CF-29 Mk 5-the story so far...

Excuse my rambling...!
So I'm at work the other day, being a surveyor's assistant. While clearing some blackberry bushes on the side of the road, what do I spy gleaming thru the darkness?
A CF-29N. Now, My girlfriend hates that I bring things home from 'the ditch' (anything not found in a store brand new is from 'the ditch'), but how could I resist?! It's a hobby of mine to install Linux on any old PC I can find...
So, I drag it out, beside it in a bundle was the ac adapter as well-weird. took it home, cleaned it up a bit on the outside, and dried it out for a couple of days...
Took the harddrive out, and stuck it in my Vaio, booted from a Linux DVD, mounted the drive and found the last files written to the disk were in March 2010-so it's been sitting in the rain and wind for 8 months or so-could there be any hope? I have it at a laptop repair shop getting tested-when I plugged it in at home, it made a medium long beep, three or four LEDs lit up, and then went black, while the battery light changed from orange to red. no boot, no POST, etc.no harddrive noise.

Maybe Ill keep you posted-any other stories like this out there? Is there any hope?

 

Maybe there is some clue on the drive as to who owns it?

 

well, I did try to figure that out-I figured it was stolen-since I can't access their outlook data, or user profile, cos it's MS proprietary formats, I used what other evidence I could find to email who i thought was the likely owner. so far no answer.
There was hardly anything on the drive-Vista, with a startup error ( a common one from what I read on forums), so my theory is that they got Vista installed, ran into this problem and chucked it...
Not knowing what they had...
On the other hand, who actually throws a computer into the bushes? Stolen is the more likely answer, I think.
The only positive factor being there wasn't any work on the drive-a couple of .wmv's and some URLs in the favourites.
Feels sort of like Archeology, building stories out of the evidence...

 

Call 800-LAPTOP5 and report the serial number... They may be able to tell you who owns it. Perhaps a reward... Or maybe the police may show up at your door...

It's best to call... We've been down this path before.

 

Wow, makes me want to drive north for a road trip if they have Toughbooks just laying alongside the road in Canada........

 

I think panasonic testing support group left that unit and come back after a year to see if it still in running condition, Lol.


ohlip

 

A Dull owner tyring to prove a point. Even if it lasted the elements, nobody will pick up such a heavy machine and walk away with it willingly.

 

You forgot to mention obsolete!!

 

Well, as I suspected, it has a bad motherboard-no surprise really...
So I guess I'll check out the sales forum and see if I can't find a new one...or maybe cram a different setup inside? LOL. 2 netbooks? 4 iPhones and an Android? Bong and a Blintz...No?
I wonder if you could make a cluster from multiple Android phones-LOLOL
Maybe someone wants parts?

 

Not from a potentially stolen machine. You should really call Panny to check it out.

 

I assume you mean Panasonic?
i will do that now...

 

waiting to hear from Panasonic, supplied the S/N and M/N.

 

So, Panasonic informed me today that this Toughbook belongs to a well services company in Alberta. So we are shipping it home to be with it's family in time for Xmas. Godspeed, Toughy!
Thanks to Toughbook for insisting I get it checked out.

 

Good on ya to have it checked out. Makes for a good story tho.