The OFFICIAL Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook Thread!

:laugh:

 

Another Tigerdirect purchase here. Just as an FYI tigerdirect.com compusa.com and circuitcity.com are all owned by the parent company Systemax. Click on the links (for the shopping sites) and notice that the HTML in the center frame is nearly identical and that the feedback section is the same on all three sites. These off-lease SBC units all seem to originate from a company called Metro Business Systems in Connecticut. I don't know if they handled the original acquisition contract for SBC but they seem to be handling the liquidation/re-marketing contract. Or perhaps they just bought the units outright.

I was actually on circuitcity.com looking at HP Probook pricing when I stumbled on to the Toughbooks. I wasn't even really in the market for a laptop!!! Before I knew what was happening my credit card was somehow out of my wallet and I was reading a confirmation email. What the heck? For years I would occasionally look at the Toughbooks listed on Ebay. The ones I felt I could afford were always missing key parts and the complete units seemed to always bring too much. Having owned a Panasonic EB-TX220 cell phone I was already a fan of their ruggedized products.

I had recently sold my 15.6" Toshiba Satellite for three reasons. First, it was made out of that shiny cheap plastic that is so common in laptops these days. Secondly, was that stupid shiny screen. Third, it was just too big to fit comfortably in my lap. My first laptop was an IBM Thinkpad with a 13.3" screen. I loved that thing. It was made out of hard, dull looking plastic and was the perfect size. It was also very durable. Modern consumer grade laptops just don't do it for me. I was getting by on a netbook and was planning on saving up for a Probook when I spotted the Toughbook.

I ordered the non-touchscreen model since I have no real use for it. When my unit arrived, sure enough it had a touchscreen. I think they are grading the touchscreens. Mine does not seem to calibrate perfectly. It's pretty good but a little off. It also seems to loose part of it's calibration map if I pull all power from the machine. I don't know how this is possible but it happens. If the unit doesn't have a perfect touchscreen I think they lump it in with the non-touchscreen units. It works good enough to impress my friends.

My unit has the seemingly common crack above the GPS cover. What causes that? A vehicle mount? The PCMCIA cover had a bent hinge and would not open at first. The LCD has some very minor heat damage (two spots, 1/8" X 1", almost impossible to see). My battery only gets about an hour at full power and does not report accurately to Windoze. It was completely dead when I received the unit and calibration has not helped. I though about exchanging the unit but just couldn't. I was holding a real freaking Toughbook in my hands...I will never leave you Ma chérie.

Knowing it was an off lease machine to begin with I was already planning to buy a new battery for it so no biggie. I pulled the PCMCIA cover and fixed the hinge (hammer & chisel). The crack in the case bugged me at first. Since I have no plans of posting Toughbook water boarding videos on Youtube I have relaxed about it. I'm going to slather some epoxy inside under the crack to restore its dust shedding abilities. I've replaced the included CD-ROM with an 8X DVD-RW I found on Ebay for a song. I gave the unit an injection of Arctic Silver when I took it apart to paint it.

Yes, I painted it. I know that seems to be a touchy subject here for some reason. I had a need for a less conspicuous look...something that didn't stand out quite so much. I used some olive drab rattle paint that I already had. I know, I'm terrible. I just love this thing!!! The screen is the perfect size. No more tilting to avoid glare!!! And if I do need to tilt the screen I can grab it with one hand and put it were I need it (the Toshiba used to flex). The keyboard has the perfect layout and typing feel. The only disappointment I have is with the output of the headphone jack. At full bore my music isn't near the level I usually listen at. I plan on buying some spares and using this machine for several more years. When I can no longer limp it along I will buy another Toughbook.

I'm infected.

 

Welcome to the group! We specialize in enabling and feeding the TB addiction!

 

don't know exactly where to ask this question, but when you start up and go into BIOS on some of the cf-29, mk 3's (got three) and mk 5's( got two) it shows the number of operational hours on some of the machines and some no listing as to any hours operating time. one is as low as 350 hours, the most 22250 hours( these are the mk5's). is there anyway I can change a setting in bios to find this figure? just upped the mk5 with a 320 wd ide hdd and added the 2gb crucial ram AZ mentioned and registers 1.99 usable in bios(one with 256mb on MB). I'm sure it's something simple, any ideas, Driller

 

They started including that on the MK4... You can't get it on the prior models.

