Bought a CF-51 for cheap... worth fixing?

Just got a cf-51lcmddbm for $20 from the local electronic scrap place.

I've installed 2gb RAM (one 2gb stick... won't see above 2gb I guess) and a new 80gb 7200rpm drive.

It has a Pentium M 740 SL7SA 1.73GHz CPU in it. Not sure what revision laptop I have here but it must be early as this unit can't use a Core Duo like many CF-51's I've seen.

It needs a new LCD due to being cracked.

I'd like to know what I can upgrade the CPU to (the threads I've seen are all about the Dual Cores and up, not the older model).

The LCD looks to be around $60 on ebay.

Thoughts?

 

I just replaced a broken LCD on a 51 recently and the cheapest I found it for on ebay was about $250... Chances are that that $60 will NOT NOT NOT work... We had to buy 3 different screens before we got one that worked... and even that one had a line in it!!

 

Wow I hope you didn't get ripped off! Here's what I've found:

CF-51 CHI MEI 15" XGA LCD SCREEN N150X3-L05 REV.C2 - eBay (item 170545266881 end time Nov-24-10 21:14:13 PST)

SCREEN FOR PANASONIC CF-51 LAPTOP - WHOLE SCREEN LCD - eBay (item 350404506850 end time Nov-14-10 16:30:24 PST)

PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK CF-51 15" LAPTOP LCD SCREEN TESTED - eBay (item 320587247914 end time Nov-06-10 10:49:23 PDT)

15" LCD SCREEN FOR PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK CF-51 N150X3-L07 - eBay (item 370416481655 end time Nov-02-10 11:03:47 PDT)

Panasonic Toughbook CF-51 LCD Screen Complete 15.1" - eBay (item 370447141534 end time Nov-17-10 13:34:31 PST)

 

Your model supports the Pentium M only. The 1.73GHz chip is a "Dothan" core (the second of two generations of Pentium M CPUs). See the following Wikipedia list of all Pentium M processors - you're interested only in the "Dothan, standard voltage" section:

List of Intel Pentium M microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 2.0GHz Dothan is widely available on eBay for as low as $20 shipped (in the US). The only faster chips (and not by much) are:

2.10 GHz: I wasn't able to find it on eBay
2.13 GHz: minimum $37 shipped (eBay)
2.26 GHz: minimum $91 shipped (eBay)

It appears that the 2.0GHz chip was the fastest Pentium M that was commonly available, before they went to the Core Duo. The 2.0GHz chip is 270 MHz (13.3%) faster than your 1.73GHz chip. Personally, I don't know if that will make a noticeable difference in performance...

I did this exact same upgrade to my IBM Thinkpad T43p a year or so ago. Unfortunately, I did not run any benchmarks, but I never felt it made much of a difference. I harvested the 2.0GHz chip from a Dell Latitude D610 with a bad motherboard, so I never really had to "pay" for the unit, besides the labor involved.

I guess I'll end this with the obvious by saying it's really up to you, and how you feel about it. Some members here have a CF-51 service manual that can assist you when you open your laptop up.

On an interesting note - I actually own the exact same model (CF-51LCMDDBM), which I purchased from an eBay seller who had a whole bunch and basically put them out for about $20 each, untested. The CF-51 is in the same semi-rugged category as the CF-73, but it's curious how there are so many more CF-51s than CF-73s available on eBay, or anywhere else I've looked.

Best of luck, regardless.

 

Do you know what revision this would be? MK1? MK2? How many were there?

 

Look is your bios screen for series
In the bios version look at the first number
If It says V1.xxxx its a mk1 ect

 

Haven't seen a 73 on there. We still have them in service.

 

DESCRIPTION:
Intel Pentium M 740 1.73GHz (Centrino), 15" XGA, 256MB, 40GB, 1 Gb Ethernet, Intel 802.11a+b+g, Combo drive, FDD, Win XP SP2 , No Drive


You have a MK2LL. CF-51CMD DBM
They made 7 different MK's
MK1, 2 and 3
MK1LL , MK1LL RoHS, MK2LL and MK3LL

You can pick these 51's for $20.00-$30.00 shipped..... sending you a PM

 

Go to CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting and download CPU-Z. Install and run it. It will give you quite a bit of info about your system. Pay attention to the chipset listed under the motherboard tab. Once you see the chipset, you can do more research on the web to find out what CPUs are compatible with that chipset.