Toughbook cf-28 CD Rom Question

I wonder if anyone here has a Toughbook
Model cf-28.

I need to ask a few questions, as I just got one as a gift,
and it needs some work - minor but still,

It's missing the multidrive, and I've got to get at least a cdrom
to reinstall the operating system. It was robbed of it's latch and
that needs to be replaced as well.

any advice on finding parts and other things
for this difficult to locate "info on" machine.

the panasonic site gave me an op manual and I bought
a driver and tech manual disc for it on ebay. so I'm on my
way to getting it back on the road. it's a nice machine with
loads of features apparently - I just need to find out what
they are and get them working.

All Helpful Advice Appreciated

Ausetkmt

 

I just bought a PCMCIA DVD from targus. It doesnt need a power cord cause it runs of the laptop battery. I couldnt boot from usb a cdrom with this machine so i bought the PCMCIA one This Should work.



EDIT: NO IT DIDNT. I eventually bought a real panasonic cd rom and swapped in a DVD

 

-old post, but anyway-

http://www.heartlandsi.com/ These guys are supposed to be handling parts for Toughbooks. Almost no website, they do have an email addy and their US 800 number is 888-685-8855.

I haven't tried the phone and just sent them an email. Probably Monday before I get any response.

 

Mythcell,

I'm bidding on one of those Targus pieces now. http://auctions.yahoo.com/s:Drives:51888?p=PCMCIA+DVD+from+targus There's a listing on Amazon, but only one there. The review/ comment on an earlier purchase says the recharable battery might be bogus, but I'm giving it a whirl.

It's now a discontinued product but it should work for me until I snag a reasonably priced int. cd burner for my CF-28.
------------------------------
I bought a DVD04-IBM model Targus pc-card drive (dvd-rom, cd-rom)

My P3 toughbook will not boot off of it. Bios only does floppy, cd, hdd.
Whatever machine you're running -does- have more boot options? Thanks.

I'm considering buying a more useful bios for this thing if it's not to many $$s and possible.

 

Yup... Old post but I figure I can post what I've done. I recently purchased a CF-28 on evilbay. It was actually in pretty good condition. It's the 800mhz, has a 13" touchscreen and came with a CD Rom only. I wanted a DVD/RW-CD/RW. You can actually take apart the housing and put in your own slimline DVD! The only hitch is that Panasonic makes their CDs as master and most others make theirs as cable select. All you need to do is to either solder in a small SMD 000 resistor or (like I did) solder a little blob of solder on the connections of R202. You can find this on the little PC board that clips on to the back of the DVD. I did that then reassembled the DVD/RW and it fired right up. Now I can read AND write to CDs AND DVDs.

I'm working on other hacks now... Like installing Bluetooth and WiFi. I'll keep you posted!

 

Very cool! Can you please let me know what make/model CD/DVD burner you installed?

Thanks,

jv

 

I bought this DVD burner....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131044

And this hard drive.... (I wanted the 100GB size but they didn't have them in stock when I ordered.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822146229

Both work great. The 7200 RPM hard drive makes the CF-28 work A LOT faster. I think it helps more than installing more RAM.

 

That link brings up a collection of Sony drives but the specific number N82E16827131044 is not
recognized. I am guessing that the CF-28 requires certain specs to work correctly?

I'd prefer an internal cdrw-dvd drive in it but will install a cd-dvd player if that's what will fit and work. (The
original drives are priced at absured levels - OVER $200.!)

There are a bunch of CF-28's on ebay and they are asking anywhere from $250. - $400. for them.

I need one for the children and if I can find the funds, depending on the prices, would like a second one.

Also, any things I should watch for in the postings, or questions I should ask sellers so I am not badly
surprised by something they failed to disclose?

Thanks for any and all help! David in Florida

 

well,
i stick a dell drive into my caddy yesterday and it fitted perfectly,
only thing forgot toughbooks advice on changing over the master to cable select,
if it works i'll post back up on here and then you can get a cheaper drive of ebay,
roughly $50usd(long as you have the caddy)....

 

Great! I am looking forward to your report!

Thanks! David

 

David... Only one of the Sonys shown is a slimline model... That's the only one that will fit.

Here's a link to how you can make your CD a master. I did it and it worked GREAT!

http://toughbook.wikispaces.com/force+master+mode

It's tedious to do but very simple.

 

yep also remeber dont leave it all open while you go out, like i did for a quick fag and then totaly forgot how to put it all back together.........

 

Any idea where to find a cd caddy for a CF-28? Most of the laptops I see on ebay have the cd and cd-caddy
removed and I cannot find the cd-caddy for sale anywhere! Thanks! David

 

They come up for sale on ebay for $100 or less... Well there was one yesterday for $79 plus shipping.

Here's one for $120

http://cgi.ebay.com/Toughbook-CF-28...ryZ31564QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

You can take out the CD and put in DVD r/w... Very easy to do if you have a soldering iron. I'm getting ready to order another Sony DVD drive to replce the CD that is coming in my new machine.

 

Did your CF-28 come with a CD-drive caddy?

Did you get it off ebay or elsewhere?

Every time I ask an ebay seller they say they don't include the caddy and don't have any to sell.

$120. for a caddy on top of $400. for an old laptop begins to get nuts!

Thanks! David

 

thats nothing yet,
check the prices for gps, dvdrw,bluetooth,wifi
then you'll have something to say about..........

