Possessed cf-29

So ive searched and cant find anything.... my cf29 randomly reboots. If you power it on with the charger in it it goes into a senseless reboot after reboot cycle... well today i was programming a cummins engine today thr out side of it wad 120 degrees and i rigged up a cooling fan and it went to 92 degrees ... well about ten minutes later it just shut down...im at a loss..im loosing money at work when it seizures... any suggestions???

 

this is the cooling fan contraption

 

2 things come to mind.

Heat sink pads on cpu need changed or bad memory module. My bet is heat sink pads.

 

But my other issue is the endless reboot cycle at first power up when plugged up... :/

 

That sounds kinda like a bad motherboard to me . . . Thermal issue caused by a solder joint gone bad

 

What is your full model number, why I ask is the price of the 29's have dropped a lot that you can find them for well under a $100.00 . That way if one dies you just pull the harddrive caddy out and put it in the other...no down time or loss of money for you. Just get the same model number and you are good to go :thumbsup: .

 

Ill have to get it in the am, i know its a mk5, i upgraded ram, lid off of i havr no idea( it was free and the touch screen workedand it had the cell phone modem with it), added the factory blue tooth as i need it for work lol

 

My big concern is i want to make sure there isnt anything corrupt or a possible hard srive issue

 

I don't think you have a hard drive issue. My bet is bad RAM.... The heat pads also sounded good but wouldn't explain the random rebooting when cold.

Also... Have you changed the wifi card? I have seen issues with wifi cards too.

 

No i havrnt tried te wifi card, but its always had an issue staying connected to the wireless router, getting worse too...hmmm...

 

Full number is cf-29ntqgzbm

 

Well all the cheap 29's on ebay are MK1's to MK3's so no luck there

 

Found one cheap Panasonic Toughbook CF 29 Used Government Surplus Unit | eBay

 

I saw that last night, im just lost on wht route to go, i pulled bottom cover off, mother board looks like its been very hot, wifi card on the back side of it looks over hrated and thr copper ia badly tarnished in like 3 spots... and the heat sink doesnt appear it was making contact at all... also behind the widi card there was like a foil sheild that was bouncing around and the glue was completely gone on it

 

I think that Rick could help you out on this, he knows the 29 best. I have only had mine apart to upgrade the wifi cards and that was it but If you had another wifi card I would try that or no card at all and see if it would stay running.

 

well someone here had a spare supposedly new card they just handed me.....my only question is there a better one to try???? i wish i had more time in to tinkering with these lol

 

For now until you figure out what is going on any card would do. You just need to find out if the card is the problem or not.

 

I don't have years of experience with Toughbooks, but I do have years of experience rebuilding various other laptops. If it does not look look the heatsink is in contact with the cpu, through a thermal pad, then that is the first thing that needs to be addressed. By the sound of it, the unit has been like that for a while. Clean the cpu and heatsink mating surface with Iso 99%, then install a new thermal pad. Pull the ram module, leave the WiFi card out and see if it boots proper. If it does, put in the ram and if all is still good, install the wlan card.

The system board may have already sustained damage from excessive heat. GL.

 

The CF-29 has themal pads. The heatsink is attached to the bottom cover. These pads deteriorate over time and need to be replaced. See what they look like.

Installing Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 Heat Sink - iFixit

 

If you need a "new" machine send me a PM. Ebay is cheaper but "I" know these work.

I am happy to help someone that works with a CF-29. Downtime is a killer.

Jeff

 

Well i balled up the heat sink thermal goo and made sure ot touched the heat sink...ran slot cooler yesterday..now i need to get some new ones lol

 

Good to hear that you got it running cooler. Did it boot up properly, or does it still reboot numerous times at startup? If it works correctly now, you should be good to go once you put a new thermal pad in it. You should look for a backup unit, as I have doubts as to how long the unit will work after being subjected to the high temps that it was.

 

I would say that 9 times out of 10 you can resurrect the thermal pads. The only ones I have ever had to replace is old ones where they shrank and burned over time (Or dried out). When you take the bottom plate off they usually stick to the bottom plate with a small piece or two sticking to the CPU. I carefully take the pieces off and put them back together. I "nudge' the pads to shrink them a little. You can do this with a fingernail. I thoroughly clean the CPU face with Iso alcohol. Then I put a dab of ceramic paste on the top of the CPU and remount. A little dab will do ya'... SO far I have never had an issue.

But it has to be the CPU, the RAM or the Wifi card.... I would think.

