all that useful. Most Windows software isn't designed to be used with one, so it's basically like having a horribly imprecise mouse unless you get a stylus of some kind.

It's not a deal breaker. There are a couple games I play that move much faster with the touch screen instead of the mouse.

[LilianaUwU]

I have a touch screen on my laptop I acquired at the end of 2022. I've used it a grand total of zero times.

[In_Correct]

I have replaced the screens on my previous HP laptops, and another HP laptop I opened so it can dry out. While successful every time I needed to do something like that, the way that HP laptops are made, I would never attempt to upgrade the screen. The hinges on HP Laptops, as with most of every thing else on them, is cheap plastic.

If you want to play games that is easier with a touch input device, get a U.S.B. one such as a drawing pad ... or perhaps a micro monitor also.

[Dirt Roads]

If you want to play games that is easier with a touch input device, get a U.S.B. one such as a drawing pad ... or perhaps a micro monitor also.

In the past, I would do most of my laptop gaming in a workstation environment.  If that is suitable to you, consider adding a new touchscreen monitor.  They are not that expensive, and you get the added advantage of going into dual screen mode when desired.

I've never been a big touchscreen user myself, but I've done a bunch of work on kiosks used for a local historical museum.  Their most recent version of touchscreen monitors have outlasted the life of the tower PCs running them.  If you are not a hard touchscreen user, you'd probably get a good return on a $230 investment.

[NWI_Irish96]

If you want to play games that is easier with a touch input device, get a U.S.B. one such as a drawing pad ... or perhaps a micro monitor also.

In the past, I would do most of my laptop gaming in a workstation environment.  If that is suitable to you, consider adding a new touchscreen monitor.  They are not that expensive, and you get the added advantage of going into dual screen mode when desired.

I've never been a big touchscreen user myself, but I've done a bunch of work on kiosks used for a local historical museum.  Their most recent version of touchscreen monitors have outlasted the life of the tower PCs running them.  If you are not a hard touchscreen user, you'd probably get a good return on a $230 investment.

So here's where my technical knowledge is lacking. Will the laptop support a standalone touch screen monitor if the laptop itself isn't a touchscreen.

[ZLoth]

So here's where my technical knowledge is lacking. Will the laptop support a standalone touch screen monitor if the laptop itself isn't a touchscreen.

You got my curiosity up, so I checked Amazon for a touch screen monitor, then googled ASUS VT229H for a manual. It appears that you have two connections from the computer to the monitor: The video connection (HDMI and VGA in this example) and USB for the touch functionality. (Plus power ). That actually makes sense since USB is used for HID (Human Interface Devices) such as keyboards and mice.

Of course, this is an educated guess.

[Scott5114]

If you want to play games that is easier with a touch input device, get a U.S.B. one such as a drawing pad ... or perhaps a micro monitor also.

In the past, I would do most of my laptop gaming in a workstation environment.  If that is suitable to you, consider adding a new touchscreen monitor.  They are not that expensive, and you get the added advantage of going into dual screen mode when desired.

I've never been a big touchscreen user myself, but I've done a bunch of work on kiosks used for a local historical museum.  Their most recent version of touchscreen monitors have outlasted the life of the tower PCs running them.  If you are not a hard touchscreen user, you'd probably get a good return on a $230 investment.

So here's where my technical knowledge is lacking. Will the laptop support a standalone touch screen monitor if the laptop itself isn't a touchscreen.

Assuming you're running Windows on it, the device manufacturer should provide driver software for it that will make it work if Windows doesn't support it natively. (This is not an assumption I can make as a Linux user, unfortunately.)

[vdeane]

Assuming you're running Windows on it, the device manufacturer should provide driver software for it that will make it work if Windows doesn't support it natively. (This is not an assumption I can make as a Linux user, unfortunately.)

On the other hand, stuff that does work with Linux (which is pretty much everything I've encountered) works seamlessly.  Connecting a printer?  Gonna be a fair amount of work navigating menus and screens on Windows.  On Linux?  It just appears, little/no work needed.  Plugging in a USB drive?  If you so much as put it on a different port than last time (or it's new), Windows will take a minute or two to "install device drivers".  On Linux, it just works.

[Scott5114]

Assuming you're running Windows on it, the device manufacturer should provide driver software for it that will make it work if Windows doesn't support it natively. (This is not an assumption I can make as a Linux user, unfortunately.)

On the other hand, stuff that does work with Linux (which is pretty much everything I've encountered) works seamlessly.  Connecting a printer?  Gonna be a fair amount of work navigating menus and screens on Windows.  On Linux?  It just appears, little/no work needed.  Plugging in a USB drive?  If you so much as put it on a different port than last time (or it's new), Windows will take a minute or two to "install device drivers".  On Linux, it just works.

Which is funny because 15 years ago it was exactly the opposite way around—you had to research whether things would work or not on Linux before buying them (which is still a habit I have when buying a new device), and even if they did it was often only achievable after downloading a bunch of C from some dude's Sourceforge archive and compiling and installing it yourself.

I think what Linux ended up doing was boiling things down to their bare essentials and saying "all mice will use this driver, all printers will use this driver," etc. and then each device driver is just variations on the theme. Which means that if you get some fancy mouse with extra buttons and programmable colored lights or whatever, while the extra bells and whistles may not work as well as it does on Windows, it will at the very least function as a mouse.

[ZLoth]

This guy remembers having to modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in MS-DOS in order to ensure that the proper interrupts were set so that your soundcard and mouse worked properly. And, we're talking a serial mouse, not a USB mouse.

