oldie toughbook for random computer torture

so i've been looking for a toughbook for a while now but i decided that a normal laptop whould do the trick. but i could never get these damn thing out of my head. so i'm getting one. not the new ones but the older models.
200-400mhz versions. basically i wont do anything except running spotify or office on it so i really dont need more. my zepto doesnt really like the beach or heat for that matter. and it pretty much goes crazy in temperatures over 35 celsius. and i usually travel to hungary for the summer and in budapest the temperature can easily pass 40-45 celsius.

so i was wondering if you guys knew anything i should watch out with.
i've got a few lappies i could strip for parts so it would look something like this.

200-400mhz
256mb ram
40hdd or 16gb CF to ide (wannabe-ssd)
dvd rom
wifi?
and win2k sp4

i was thinking cf-35 or something like it. but 200mhz and sdram memory is a must.

RGDS
ares93

 

CF-27 in 300MHz, or if you can get by with an external DVD, a CF-M34 in 400MHz.

 

does any of the older models have a usb boot function? 'cause i've got an usb pendrive that's fast as hell. (r/w 45/30)

 

Only if you use a floppy or Cd-rom to load the USB functions first, Toughbooks of that vintage won't nativily boot from USB.

 

so simply soldering an internal usb port and connecting a pendrive to use as hdd wont work? too bad. anyway, i've been checking different sites here in sweden and it appears that i cant afford to be picky. i'll buy what i get my hands on and hope for upgrades. damn, this things are pricey. $120(give or take) for the 200mhz version... i know this guy who deals in used laptops. usually he has no idea what he's doing. maybe i get one cheap
anyway thanks for he help.

 

The CF-M34 would have to be set up to boot from USB, although I have never worked with the older 400MHz model and I am unsure if you can use the CD/DVD to boot, or if you have to use the external floppy first.

 

either way, i'm getting one. it was just a crazy idea i had. and i'm not sure if i can get a hold of a specific model. with a price of $5000 brand new. not many people care to get one. ergo, no used ones. i'm glad if i manage to get my hands on one. and since the shipping costs more then the laptop itself. ebay is out.

what bugs me the most is that i could have gotten 5 or 6 toughbooks for free a while back. but i figured, what the hell am i going to do with 20 year old laptops and when i found out that they wore toughbooks they were already gone.

 

The oldest CF-M34 that supports USB CD booting is the 700MHz; but only with a BIOS upgrade.

Except for the USB CD booting I'd say the CF-27 fits your specs perfect.

 

If you would be interested, I have a 700MHz CF-M34 that boots from USB that I will sell. PM me if you want more info on price and shipping (it's not as bad as you might think!)

 

Silver: PM sent.

aaron7: how did you manage to get 512mb ram running in your m34? according to specs 256mb is the maximum it supports.

 

Specs? Specs! We don't heed no stinking specs!

 

yeah yeah.
anyway if the m34 is powered by a 700mhz P3 processor its socket 370 right? so my s370 1000mhz celeron whould work, i theory at least.

btw is it american tradition to have a pic for every occasion?

 

Perhaps, however your CPU is not socketed.

Well since USENET has fell into decline...

 

not socketed? http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL5XQ.html

maybe i misunderstood you but my celeron is sure as hell socket 370.

 

toughbooks are do not have a socketed CPU, they are in all cases I have seen direct soldered to the board contributing to their shock proof nature ( socketed chips come loose in vibration or repeated drops )

 

well that makes sense. then that cpu is out.

 

As far as I am aware, CF-30 and CF-19 are the first fully rugged Toughbooks ever to have socketed processors and not soldered onto MB processors. The semi-ruggeds always had socketed processors, however.

 

hmm havnt torn my 30's or 19 apart yet, and all I have had is fully ruggeds starting with the 27's.

thanks for the update

 

What makes you believe that? Have you actually seen a socketed CPU in a 19/30? If you are correct then I am buying up all the MK1 CF30's and 19's

 

I torn down both cf-30MK3 and cf-19MK1. All of their CPU are soldered on the mbo. For your info.


ohlip

 

Thanks for the heads up....I guess they haven't yet figured out any other way to keep the processors from taking damage besides soldering them to the board

 

BTW, Toughbook Wikispaces was the source for my previous (now proven erroneous) info...they stated that the CF-30MK2's L7500 was a "drop-in, pin compatible replacement for the L2400" used on MK1s...guess it's obvious which forum has the better experts LOL

 

Darn ,here I was pulling out the credit cards to make a large purchase of 30/19's for upgrading to faster processors. wish you were right about this.

 

Beleived me to what as I posted, I torn it apart and seen it with my own naked eye. BTW, for future reference, CF-30MK1 to three has a compatible uppercasing. There is only one bit difference on the buttom cover which is the spring bar that its purpose is to push and eliminate noise vibration of the media cd rom drive on MK3 while on the MK1 and MK2 is only foam that was tape on the casing. But otherwise they are works perfectly.


ohlip

 

Good to know thanks!

 

They are very picky but use a 512mb PC100 16-chip stick. Not all work though.

 

how so? except from being built like a tank, its a normal notebook. whats makes it "picky"?

 

Lots of PIII level laptops have problems with certain brands of RAM. No idea why. You just swap em in and out till you get one that works.