 

Well i was going to attempt this weekend to go into it but painting my little ones room and a bathroom has taken up most of it, but ill deff start tomorrow am and test it at work...if its slow lol

 

But one more thing when it does its random reboot thr usb ports and blue tooth wont woek untill a successful boot up

 

so i finally got to get back into the cf this morning after running the desk yesterday(night mare id rather be working on trucks..lol)...i removed the wifi, re tried it, kept rebooting, removed ram, same thing, installed diff wifi, same thing, installed old original ram...same thing... anything else to check? or is it see if my IT guy will let me trade up to a CF-30, or get a spare cf-29 and hope the guts are good......

 

Contact Jeff, He will take care of you.

 

ill have too in a few....our wonderful IT guy that has them says hey i think i have some mother boards....and 29's....but im wondering if trading up to a 30 might be my best bet.....if its the right price lol

 

If you can swing it I would go with a 30. I have had a mk1, but upgraded to a mk 2 a few months back. Do you have any expensive software you can/can't transfer to a new pc?

 

yeah 90% of my diag software, but push comes to shove ill get my company to redo most of it if needed all else fails ive the the passwords to get it all again...hehe...but do the 30's have bluetooth?

 

What i do here is accelerated service diag, 90% of the electrical work, all the cat work, and everything else that needs to be done....bumper to bumper....and these wonderfull maxxforce engines are what keeps us busy now to lol

 

Most do, but not all. If you do get a 30 try to get a Mk2 or higher. The Mk1 is core duo, 32 bit only. Mk2 is core 2 duo, 64 bit. Got to change the bios in the Mk1 to the XP bios or the Vista/windows 7 bios for everything to work right. The install will work with out it but stuff like touchscreen won't work. You don't have that on the Mk2, one bios for everything. Touchscreen problems seem to happen a lot on the Mk1, I haven't seen any problems like that on the Mk2. Mk1 945 chipset, Mk2 965 chipset.

I would pull and keep your old hard drive for the 29 just in-case also. If you can't I would make a back up image of it.


Would you use this unit for personal or other stuff?

 

For work mainly, then at home on evenings and weekends, problem is internationals software has glitches with the 64bit cf-30's i went thru that with the shops laptop and internationalo/navistar. but im still waiting for IT to call be back......

 

Well thats no problem just put 32bit on it. Thats what I run on mine

 

I have 32 bit on my Mk2 also right now. Just showing the Mk2 has lots more options.

 

well it got back to me. they think they have a good mother board for my 29...said theyll trade up to a 30 once i get it fixed for around the $200 mark...didnt give exact numbers....ill have to find out whick ones they have.....hmmmm....this could be good lol

 

When they have the specs of the cf30 let us know what they are offering you.

 

That sounds like a good price to upgrade to a 30 even if it's a MK1 but how much are they asking for the 29 mother board .

 

free for the mother board....lol..my thing is..the enviorment im in with the change in positions im in from when i got the 29...if i can upgrade now for reasonable its prob the better option so i can do more and not take a big hit later on...

 

I've been watching this. I have CF-30Mark 1, 2 and 3 ready to go.

Are you figuring to switch to Windows 7? XPP is going down......no support......next year. Ask your diagnostics folks if they run on Linux. I'm curious.

Jeff
Sent from my CF-30MK1 Gobi2000 (the sun isn't up yet)

 

Nope linux wont work...id like to get one but..id need to trade up..thays why im trying to go with IT....but hes on maternity leave now

 

But yes itll need to be windows 7 pro...all the diag software we use is going to windows 7

 

So alittle update. My it guy sent me a whole bottom thars been picked to the bone...i was rushing trying to swap the boards and get both opened up, they are different...mine being a mk5 and rhe one he sent a mk3 ( yes i knoe should of checked first...but doing that and two kids while the wifes busy..it slipped my mind lol )

 

also on power up after all this.....popped up error code 0251...grr

 

Send it to me...I have the parts. Might be a MK4 but real close.

Jeff

 

might have too....or ill sell it as it is and discount it to a guy that wants it lol

 

Mxx20, the only difference in the Mk4/Mk5 on the CF-18/29 is that the Mk5 has TPM added.

 

I realize that from all this but the one the IT guy sent was a mk3

 

If I recall mk3 has ps2 rear port and mk4 / mk5 have rear usb port. A Dremel will cure this, but it's less than perfect looking.

Jeff has a whole couch full of parts to fix it properly.:hi2:

 

Lol, my cf-30's showing up this week...the gut buying the 29 said hes getting it no matter what lol...