The OFFICIAL Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook Thread!

Not very much
In that unit there is a bit of space above the battery where a wwan sled is sometimes installed
That is where the pcb is positioned, and it has to be shallow to fit
On that pcb there is an output for a a gps module and a usb port used usually for a very slim Bluetooth module

Alex

 

OK, so the space is in the sled above the main battery and is very small.
The thing that you would usually stick in there is one of those tiny USB dongles.

So I guess if I have WiFi, GPS, bluetooth and HDPSA in the thing there will be next to no space left at all.

Just checking.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if an Ironkey could be fitted in there somewhere, just for the hardened firefox browser with the encrypted proxy browsing.
I love that thing but it is pretty big, even for a pen drive.

Perhaps the goldkey would fit in there?

When I talked to TB he said I sounded like I wanted a CF-30 but I can't buy a laptop that costs more than my car, can I?

 

Not enough room for an Ironkey... Unless you strip out everything else!

The HSDPA is going to cost on the CF-29. Did you say you had a card or wanted it internal?

 

quick question. i have two cf-29's, both identical. fresh install of xp pro on each, service pack 3 updated, the both have been working fine. let a buddy use one and he calls me within minutes of arriving home that it is blue screening and will not run windows for more than a minute or two after booting. so i go over there, take the other one and as soon as i connect to his wifi it starts blue screening. bsod in safe mode, bsod on normal boot, able to get into safe mode every few tries but upon restart bsod. was able to get to the desktop and wifi would not connect. i bring the first one home, boots fine (got the message 'windows has recovered from a serious error' but that is all), surfs the web, no issues. the only difference his wifi is secured with wpa2, mine is open. is there a newer driver for the intel 2100 3b mini pci network card? or another configuration utility besides what windows uses?

 

Go to the intel downloads area ,and download the latest driver for the 2100b
I have had BSOD using the standard drivers and the intel proset utility shorly after fresh windows restores
The lastest driver download I think is V12
Just the driver,you don't need the proset utility
Uninstall the original driver first
A great upgrade on this is to replace the 2100B , with a more capable 2200BG card
I throw out all the 2100b cards


Alex

 

thanks. do you use just the driver or the whole wireless utility?

 

Just the driver, let windows manage the connection


Alex

 

How much are we talking? I would kind of like it internal, as long as it works over here I don't mind not being able to swap it from machine to machine since I won't be buying another laptop until the CF-30 gets cheaper (presumably when the CF-31 comes out or in about 5 years ).
The other issue is that I need to have both PCMCIA slots clear.
I have found the USB 2.0 card that sits flush and and it seems I can either have an E-SATA card that supports RAID arrays or one that sits flush but not one that does both.

I currently only have one PCMCIA card slot and it is a pain having to swap things over all the time, I just want to have both free while I am connected.
I also have a secret lust for the mouse/powerpoint presenter that fits inside a PCMCIA slot.

On another note, people on here don't seem to like SSDs, I was thinking about one to save on battery usage and to possibly speed things up a bit, what is about them that you don't like?

Cheers

 

Stick with the cf-29 series then , as the cf-30 has only one pcmcia slot
The other slot is a ExpressCard slot,and they are both located above the optical drive

A few of us have ssd's in our new toughbooks that use the sata interface
That is the interface that seems to work best for a ssd
And there are not cheap,adding at least $300 more for a SLC type with a 64MB capacity
Some ssd drives have stuttering issues that are unacceptable to me, usually happening on the lower priced models that use a MLC controller

You can not beat the standard hard drive in your cf-29
The standard Samsung 160gb 5400 rpm single platter drive is my choice for a balance of good performance and battery life

If you are very concerned about battery life and want just a little more runtime a slow 4200RPM drive would draw less power
Stay away from the 7200rpm drives as they can draw 30% more than a 5400rpm model


Alex

 

Thanks for that, I'll go with a hard drive and see about an SSD in the future if the SLC PATA ones come down in price a bit

Normally the extra durability would appeal but the TB's drive caddy does a pretty good job of that already.

Mind you, an SSD in the caddy can only be tougher still right?

 

I have them as second drives in different caddys on my cf-19 and cf-30
I will admit that I am typing this now on the standard 80GB drive on W7 in my cf-19 that I use 95% of the time
The ssd for my cf-19 has the xp load in it as its a bit small for vista or w7 at only 32GB
The cf-30 has a 64gb ssd and a 320GB normal drive

Alex

 

Hi Folks!
I have several questions regarding my CF-29 machines related to improving various RF issues and I am wondering if anyone has some suggestions!

CF-29EWPCBKM
How do install a better internal WiFi card, possibly with higher power and N networking capability? Recommendations?

