Just got my $299 CF-29 off of eBay

Just picked up a CF-29 on ebay for $299 with free shipping. Advertised as having marks on the screen and virus problems. Was also missing the power port cover, battery, or CD drive. Saw in the pic it had an antenna.
Just got it in and I'm very impressed. Started off by cleaning the screen...after about 10 min rubbing on it with some Windex, all the "marks" went away. Looked as if it was not cleaned before. Except for some small marks on the bottom of the unit, it looks as if it was not used. Replaced the battery, reloaded the OS with my factory install disks and downloaded XP Sp2. Had a hunch since the screen was so dirty and sure enough...it's a touch screen. Played around with the bios and found out it has a CDMA card in it, so I downloaded the proper drivers and works like a charm. Put in a spare DVD/CDRW drive, 1GB ram, replaced out the power port cover with a spare I got from Heartland, and an extra battery I had kicking around.
Now I have what looks like a very close to like new CF-29 that I have $299 into the base unit and around $150 worth of extras I had kicking around the shop and about 30 min of my time.

 

Aww man! Lucky! That was a good find! What kind of buyer did you get it from? A big reseller or a private seller?

 

Private seller. Just checked to see if he had more, and no luck.

 

I saw that one and I didn't buy because the screen looked like crap, and no battery. Glad it worked out well for you!!

 

Yah, I seen that one too..
It sure didnt look very good, or I'da snagged it..

But it goes to show ya, You never know what treasure can be had..
Of course it can also be said, Ya might get a pig too.

Good snag Joe

 

Did you put Windex on the screen cover or the screen itself? I thought ammonia products were bad for lcd screens? Are the screens made of a different material then other laptops? Under the protective cover that is.

 

Ammonia products are bad but they only cause yellowing over time if you constantly use them. So one time won't hurt.

 

It was VERY nasty...and water would not cut it. Looked almost like new once it was cleaned.

 

Well! sometimes you have to take a risk. I bought a cf-29 with 1.6ghz and also with an Onboard WWAN and the photo on listing was not very clear coz maybe he used a cellphone camera and not having mentioned what is included.
When it arrived its complete unit the only missing item is the keyboard bezel and it has an emmissive keyboard to for only 400buck.


ohlip

 

ohlip,
That's a great deal!

 

FYI... You should try to use only water on your LCD, regardless if it is a touchscreen or not. If straight water doesn't clean it I use a solution of about 1 parts alcohol to 10 parts water and a 5-6 drops of soap. That will take off a lot of crap an not harm anything. With that said I have also used straight 91% isopropyl alcohol too... But not too often.

One thing to mention... You have to be careful how much of anything you put on if there is a screen protector on the LCD. I have seen some bad stuff when pulling off an old protector where the old owner used liberal amounts of something to clean his screen. A lot must have splashed over the sides of the protector and worked its way in between the protector and the screen. There it etched into the LCD causing me a lot of cleaning/polishing/repair time.

I usually always use a microfiber cloth that I have dampened with a little water... Or the spray bottle with the solution above with just a little mist on the screen... In the center.

 

My cf-28 came to me with junk under the screen protector and it was hard to see through so I removed it. I cleaned off the touchscreen and threw out the damaged protector. The screen looks fine indoors but it is very hard to see in sunlight because of glare- did the protector help with that?