 

I can make this mod, did one very similar to overclock my Panasonc CF-M32.

Is there any functional difference between a 000 smd "resistor", a solder blob, and a short thin piece of
copper wire, please?

Thanks! David

 

David... No difference. The space between the solder spots is really too short for a piece of wire. Unless you have a small SMD 000 resistor a small blob of solder will do nicely.

 

bloody hheck everyone already done theres and am still lazying about thinking about it,
hopefuly this week when i get the dvdrw i bought of ebay am going to stick that in 100%,
the dell dual layer dvdrw drive i got for £20quid i shoved that into my dell,
and the dell drive i took out i shoved that into my mum laptop,
meaning nothing left me for again.............

 

I got an "as-is" Toughbook DVD off eBay for cheap, and stuck a Slim Panasonic DVD+-RW/RAM in it. Works great!

Now I just need to afford a secondary battery, and I'll be all set.

 

I was offered one by an ebay seller and now he doesn't reply to my E-mails. He must have figured out he could get more for it than he offered it to me and lacks the integrity to sell it for the price he offered.

Sigh.

Guess I have to go back and try to find another one.

Meanwhile I did buy a CF-28 but cannot get that that buyer to tell me when and how he shipped it.
He guarantees shipping with 24hrs of payment - it has been 5 days since my purchase and my
payment and still nothing heard about shipping.

Arghhhh!

I do have the new slimline replacement cd-dvd player sitting here collecting dust!

 

I'll be posting a "how-to" thread about this later tonight... It's a lot of work and I have a ton of pictures to upload. It's very easy to do to get around the master/cable select issue as long as you have a small phillips head screwdriver and a 40 watt soldering iron!

 

how much did the drive cost????
was it a dvdrom drive or a cdrom drive?????

 

OK, I have my cdrw/dvd slimline and my dead CF-28 cd-drive in it's shell.

I plan to follow your paint-by-numbers instructions in the morning ... where didja put 'em, please?

For some reason I thought I had already read and bookmarked them but they are nowhere to be found
here.

Sure love my 'new' CF-28! I need another, and another, and ... ;-)

 

It was on page two... Here you go...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=162276

 

just make sure youy dont over do it with the solder and then try taking it off by hand once it has harden, thats what i did.........LOL!!!!!

 

Drive swap with mod done, no problems.

Now I need to educate myself about using the RIM antenna with a mini-pci wireless card.

Will look at the GPS thing later as I already have a USB GPS that works fine.

I really need to get another one of these ... am having too much fun and the effort is worth it when
invested in such a fine piece of hardware!

BTW: If anyone comes across a PCMCIA port cover I am looking.

Also, were there plugs for the modem and nic ports or are they sealed as-is?

 

Plugs for the port covers? You mean the plastic thingys that come in most laptops? That isn't needed with the CF-28 since it is sealed already.

 

I've got a Matsu****a UJ-820-B DVDRW drive in a CF-27/8/9 caddy. It works fine but takes forever and a day to progress past the POST and load the OS. Is this the problem? Does it take this long to time-out because it is not set to master? I'm trying to figure out what "R202" is. On the little PC board that is visible from the back of the caddy, there are two unpopulated pairs of solder pads. One is silkscreened R1 and the other is R2. Like you mentioned, looks like they intended on a resistor (or jumper) to be soldered there. Should I jumper across one or both or those?

And as long as I'm on the topic, a google search of UJ-820-B reveals that many have a low opinion of this drive. Do you guys have a recommendation of a better one, for when/if I'm in the market for another one?

 

Jumper R2 and it will work like a champ!

 

too funny.. we can't spell "mat-sush-ita" in the panasonic toughbook forum?!

 

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?

 

After reading many different threads about cd drives I still would like to know if a 27,28 and 29 cd drive that came from the factory will all work in any of those models. Cd drive from 28 with 1 GHZ, will it work in a 600? slide in? what does the caddy look like?

 

I am not an expert with Toughbooks, nor even close, merely another relatively new owner and user of a CF-28. Your problem may be related to something in the BIOS, a memory or motherboard problem, or something else ... but I tend to doubt that.

My guess is that you are yet another victim of one of the many viruses out there to which MS products are remarkably vulnerable. (You may have been better off to stick with Linux/Unix. Do you truly "need" MS?)

That said, there are many people getting rich selling products that clean up after MS. You need something that can check all the way down to the boot sector since the MS OS is vulnerable at every level.

Sorry this has happened.

 

Coffee,

Only from memory, I think the 28 and 29 sleds are interchangeable. Look through the wiki, http://toughbook.wikispaces.com/links , for some better info.

Also there's a Yahoo group, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/toughbooks/links

One search result 28 and 29: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/...y=cf-28+sled&submit=Search&charset=ISO-8859-1


Doobi, it's an old thread but it sounds like you may have a bad piece of ram. Just a guess.

 

This is an OLD thread... Doobi solve this issue back in October of last year...

Yes... as stated in another thread somewhere around here... The 27, 28 & 29 floppys and CDs/DVDs are all interchangeable. There are a bazillion pictures of them all over ebay.

There is a TON of info around here on this subject and MANY more. You should check out the CF-28FAQ that is stickied to the top of the Panny forum. That is always a great place to start.

 

Also note that Panasonic used different P/Ns for the SAME THING! i.e. CF-VCD271, CF-VCD272, CF-VCD281, etc. I think they did this when they changed drive vendors but they're all 24X CDROMs!