Question about new CF-29

Backstory: I bought a new (to me) CF-29 on eBay more than a month ago (off lease). eBay Link I joined this site before then to get a feel for what I wanted, and have browsed around since, so first off, Thanks for all the info. That said, I still have a few questions:

On eBay, it was listed as a: CF-29ETPCKKM. The computer, when config-ed (grammar?) says that it is a: CF-29N3LGZBM. And the writing on the underside of the computer itself, calls it a: CF-VZSU29. I know that I have touchscreen, and that windows was reloaded, I'm assuming they went over everything before resale after the leasing company got it back. My assumption on the disparity in model numbers is that the one on bottom of the computer is not what I need, the configured model # was what it was originally? And the one on eBay is what it is now. It claims to have GPS, but I have NO idea how to test that.

SO: Is there any easy was to make sure exactly what I have, to include what Ram, Hard Drive, and Accessories?

The end goal is to make the computer faster, but without knowing what I have, I don't know what I can go to.

 

When you turn the machine on and at the blue splash screen, hit F2, that will give you a model number, serial number, and hdd/ram size.

The cf-vzsu29 is the battery that the cf-29 takes

 

Thank you very much! It is, in fact a CF-29ETPCKKM, but now I have three more questions.

1) Everywhere I read about upgrading RAM is from 512 to 1.5, what if I'm starting with 1024? What are my options then? I just want the computer to run as fast as it can.
2) Would upgrading the hard drive do me much good? I keep most of my files (music, movies, etc) on an external HD, so I don't need the space, but if it makes it run quicker, that's a good investment to me.
2)What does the GPS do? Sounds cool, but what can I do with it?

 

go to toughbook configurator.com look up discontinued fully rugged laptop cf-29, wait and it will list the numbers and letters and you can click highlight those that match your configuration, may not have gps but can be expanded to 2gb ram on win xp pro with the right ram, look up azrial as he found this out, lots of reading on old threads at the beginning of this forum days worth, well written and informative and fun to learn about this addictive laptop. look at FAQ and just get lost in all the info, you will get hooked sooner than you will realize....Driller

 

just saw last reply, still solid laptop, can upgrade hdd but must use 2.5 ide drive,or pata, some on ebay wd 3200beve for about 77.00. in FAQ and other threads at the top of list in this forum are good reads on tons of questions and answers others have thought of already, it's fun and well written, entertaining and humouous, this is a good forum with substance to it and some really smart moderators and experts. read the threads, read the threads, read the threads, have read and re-read them myself many times, still sinking in. watch out cause you're gonna get hooked on these things....I'm into counseling for my addiction and am going down the path to oblivion....Driller

 

Welcome to the forum...

1. You are limited to 1.5GB... Only the MK4 & MK5 models with a base of 256MB RAM can be boosted to 2GB. You need DDR 200 pin 2700 RAM. Newegg.com has these in the Crucial brand for a good price usually.

2. Depending on what you have as stock.... Yes... a hard drive upgrade will speed it up a little

3. What can you do with GPS? Um... Know where you are?... Use street nav... About a thousand things...

You should spend some time reading the stickies... There are tons of things you can do for upgrades and mods. You can literally read for months here!

EDIT - Your laptop is;

Pentium M 1.3G LV (Centrino), 13.3Transmissive Touch XGA, 512MB,60GB,WLAN 802.11b+g, WinXP,GPS,CDMA(Sprint) No voice, Bluetooth

 

CF-29ETPCKKM DESCRIPTION:
Pentium M 1.3G LV (Centrino), 13.3" Transmissive Touch XGA, 512MB, 60GB, WLAN 802.11b+g, WinXP, GPS, CDMA(Sprint) No voice, Bluetooth

Neat machine!

If you already have 1GB of RAM it means there's a 512MB SODIMM in the one expansion slot. To reach the system's max RAM of 1.5GB you will need to remove the 512 and install a 1GB DDR PC2700 200-pin SODIMM in its place.

The OEM drives are 4200 RPM, so a late-model 5400 RPM replacement drive will speed thing up a bit.

"2)"?

Tell you how to get from "A" to "B" (with the right GPS-compatible mapping program, that is ).

 

wrong thread

 

See if you can find the "right thread" here.

 

Thanks for all the help! I was rooting around today to try to find exactly what kind of hard drive I have, since it doesn't seem to be stock (80G, when the stock should have been 60) but all it says is "5LYC SMPQ" on one of the sides. I searched thinking it was a part number, but got nowhere. Anyone know what that means or what to look for to find out what I have? I don't want to replace the hard drive if the one I have isn't all that bad

PS: In between my Hard Drive and Lan port is an empty space, with what looks like, 2 - 32pin connectors stacked on top of each other. what plugs in there?

 

Click on the Windows XP Professional Edition™ "start" button, select "Settings", then "Control Panel", then double-slick on the "System" icon.

Next choose the "Hardware" tab, followed by the "Device Manager" button.

Finally, click the " +" sign next to the "Disk drives" selection. Your hard drive's Make/Model Number should be displayed there.

