My first Toughbook and how I got addicted...what was yours ?

My first Toughbook was a CF-28MK3. I bought it in the spring of 2008 and did not have a clue what I was getting myself into. A few days before I bought it I came across an eBay auction "The Ultimate Toughbook". It was @Toughbook (Rick) and it looked awesome. I can remember he had flames and everything in the eBay auction and his homepage was even better. After seeing that I just had to have one so off I went searching. Two days later I found one and bought it. A few months later still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it was doing some on line searches when I found one of Rick's post but never joined NBR. Finally after 6 months of looking at threads/posts I finally joined in March 2009. Of course my first question was something stupid but Toughbook (moderator back then) was there all the way and helped me with at that time the big external wifi antenna mod...thanks Rick. Well after that I was hooked on Toughbooks. That was over 10 years ago. How time flies when your Toughbooking . Since then I have added CF-18, 19, 29, 30, 50, 51, 52, 53, C1, M34 and FZ-A1 to my collection but it never ends. Now I am looking to add maybe a G1 or a D1...time will tell... maybe both. So what got you started ?? ( I blame Rick for my addiction to Toughbooks)

 

My first toughbook was a 27EB that I bought new when I was like 8-10 years old. I remember seeing one back then inside of a police car walking by. I did research on the 701C thinkpad we had back then (that I still own after all these years and I said I’m taking this because it was in storage and doing nothing) I looked online for one and I signed up for eBay (the funny thing is that I lost the password for that account and now I use one that has 3 buyer reviews that I made in February) and convinced my parents to buy it and they did. I don’t know how much it was but I used it a lot. When I sold it in March 2007 for like 160 Canadian dollars at the time with like a ton of things But know things have changed I have a 10x10 storage locker with almost every toughbook I have. My toughbooks are at my house are 10 of my favorites but my 28STJGZKM I bought as a 13 year old for like $6000 USD.
I got on to Notebook Review in May but for a year or so I read on Panasonic and Dell a lot. In May I posted my thread “Upgrading CPU in a CF-28” or something like that and post in like everywhere. I like notebook review and in fact a few weeks ago my friend @Compaq12 (Davion) joined and doesn’t post much.
My story has ended

 

I was mr rich as a kid. I bought a old telephone for like 15 Canadian Dolllars and sold for like 14,000C.
That’s how I got a 27EB back then

 

I started with a beaten up 25 and worked up to 28, M34 (got 8 off them for free from a telecom company) , 29, 18, 19 (mk1, mk4, mk8) 52, 53, and now 20 mk1 and 54 mk3
did a bunch of mods on the 28 and the M34's, not so on the others besides ram and storage upgrades

 

I think it was a CF50

Since then I have owned various marks and quantities.
CF51
CF52
CF53
CF48
CF73
CF74
CF18
CF19
CF29
CF30
CF31
CF 45
CF M34
CF U1
CF C1
CF C2
CF D1
FZ Q1
FZ G1
FZ A1

I might have had a CF 28. Not sure.

 

Here is my list of toughbooks
27EB sold to some guy on eBay
28ST still owned
25 MK1 still owned
45 sold or in storage
29 MK1 sold
28M sold to @Compaq12
29 MK1 sold to a company
50 MK1 sold to someone in GA
M34 MK3 sold to my dad
M34 MK7 unknown
M33 sold with box online
M32 sold open box at a flea market
19 MK2 unknown (in my warehouse?)
31 top of the line without hazardous locations still owned
Newest: 28P just sold

 

I got my first Toughbook the same day I got my first Panasonic laptop. I went to an asset liquidation company in Calgary to look at a couple of ThinkPads they where advertising. While I was there I saw a W5(?) on another self. I asked if they had any more Panasonic laptops and was taken into the back of the store. There was a box with a bunch of different Toughbooks. I left the building with the W5, a CF-18 and a second 18 for parts. Not knowing the value of old Toughbooks, I left the 27's, 28's and 34's they had in that box. Should have made them an offer on the whole box.

And so it started....

