New to the CF-29

Hey everyone,

I just got my cf-29 today, and so far it is awesome, but I have no idea what it came with, so I have a few questions if anyone wants to help me out with them.

What model number exactly is this Toughbook, and how would I find this number? I read the bottom and see it says "cf-29GC83" but after a search online i could find pretty much nothing. Does it have GPS? do we know where it came from? Etc...

Also, in my PCMCIA slot there is a little gold connector hanging down, and i have no idea what one earth it could be for?

Also, what is this antenna do? the one on top of the screen? is it for wireless signal?

Finally, are all toughbooks water resistant, or just the ones that have special keyboards?

Thanks for any input, I know I'm a noob, I just need an education.

Jason

 

Most definitely:

CF-29HTM50BM
***SBC ONLY***
Pentium M 738-1.4GHz LV (Centrino), 13.3" Transmissive touch XGA, 512MB, 40GB, WLAN 802.11 a+b+g, Win XP SP2, Tester I/F, EDGE(GC83), logo, asset tag, replaceable RJ11 jack

When you see the Panasonic logo during bootup press the [F2] key and read the Model Number from the BIOS.

The antenna is for the Cingular/at&t WWAN card (Sony-Ericsson GC83) that goes in that PC Card slot.

See the Thread FS: Sierra Wireless AirCard 850/860 antenna pigtail adapter for SBC model CF-29 for photos of the installatioin and other details.

The "Ruggedized" models, like your CF-29 Mk3, are "resistant" to water incursion; but not "waterproof".

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Thanks for the quick response!
a few more questions...
What do these things mean?

Tester I/F, EDGE(GC83),replaceable RJ11 jack

Thanks!
Jason

 

Also, what sort of Ram could I use to upgrade this?
Jason

 

"Tester I/F" means there is a special interface in the Multimedia Bay to interface with the Tempo VIP Sidekick or ADSL Tester Module that SBC Field Service Technicians used in these machines.

"EDGE (GC83)" is the WWAN card mentioned previously.

"replaceable RJ11 jack" means the phone line receptacle is easily replaced in the field.

It can handle a 1GB DDR 200-pin SODIMM RAM module, giving the system 1.5GB total RAM.

 

Man... TopCop to the rescue..... Jeez you mke my job easy! Thanks....

Welcome to the forum Fireproof! If you stay here and read longer than 2 hours... I guarantee you that you will buy at least two more Toughbooks within the next year! It is a disease... But a good one to have!

 

Welcome to the forum Fireproof! If you stay here and read longer than 2 hours... I guarantee you that you will buy at least two more Toughbooks within the next year! It is a disease... But a good one to have![/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forum. Toughbook isn't kidding. I bought my first one about 2 years ago when my HP took a crap....I just picked up my 8th toughbook last week......truley a disease

 

and what does "logo, asset tag" mean??

 

That's the SBC logo insert in place of the TOUGHBOOK logo on the lid.

 

Is that also the "ASSET Tag" or id that something else???

 

Asset tag is a utility to allow you to write an unique id to the system. This will show up on the line under the model number and serial number in BIOS. Probably used by companies to identify each toughbook with an internal company serial number or something like that.

 

VERY Interesting ; how is that done?

 

don't know anything about it but googled and mentions dell products with this, check it out. Driller

 

CF-29s, at least MK3 and above, are still comptent machines. I use mine at least 4-5 days a week, I can even play games on it like Diablo II. If you can, spend the $ and get an emissive KB...I just LOVE being able to work in the dark, especially in the summer, since incandescent bulbs DO give off heat. Battery life with a fresh battery is 3 hr +/- for me...you'll do better than that if you're not doing any processor-intensive work like games.

 

Since Rusty Pioneered writing to the BIOS ID... You may ant to familiarize yourself with his thread..... You may be able to play around with it... But trying it may brick your laptop! Do you REALLY need an asset tag?

I guess you could make it This_Laptop_Belongs_To:<Enter name here>

 

I used this once on my CF-30. It has been a few months so I had to go back and check it out again. Run the program in windows. I used XP so I am not sure about the other OSs.

