Dead CF-28, need suggestions

To make a long and convoluted story short, I was in the market for a Toughbook back in February of this year, and, one thing led to another and I ended up with two of them instead of just one.

I told myself I was going to put the second (slower and more beat up) one back up on eBay soon, but, things in life got a bit on the busy side, and I've only just gotten some free time again.

I decided finally on Friday that it was time to get it ready for sale. It'd basically been sitting there unplugged collecting dust since April or so.

So I think I'll just wipe it off a little, reinstall Windows from the restore CDs, and that'll be that.

Not quite...

I turn it on, the power light comes up, the battery charging light is orange, the MP and hard drive lights are solid, and then.... nothing.

The LCD never comes on, the speaker never beeps, the hard drive never spins up, the keyboard backlight stays unlit.

It stays that way until I turn it off by holding down the power switch for ten seconds.

The last time I used the thing it booted up no problem, and I haven't so much as touched it since, it's just been sitting there. The only thing that could have possibly changed between then and now is the CMOS battery went dead. But I've never heard of a CMOS battery taking the entire machine down with it.


I did a search of this forum and wasn't able to find a problem that seemed to match my symptoms... so I am definitely open to suggestion. I don't want to sell the thing as-is for parts.

 

Ummm go with your gut on this one mate, if you think its the C' battery, check it with a muilt-meter. and work down the list you have there.

yer I've never heard of them going flat too, but you could be a 1st

 

I pulled the CMOS battery from my second working CF-28 and plugged it into the mainboard on the second machine, hoping it was something that simple.

(I don't ever recommend disassembling a Toughbook, by the way, they're like Japanese puzzle boxes).

Nothing. Same results as before.

As I had the thing half apart anyway I took the liberty of taking it ALL the way apart, then putting it back together again, making entirely certain that every connection was snug, every screw tight, not so much as a speck of dust on any exposed surface.

Still won't boot.

 

It almost sounds like you have a short somewhere... Something stopping it from booting. You can't even get into setups? Was it not working before you took it apart? Maybe crossed a wire or something. Static shock to something?

 

Basically, aside from the power light coming on, from all outwards appearances it's still turned off.

I'm pretty sure there aren't any crossed wires... in trying to see if one particular object was the problem, I disconnected EVERYTHING from the mainboard, except the power switch plug and lines to the monitor, and got the same thing.

It was working a few months ago, then, when I went to turn it on (for the first time in a few months) suddenly it wasn't, so I took it apart trying to find a cause.

And I don't know how it could have gotten a static shock sitting there doing nothing... unless a bolt of lightning came in through my window while I was out.

 

hi i'm new-nice to see toughbook followers-they're great! sounds like a possible power loss issue-try power up with a known good battery and different power supply if possible or power up with no battery and eject your mp and all other equip. and remove all ram(bare bones)

 

thats exactly what i would advice too, take eveything or it battery,hd,ram...etc and then boot it,
also is it giving you any beep codes............

 

If the battery (main battery, not cmos) is down far enough it acts as a power sink drawing everything away
from the computer.

Do as just suggested, pull everything - including the battery - and power up and note the beeps. Then one at a time (battery last) reinsert RAM - power up, HDD, power up, battery, power up. Slow process but should ID
what it is that has failed.

 

That's the thing though... The first thing I tried was removing everything, down to the bare motherboard, no attachments other than the cables to the LCD (and I've even tried taking those off), and nothing.

No beeps, no hard drive spin up, not so much as a flicker of the LCD. Aside from the power light coming on, the MP light coming on solid, and the HDD light coming on for a few seconds then turning off, it just sits there doing absolutely nothing, and continues doing so until I hard turn it off by holding down the power switch for ten seconds.

I've tried different batteries, both main battery and CMOS, about the only thing I haven't tried is swapping out the mainboard with my working CF-28, and that's because I'm worried about frying that one as well. Better to have one working Toughbook than destroying them both trying to get the other one back to life.

 

I had a compaq do the same thing right after I had flashed the bios. Needless to say it was toast.

 

i've also seen a sony vaio do this same delema-i offered to look at it for the person but i never heard back-sorry

 

if you have taken it apart why not jump start it off the motherboard,
maybe ur power switch(on/off) as gone, not very common problem but maybe could be the problem here,
just re-route the wire from the switch to the motherboard and start it from there........

 

Hi,

I'd reseat all the boards and connections on the mainboard. Could also be localized to the dc adapter connector on the mainboard. Check it with a multimeter on the board to see your 15v (do this on a rubber mat and remember about grounding). Check the solder connections as well as over time the connections get brittle and the stress of plugging it in and moving it around while plugged in break the pins in various ways at the solder junction. I see this alot on alot of older laptops.

I'm putting together a CF-28 from parts. Damn these components are expensive. I wanted to test the durability of this laptop with my kids. LOL.

SIN

 

Hey SINternet... How close to Jamestown are you? My brother-in-law lives there. Good advice I started reading this from the beginning again and thought about corrosion on the connections. If the laptop has EVER been taken apart before that is a real possibility.

(Of topic)... I love my dual battery setup! 6+ hours on my two batts... Gotta love it!

By the way (Sin) do you still need any parts? I have a few laying around. Though I'm trying to rebuild it if the guy on ebay ever emails me back about the 1Ghz Mobo he supposedly has!

 

don't swap motherboards. there'd be little to gain other than satisfying your curiousity. you might try the LCD panel off the bad unit on your working one (pretty easy swap) so you can verify it works. Then, since you talked about selling it on ebay, part it out and the only part you won't be able to sell as tested/working is the motherboard.

Oh and BTW the CMOS battery has nothing to do with it, I've powered up 28 motherboards w/o the battery attached (to clear a password) and they boot up just fine.

 

what models are they, 28m, p, or s?

 

Im guessing that you have a 28p, if so your problem is the board, or more specifically the r16 resistor on the board, its a common problem with the 28p's.