 

Because it ONLY recognizes JEDEC-compliant RAM modules, even though high density RAM was readily available at the time it was manufactured. As a result, some RAM works, some doesn't... and unless you have the time and a master catalog to cross-reference against, the easiest solution is trial & error.

mnem
picky.

 

whew, glad im not losing my mind, I had to go tear into my 19Mk1 just to take a peek

 

i guess ill be stuck with 256 mb then. its practicly impossibe to get sd-ram modules here nowadays. especially so dimm... anyway 256 mb sould be enough to run win xp, spotify and a obd-2 reader anyway.

 

it appears that this forum i dominated by americans so can one of you answer why practically no american sellers ship to europe? if you check ebay europe, they ship almost everywhere but the american ebay is another story. what the hell are they afraid of? you have to pay before they ship the product, if someone should be paranoid its the buyer... i simply dont get it...

 

Well I could try to explain it, but I would be forced to use pictures...

 

very well then. but how you're going to acomplish that is beyond me

EDIT: it appears that i'll buy a cf-27 soon with a questionable battery life. any chance of replacing the cells inside the battery? works on most laptops but not all. the search function appears to be broken. searching for "cf-27" turned up nothing.

 

If it will help, I will take a crazy chance and sell you anything in my " For Sale Thread!" It is the least I can do for a fellow board member!

This is a great question, when I asked the same question some time ago I was told that the battery had a circuit that monitored the decline of the cells and substituting new cells would not resurrect the battery. I too have done this with other models!

I look forward to an answer from someone that knows the truth.

 

U can exchange the cells and the only thing is, u have to (re)calibrate ur TB again. I have done this on my CF-29 some time ago.

 

according to i thread i stumbled across, the calibration doesnt fix the circut Azrial speaks of. so even with new cells the battery thinks its broken.

so one yes and one no. anyone else have an idea?

 

Well if Onirakkiss said that he did it, and that it has worked after calibration, that goes a long way towards telling me that it will work.

Logically, I can comprehend the need for a circuit that measures and stores the batteries decrepitude, as I would think that would be a natural function of the individual cells performance decline.

Mind you my knowledge on the subject is mostly second hand and anecdotal, I have never done it on a Toughbook.

Any more actual doers out there with positive or negative results?

 

well neither have i, i haven't even seen a toughbook in real life however the cf-29 as a lot newer model. its safe to assume that panasonic develops new ways of building a battery for these things. may main concern if it works om CF-25, CF-27 and CF-28 which are the laptops i'm considering. most modern laptops (probably toughbooks too) are built so the battery cells can be replaces however these models were made between 1996 and 2002-2003.

 

I wonder where Rick is? There has been a ton of discussion on this subject. The consensus has been that if you can't reprogram the chip the new cells don't help. We have had people who thought they had the solution only to find it didn't work. Since Onirakkiss says he has done it I am now interested enough to ask how. He seems to know things which far exceed what most of us are capable of.
CAP

 

I believe the issue was one of HOW bad your battery is; if you get to it while the battery is still good for about half its rated life, it is my understanding that you CAN get it to do a recal and recognize the longer battery life presented by the new cells... otherwise, the battery's "FOAD" timer says "I'm used up, don't bother me" and continues to behave as if it were a dead battery even after new cells are installed.

mnem
Supporter of FOAD since 2008

 

I still can not fathom the need for a circuit that tells and old and worn out battery that it is old and worn out!

 

well neither can i. but they must have had a reason for it....

 

It's a lawyer thing. LION batteries can be hazardous, like catch fire when charging especially if overcharged and/or old.

 

if the cells are dead they cant be overcharged since they wont accept the power. they become like a wire, the power just goes straight through.

 

I was curious about this subject too!

As far as the wire comparison, remember, if the wire isn't in proper working order, it can burn up. I would imagine the same thing for batteries.

Also, many circuit boards have something called JTAG; it's a serial interface used specifically for programming chips installed in a circuit (hooked to rs232 with about $5 in parts and a cable), without removing the chips. Not all boards, just some that are compliant to whatever spec. I wonder if there would be a way to dump the programming (to save and reload later on) or just "reset" to the factory default?

Anyone have any pics of the mysterious board?

Quick, someone do a necropsy on a dead battery pack, and take pics!

 

I rebuilt the battery pack in my CF-25. Besides being a HUGE PITA, it didn't work in the end. Was still seen as a dead battery. Threw the whole mess in the trash and chocked it up to experience.

Still debating if I want to spend $80 on a new battery for my CF-M34 :/

 

well, you have a good point there i guess. and in theory it seems plausible. however most people don't have the knowledge to reprogram the damn thing. so they'll just buy i new battery probably. remember the average user buys a new computer if windows doesn't start.

the m34 is a great little machine so it it works well i think you should buy a new battery. the only reason i don't want one is because its a pain to use such a small screen. i pretty much go crazy when i use my netbook and that one has a 10.1 inch screen

 

I love the average user.... it's how I have soo much computer crap for next to nothing (that's without even taking advantage of them. Just ask'm for it. They don't want it anymore, they got a new one)

 

just got my hands on a hp. windows freezes on startup. and guess what? he bought a new laptop. the guy asked me to try to fix it. if it doesnt work he'll scrap it. (amd dual core, 2gb ram, gts250...)
these are the times you really want to take advantage of someones stupidity but this damn conscience stops you