How can I create an external antenna port for the internal WiFi and internal GPS without using the docking station port?

Has anyone figured out which AT&T 3G data cards can be used internally with an external antenna port or with an internal one? I know of several PC cards, but an internal card would free up a slot.

CF-29HTQGZBM
same questions, but the hardware is a bit different, so perhaps the solutions are as well? Perhaps there are better opportunities?


Thanks & 73,
Gordon Beattie
201.314.6964
[email protected]

 

Cool, thanks for that, I have seen some nice 128Gb PATA SLS drives over here, that should be plenty, I only use a stripped back version of XP or Puppy Linux which is tiny.
Should be fine, I'll hold off on that for a bit, depending on how much I get this month, I am expecting an expenses claim plus a few other things coming in, should be good, I'm excited already...

 

Alex,

I just ordered one for my CF-30... As well as a few Engenous 600mW cards for other Toughbooks.

By the way... THIS is the cheapest place I've found for the 600mW Engenius EMP-8602+S Mini-PCI card. I could swear I saw it somewhere for $37USD... But can't find the link in my Favorites...

At any rate... When the card comes in... I'll put it in and let you know. I'll do a little "before and after" testing.

 

Rick

The supplier that you link to might be a good choice for people in the USA , that’s $10 cheaper than I paid , but they use ups for shipping and they charge way too much for brokerage fee’s to us in Canada

I think that the Engenous mini pci-e card will be worth a try
I have a Engenous brand high power access point and a wireless bridge

Of all my newer Toughbooks my Intel 3945ABG adapter in the cf-19 on W7 is the most reliable, and I don’t know why as the same adapter or the 3965 in the two cf-74’s and the two cf-30’s running xp or vista seems unreliable at times

I don’t use the other models that I have that often so I haven’t tried to track down the problem yet

I know from past experience that the Atheros chipset is superior to Intel

Alex

 

Hey folks I just had a CF-29 come out of pawn and the first thing I'm wondering is where is the Wireless LAN switch? Any guesses?

 

It can be disabled in the bios
Or
It can be disabled in the standard Intel proset utility
There is not hardware switch on cf-29's
Post your model # and I will look and see if it has wireless

Alex

 

Model should be CF-29NT4GZBM

I was thinking it did have wireless because there is an icon in the taskbar that allows you to select wireless on or off...though the options are grayed out.

I'm thinking either it doesn't have wireless or the driver is not installed.

 

As Tomcat said... You should click on F2 at boot to go into the BIOS. There should be an option in there to enable the wifi card. If it IS already enabled... You may have the option to turn it on via software. You should have Intel ProSet installed and have an Intel A/B/G card installed already. You can also go into Device Manager and see if it is installed.

I'm curious what these go for in a pawn shop.... Do you mind telling us what you paid?

 

Hi Guys, I am a police officer that should soon deploying to the Middle East. I am looking for a CF-29 and in my research was thrilled I found this site!

I just sold an old CF-M34 with a P3 400 that I was running a stripped down copy of XP-Pro SP3 on, with quite a bit of success, for several years. It was a great little notebook, a "real man's PDA" if you will and I had maxed it out at 768MB of RAM and a 80GB HDD (well that was not the Max...) It served me well as a duty computer while assigned to some rough stateside duty (Hazmat-SWAT, Marine Task Force, etc), but I fingered that I needed more horsepower for this trip, hence I am looking for a CF-29!

I am looking for 1.6GHz CPU, DVD Burner, Immersible backlight LED Keyboard, and internal GPS and Wi-Fi? Bluetooth would be nice. The touchscreen option is cool, but I have a thing about fingerprints on my screen!!! So I think I can live without that feature!

I just missed one on eBay that had these exact features, you snooze, you lose.

I have been reading this board since 6:AM this morning and have already learned a ton! It would seem that all of the 1.4 GHz CPU are Mark 4's?

Any guidance would be golden!

 

Azrial... First of all... Welcome to our little slice of heaven. Nobody knows more about Toughbooks (Outside of Panasonic) than the collective knowledge of this forum.... So you came to the right place. Glad you are having fun... It is addictive. Since you are versed in Toughbook jargon and what they are for, can do, will tolerate... You are ahead of the game.

Buying a CF-29 on ebay is a bit of a crap shoot. You could try posting in the Buy/Sell/Trade the exact specs you want/need and your budget... Or someone here may PM you with an offer after reading this as we all tend to hoard them...

To give a little info on the CF-29s...

