I’m afraid if the display is actually dead then most of the options to keep the laptop computing will likely be “too nerdy” for you. Pretty much all of them will involve using it as a headless server.
To make it easy, start off with plugging your old laptop into external monitor. Install RDP, VNC, ssh, ftp depending on your OS. Install tailscale and join the network. Now with another computer, connect to that same network with tailscale and then you can connect and see your laptop screen with RDP. Or if you want VNC you can get a “dummy” hdmi adapter or try installing software for dummy monitor output. After that, use wired ethernet to plug old laptop in router, set to never turn off (recommend removing laptop battery beforehand) and there you go, you have your own personal server you can access anywhere including your phone! From there, look into self-hosting with apps like jellyfin, immich, etc. tons of great resources online.
If you run any services (jellyfin / a media server, torrents, document storage, etc), have them run on it.
@dessalines sounds interesting, but how does something like jellyfin work on a laptop without any display ?
You use the laptop to run the server that dishes up the content for the client devices that have working displays to watch on
@tophneal too nerdy stuff for me.
I’m afraid if the display is actually dead then most of the options to keep the laptop computing will likely be “too nerdy” for you. Pretty much all of them will involve using it as a headless server.
You won’t be able to do this then. You’d need to learn your way around linux, servers, ssh, etc to be able to run these services.
To make it easy, start off with plugging your old laptop into external monitor. Install RDP, VNC, ssh, ftp depending on your OS. Install tailscale and join the network. Now with another computer, connect to that same network with tailscale and then you can connect and see your laptop screen with RDP. Or if you want VNC you can get a “dummy” hdmi adapter or try installing software for dummy monitor output. After that, use wired ethernet to plug old laptop in router, set to never turn off (recommend removing laptop battery beforehand) and there you go, you have your own personal server you can access anywhere including your phone! From there, look into self-hosting with apps like jellyfin, immich, etc. tons of great resources online.