Toughbook 28, nobody on this forum has one?

Hey all,I have had the good luck of getting a Panasonic cf-28 laptop for a very good price, good conidition.

But anyway, if anyone here has a fully rugged laptop from panasonic;; I am curious to how you may have tested its durability??

For kicks I have held it over a bathroom shower at all different angles, and no leaks whatsoever, it is great.

So now to test its water limits, i am thinking of duct taping the door on the underside of the laptop (houses the battery, HD cage)(done because i feel like it), and then putting it in a tub filled with water (up to top of lid that is opened at 90 degrees).

Do you think it would survive limited imerrsion?
Do you think it would leak?

I'm getting the courage to try this just for a few seconds at first, and then trying different variations on the experiment. My main concern is the negative pressure this may produce against the seals.

Obviously the unit would be off during this.. just cus..


thoughts?

No, i am not in the habit of ruining laptops on purpose.

 

LOL - they're rugged, not waterproof

 

Well at least they are water resistant.
They are rated to handle splashing water!

but yeah i don't think it would keep out the water when pressure really comes into the equation.

i would just think that it could probably handle itself being 'neck' high in water and operate, as long as I seal up the bottom compartment which would be having the most pressure because of the computer pushing itself against the water in that area.

 

Right, there's a difference between water resistant and water proof!

 

Right I am with you.

Its too risky.

I guess everybody on this forum has the semi-rugged, no rugge laptops on here.

a cf-28 is only like $1100 on (a very famous auction site)

 

LOL, I wish I could afford to do submersion tests on Any laptop.
I own a Toughbook CF-27, and although it's horribly slow by today's standards, it plays DivX movies and websurfing just fine, which besides gaming, is all I really use a lappy for. Can't afford a gaming lappy now though.
These laptops are very tough, mine got left on top of a car, slung about 5ft through the air onto concrete while running, and didn't skip a beat (Don't ask how this happened LOL). It's also had plenty of water on the keyboard from a careless brother, dumped off and continued use.
However, I still don't think even with duct tape, super-glue, or caulk, that it would stand a full submersion for long without permanent damange. Although, after all mine has been through, I just about bet that it would still run fine after being left out to dry.
Mine was purchased second-hand, and there is a nasty crack/split (Looks like an axe hit it) in the underside of the chassis that I really don't want to know how it got there, and still works!

 

I have a CF-28 as well as a CF-29 and CF-18 here at work and they have been through quite a bit with no problems. One of our technicians was doing some field work and had to cross a small stream with the CF-28. The technician was wearing chest waders and the water was up about mid thigh when he lost his footing. He was holding the CF-28 above his head and it was powered off at the time. The technician and the notebook were both fully submerged for a short time. By the time he brought the CF-28 back to me in the office, he had tried starting it a couple of times and it seemed dead. I opened up all of the port covers, removed the optical drive, hard drive, and battery (water was literally running out of it at this point) and let it dry over night. The next morning after putting it all back together it booted with out a problem.

 

Hello:

How would you rate the screen (image) quality of your CF29? Are you satrisfied with your brightness level. I understand the 29 has been through several upgrades. How old is you unit?

Since your one of the very, very few that actually owns a Toughbook any other comments/feedback would be most appreciated...

Thanks

 

We purchased our CF-29 in March of 2004. By the standards you would use to judge the common notebook (this is defiantly not the common notebook) the screen is atrocious. It is only SVGA resolution, not very bright, and looks very washed out. Of course this notebook is designed to be used outside under harsh conditions. In this setting it is quite good. Outside it is on par with my CF-18 and quite a bit better than my CF-28. I am sure the updated versions of the 29 are better (curse of the early adopter) and I know that they are higher resolution.

In general, I can't brag on my Toughbooks enough. They have withstood just about anything my users have thrown at them. There was one unfortunate incident with a scrubbing pad, Formula 409, and a display that ended with a purchasing a new LCD, but that was surly not something Panasonic could ever have anticipated. I wish they were faster, had better screens, and didn't cost as much, but next time I need a rugged notebook I won't hesitate to get a Toughbook.

 

Oh my God! Formula 409 and a scrubush on an LCD screen? I have never heard of that before!!!

Anyway, as to your poor screen on the '04, CF 29 - I know there have been many display upgrades. My understanding is that the current version is a 540 nit (non-touch)/500 nit (touch screen), XGA.

Panasonic claims the new Fujitu screens are far superior to all other displays in the outdoor-readable category.

I wish there was someone on this site that has actually viewd the CF 29 or CF 74.