 

I started a few days ago haha! I found out about them from a friend who gave me his D1 for using and I liked it so for a few months I was loooking and then ToughbookGeek96 (Bray) said he would see if he had any and I posted Best Used Toughbook. I know have a CF-28 and a CF-30. I’m looking into a C1 or a M34 but for now I have to computers

 

I was given my first CF-28 back in 2007 and I was instantly hooked.
I purchased 3 CF-27s from a member here at the time named Gravitar. (I still feel bad about him and his demise)
Sold the CF-27s and even made a profit.
Bought and sold some CF-28s and CF-29s, even installed wireless antennas and GPS in a few of these.
I still have a CD-29 that I installed GPS to used at work. I was a service electrician I was driving all over the Denver area.
Finally moved up to a CD-30 with GPS and touch screen but since I retired I really don't use it much, but just can't bring myself to let it go because it works perfectly.
Not really in to them anymore but I still check in from time to time.
Rooting phones and android tablets helps keeps me active now.

Bob

 

I’m now going to be buying a CF-27 for parts haha! I have a issue at this point

 

I've found my CF-28 Mk.II while I was searching the local flea market for some antiques. Instantly recognized the thick, rugged form factor and bought it for 80 RON (~18,84$).

I didn't even know if it worked, since I didn't have a charger for it. Found one on OLX (some kind of Romanian craigslist) a few months later for ~28$. Wow, I was surprised to see it boot up. It even had Win.XP installed! The only issue was that it was in Swedish. I abandoned it for about a year before deciding to spend a whole day fresh installing WinXP again and searching for & installing the damn drivers. (That's when I made my first forum post here, yay!)

Now, I'm spending about 2 hours a day messing around with this antique thing. It's quite a lot of fun, even if I'm just drawing stuff in Paint using the built-in touchscreen.

I'm looking for ways to earn additional income that I would direct towards my Toughbook addiction (Looking for some bargains, because I am not too comfortable on spending money towards this passion...not from my Economies at least....)

 

My first one was a CF-28 Mk2 that I still have. It was a ebay score that the inner socket for the charge cord was broken. One of my first few posts was were I purchased a new plug, stripped the plastic part off the new part. Cut the old busted plastic off the motherboard plug. And took a little work but got it on with out having to do major work on the motherboard.

Now I have a CF-25 Mk2
CF-28 Mk2 x2
CF-28 Mk3 x2
CF-29 Mk 3 with custom gps
CF-30 Mk 2 non touch
CF-U1 Mk1 x3
CF-U1 Mk2.5
CF-07 base x3 and one remote screen
CF-17
CF-M34 Mk2
CF-M34 Mk4
CF-M34 Mk7 x 3
CF-19 Mk1
CF-19 Mk3
CF-19 Mk4
CF-19 Mk5
CF-74 Mk3
CF-74 Mk4 x2
CF-52 Mk1 ATI


The 19 Mk is my daily unless I am on one of my gaming desk tops.

 

My first was a Craigslist purchase 9-10 years ago.
Our son was on his first overseas deployment and wanted a ToughBook. It was a CF-29 Mk2 running XP and cost $175 dollars. It came with a disc of drivers and a copy of XP. That’s how I found this site, looking for an official restore image. We sent it overseas and our son used it when he wasn’t out on missions.
My first ToughBook came after that, also from Craigslist.
$60 bought a CF-28S complete with dock/broken factory GPS and emissive keyboard.
Since then: CF-M33,34,28, 29, 30, 31, 41, 52GUN, 53, and my daily driver a 54 (traded a Q1). Currently tinkering with a G1 tablet.

 

My first ToughBook was a CF-29 (can't remember what MK). I bought and sold a few of those. Later (thanks to this forum) I got a CF-W8 brand new when Panasonic was selling them really cheap. I've also had a couple CF-74, a few CF-30, maybe 4 or 5 CF-31, and recently a CF-C2 (bought for my sister-in-law). I also have an FZ-G1 MK1, and my current laptop of choice is a CF-31 MK4, which I use for everything. I bought and sold ToughBooks to work my way up the ToughBook chain. I couldn't justify paying the price of a brand new one, when I could add whatever I wanted to a slightly used one for a fraction of the price of a new one.

I don't have an extensive ToughBook collection, just the CF-31 and the FZ-G1 right now. I am too practical to own more ToughBooks than I can possibly use.

 

CF-29 I bought so I could tune my car using DOS, I needed a serial port for a security dongle. Now I have 3 29s and a 31 which I use for tuning modern systems. I've used Acer laptops before this, and I was happy with them, and a Toshiba 440 (never really happy with it) but the Toughbooks out perform everything else I have used and can take the rough and tumble of a automotive workshop.