You will get a window up asking you to "Enter the characters you want to assign to the Asset Tag, and click OK." Enter what you want hit enter and you get another window stating "Only the first 15 characters of the Asset Tag can be displayed on the Setup screen. The remaining characters are not displayed." Click OK. The program will ask you to confirm the new asset tag. Click OK. Next window says "The asset Tag has been written. To enable the Asset Tag, restart the computer." Restart and go into BIOS. Look at the line under Serial No and you will see another line now starting with Asset Tag and then displaying what you just entered.

I just did a quick check and I don't find the utility for the CF-29 only for the CF-30. This was very quick and it is possible I missed it.

 

BTW, this thread has already hit Google. Search for asset tag.

 

I forgot to mention that even though this utility writes to the BIOS, it is not permanent. You can rerun the program and put in nothing on the line and the utility will remove the asset tag but it will still show the Asset Tag line in BIOS. Actually I don't remember if it was there prior to me running the utility. No big deal.

 

Any Toughbook unit can have the asset tag written into BIOS (I think there is a max 15 character length limit though), it's just a matter of getting the appropriate program.

It's usually used by corporate entities so they can assign their internal asset number to the unit, then it shows up in most software inventory applications as they pluck the data out from the BIOS.

 

Hey? If I wanted to install a backlit keyboard, do I need to already have an existing one working, or does the computer have that ribbon interface already?

My Y key fell off and I can't get it back on...

 

Its all ready to go. The misc. inverters and other odd parts were confined to the CF-28.
CAP

 

Even if i don't currently have a backlit one?

 

Yup! your good to go. the backlit keyboard with three ribbon cable, designed for cf-29 and cf-30 or even for cf-31.



ohlip

 

Thanks for all of the help guys!
Here's another querstion.

I purchased an 80- gig hard drive and popped it in, along with the Ubuntu 10.4 disk in my cd-rom drive. I've tried to boot from LAN, Floppy, and CD, but i get this:

For realtek rtl8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0f: Exiting PXE ROM


How on earth do i get an image onto this disk/ waht does all this mean?
Jason

 

That message pops up when it can't find a bootable disk. It is trying to boot from the network since it can't boot from the hard drive or cd drive. Is the Ubuntu disk a boot disk?
Did you check in the bios for the boot order? Make sure it is set to try the cd and hard drive before it tries to boot from the LAN.
Did it come with the cd drive? One other possibility is that someone replaced the cd / dvd drive in the caddy and it's not set to master. In which case no disk will boot from it until it is modified.

 

fairly sure the second, being not set to master, is the case. is there a way tp remedy this?

 

First of all, do you have a cd that is bootable? An old version of windows perhaps? Anything to try and make sure it's the drive and not the disk. Try the Ubuntu cd in a different PC? Will it boot in it?
Do a forum search for this thread. It will explain the modification.

CF-27, CF-28, CF-29 CD to DVD Swap Tutorial-Lots of Pictures!

 

got it to work. awesome!
next question: i bought a 1 gig stick for this, but the little slot/notch didn't line up. Can anyone post a link on here to a 1 gig stick that will work?

also...

my touchscreen wont work on ubuntu 10.04.. I've searched a lot of these forums and have been finding different answers that haven't worked. suggestions?

and finally,
this may seem like a silly question, but what would happen if i put an unlocked gsm pcmcia card in here? would i get internet, or need something else/ $? I have no experience with this

Thanks for all the help!
Jason

 

i downloaded evtouch. now what?

 

You really need to do some reading, start here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/496467-cf-29-ubuntu-10-4-success.html
Good luck,
CAP

 

next question: i bought a 1 gig stick for this, but the little slot/notch didn't line up. Can anyone post a link on here to a 1 gig stick that will work?

CF 29's use two different types of ram. DDR and DDR2. The later marks use DDR2. I don't know for sure when the change occurred.

 

CF-29 Mks 1 thru 3 are DDR; Mks 4 & 5 are DDR2.

 

Awesome guys. That reading really helped, and I'm afraid my addiction has begun. I was wondering... What is the largest HDD that anyone has ever put into one of these things?
Where did you get the hard drive? I know how to swap them out via the caddys, but i'm just looking for the largest that it can take.
Jason

 

WD Scorpio 320GB PATA HDD.

If you can sandwich a PATA to SATA Adapter in there you can go larger, but most folks have had to sacrifice some of their protective foam, rendering the Toughbook less tough...

Frankly, while promising, this conversion is not ready for "Prime Time" in my opinion.