 

All you will see is 1.99GB in the OS, some or all of the remaining 256MB should be used by UAM.

It's all in the thread referenced in my Sig...

 

question about destop port replicators for the cf-29 mk3's. a thread I read says one to use is CF-VEB272A2W. I have a CF-VEB272AW that I tried and the mk3 fits, so I hooked ext KB, mouse and samsung monitor. powered it with the laptop power supply and fired it up. externals look and work good showing panny start up screen and can go into bios as well. when get to windoze xp, samsung external monitor goes into standby mode, open laptop screen it works i.e. the laptop lcd,not the ext monitor. both kb's work and mouse pad and external mouse work. went into bios and changed setting from simultaneous to external reboot same thing occurs, ext monitor into standby mode , open laptop the lcd works as well, but again not ext monitor, is this a driver issue or is it replicator. why do either or both work till get to home screen, windows xp logos come up then it goes into standby. took a gamble on the less expensive 272AW vs. the more expensive VEB-272A2W.did I crap out? Driller

 

I just hit FN+3 and it works with just the external monitor hooked up, now am going to hook back up to the replicator......... TB,mnem, AZ all you sages, break out the whips, as with all that I do, learning curves can get steep for a flat lander..... Driller

 

Seems to me you've flogged yourself quite enough; though I'm sure there's plenty of people who'll gladly continue the process...

mnem
Another flagon for the dragon...

 

You might also want to go into the power settings to tell it what to do when open/closed, etc.... My wife's company has a bunch of laptops that go into replicators and she always calls me when someone puts their laptop into the replicator and closes the lid... Then the external monitor goes dead.


You need to set it so that when you close the lid... It is set to "Do Nothing"

Might help... Then you can control EVERYTHING with the Fn+F3....

 

thanks sages for the ages, do you remember Kramer when he was on comedy on friday nite , a bit of time ago,called Fridays, I believe it was, he was a "twisted" chiropractor, thus the phrase that keeps recurring in my life and work, PAIN !,,,, IS GOOOOOOD!, followed your advice works perfect, saved myself about 150.00 bucks this way, maybe I can find some more of them replicators to extend my plans for the office. I'm up to 3 mk3's and 2 mk5's and a mk4 en route that I'll be modding soon, again many thanks....Driller

 

Well you could start here Panasonic Desktop Port Replicator CF-VEB272A2W - eBay (item 300429574763 end time Jun-19-10 10:12:57 PDT)
$40.00 shipped.....or best offer .

 

thanks for the heads up, they be gone now! checked last night and they weren't there, but I see the light, in more ways than one.....Driller

 

just picked up cf-29L3LGWBM did some reading up on gps on stickies. down loaded visualgps software as suggested in reading. went into bios set the bios to auto got to com port 3 rebooted machine and BAM! it works! in western nc near boone at about 3500 feet elevation getting up to five sat readings! don't know much about this thing yet other than my experience with garmin products but am looking forward to getting more knowledgable about this feature on this unit. so far I've been impressed to say the least and I know that aftermarket products discussed here are more advanced than what aparently came fron the factory but I really can't complain. any sugesstions on other software available that may make this thing like the garmin type products(of course garmin ,delorme,MS streets and maps, winfast, more along line of freeware or power for the least cash) like the rest of you, I've purchased a lot of garmin products and p*** on their liscensing , it's almost cheaper to buy a new unit. kinda like washington, if it ain't broke lets rewrite the laws,reinterpret them, and chicago it, do it my way.... Driller

 

CF-29L3LGWBM Description:
***Barkersfield PD ONLY***
Intel Pentium M 778 1.6GHzLV (Centrino), 13.3" NON Touch XGA, 256MB, 60GB, Intel 802.11a+b+g, WIN XP SP2, Wireless Ready, GPS , No Drive

1) Another retired-PD Toughbook (like my own CF-29EWPNZBM); and,
2) Another candidate for the "Everyone told me not to do it!" 2GB memory upgrade. :yes:

NICE machine!