[Dirt Roads]

If you want to play games that is easier with a touch input device, get a U.S.B. one such as a drawing pad ... or perhaps a micro monitor also.

In the past, I would do most of my laptop gaming in a workstation environment.  If that is suitable to you, consider adding a new touchscreen monitor.  They are not that expensive, and you get the added advantage of going into dual screen mode when desired.

I've never been a big touchscreen user myself, but I've done a bunch of work on kiosks used for a local historical museum.  Their most recent version of touchscreen monitors have outlasted the life of the tower PCs running them.  If you are not a hard touchscreen user, you'd probably get a good return on a $230 investment.

So here's where my technical knowledge is lacking. Will the laptop support a standalone touch screen monitor if the laptop itself isn't a touchscreen.

Assuming you're running Windows on it, the device manufacturer should provide driver software for it that will make it work if Windows doesn't support it natively. (This is not an assumption I can make as a Linux user, unfortunately.)

Indeed, the driver software comes with the monitors.  However, the ones that I last worked with actually found the appropriate drivers on the hard drive such that no additional drivers were required.

You got my curiosity up, so I checked Amazon for a touch screen monitor, then googled ASUS VT229H for a manual. It appears that you have two connections from the computer to the monitor: The video connection (HDMI and VGA in this example) and USB for the touch functionality. (Plus power ). That actually makes sense since USB is used for HID (Human Interface Devices) such as keyboards and mice.

Of course, this is an educated guess.

The older versions used VGA/HDMI plus USB.  Chances are good that your new laptop doesn't have VGA or HDMI anymore, but it might have DVI or DisplayPort outputs.  Most touchscreen monitors are going to come with VGA/HDMI/DP capabilities, but you might need to look harder if you only have a DVI output.

Since many portable monitors can operate USB only, I was anticipating that there would be some touchscreen monitors that would work the same way.  I haven't found any.  Of course, that wouldn't be very good for games with intense graphics. 

[ZLoth]

You got my curiosity up, so I checked Amazon for a touch screen monitor, then googled ASUS VT229H for a manual. It appears that you have two connections from the computer to the monitor: The video connection (HDMI and VGA in this example) and USB for the touch functionality. (Plus power ). That actually makes sense since USB is used for HID (Human Interface Devices) such as keyboards and mice.

Of course, this is an educated guess.

The older versions used VGA/HDMI plus USB.  Chances are good that your new laptop doesn't have VGA or HDMI anymore, but it might have DVI or DisplayPort outputs.  Most touchscreen monitors are going to come with VGA/HDMI/DP capabilities, but you might need to look harder if you only have a DVI output.

Since many portable monitors can operate USB only, I was anticipating that there would be some touchscreen monitors that would work the same way.  I haven't found any.  Of course, that wouldn't be very good for games with intense graphics.

To my defense, I was just using one monitor as an example, and seeing the hookup. Touchscreen monitors really didn't take off as expected although they are in use for some applications.

While VGA and DVI can be considered "obsolete" technologies (with minor exceptions), DisplayPort (DP) and HDMI are very much current standards. I checked my mother's miniPC, and it has a single DP and HDMI port as well. And, unless it's a thin laptop, there is probably a HDMI port for hooking up to either large televisions or projectors for presentations. This is also licensing involved as HDMI requires licensing while DP does not. They do sell DP to HDMI adapters although I would recommend the "active" version to support higher resolutions verses "passive" which only goes up to 1080p.

As for USB monitors, some may require two USB connections: One for the communication, and one for additional power if they are not powered by another power source.

[Scott5114]

It really threw me for a loop when I got the video card for this computer to find nothing but DisplayPort on it...I had to run around and get some new cables because I thought HDMI was the only current standard!

[epzik8]

I was interested in a touch screen laptop at one point, but such excitement has faded away for me.

[Bobby5280]

It's not all that difficult to swap out the display in a notebook as long as the replacement panel fits and is compatible. The trick is not being too forceful popping open the parts that snap open and keeping all the little screws and other stuff organized.

Around 2008 I had a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook whose LCD display went kaput. The two cold cathode fluorescent lamps failed. You could shine a flashlight into the display and still see the LCD details working; it just didn't back-light anymore. A friend of mine sent me a part from a "decommissioned" Dell Latitude notebook (his company had several of these things laying around no longer in use). Replacing the display involved removing the notebook keyboard as well as taking apart the monitor portion. The process seemed scary but it wasn't too bad just focusing on it step by step. As a nice bonus my notebook got a resolution jump from 1680x1050 to 1920x1200. I got another couple years of life out of that notebook.

For a brand new notebook, I'd check on the return policy first to see if an exchange/upgrade is possible. It would also be a good idea to check on warranty details. If an end user cracks open the case, such as trying to swap out monitor panels, it could void the warranty. Most computers from big companies like Dell have service tags which also track their original purchased configuration.

I agree with others who've said touch screens on notebooks are overrated. I have a Wacom tablet hooked up to my current notebook (an Alienware system); that works alright, although I have to keep Windows Ink disabled in the tablet driver otherwise I'll be overtaken with blinding rage. For drawing things directly on a computer screen I think an iPad Pro (and Apple Pencil) is a great alternative. I use one of those things for sketching things in Photoshop or Illustrator. I can "zap" the work to my PC to edit it further.

[NWI_Irish96]

Update: the hardware in my laptop does not support a touchscreen display, even if I were to connect to one.

My model is supposed to, but for some reason doesn't. I'm entitled to a replacement, but I've spent the better part of a couple of days customizing, downloading apps, etc., so I'm not going to bother.