Christmas & another try at a cf-52

SO a few years back I bought a cf-74 for my daughter from an outstanding seller on Ebay~ & I knew I was paying the long dollar but I was sending her off to college~ She is rough on laptops & I must of replaced hinges 3 times on lesser brands~

So this year I find a cf-52 i5 2.53 Model Number:CF-52MLBDD1M less hard drive, caddy & battery cover & a scratched palm rest 9k hours. $$300 shipped. I started offering @ $100 & haggled me to $150 delivered.

It arrived today & the palm rest is better than expected and she's runn'n "Ubuntu" off the dvd drive fine. I have a copy of Windows 7 on the way, already had a caddy with a small drive & all's I need to get next is a decent sized drive ~ I'm on a budget, but if everything keeps going as smooth as it is, I'll spring for a ssd drive around 250 G~ what has worked for you Thanks



PS ~A big thanks to ADOR for keeping me on track!

 

52 is a practical setup for many non-extreme uses. Yours has the HD display and ATI graphics which is nice for modest gaming etc. As for an SSD, I'm kinda partial to the Samsung EVO (like most everybody else) but really all that top-tier speed is wasted cuz most Toughbooks don't run faster than Sata 1/1.5. A better value would be Kingston, they have fallen out of favor for not performing up to spec, but I feel are still reliable and you can get a 240GB for well under $100 shopping around.

CF-52MLBDD1M Description:
Win7, Intel Core i5-540M 2.53GHz, vPro, 15.4" WUXGA, 250GB, 2GB, Intel WiFi a/b/g/n, Multi-drive, Bluetooth, ATI Discrete Graphics, Smartcard, Toughbook Preferred

 

Great advice, Springfield. I have several smaller Kingston SSD's in my 19, 30, & 52 and they've performed well these past few years. That i5 is also a nice plus.
Congratulations, Low_Bridge on bargain hunting!

 

No problem, glad I could help. I didn't realize you had talked them down some, you got a very good deal.

 

We have 2 other 1.8 duo cores CF-52 that we like a lot. I find "best offers" are really worth trying the worst they can do is not answer back....I I'll look at those ssd's Thanks all!

 

Congrats! Be careful of Kingston and read recent reviews. That is the drive I used to buy and I have been happy with mine. But others are starting to complain about issues. (Read Amazon and Newegg reviews)

Go with the Samsung EVO.

 

What will I need besides the standard Caddy (which I have) & do I need to make sure it comes with an "adapter"?

 

The only adapter you might need is for thickness of the drive, but the foam in the caddy may take up enough you won't need it. If not just a touch of foam will have it set.

 

So far so good but the Panasonic site keeps failing on the download of the wifi drivers.... Any alternate down load sites?
Thanlks

Panasonic Toughbook Computer Support Downloads

 

I never install the wifi drivers, I just let windows do it. I hate intel proset software. I let windows manage it.

 

Agreed,let Windows do it.

 

Hmm every thing seems good I just cant get a wifi connection.... I have one Exclamation mark under other devices noted as a network ontroller...

As a side note all devices passed in the cmos test if that means anything.

 

Sounds like the drivers never loaded for the wifi card. Do you know what wifi card you have ?

 

No I'm not sure of the wifi card.....I feel I've lost my base line of what to do next..but i did get online with a wire...

 

Did you use a Panasonic restore disk to load W7? Why I ask is on my 52MK2 and MK4 I had problems loading the wifi drivers and had to go to Intel's web page to get the drivers.

 

I used a service pack 1 64 bit windows 7 disk that I ended up getting Then started through the sequence as directed on the Panasonic web site pdf instruction

 

What's the BIOS version reported on the first page of BIOS setup?

 

Intel 82567LM Gigabit network connection. 10.0.2.2 is working for me.

I would install only from the Intel site.

 

I'm betting it has a special BIOS with wifi disabled....
Boot the Live Linux CD and check the wifi then..
Is the wireless switch under the handle ON or OFF?

 

You are probably right. In my case this is W7 32bit. I have old downloads on a 8G stick. I think I just pointed the device manager at the stick.
And I don't have any idea how many times the switch was off.

 

The Bios is reporting V3.00L14

I Have Puppy Lunix Will will that work???

Thanks all...

& the switch by the handle is on

 

Yah! Puppy will do it.

 

Dang....... What do I do???

 

Truly?
1. Sign up at Toughbooktalk so I check for questions more often.
2. Boot Puppy Linux as a Live CD.
3. Open a terminal. (might be a right click)
4. Type dmesg {enter}

I'll keep watching this....otherwise PM me.

EDIT: ON PUPPY..... TERMINAL IS [ALT] [T]
Type dmesg [enter]
Type lspci [enter]

Call me.

 

One more time as I am confused.

1, Is this the 52M? (by the numbers it is a abgn wireless.)
2. Have you set bios to defaults?

 

Update!

I tried another download / version from Panasonic as it appeared as my wan directory wasn't being created.


Success!

I BIG thanks All!

Update~ Scored a SSD 240 Gig New in the box for $63 delivered. I wanted to make sure this machine was proven out before I invested any more into it. My daughters going to Geek out Christmas moving from the CF-74 2.0 to this machine. Thanks to ya'lls direction I'm into this baby at well under $250 clams :thumbsup:

 

Did you add the "I AM NOT A HANDLE" decal to the lid?

Your welcome.

 

OK~ waiting on the Registration approval on the other site.... The unit is purring like a kitten with the little 80 Gig. The ssd 240 Haven't taken her out of the plastic yet. will this drive clone or just get her in & reinstall the same as I have all the drivers?
Thanks

 

Re install is probably best as cloning a platter drive to a SSD is not recommended.

However a clone can be done and will work as long as you tweak the SSD after it is installed...I have done it many times..

See this page.. http://www.ssdfreaks.com/content/664/how-to-clone-hdd-to-ssd-with-windows-7s-own-software

 

yeah , you can clone the drive ... this works great if one has a bunch of programs that are "involved" and require registration (think : a laptop set up as a mobile office) .
if you can get away with , start from scratch .
heh ... you'll be amazed at how fast the process goes .
you can sit back and marvel at how long it used to take to get a system up and running .