If you don't mind my asking, where did you find this?

I WANT ONE TOO!!!

 

quality_team_auctions, off of ebay. answered my questions, good deal, check 'em out, I'd do business with them again, don't quite know much about the PM stuff yet, but give me pointers, Driller

 

Thanks for the info: I'll check them out.

Just "click" on the blue name of the member you want to PM, then select "Send a private message to (name)" selection from the "drop-down" box, and then PM away!

 

Recovery disks generally DO NOT work on these units... "Model Not Supported"... But now that we can go in and change the model number.... We may be able to load with a model number change in the BIOS.

 

I must have missed this, I have been very busy lately. Where are the details?

 

Right here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/475233-writing-bios-id-2.html#post6144446

Glen

 

The BIOS writing was a GREAT find... I'm wondering if someone could rewrite the model number to a generic one so that it would allow for Recovery Disks used. I've had the Bakersfield PD units and regular Recovery Disks couldn't be used.

 

That shouldn't be too hard. The recovery disks have a file named precheck(not sure of the extension). That file is called first to make sure of the unit you are trying to use the disks on. Simply rewrite the model number first then apply the recovery disks and if necessary, rewrite the model number back to the original.

 

Rusty... I hope you at least got to relax a little yesterday!

Take care!

Rick

 

OK, I have handed "my" Toughbook over to the friend for whom it was bought. He loves the thing. Like me I think he really likes the touch screen. So I do have one last question. He has an external 16:9 monitor. It's a low resolution 1366x768 screen. By default the external display settings seem limited to older 4:3 resolutions (and 1280x1024). Is there a way to enter a custom resolution into this machine? I know 1366x768 can give some older graphics cards a bit of a fit but 1360 looks just fine on that display. Is that possible on this computer? Right now he just runs the external display at 1024x768 which really is no better than using the internal screen.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

As far as I know.... 1024 X 768 is it.

 

Well it does 1280x1024 which of course is a resolution that's been around for a while. It doesn't seem to do any wide screen resolutions.

Well when I see the guy next I might give this a try:
http://w0rst-hardware.blogspot.com/2008/02/make-1680x1050-and-1440x900-resolution.html

 

Right now my CF-29 is powering my HP display at 1680x1050. You may need to manually install the driver for the specific external display you are using, the external display will often set what resolutions are avalible. The settings on mine were detected via PnP, but this does not always happen.

Also do you have the Intel GMA app installed? If I right click on the desktop I have a "Graphics Properties..." that when clicked on brings up the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator interface. This may be necessary to get full use of the display adapter.

 

Relax a bit, yes! Nothing like a day off (the confilict here doesn't have days off). The meals at the chow hall was better and a few other special things.

 

I did have the GMA installed but I didn't install a driver for the specific monitor. Since we are dealing with a 1366x768 display it wouldn't surprise me if the graphics card says nope we can't do that. I recall reading that 1366 is an issue for many older cards because it isn't divisible by 8. I found with an old P3 machine I had a custom resolution of 1360 was close enough that the monitor was smart enough to simply leave 3 columns of pixels off on each side thus we could hit the 1:1 pixel mapping objective. When I get the chance next I will see what I can do. The guy isn't a big computer user but he seemed to like the idea of a second display. I hate to see a 1366x768 display cut down to simple XGA.

 

