Dual brand, LCD touchscreen based car stereo

[rwgast_lowlevellogicdesin]

I just bought a used toyota 4runner for work, which is wireless ISP and microwave back haul in the desert. The thing came with a dual brand touchscreen lcd head unit. The problem is the touch screen doesnt work!!! Now im not sure why a touchscreen would fail besides a loose connector, but if I remove the head unit and open it up what are the chances I can get touch working again? See I have already converted a MacMini to linux and converted it to run on 12v. I wanted to make a special screen for GPS and Software Defined radio, but im not even sure how dvi out converted to a composite input on a wide lcd will look. I use a mounted laptop arm/table and laptop for work related stuff.

Having dual fix the screen is 80 buck and they are 99 new so thats a bit dumb, and if I buy a new head unit i will spend money to get hdmi in, but id rather use what i have!

[james_s]

Look for loose connections, the touch digitizer is often connected separately, it could either be a nice capacitive screen or one of the cheap resistive types.

Personally I hate touchscreens though. I tolerate it on my phone and GPS but for a head unit just give me a knob and an array of nicely laid out buttons that I can operate by feel.