MK1 = 1.2GHz
MK2 = 1.3GHz
MK3 = 1.4GHz
MK4 = 1.6GHz
MK5 = 1.6GHz (Later edition)

The difference between the MK4 & MK5 (And someone can correct me if I am wrong here) was that the MK5 incorporated a little more in the BIOS that allows for using a few of the modem sleds of the CF-30. Not really a whole lot of difference unless you need higher speed cellular wireless. Ones that the CF-30 enjoys.

You certainly sound like you are technical enough to build one yourself but I guess that needs to be balanced out with how soon "soon" is that you will be deployed. Sometimes you can shop around and get deals and put stuff together and save money... Sometimes it ends up costing you more. It really all depends on who you buy from, what you end up with (condition wise) and if the seller actually did refurbish the laptop or is simply passing it on with the stamp of "Refurbished" because he took it out of one box and put it in another. To others... Refurbished means they painted the top cover... Something I would NOT do if you are going to the land of sand!

Pricing would range from around $400 for a bare-bones CF-29 all the way up to $1700 for an all out, fully refurbished unit with everything you want. Regardless.... It will be miles ahead of the CF-M34 you had.

Feel free to explore and ask questions... That is what we are here for.

 

Well, you are going to find what you want here Azrial

You need a mk-4 or a mk-5 unit to have 1.6Ghz
The mk-5 is very rare, but the mk-4 is available
And over 1/2 the mk4/5 units seem to have an issue where the touchscreen fails so if you are concerned about fingerprints and don't want the touch feature that’s great


Alex

 

What are the suffixes that are found for each of these?
To give a little info on the CF-29s...

MK1 = 1.2GHz
MK2 = 1.3GHz
MK3 = 1.4GHz
MK4 = 1.6GHz
MK5 = 1.6GHz (Later edition)

Thanks!
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT

 

That is the processor speed.

 

Thanks for the info and welcome guys. I have been prowling eBay and looking at the offerings. I am a little chagrined at the number of vendors there that seem bent on getting bad feedback on these computers by deceptive advertising!

To claim that a unit has DVD or GPS because you are including a cheap add on-unit and not to spell that out in clear terms is deceptive. One guy was "including" the OEM Panasonic CD/DVD, which I guess means that he found out it required a caddy and never go one...

I am also surprised that a lot of times the model numbers do not agree with what they are posting CPU-wise.

Apparently the GPS and the Immersible backlight LED Keyboard are rare options on the Mark 4 & 5? Tomcat57 thanks for the info on touchscreen failure on the Mark 5 & 5, useful!

Anyway, not much different then a ham boneyard I guess.

 

Greetings all, Old Hand at Desktops, Newbie at Toughbooks...Friend dropped off a CF-29 FTKGZKM for me to try and remedy...Green Battery Light/Green AC light when turned on/but.......when powered up, only the MP inside the left facing arrow<powered CD Bay?> comes on green and stays on. Brief millisecond sequential green lights right to left on that entire row below the touchpad at startup, but just those three green lights after that...no screen, no beeps, nuttin'. have removed battery, AC cord, hard drive and cd drive and let it sit a bit, but to no avail...<heavy sigh> ideas, please??

 

Turn it over, open the panel with the 4 screws.
If there is a memory stick in there take it out.
Now try and boot it up.
Come back and let us know what happens..

Bob

?!Oh!? and welcome to the insanity

 

I understand that the processor speed goes with the Mk number, but I was wondering what CF-29 suffixes went with each processor or Mk numbers?
Thanks!
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT

 

Look here

http://www.toughwiki.com/index.php?title=CF-29

Alex

 

it´s a great idea to post the service manual of the cf29. Unfortunately, the link you have posted is inactive.
Could you email me the manual?
Or do you know where to get it?
On the CF-29 there is also a reference manual. This PDF is located on the harddisk when the computer is new. It´s more detailed than the quick reference you can download on the panasonic website.
I bought an used toughbook, an the reference manual is missing on my HDD.
How can I get it?

 

The link is updated now


Alex

 

Thanks for the welcome....sorry i didn't get back to y'all sooner, had a class to set up and begin...

did what you said, Bob....alas, no change in the perceivable bootup sequence or the lifelessness of the PC...

 

theimage no longer works, but he is quoting an inernal usb? isthis standard? or a mod of some description?

It could be handy to have a gallery of the various components, the gps, wwan adapter, etc so is easy to crosreference and just be nosey at whats inside!
and also what is compatible across the models

 

There are several threads that discuss the mod to install the internal USB port in the 29, some are dedicated threads, some are not. There search feature on this site is non existent (it sucks!), so Google your question and it should pop up. Yes the capability exists, but it takes some wiring/soldering to achieve. Yes, read the FAQ thread carefully, along with the other sticky that covers many of the major mods to several of the TB's. Between those two threads, most (if not all) of your questions will be answered.

