Just a few queries about my CF-18

Good evening everyone. I just joined this site recently and it is a great site with lots of knowledgeable members with a certain amount of friendly comradship. It is what made me feel comfortable enough to join up. I even read ToughBooks Official CF 29 Sticky non-stop from 7-pm up to 3-am the following early morning, heh heh, that`s how much I wanted to absorb this new interest. Eventually, I too hope to be able to offer knowledge/assistance to other fellow newcomers and/or veterans to this experience. But for starters I must admit that I need a little help.

After buying my CF-29 and a CF-M34, I also purchased a CF-18 ( all three via eBay bids seperately ). It arrived two days ago and I am still playing around with it. Currently using it to type on with Ubuntu 9.04 Persistence on a flash storage ( CF-18 didn`t come with a H.D. but seller included the caddy, so I was a bit lucky in that department ). Battery has been calibrated, getting approx 4 hours. Other than being a well used, bits of nicks here-and-there, this machine works very nice. But I`m just wondering about a few things:

1) At the front, to the right of the latch, the shield for the push switches is missing. For the moment I`m not too worried, but eventually I will want to correct this. Can a replacement be found easily? Once I get one, do I just stick it on (glue-backing) or is there a special procedure?

2) At the bottom area, where the battery is located, there are a few round holes, and it looks like several more holes will form if punched with a tool of sorts. I was thinking of just using some blk duct tape to cover them up against moisture or from other liquids from entering. Will this be sufficient as a temporary fix, until I`m ready for a proper repair (replace entire bottom housing? etc)? Did any CF-18 owner ever experience this, and what did you do to repair it?

3) Is there anyway of using the SD-media slot as a boot drive at all? If I could just load up an SD Card with Live CD files it would be very convenient, as opposed to my using a multi card reader with an USB cable....

4) In some other topics there has been mentioned the Engenious(sp?) WiFi card. I was thinking of buying such a card for my CF-29 toughbook, but is that also compatible with the CF-18s? If anyone reading this (vets and newcomers) has any experience I`d like to hear from you about that setup.

5) I am currently using a T41 charger to recharge both the CF-29 and the CF-18. Center positive, outer negative, 15 or 16v. The M34 I`m using an iGo ice laptop multi-tip charger. Would using a non-Panasonic charger harm them greatly? ( I am currently waiting delivery on replacement Panasonic type chargers for both the two bigger Toughbooks).

I appreciate any help in getting these questions answered by any of you fellow Toughbook fans. P.S. I had also bought the MoGo PCMCIA Mouse, it works most spectacularly on my CF-18 ( which to my surprise has working Bluetooth) with Ubuntu. The other two Toughbooks don`t have internal Bluetooth, so I had made previous purchases of those micro Bluetooth adapters I read about in one or two other topics, waiting on those to arrive.

Again, thank you for any assistance you may be able to give to me and others in a similar situation.

shin shish10h.

 

Welcome to the site. Post a picture of the bottom of your machine. There is not suppose to be holes. Also post your model number so that we might have a better idea how to help you. The switches on the front of the machine are to rotate the screen, adjust screen brightness, etc. The hard drive for your caddy is an IDE. I have a 100gb in mine. I do not believe you can boot from the SD, but I will defer to someone who has tried.

 

The only way you would have holes in that location is if the black plastic sticker was peeled off. If you remove the bottom cover you will see the inside magnesium has many holes. Not sure why but I guess it is either for heat dissipation or weight reduction.

 

I have used this card in my CF-18 and CF-29's. They work great and I got it here ENGENIUS WIRELESS MINIPCI EMP-8602 PLUS-S Free S&H NEW - eBay (item 230488517343 end time Aug-15-10 08:15:12 PDT) . $30.00 bucks with free shipping, you can't go wrong. I just wish I would of bought more of them when he was selling them for $20.00 a pop.

 

Welcome to the forum! I see you have the disease also!

1. You need to post your full model number... Preferably from the BIOS... If it is the WWAN switch... You need a new switch face that has a connector n the back You can take off the bottom plate to access... Which you will need to do anyway for;

2. Yes... The bottom plate has a series of holes with a covering of very tough plastic. These areas CAN be punctured... But also can be repaired. I would not use duct tape as that is too insulative. We are talking heat pipe technology and it needs to breath and shed heat!

3. Check your BIOS to see if it is a bootable device!

4. The Engenous 600mW card is perfect for both the CF-29 AND CF-18! We use them a lot around here and is pretty much the card of choice for 99% of us here.

5. Check the spec sheet... The CF-18 charger will work for the CF-29... But will charge it more slowly... The CF-29 can work for the CF-18 it will charge it more quickly. But check the spec sheet for the OEM to make sure!

We look forward to you sticking around and contributing to the group knowledge base!

 

Thank you so much for the replies thus far. I meant to repost with the model number right away but I forgot. Here are the numbers for each of the Toughbooks:

CF-29H3LGZBM ( I`ve reloaded XP onto this unit, SP3, a few extra progs, currently 60GB H.D., 768MB Ram.)