 

My CF-29 arrived with a terrible screen protector. I'm not sure if they are configured this way from all dealers. The manual mentions a [factory?] replaceable "foil" on the screen to protect the LCD but I'm not sure if this refers to the built-in touchscreen membrane or a standard screen protector.

Anyhow, check the corner of the screen and see if it has an overlay fitted. If it does you want to remove it (use a wooden toothpick to lift the corner then peel away). It really kills the clarity and makes the screen more difficult to view outdoors and is completely unnecessary unless you are doing a lot of handwriting recognition.

The CF-29 build quality is almost flawless, the most beautifully built laptop I have ever used (like it more than the R4, which I've decided to sell now - on ebay UK if anyone is interested).

As for submerging the laptop (did you try it?!)... ill-advised.

I just do not get the design of the skylight, I mean, media bay release. Once that cover is slid open to expose the ejection lever--and it would be easy for it to be worked open accidentally, especially if used outdoors on an uneven surface, as it's on the bottom of the laptop with no locking mechanism (!!)--the chasis is compromised. It's open-plan inside there, probably for heat dispensation: media bay, main board, battery, all these parts are exposed.

Why not have an internal ejector that can only be operated by opening the media bay door? All the side doors are so well built with large seals and latches, but that's all kind of pointless if there's a hole in the bottom with little more than a dust cover sealing it... who knows, maybe it's to drain out water after submersion?

 

No, I haven't submerged it. Feel free to do it to yours though!

 

I just bought a CF-28 From Ebay, It should be here soon, Its only a 600mhz but its for work so i figured i would spend less time playing video games on it.
The store by my house sells 256megs ram for $50can so i'll throw some of that in there too. I'm also ganna try to affix a non-panasonic dvd burner to it so I'll post that when I give that a whirl.
Coincidentally Abandonia.com is a great site for Games that will run on Old computers. Maybe I'll just install one or two.

 

I just bought a CF-28 600mhz on ebay and while doing research on it, I came across a tv show in the UK that did some tests. They took a Toshiba (inside of a high end courier case) and a Toughbook CF-28 (as far as I know) (the toughbook was out there on it's own, no case) and they threw them around, drove off road with the notebooks in the bed of a pickup.

Then they dunked each computer into a dunking tank for a few minutes (forgot how long) The Toshiba was taken out of the case and it started to boot up, but then it died halfway into windows. The Toughbook wouldn't boot up at all for a minute and then it just came on and booted up fine, but sound didn't work.

Then they placed them on 2KG of dynamite (roughly 2 sticks equivalent) and blew them up. The explosion shot the notebooks into the air (they claim 20/40 feet) and when they found them, the toshiba was taken out of the bag and it had a crack on the lid plastic and the keyboard was cracked and looked really bad, among other things.

When the found the Toughbook, it didn't have it's battery, but they managed to find that and stick it back in. They wiped the key imprinted soot off the screen and booted it up, when it logged in, they opened up their show's opening credits (like after the water test) and sound was working again.

My other story is, my co-worker said that at his last job (retail computer tech) some guy brought in a toughbook from a flea market and it had a bullet in or near the screen, and it worked fine for the most part.

So I'm sold on their ruggedness

Now to wipe off that windows install and get a Linux on there.
(anyone have any experience with that)

 

Yes, actually.

On the 800x600 screens, you may have some issues. It seems the auto-detect scripts for some linux distros don't like my cf-28 600. If you have problems, plug in an external monitor, and use the FN combo to switch to the external monitor ONLY. Once installed and configured, you can switch back.

Debian/Ubuntu install fine, Knoppix LiveDVD boots fine. If on internal LCD and you can't see the task bar, try scrolling with the mouse for it and change resolution to 800x600. If that doesn't work, press ctrl,alt,FN (Numpad+) to change resolution and scroll for the taskbar, etc.

Biggest problem with linux is that on some distros the text-only console is sized for the 1024x768 screen. My current workaround it to startx and open a console in there.

 

Yes, several of us have them.

 

It's a very old post guys...

 

Help. How I can upgrade my poor 12" touch transflective screen? Awfull gray and dark image in any condition, is normal? I suppose it has a film protection,
anyway I cannot believe that panasonic has constructed this awfull screen.

CF 28 800MHz 12".

 

don't knock the technology, i just sold one that was very bright and clear. If I didn't need all the resolution I can get, I would have kept it!

 

Have you sold an cf28 12" tranflective whit the photocel hole located at the left top of screen? 800by600 I have the same, I think, in good condition, the backlight is ok, but the vision is sufficient ---, panasonic promise excellent daylight vision, but it is lie. I have try to remove protection, now the screen is NEW !!!!! but the quality is the same. GRRRRRRRRR.........