My lovely CF-28

Got a pretty beat up CF-28 for pretty cheap. The battery blinks red (isn't recognized in BIOS in the Refresh thing at all ) and also the HDD was not being recognized (turned out the plug to the HDD caddy was just not in firmly) but I stuck my 32GB IDE SSD in there because then I can truly treat this as a rugged computer...

Anyway, it's an awesome laptop, (800Mhz Penitum III and 256MB RAM(upgrading to 512MB soon) is quite pathetic but it's still fast with Windows 2000)...besides I couldn't get the touchscnreen drivers working on XP SP3 (I think they only work with SP1) and 2000 is so much faster anyway

I guess all that blah blah was pretty useless, but I joined up on this forum because it's like the only good Toughbook dicussion board on the web...so as a fellow forum administrator (I run 3 of my own) congrats on the great forum and I'm sure I'll be asking more questions soon.

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Questions I have:
1. I got the thing with a Rayovac battery. Unfortunately the computer doesn't recognize it in BIOS or Windows, and the light flashes red. I'm very much considering paying around $45.00 for a new battery off of eBay...and maybe an extra one that goes in where the CD drive is. I guess my question is is there anything specific I should look out for when buying a battery.
2. The screen makes everything look VERY green instead of blue. Is that just aging? or can I fix it?
3. I have no stylus. I'm using the eraser end of a pencil (which seems to work a lot better than my finger)...is that OK? Do I need a special type of stylus?
4. It looks liek there is an empty Mini-PCI slot under the HDD caddy. I would put a wireless card there, except that there are no antennas. ??? can I add antennas?

Lol that's all for now and have a good day. I'll check back later tonight or tomorrow.

 

1. There isn't a new OEM battery for the CF-28 that'll be less than 7 years old; that's about twice their max shelf life. So aftermarket is going to be your only choice. I've been keeping mine going rotating 2 old OEM batts that are good for about an hour each; I mostly use mine for nuking CISCOs so no big deal for me. Others here will chime in on vendors they've had good luck with; heed their advice. It's your best chance to get a batt that'll last more than a week.
2. If you have the 12.1" screen, that'll be the transflective display. It has a bezel that's about 1 3/8" all around, while the 13.1" bezel is about 3/4". It will make everything look more like shades of green & grey. Yes, your solution is to get a 13.1" LCD/Lid assembly. Shop carefully; they can be had for $35-$50 shipped.
3. The touchscreen models are intended for use with your finger; they don't respond well to stylus input. Your rubber eraser can hold grit which will eventually scratch your screen or screen protector.
4. There are actually two mini-pci slots there. Yes, you can add antennas, or if yours has one, you can hack the useless CDPD antenna for WiFi use. Read the CF-28 FAQ and the Toughbook resource thread; all the details are there.

 

Good thing I got Toughbook to repost the CF-28 FAQ as a permanent Sticky on the front page then.

 

So you are saying that my screen is not damaged?

 

Yes, your screen is fine.

The 12.1" screen was developed to be seen in direct sunlight. A byproduct of this feature is not having good color reproduction. I had a 12.1" screen I swapped out for the larger screen (both touchscreen) and I'm much happier.

 

But...it's VERY off, not just a little. I tried using the Intel drivers to adjust, with not much luck.
I'll buy the new battery first and if I still love the laptop after a few months I will consider purchaising a new screen
I'm a bit financially limited, unforunately. The $40 battery decision is a tough one.

 

Can we see a picture to see how off it is?

 

I've got the transreflective screen as well. While it bugged the he outta me in the beginning, i got used to it. So will you, mate.

As for the battery, i got myself a NOS battery off ebay for roughly 80€. Dead as a bloody door nail. Gonna buy an aftermarket battery when i get home, (at school atm.) One of them chinese 40$ ones.

 

Alright. Now that I know my screen is OK I'm happy to buy a battery. I'll order it right now.

 

Which would be the reason why I mentioned both... as all the FAQs are listed in the Resource Thread.

mnem
Oh my; here come those dear sweet little winged monkies again...

 

I've seen the light, brother! I called upon a 20 meter power cord and behold! No need for a battery!

Seriously though, i'll probably end up killing one of my mates when they slip and strangle themselves to death with the cord, but i don't need a battery when i run diagnostics on the cars...

EDIT: Yay! 100th post of absolute bollocks...

 

"I've seen the light"...
Which one? The little blinky red one telling me I need a new battery?

Jk of course...but why carry my "laptop" around school when I can't prove to people my gun case (oops I mean computer) isn't fake? Lol...

 

Memo to self...
Buy LARGE flyswatter for winged monkeys or is that Monkees.

 

Well, despite of the utter bollocks i've been spewing recently, i did order a battery this afternoon.

One of these: BATTERY FOR Panasonic CF-28 CF-VZSU18B CF-VZSU18BU | eBay

Three year warranty (which probably is BS, but still) and 42 USD is pretty good. I'm not expecting miracles, but i hope it pulls though for at least an hour per charge.

 

Mine is from that seller too

 

Have you guys try freezing the old battery( with redlight flashing) for overnight and then let it dry and then again slide it on to the unit and charge it. I ask coz I have a few battery that revive by just doing that. Make sure it really dry before you slide it in into the unit.

This was already been discussed here I think three years ago, btw.


ohlip

 

Thanks, mate. I'll give it a go. But my yellow tab is dead as a doornail.

EDIT: Now TS can ask me to bugger off, i really don't want to jack his thread. But I'm rather wary of this battery. First time i used it my tb started beeping like there was no tomorrow, then it went silent after a few seconds. But now, if i try to boot it with the battrey in the TB it slows down to a level that it takes XP roughly five hours to boot. If i put the battery in after windows booted, the machine slows down and its unusable. The pointer lags like hell, it takes ten minutes to start the control panel and so on. The touchscreen stops working altogether.

Now, I admit that Murphy is practically my best friend but, this thing seems to have a life of its own. The motherboard is from a mil-spec toughbook, so it might be haunted by the soul of a dead soldier or something. I'm not kidding, it clicks the start menu and stuff without me even touching it when the battery is in it. Without, it works like any otehr toughbook.

 

I was thinking RAID for large flying pests...

The issue seems more related to the battery; unless there's some fault in the SMBUS drivers (these are chipset drivers which Windows uses to talk to the battery, temp sensors, control fan speed, etc) I'd suspect something's wrong in the battery's smart controller and it keeps complaining to the CPU, tying up clock cycles. Of course, the answer is to try a known good battery... but as you've discovered, those can be pretty hard to find.

mnem
*Usually on the wrong bus*

 

So that fancy freezer trick of yours fixed it half way. the problem described above is gone and the battery flashes yellow/orange. it still wont charge however. I'm running the battery calibration feature atm. gonna give it a 24 hours go and then write it off completely if it doesn't work.

EDIT: Battery buggered up again. Flashing red after roughly thirty minutes.