gutting a toughbook

Has anyone ever gutted a toughbook and put in some other motherboard/guts from another laptop? for instance a cf-28 case is truly rugged, standing up to years of abuse, but the speed is starting to fall quite a bit behind modern laptops. Just fantasizing...and wondering if someone has tried it.

 

Thought about it... Thought about doing a NETBOOK guts for my daughter and see how it would work.

I think the logistics would be what kills the project, not that it CAN'T be done, it just that the amount of work might outweigh the benefits.

 

I have looked at this too. On a CF-18 case and CF-28. The motherboard set up I chose was the CF-T5. Why? Small, still fanless, dual core, take up to 2gb of ram with 512 standard, know it will run windows 7 well, has mini pci-e slot(gps, wireless, etc), battery will fit inside the case, has wwan board with sim card slot(just needs dip switch flipped and correct card). The modem and LAN hook up are on cables no soldiered directly on to the board and can be moved easily.
Thinking of using usb extension cables for for the usb hook up. Just two extensions in the CF-18 body, one extension cable and one 4 port hub were the dock stuff in the back goes.
The only real problem I ran into this is the keyboard for the CF-18 and CF-28 won't fit the CF-T5 and I think that would be the real problem on this kind of swap. It may still happen in the future. Still waiting on a harddrive to come in, then it's back to trying out the GPS module in the CF-T5

 

sounds like a really long project that would take a good deal of time, but is deinitley do-able

 

One thing to remember here: a Toughbook's "toughness" does not come from the magnesium case alone.

 

My thought in the case of the CF-29 was to look into the cost of having a custom motherboard made that would plug right in. Of course you would have to be in the business of refurbishing Toughbooks to justify this cost wise, but with many cash strapped agencies and individuals out there with cases in great shape and looking for an alternative to a new machine...

 

Top Cop... that is true, however having worked on numerous plastic laptops that got sat on, dropped, hit with a ball, coke spilled on , hit with a bat, dropped off of car roof, etc... I am sold on the idea that a laptop case should be tough. most damage I have seen was to hinges, plastic case, power jacks screens, etc the internals usually do alright. I am a machinist by trade and would be willing to mill out, drill/tap a case for someone if they had a doable scenario...just saying

 

You might be onto something. Imagine if you were able to come up with a set up that was doable for a justified cost? Think about all the agencies out there that are strapped for cash due to the govt cutbacks, economy, etc. If someone could offer them an alternative instead of having to buy an entire laptop think about the business. The only thing is it would have to do pass some serious testing.

 

There is a LOT of truth to this statement. At work, we use another brand of "semi" rugged laptop for our service vehicles and the semi is in parenthesis for a reason. We had a couple issues with drops, abuse, etc. that a tougher case might have prevented but at least 90% of the issues we had were from the fact that the internals were identical to the non-ruggedized model made by the same company. I know because we had some of both and I compared. For example, the video cable and PCMCIA cage connector cable kept vibrating loose because they were simply a press fit with no sort of locking connector at all. Unacceptable for anything marketed with rugged in the name, even "semi" rugged. Funny thing is, the second generation went to a lot of connectors and components that look a lot like the same style Toughbooks use. Hmmmmm, I wonder why that is?

Could it be done? Yes. Will it come anywhere close to the quality that Panasonic can make with many, many years of experience and attention to small details that make a BIG difference? Maybe. IMHO, it is worth the money spent up front for the original (and in my expereince the best). In a business environment, lost productivity from down time will quickly eat up any cost savings.

 

Enter the Panasonic Toughbook U1 Essential and Toughbook U1 Ultra.

 

Given the investment many people have made in their Toughbooks, wouldn't it be cost effective if someone like ASUS stepped up and made a replacement motherboard? If one came available tomorrow with a newer processor and ability to hold 4 GB RAM ect, I'd buy one (or two). Panasonic would have a cow if we could retrofit the CF-28's of the world making them just as speedy as the CF-31's....

My employer outfitted a bunch of us service techs with CF-29's when they were new and not so cheap. Now they are nearing the end of their service life because the processors can't keep up with the encryption/antivirus/antispyware software we are FORCED to install. They have been promising us new computers for almost a year now and I don't see them being near as durable as the CF-29's have been. Plus, after a year of debate they are no closer to purchasing the first one.....

I built my CF-28 and loaded much of the company software on it and it runs circles around my CF-29 due to the lack of extraneous software applications.

(Puts away his soapbox)