Cant Figure Out My CF-28....

Hey guys, I looked through some of the threads already but I couldn't find all the answers I needed. Sorry if this has aleady been covered. I bought this CF-28 from a guy who didn't know anything about it. The model number is CF-28PTJ11QM but when I run that on the config site it comes up with no model found under that number. Thats even the number it gives me in BIOS. Also it has an antenna and blue wire run through it and a gold antenna connection on the back but theres no wireless card in it, and since I cant find it on the config site I dont know what it has or was supposed to have. Do you think someone took out the wireless card? What do I need to add to make it have wireless again. Would a Rim board CDPD wireless work with this? Id appreciate any help!

 

Pictures of my set up:

 

Unless I am totally looking at it wrong, that appears to be a 29. Can someone confirm this? I don't recall my 28 having USB in the back; the RAM location appears to be the 29 location; and the huge cavity you have on the bottom right of the picture appears to be the media bay slot of a 29. The antenna and gold connection on the back means that your unit is pre-wired for WWAN, but if it is indeed a 29, then the sled is missing which carries the WWAN card. Hard to tell from the picture, but the blue cord could be bluetooth setup?

EDIT: Ok, I see it now. It is a 28, the left side of Pic1 is the front of the machine. And I DO remember the USB in the back now!! hehehe. The gold connection on the back is a pre-wire setup for a docking station and that is the pass-thru for your wireless modem I believe. The antenna is also for your wireless modem. It is still hard to see from the picture, but gold card in the top left of the first picture appears to probably be a combo card (wireless and LAN), and below that, exposed by taking the "bump out cover" off on the side just below the LAN plug is the HIDDEN PCMIA card slot which could have a bluetooth card installed.

That's all I see for now....

 

Connor -

It appears your unit was originally outfitted with the CDPD wireless option; the length of the built-in antenna (if it is original) is a giveaway on that. CDPD wireless is defunct; it was based on Analog Cellular technology, which all US carriers discontinued service in February(Which is why we suddenly had an explosion of off-lease CF-28s last summer). It appears someone has attempted to hack a wireless card into this unit using the MODEM/LAN Combo Card + WiFi Card approach outlined on this and other forums. If they did a poor job hacking the antenna cable, and/or did NOT do the CDPD antenna base hack, then they probably got a wicked crappy signal and that's why they got rid of it.

Check out Modly's FAQ here for details and links on how the WiFi mod is SUPPOSED to be done:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210510

And my posts here for info on how to make the CDPD antenna function as a halfway decent WiFi antenna:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=215522&page=2

Good hunting,

mnem
Awwww, mom-m-m-m... I don't WANT to put away my transdimensional polyphasic intarwarp coil accumulator yet...

 

You may have a cellular wireless card stuck in the hidden PCMCIA slot. That blue wire is running towards that location anyways... so it's a good bet.

It's probably Verizon or Sprint, and isn't something I would use for internet...

I'd suggest what mnementh said, and getting a mini-PCI wireless card.

 

What he said... You definitely have a CF-28... And sometime the configurator doesn't take the model number you feed into it. So... Here's what you do. Pick a generic number and stick into it. Or take the one that comes up and switch it to match the one that you have.

You used to have som sort of wireless card in there... Have you shecked to see what's in there now... If any?