With this information you can research your hard drive's specifications and determine if it will fill your system's needs.

 

the ports between the lan and hard drive bays are for pcmcia

 

If you are looking for a little more speed I would replace your 512mb memory with a 1gb and the Hdd with the Samsung SpinPoint Series 5400 RPM single-platter HM80HC & HM160HC drives Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint M5 HM160HC 160GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" ATA Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive . This price beats fleabays prices and you get a 3 years warranty too

 

You've never seen a CardBus, or the older PC Card port? It does look different than ones on other machines because of the door and the extra space around it.
That space fits two of the the roughly credit card sized peripherals used in portable computers.

 

No, but I'm learning fast. I found some nifty uses for them, namely I a way to add on 3 USB connections and a eSATA connection for my external HD, but for the other empty slot I'm having a hard time finding something useful. It already has GPS, I don't use bluetooth, and I don't use 3G or anything like that. Does anyone know of any cool things to plus into the other unused PCMCIA slot?

 

You already have Bluetooth installed from the factory so you might want to add a SD card reader in the open slot. These are pretty trick if you can find one on eBay. View attachment Panasonic SD card review.pdf
CAP

 

Or a mogo mouse... If you like mice....

 

I use this one for SDHC. Works quit well. It does ready boost with a proper SD card.

SD/SDHC/SD/SDIO 32-Bit CardBus PCMCIA PC Card Adapter - eBay (item 370194206468 end time Jul-21-10 20:25:56 PDT)

 

WINNER! $19.99 on tigerdirect.com. I got the mouse, 1GB RAM, and some misc stuff on order. I'll report back how it goes.

 

Speaking about TigerDirect.com and CF-29 Toughbooks : Western Digital WD3200BEVE Scorpio Blue 320GB Mobile PATA Hard Drive; Price: $89.99

 

I just purchased that drive, to use as the primary hard drive. I plan on using the tutorial, found on this forum!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/221725-cf-29-toughbook-hard-drive-swap-tutorial.html

I also plan on using the original 40GB as a secondary drive, for use in the Media Pocket. Then I can swap out multiple drives and devices, such as the floppy drive, optical drive, and the second hard drive. I like the idea of the Line Tester that SBC equiped their ToughBooks with, but it didn't come with my Toughie! I found one on eBay for $25!

On that thread I saw a link for a Kit to help with my project.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/221725-cf-29-toughbook-hard-drive-swap-tutorial-4.html

Seems like putting a hard drive into an optical drive housing is easy with this kit,
Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (p/n OBHD-PATA-B), Black, 12.7mm [OBHD-PATA-B] - $29.95 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

I think it is right one for a CF-29 utilizing a PATA (IDE) hard drive. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I also think I need the Optical Drive Caddy to get that kit to work.
It seems to me that the kit is a caddy itself, that would then need to be put in the Optical Drive caddy. How Novel! A Caddy for a Caddy!

Does anyone know what the price range is for the Optical Drive Caddy?
They seem really expensive on eBay!


For the time being I am going to just put the 40GB drive into a $10 external enclosure with USB. Not a bad enclosure for $10 +free S/H, all black metal with a carrying case and USB cable.

 

Yeahhhh.... The CD caddies could be had in bulk at $23 each about 8 months ago.... Now they are rarer until someone finds a cache of them.... So if you can find one for under $60... Jump on it....

 

Do you have the ebaY™ Item Number on that? I'm looking to get another for one of my CF-29HTM50BM units.

 

Hi Guys,
I'm new to the whole tough book thing. I found I needed a rugged computers for my family towing business. I tried to buy a brand new Dell Vostro but it turned out to be the Dell from Hell, I had to send everything back to them. I will never buy another one of there products again. They sure don't make them like they use to, anymore. So I found really nice pair of cf-29NTQGZBM on ebay. These thing are like brand new. One says it has 1100 hrs. and the other says 250 hrs. on it. One is flat black and the other is silver. The reason for them is to process credit cards and to do invoices on quickbooks while in the trucks.
They both have the Centrino 1.6m processors. One has DDR2 512+512= 1Gb of ram. w/60Gb. Pata/IDE hard drive. The other one has DDR2 512+1028=1.5Gb of ram w/samsung 160 Gb. IDE hard drive. Both with Touchscreen, backlite keyboards, Intel WiFi, SD slot, DVD read writer.

I have been searching around the internet to see what I can learn about these units and what upgrade I can do. The more I read the more questions I have. Here are a few of my questions that maybe you all could help me with.
1) What is my CF-29NTQGZBN ? as far as MK #?
2) What else are these units supose to have that I haven't listed above?
3) what are my max limitations of these units?
Here are a few of my thoughts of upgrades, but just wondering if anyone else has tried them yet? Just don't want to waste time & money if someone else has tried & failed these before?
I have heard that I could upgrade to a 2Gb ram card for a total of 2.5 Gb. But I'm not sure what Card to get as far as 533mgz. - 800mgz, PC4200 - PC5300 or????? The 1Gb card is 533mgz. PC4200 DDR2.
The other thing that I'm considering is converting my IDE hard drive to a SATA 7200rpm or a SSD-hybird hard drive using an compact adapter. I think I can fit the hard drive & adapter in the caddy with a lil ajustment.
Also is there any plus or minus to changing the operating system upto Win7??
if so 32bit or 64bit?

