CF 28 newb

Hello all, new to the site and have a few questions. I have a CF-28 PRJGZKM 800 mghz touch screen, i am looking to boost performance as much as allowable with this platform, I plan on purchasing a new tough book for work but I want to keep this one in my vehicle. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Welcome dood... Make sure u check out the toughbook FA Q's as well!! a wealth of info can be found at my site (robsnetworks.com/toughbook) (mostly for pictures and PDF's and drivers and whatnot).

To start, make sure you max the ram out at 1GB (if someone can confirm on that number) PC133 RAM. Also consider getting yourself at least a 5400RPM hard drive and do a fresh load of XP onto it. You can get the 7200RPM drives but those cost an arm and a leg these days (because they are IDE). Also if you want long run time, consider getting a 2nd battery that goes into the multimedia pocket (in place of your floppy or optical drive of coarse).

 

Hey,

That’s the same model cf-28 I bought about 5 or 6 years ago brand new.
I think I paid about $3200 for it then.
I bought a cd drive/ caddy for it and upgraded the caddy to a dvd/cdrw.
Put in an extra 512mb ram to a total of 768mb
Upgraded the slow hdd to a 5400rpm ide 2.5 drive.
And added a rubber backlite keyboard.
The 12.1 800 x600 resolution was a bit limiting for internet for me ,but for vehicle mapping it was great.


Alex

 

I have also added the rubber backlit keyboard, the first thing I did when i bought it. Tried to install some GPS software last night, just about complete when I hear the drive making all sorts of noise and the installation process stopped. Looks like I will replacing that now as well. Thanks for the info you guys are great>

 

If you are looking to speed it up you'll want a 7200rpm hard drive and add more RAM... Just be careful about the RAM or you may waste your money. Not all 28s will take the 512 stick and will only go up to 256 added onto the original 256 that is soldered on. Believe me... I've built over 100 of the CF-28s in all sorts of configurations. Read up around here about what type of RAM to buy. You may get lucky and never have a problem but some 28s will give you the BSOD either upon start up or maybe months later with the 512 stick. There are a few that were made for the extra RAM. You may also want to trim the processes that are working in the background and definitely the startup folder. Turning things off like "indexing for faster searching" can speed up your laptop. There was a thread started about this very subject not too long ago... It probably is in the last few pages here... Definitely worth a look!