Hi,

I received a Panasonic, Toughbook. CF-29CTPGBKM for repair last weekend. At first I was unable to boot past the BIOS. After a marathon (6 hours) session with Panasonic On-Line Support. All they could do for me was supply the manuals and introduced me to a nice utility: WBCD4WIN. Was able to create a nice boot disk with this. But the problem was rectified when I found your awesome post: CD to DVD Swap Tutorial. This got it going. However, once the initial Windows XP drivers were loaded (no updates), It began to have an erratic cursor movement on the screen. I pulled the drives and put them in another CF-29CTP series machine I have. Was able to finish the windows update all the way to SP3 and loaded, but didn't install the specific CF-29 drivers. All this time I had the primary device chilling in the freezer. As I thought there could be a thermal problem. I reinstalled the drives and it worked well for a while; was able it install the drivers (expect the Touch Screen) and loaded the user requested applications. Upon a restart, the erratic movement began again. I gave it a days rest and turned it on. Same prob. Cursor jumps all over and performs right clicks, plus moves the taskbar around. Works ok in Safe mode. Driver Conflict maybe? These are new to me. Worked on many different types of machines and this prob is new. There's a lot of these machines being auctioned as their leases have expired. So I'm sure I'll see more. Any advice? Thanks...

 

Go into BIOS and DISABLE the GPS. Boot as normal and find and install the GPS patch. I don't remember the specifics on the file right now but a search here should find it. If you look at the drivers, you should find something referring to it. After installing the patch you can go into BIOS and enable the GPS again. Your problem will be solved.

 

Thank you Rusty, not only for your advice but for your service to our country. I could go on... Summary: Proud of what you do to keep our families in freedom!

I disabled the GPS and it's working fine. Still looking for the GPS Patch. All I found so far are kits and a specific GPS CF-29 Surgery Tutorial. Will keep looking.

Thank you!!!

 

Read this post, this should help you out.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/355214-cf-29-gps-drivers.html

 

Yeah... That's the GPS that needs to be disabled, install patch and then reboot into BIOS to enable the GPS in the BIOS again.

You won't get the jumpy cursor with non-GPS models.

Also... If you start seeing more of these... You may want to invest in a set of recovery disks as they load in 25 minutes, tops, and load all drivers for you... All you need to do is to update and install your porgrams... No bloatware like other manufacturers.

BTW.... When you install the GPS patch... It will extract to C:\Util2\GPS or C:\Util2\Drivers\GPS... You will need to go into the file and click on the registry entry to install it.

 

Thanks all! This morning I had a very satisfied customer take his CF-29 home running like it came right out of the box. This in many ways was made possible by your help and the other posts I found on this thread. I've repaired a lot of machines, but never saw a job anywhere near the likes of this one. I now have a better understanding of Toughbooks; very different from standard consumer Laptops! The Fire Fighter who owned this one will be referring his co-workers to me. These guys are on the wildfire response unit and all have Toughbooks. It'll be interesting to see what challenges are in store for me. I plan to be an avid user of this thread, even between jobs. Thank you all again!

 

Welcome! Good to have you.

 

A Job well done has it's payoffs. Client was so satisfied with my work, he picked up two CF-29CWKGZDM's from a Phoenix Police Auction yesterday. I had them both completely built with XP, DVD ROM's, 40 & 60GB HDD's respectfully and all components working fast and accurately without issues that I couldn't handle; including all licensed applications requested. Had 'em both built and showed them off with Movies running on each. Took about 8 hours for both builds combined (only have one charger for now). Guess it's time to put together Gold Disks for basic builds and find a resource for bulk QTY drive Caddies...

I guess this is simply another thank you to my new friends at The OFFICIAL Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook Thread! Couldn't have pushed these out without all your help. I hope to be a contributing resource to this page. It is now among my startup pages each day...

 

We are all here to help.... Glad you were able to take something away and look forward to you posting what you have learned or could teach us!

 

I guess I'll have to post a VirtualBox how to soon :-/ (I've been slackin Rick sry )
teach what you learn are the watch words here . d's Site - VirtualBox && d's Site - VirtualBox 3.2.2 && FreeBSD 8.0 RELEASE guest screen resolution

in the xorg.conf example I was using an HP 22" monitor so for the toughbooks that would be 1024x768 instead of the 1600x1200
other than that this is and has been version 3.2.2 r62298 Virtual box and ubuntu 9.04 desktop details to follow .

I know this has been asked before but being a dummy when it comes to searching these forums I have to ask , will the emmissive kybd work on my toughbook ?

~kop

back to getting RHEL to play nice in VM cyas

 

The Emissive type keyboard (Built for the CF-29/30) will work with your CF-29...