 

I can't believe that I haven't posted in this thread yet!

It was 2006. I had just closed a business where I was in partnership with someone right at the same time my wife (now ex) had to leave her work on short-term disability as she had developed Crohn's Disease. She took a leave of absence for 4-5 months and I decided to spend time with her to help nurse her back to health before I looked for another job. The timing was right for that and I was financially able to do it at the time.

She spent a lot of time sleeping which left me very bored. I couldn't do the noisy projects around the house that I would normally do. I needed something fairly quiet I could do in the basement. I stumbled across a CF-28 MK2 on eBay for a little under $400. As I recall... I worked a trade with the seller for around $200 plus a knife I was selling on Bay at the time. It was then that my life, as I knew it, changed!

I'm a guy who has to take everything apart to see what makes it tick. The CF-28 was the perfect hobby! Logically and expertly thought out and easy to take apart. I just needed better Phillips head drivers. I bought a set of Wiha tools and started having fun.

I started posting here in mid 2007... The forum was dead at that time with only a few sporadic posts. I was looking for more information as to how to modify the Toughbooks. I did a few mods on my own and started posting what I had done. It attracted more people. VERY skilled people! I was in Heaven! People who had the same disease, um passion, I had!

My first mod was to add wifi. Hard to believe at that time they didn't even have wifi as a stock feature. I got it working and then decided to try to sell it on eBay. I had cleaned it all up and it looked new. I billed it as "The Ultimate Toughbook" and I was shocked to see people bidding it up past $2500! I couldn't buy more of these things fast enough! I made contacts and worked deals with police departments. Back then it was me and one other guy offering modified Toughbooks on eBay... And he would only do one every 4-6 months. I had people waiting in line for these things! This just defined the word "awesome!"

I worked on Toughbooks as my primary job for years after that. It was SO much fun to just have a paying hobby. Where else could you make money sitting at your bench in your boxer shorts? This website attracted top talent and they asked for me to be moderator since they could tell I was in love! It was brought to my attention early on by the owners here that the Toughbook crowd was VERY different. We didn't have the petty squabbles and political crap other forums did... As a matter of fact, there were no arguments AT ALL! We were PURE TOUGHBOOK! We wanted nothing else but to learn and modify! What could be more fun? We even got our own BST forum... Something, at the time, no other brand had. We were different and they knew it!

Over the years the eBay crowd grew and I was underpriced at every turn. Some had turned it into a growing industry. That's nice but I have to make a living! I went back into auto finance and had less and less time to devote to the website and to Toughbooks in general. The owners here noticed and suggested I find someone else with the passion... Enter Blair ("Toughasnails").... He's done an amazing job over the years! Well done Blair! This place attracted top quality people who want to share and Blair has kept that going over the years and has grown it very well! Blair, I salute you sir!

Over the years I sold hundreds of Toughbooks. At one point I had them on every ocean in the world and every continent except Antarctica. I STILL have my past customers calling. I just had someone call me two days ago with a flashing battery indicator on a CF-29 I sold 10 years ago! Every now and then I'll get a request for another Toughbook from a past customer. My favorite one was a guy who had run over his CF-29 with a bulldozer but kept it alive by attaching an external keyboard and monitor to it. He kept using the crushed Toughbook for TWO YEARS until he asked for another. I sent him a left-over CF-29 I had for free after hearing the story and seeing the pictures. lol

I have done more things to a Toughbook than most. I have made the magic smoke come out and closed my eyes in fear of what I had done.... Only to find out I just popped a fuse somewhere... If anything at all! These things are so easy to work on and so forgiving of mistakes.

They have been one of my favorite passions for years!

Keep the faith my brothers!

 

Great story! Now my mid 07 thing was that a CF-M34 came up. Me not knowing that I could have a fairly nice example I passed. Next day sold. It’s like 2 am and I see a extremely nice example with the box, docking station, and a boat load of Other things like AOL Online CDs, Windows XP Pro and you get the point. I bought this (notice that it was from Russia and I just used my translate in head skills that suck) and like 3 weeks later it shows up. In a oversized padded bag. Now it was in its original box and he added packing peanuts and it was in like 5 layers of padded bubble wrap and some memory foam. Now it’s now my test unit and when I got it it had 87 hours on it. Now it has 1087 hours.