CF-M34NPFZQM ( 700MHz PIII and 256MB SD Ram, no H.D/Caddy/Batt./Charger, but it powers up and I went into BIOS to double check things, No OS as yet, if it were able to boot from USB flash drives and not only USB floppy, I would have used Ubuntu/Knoppix/Puppy on it. I intend to use this unit as a server of sorts for my home since it is compact enough to be tucked away in a corner. Will get a H.D. + Caddy sooner or later )

CF-18KHHZBBM ( No H.D. currently but seller included a Caddy, so that is one less frustration, 512MB Ram. Currently, via USB Flash reader, using Ubuntu 9.04, Wifi and Bluetooth work well.)

How does one post pictures? I`ll try to use my PDA`s camera as I don`t have a regular Digi. camera in the morning before I head off for work.

Again, thank you guys.

shin shish10h

 

Your CF-18....

Intel Pentium M 753 1.2GHzULV (Centrino), 10.4" Touch Screen XGA, 60GB, 512MB, Intel 802.11a+b+g, WIN XP SP2, Bluetooth, Dual pass through, No Drive

You have no WWAN... You may have a sticker that has peeled off... Either that or perhaps someone started to install it and ran out of parts. You would need to open it up to see. Fashioning a new cover is no sweat... I used to cut my own out of the excess plastic pieces that Panny put in other areas of CF-28s that I removed to do mods. I just cut it to size and use permanent double sided tape to adhere it in place. When finished it was permanent and you couldn't tell it from stock.

 

To the right of the latch are the membrane switches for the tablet functions you need those.

 

Hi everyone, I took photos using my old Clie UX-50 pda (I apologise for the quality of photos) and opened a Photobucket account to upload a few of them to give you all a better idea on the CF18`s condition.

http://s769.photobucket.com/albums/xx335/K1ngLe0/Toughbook CF18/

Please let me know if you can see the pictures. And yes, I think it is time to invest in a proper digital camera. That is going next on my purchase list .

shin shish10h

 

Yup... You need either a scrape one up from someone here or order one from heartland. Its a long sticky-backed switch with a connector on the back that goes through the laptop.

As far as the bottom.... You can look for a replacement or (I think) Heartland sells those as well... Though they may not stock them. (It might be a backordered item.) Short of that... You could try to pop off the back, push the plastic back in place and secure it with a dab of silicone... Or Kapton tape.

 

Toughbook (or anyone reading this), based on my CF-18`s model#, does it need DDR2 SODIMM or DDR1-SODIMM? Reason I am asking is just a little while ago, being curious, I attempted to place the CF-29`s 512 Ram stick into the CF-18 which I discovered to have an empty slot. But it won`t fit due to the notch being off a tad bit to the side. The CF-18 BIOS currently states 512MB, so I`m guessing an onboard chip. I promptly reinstalled the CF-29`s chip back to its machine.

I`m unsure as to what "mark" my CF-18 falls under. Did earlier "marks" use just DDR1 SO-DIMM, while my particular unit and subsequent models use DDR-2 SO-DIMMs? Or, are all CF-18s supposed to use DDR1 SO-DIMM?

I was planning to buy 1GB memory upgrades and H.D.s for the 29 and the 18, but I`ll wait for a reply from someone who has dealt with this type of scenario before I buy the wrong memory.

Thank you in advance.

shin shish10h

 

You should be able to put in a 1GB stick of 200 pin DDR2 5300 and have it work.

 

Not sure what you want to spend but here are a few
Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 - Bottom Base - Replacement - eBay (item 110571034417 end time Sep-07-10 17:16:16 PDT)
or this Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 Bottom CoverSticker BRAND NEW - eBay (item 220489214241 end time Aug-28-10 17:59:52 PDT)

 

UPDATE:


I had bought two 160GB H.D.s, two Engenius 600mW cards and 1GB each of DDR SODIMM (CF-29) and DDR2 SODIMM (CF18).

Made a Win XP USB installer flash drive, installed one drive into CF18`s Caddy. USB install and loaded drivers and some programs. Then the RAM modules arrived after and installed them into each respective machine. Finally today, the two Engenius wifi cards arrived ( after a shipping delay ), dove right into installing them and fired each machine up. You all were not kidding about the Engenius cards!! I`m able to detect more networks than before with the stock WiFi cards! I took the CF18 out earlier this evening driving around the neighbourhood to test. It was able to detect a whole slew of networks of varying signal strengths I never saw with the stock cards before. Add one more recommendation for the Engenius EMP 8602+ S WiFi MiniPCI card!

Towards the weekend I plan on "ghosting" the remaining 160GB HD and install that into my CF29, then partition it. Then I`ll store the removed 60GB H.D. for when I get a CF-M34 Caddy+Cable.

I will consider toughasnails` Base Sticker recommendation in a future repair, since the CF18`s removal isn`t so difficult as I once feared.

Toughbook, is Kapton tape better as a breathable medium as opposed to using a little electrical tape as a temporary measure?

Once again, thanks to everybody for the advice and help I`ve received thus far.


shin shish10h

 

Thinking on putting the engenius into my cf-18 Mk.5. Any advice? Particularly about opening up the back for the first time? Thanks in advance.

 

It's not hard , just take your time. The Engenius card works great in all my toughbooks.