 

Have read some of the FAQ and cf-29 threads, but they are hundreds of posts long!!! Lots of enthusism for these machines!! But it doesn't make it too easy for the noob to navigate.... With this question, if the image was showing, it would have been clear that it was a mod...

I have tried the search, but it's almost useless! I've used lots of vbulliten forums and this is the first with a forum and google search, the google search works, but returns soman hits, the forum search just presents me with an error message!

 

To answer your question... It is a kit that can be ordered... Or you can build your own by reading the "How to install GPS into your CF-29" thread.

Others have ordered this kit and had success... I tried two of them and had issues with both.

If you are all thumbs in the modding type area.... Buy a Toughbook that already has it installed.... If you are handy, capable, have used a soldering iron before (successfully) and have steady hand and plenty of patience... Then install your own. You can buy all the needed parts for under $100...

 

So I bought a refurbished CF-29H3M50BM and it was advertised as being usable as a tablet... hours of work later I think I've discovered that it was an option not installed on this one. Any Ideas how I can tell if it has touch screen or not?
This is my first Toughbook and so far I love it but that feature was really what I bought it for...

 

Another quick question for the Gurus here ... I was offered a CF-37 with unknown features and no A/C adapter can anyone tell me if it is worth getting and maybe investing time energy and a little cash into?

 

The only way to tell for sure is to remove the LCD lid cover and see if you have the PCB in it. It would be located on the right side. Removing the cover is a little tricky though. You first have to remove the keyboard lock (the thin plastic strip at the top of your F keys (4 screws), then remove the 4 screws holding the hinge covers down (2 each side), then the two hinge cover screws on the back side; then remove all the screws around the lid cover (save for the 2 torq screws). Then you should be able to carefully open the cover and see if the PCB is installed.

Got it?! Now let us know what you find...

 

KiwiKev

Your model did not come with a touch screen from the factory
If you need touchscreen the complete lid can be swapped to a touchscreen, that is easy , you just need to find a complete lid

Cf-37

Old model , not a very bright screen ,dated specs , I would pass on it


Alex

 

Thanks guys for the info. Tiger Direct screwed me on this with false advertising... They said that they would buy it back but I love it so far even w/o the Touchscreen... Maybe they'll give me another half a gig to keep it...


on the CF-37 even for free?
I'm a bit of a pack rat (MAc classics in my garage to prove it..) and a sucker for free...

K

 

I would say its not a touch screen . The ( 3 ) in your model # stands for " 13.3 XGA LCD " .When you restart the computer press F2 and let us know what the model# is in the first screen . The one on the bottom could be from a different 29 and then get back to us.
Blair

 

Still, being refurbished, it could have been added but just doesnt have the drivers installed or installed correctly. Again, the only way to be positive is to open her up.

 

Myself I would send it back or tell them to send a touch screen 29 . The ones without the touch are hard to sell and I find they sell @ half the price.
I have 2 cf-29s touch and love it
Blair

 

Good point

Look in the bios Fn+F2 while booting
See if the model # is what it should be , and look for a touchscreen option there


Alex

 

I just checked out tiger and the one you want is this one { http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5561345&CatId=4947 )
but it cost about $80.00 more
Blair

 

Thanx Tough, but I'm a field service tech and was laid off in May so this was a stretch to do as it is and I really had no business buying it. I'll offer to keep it for some memory upgrade and maybe keep it anyway. I thought that the price $329 was exceptional considering that the technology isn't that old and it was ruggedized. Plus I used one when I was a "Facilitator" in Central America but the Company provided them and stripped out some wifi features. I loved the one I was issued but this is the first one I've owned. Nostalgic I think. LOL.
we'll see what they come up with as a deal. I posted it on Crags list with a mark up so if I can sell it then I'll buy the other model from TD.

Kev

 

sorry for the double post guys but I had a power outage while rebooting into Bios and things got a bit crazy here.

And the winner is... Model CF-29HTM50BM

The touch screen is enabled in the BIOS.

Next step is to open it up I guess.

It may be there and not functional.

K

 

Now you need to load the drivers for the touchscreen, if they are not loaded
Is there a file in drive C: called utilitys?
That is where the drivers are located if it has been restored with the panasonic restore disks
If there is no file that means it might be that no one bothered to install drivers
Yes your model is a touchscreen


Alex

 

I think this is where the age old argument comes in that if it shows in the BIOS, the hardware has to be there in order for it to register in the BIOS. That being the case, it would probably be a driver issue, but you cannot rule out the possibility of a hardware issue in the touchscreen.