Any help would be great. Thanks in advance

 

Start with this thread.
CF 29 FAQ

 

Yes read the Faq thread it has most of the answers
Stick to XP and you won't have any need of ram upgrades as it runs fine on 512MB and up
All of my business customers run XP

 

Model Number:
CF-29NTQGZBM
Status:
DISCONTINUED
MSRP:
$4,295
Description:
Intel Pentium M 778 1.6GHz LV (Centrino), 13.3" XGA Touch Screen, 512MB Base RAM, 80GB HDD, Intel 802.11a+b+g WLAN, Windows XP Pro SP2, TPM 1.2 Security Chip, No Optical Drive

You need to verify this, as the factory specs above do not show these to have been factory-equipped with backlit keyboards.

Mk5

"A good man always knows his limitations... "
--SFPD Inspector Harry Callahan

False.

Sorry; only the 256MB base RAM Mk 4 and Mk5 CF-29s (i.e.: NON-Touch Screen) can utilize the 2GB SODIMM upgrade.

Minus: stick with Windows XP Pro, upgraded tc SP2 or SP3.

 

Oh no.... new problem on one of my CF-29N, MK-5. I got a screen on boot up that on the bottom line say standard ram "FAILED" I then tried changing out my 512MB DDR-2 removable ram. First I just took it out, But then it wouldn't even turn on. So then I installed a 1gb DDR-2 and it seems that it only is recognizing the removable ram and not the permanent ram on the mother board. Does this mean that the mother board is toast and needs to be replaced????? Can the ram on the motherboard be replaced?
Any help would be great

 

If the motherboard was toast it wouldnt even turn on. You need to make sure that first the memory is correctly seated in the socket and that its the right memory.

Also... I saw you said you run a towing company and needed these laptops for the guys to process credit cards and use quickbooks to do invoices in the trucks. I myself manage a towing company here in Texas. How are they going to process the credit cards and why are you loading quickbooks on these laptops for invoices? My experience with quickbooks shows it can get very memory intensive, especially the last few versions, and there are several good towing software programs that can do invoicing much easier than quickbooks.

 

Try running Memtest86 and report back to us and no you can not replace the onboard ram

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

 

I went with quick books because it keeps everything in check and we use intuit for our credit card service, but not so happy with the invoicing. I had to do a lot of tweaking of their "canned" set up to get what I leagaly needed on the invoice IE: disclaimer statements for damage. You know how the laywers are. I am alway open to suggestions of other programs that are out their. I just don't wanna pay a arm and a leg for it. Times are tough right now and it seems that if I went with the latest and greatest that everyone else would be making more money then I would be. Overhead is high and with the fuel prices sky rocketing.... OUCH!

 

What is the proper memory for these units? I know its DDR-2 but series/mhz.?????? 4200/533mhz. 5300/????mhz

it does recognize the memory in the slot, but not the memory on the motherboard??????

 

TEST site:forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic - Google Search

Crucial recommendation for Mark 4-5.
1GB
Part #: CT492817 • DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64 •

Confusing at first. And try the search engine above. Courtesy the famous Azrial. Drag and drop to your tool bar. You'll be glad you did.


256 on board will take 2Gb
512 on board will take 1Gb
Explained in the FAQ.
Computer memory upgrades for Panasonic Toughbook 29 DDR2 Series Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

 

It could also be reading the motherboard memory as well and something be wrong with that memory you put in. Its rare but I have seen it before first hand where the something was wrong with the memory card but it was still registering atleast some of it when it was installed. Run memtest86 like it was suggested and report back your results.

Using quickbooks for invoicing in the trucks while i understand you use intuit for credit card processing, isnt the greatest idea. First off quickbooks wasnt truly designed for front line invoicing for our field. Tow tickets need to be a specialized ticket especially with all the regulations the states are starting to enforce and quickbooks just doesnt offer that. Its meant to be a more backoffice solution while you use another product or solution in the front line of the business. Second... What happens if that laptop gets lost or stolen. Having quickbooks on there gives whoever finds it or steals it access into your files and quickbooks and can do serious damage if credit cards are being processed thru that laptop in the field. You really do not want that problem and potential legal problems if that happens. Also having multiple copies of quickbooks for invoicing throws off your invoice and ticket numbers.

 

From:

Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool

The Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool is a quick, 3-step process to find guaranteed-compatible memory for computers and motherboards.

Guaranteed-compatible memory upgrades for your Panasonic Toughbook 29 DDR2 Series (aka: Mk4/Mk5) Laptop/Notebook.

Guaranteed-compatible memory upgrades for your Panasonic Toughbook 29 Series (aka: Mk1/Mk2/Mk3) Laptop/Notebook.