Toughbook CF-28 help required...

New Poster here, and new Toughbook enthusiast...

I have been pulling my hair out for 3 days now and was hoping for some advice. My CF-28 (CF-28PTJAZ9M) was working screaming awesome short of a few drivers I have been unable to locate. 4 days ago I shut it down and when I wake up the next morning, it was INCREDIBLY slow and would not load windows. It would get past the splash screen, get ready to load the desktop, and just sit there at a black screen. After trying several things my limited IT experience has taught me, I decided to just re-image the machine. However, it has been going for over 8 hours and will not continue. It doesn't lock up, the XP install continues to cycle through the "ad" screens, and the status lights on the lower right continue to cycle, yet it won't get any further. I have restarted the process 3 times now, done clean installs each time, and am now on a completely second drive all to the same results. I do not have a restore CD, but when I got this machine, it was loaded with Unix and I executed a clean install of XP at that time and was running great for 4 months until now. Im at a complete loss. It boots up quick, display looks great, all seems ok until it tries to installing windows-installing devices.
any suggestions?

 

Hi! try to set the bios on default and then set cd rom first boot and load windows again.

 

Tried that. Still the same results. Someone said it could be my RAM went bad; does that sound plausible?

 

Suppose it could be. If you have any extra modules, pull em' out, and see what happens.

Make sure the hard drive connector is fully seated while you have the cover off... probably not the cause, but it could be.

My mind is fried tonight though, so I'm really slacking in the thinking/thought department.

 

I tried swapping the memory out, but I don't have that type. I'm really not thinking it's that; unless someone is fairly confident I would prefer to avoid buying more memory.

 

are you sure your harddrive is not bad or on the stage of retirement? pulling out the removal ram still can load windows coz it has a builtin one

 

Unless both hard drives are bad, it's not that. I have good news though.. I took the laptop all apart, and removed EVERY device, put them all back in and VOILA... I have XP installed with no hangups!!! I am in the process of installing all the drivers again.. looks like only the video and one unidentified driver is all I need (possibly the touchscreen or gps?). It just lists an Unknown Device. I saw a thread here somewhere about the tricky touchscreen driver and having to install it as a mouse? I will look for that post and try it and let you all know where I stand.

Here's hoping....

 

nope the unknown device is ur hotkey,
so just update the driver with the hotkey driver you download from panasonic website,,,,,,,,,,
the gps doesnt need any drivers as its already connected to the com port, just make sure its enabled in bios,,,,,,,,,,
with the toughscreen same thing in device manager click on mouse and update driver with the touchscreen driver and thats it ur sorted.........

 

Is there something I can download to test the touchscreen? It is enabled in the bios, but does not appear to be working. I tried what you suggested on updating the mouse driver but it said it could not find a better driver than what was installed. Also, I had two devices show up under the Mouse; HID-compliant mouse, and PS2 Compatible Mouse. I tried to update both of them but get the same result "Could not find a better match than what you have currently installed".... I guess it's not really that crucial for me to have it, but if it will work that would be cool. Also, is there a way to test for gps?? Not 100% sure it has one now.

Paul

 

the easiest way to tell if it has GPS is to look for the "bump". You know the plastic piece that has the modem and/or LAN ports? look at the one in the same spot on the other side. It'll stick out about 1/2" if the factory GPS is installed.

 

Not sure I fully understand that. Can you attach a pic?

 

That model didn't come factory with GPS. you can tell that by looking at the model number CF-28PTJA Z9M.

Here is a link to a list of exactly what the numbers/letters stand for.
http://www.starborneworks.com/disection/CF-28/numbers.html

GPS would be indicated in the 5th character after the CF-28.

Factory GPS models were F,G,J,N,Q,R,S,V,4,5,6, or 7 as the 5th character. It could have been installed afterwards though as those are just the factory specs.

As for the touchscreen, has it ever worked? When you touch the screen, what happens? Does the pointer just stay put (indicating the touchscreen isn't connected inside) or does the pointer sink to the bottom or disappear (indicating the touchscreen is not calibrated)?

I contacted a friend who has worked on quite a few of the 28's and hopefully he will be posting here shortly.

 

Not to sound dumb, but nothing happens. It's like touching my PC monitor. I have never had a touchscreen before so don't know what to look for. It is enabled in the bios, other than that, I don't find any settings to set, software to use, .... just not sure if it's set up correctly, or has the correct drivers. Everything checks out perfect under DM; no ?'s or !'s now. I did take the cover off the LCD to peer underneath and there are two horizontal glass-looking flat tubes there with wires coming out of them, one longer than the other. The short one is smack dab in the middle, and the other towards the bottom. I made sure not to dislodge anything, but maybe something came unplugged? This is what prompted me to ask how you test one? Is there an application to run or something?

 

I think quite possibly I just have the wrong driver. I just noticed that the panasonic driver I downloaded reads as such:
Touchpad driver for CF-28 PB/ PC…Z*M (Windows XP) [Utility: Client manager]

It appears the PB/PC/PT models all have the same size screen so should this really matter? Just a thought...

 

AHHHHHH The sweet smell of success!!!! After reading my last post, and realizing Panasonic, although listing the driver I was dowloading as a TOUCHSCREEN driver was in fact, in description, a TOUCHPAD driver, I decided to try the TOUCHPAD/TOUCHSCREEN driver for the CF-28S3/SR/ST model. And wouldn't you know it... TADOW!! It works!! Persistance really does pay!! You guys are all awesome and doing a great thing at this site. If anyone else is having problems with their Toughbooks, this is DEFINITELY the place to come!!!

Much Thanks,

Paul

 

Notice the bump on th left:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280144254919

That's the antenna for the factory GPS. The circuitboard is right behind it, underneath the battery

 

glad you sorted out the problem...........

 

There could be a number of problems, youll have to take off the bottom cabinet to fix any of them. first you need to make sure the two cables going from the i/o pcb to the main board are seated properly, if they are then you need to take out the board, on the top side of the board near the lcd connectors there are resistors labelled r16-r20 more than likely the r16 is either gone or barely on there, either way the board needs to be repaired.

 

When I had mine, I found that the driver where not going to the temp folder(the same one that is default) & that even if you browse or type the path, the OS would look by default in the temp folder. I had to manualy copy & paste the driver in the temp folder for the OS to locate the driver & install it.
FWIW wrench