 

picked up a couple of cf-29 LTQGWBM's advertised with 860 hours and 950 hours on the clock, cases are rough, earned scars no doubt, out of the liberal side of US, wondering, how can cases get so much "wear" but respectively have these low hours, guess they have been tossed around or whatever. was going to see if could experiment or go inside these units, but did'nt know the hours were as low as they were, don't want to "gut wrench" these but may face lift them........any ideas? Driller

 

The problem is most company workers don't give a @#$% because if it breaks they take it in for another one ............if you paid the 5 grand for it you might look after it better. I have 2 CF-29 (MK3 + MK5) with 3200 hrs and 12250 hrs and this one is mint. Who ever had it looked after. I have seen a few SBC 29's and I think the guys kept it in the bed of his pickup instead of the cab. My friend has spent twice what he paid for it and he just found out that the touch screen is dead.......and I told him so........stay away from SBC. Yes sometimes you get lucky and get a good one but I can not count the post we have had on here like........

Code:

[I]HI , I just bought a 29 on Fleabay and the touch screen don't work[/I]

I only buy if the picture is good and clear and only if the 29 he is selling is the one pictured. You can spend a lot of $$$$ to fix it up....it adds up fast

 

you're right, can't believe the low hours on these and the case has seen USE!, but for what I'm planning to use them for, they won't be seen as they'll be used with replicators, namely some of those you pointed me to. thanks, they work fine so far and still were cheaper than anything else I've found. am going to see if I can go a wireless route with cf-29's that I can gain access to the main software package as it is multi-user, so I'll wind up with 3 in each office accessing the main cf-29 and take it office to office, 2 locations about 20 miles apart. sure I don't necessarily what the hello I'm doing just yet, but I'm hopefully going to get things set up with just the single laptop and then see if the rest can be done. I can pay someone thousands to do it or learn and do it by myself, the knowledge means more to me. I tell my kids all the time to learn as much about everything you can because you can apply it to many other things......Driller

 

I had the same problem. Until I found an old ps2 type stylus in my parts box. With that attached, I was able to install the Touchpad and Touch Screen Drivers using CF-29 c/d-series drivers obtained from Panasonic's support site: Official Support Download Center of the Drivers, Manuals and FAQs | TOUGHBOOK | Panasonic

Find your model series and get a stylus. That should get it going. I'm a newbie with CF-29's; only repair 6 so far. But with the touchscreen it needed to see the pointing device that was compatible so the drivers would install correctly. There may be another work around... Not sure though.

The Screen may not be dead!

 

Not sure what happened, but I have never heard of a CF-29 with a digitizer touch screen. Absent such a screen there is no way your CF-29 requires any stylus at all. The digitizer detects the magnetic field from the stylus, a standard touch screen is not capable of detecting any input other than pressure, it is irrelevant how that pressure is applied. You might have a VERY special CF-29 or someone may have hacked in a digitizer screen, but I'm guessing its just a coincidence.
CAP

 

That was my original thought as well. But I just couldn't get the drivers to load until I attached the stylus. Weird...

 

was wondering if there was a seperate charger for the batteries for the cf-29 or perhaps a panasonic charger module that could do the job as well as the laptop itself. anybody have any ideas on this?.......Driller

 

See PANASONIC NOTEBOOK BATTERY CHARGER CF-VCBTB1U on ebaY™.

Charges both the main and Media Bay batteries; even at the same time.

 

last message I sent must not have made it thru, you're fast MAN!!!!!! you must be some kind of mind reader, I just purchased it and went back to post answer to my own question and you beat me to it, you ever do anything with the Rhyne Institute at Duke U.? I used to know one of the guys in the parapsychology end with the esp experiments way back when in the early 70's, thanks Driller

 

Guys need advice. $220.00 for 29lasgzbm No HDD or Caddy, no Optical Drive or caddy, No battery or AC unit. Claimed to have 1gig RAM on board with open slot. As best I can tell it came with emissive keyboard and GPS no mention of either in ad. Also supposed to be Touchscreen have read here Mk 4 and 5 touchscreens are problematic. Money is REAL tight so yes or no.