Techie guy, anyone? (1 Viewer)

[audaciousduo]

Is anyone a tech type with computers? Here is the scoop. I just picked up three Panasonic Tough-book CF-28's. These are the water proof/shock proof lap tops used by the military, coast guard and a number of police departments. All three hard drives are completely wiped. I'm looking for someone to set these up with an operating system, wifi and GPS. One is for the wife's birth day who is an avid geo casher. I would be willing to trade one to the techie guy for the assistance. The third I'd likely sell. These are great for expedition rigs as they are water proof, shock proof and dam near bullet proof. There are also floor mount locking cradles and GPS antenna available for them if a person wanted to mount one. My computer skills are from the etch a sketch era, despite these being touch screen capable im sure shaking one wont clear the screen.

 

[LCkoolJ]

Where abouts are you located? I am an IT guy in Abbotsford. Do the notebooks have the Microsoft COA stickers underneath? Should be a weird looking label with the license key for the operating system. If they don't have that you would be looking at having to buy a license for it.

 

[canucksafari]

Hi Dave. I am not a big techie but I can help you if you have the software. I have done my lap-top and my work lap-top a number of times now. The main thing is that you have the operating system software and time to do all the updates.

I suspect that these have on a 20-30 gb hard drive. So I would recommend XP and nothing newer. Newer Microsoft Operating Systems are memory pigs. Use the hard-drive only for applications and an external hard drive and memory sticks for data, pics, etc.

Do you know how much RAM they have? Most were around 256MB. You will want to have at least 1GB of RAM.

A better operating system in terms of using little space would be a Unix system. However, there likely is not much GPS software for Unix compared to MS or Apple operating systems.

 

[audaciousduo]

Where abouts are you located? I am an IT guy in Abbotsford. Do the notebooks have the Microsoft COA stickers underneath? Should be a weird looking label with the license key for the operating system. If they don't have that you would be looking at having to buy a license for it.

I'm in Abbotsford as well. I pick them up from the surplus dealer next week so I'll be able to answer more questions then.

Dave

 

[LCkoolJ]

Sounds good - let me know if you need a hand.

 

[audaciousduo]

Sounds good - let me know if you need a hand.

Pm'd you

 

[Greg_B]

Dave. I have three CF-28's. One I bought modded (bluetooth, DVD player, illuminated keyboard, large HDD, built-in WiFi), and two I have done some light simple mods myself (Change out HDD to a faster spin, larger GIG, solder/bridge board on CD to make cable select instead of master and install DVD player, change out to touchscreen, change keypads, etc.

There is a very active forum with folks who are as passionate about these tough-books as folks here are about Landcruisers: http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/

I've not been doing much with it the last few years, as I am not sure with what on the market now if a nested built up notebook with an 8" touch screen up front is what I am going to do, or something else...and my time has been needed elsewhere.

Here is the FAQ for each model, and also for the main mods folks do...then go from there: The CF-28 F.A.Q. - Read me before posting

If these have the old original HDD's I would turf them and go with something new, with a faster spin. There are links to all the drivers needed as well. There are a couple computer places towards town which have an online presence and are good to deal with.

Don't count yourself our of the modification aspect, unless you don't want to take them on. With what you did with your 70...this ain't a far leap. Getting the cards to work afterwards can be the frustrating part though.

hth's

gb

PS: LCKoolJ...nice to have a tech here. I'm still leaning to a CF-29 modded to the tits with a cable to a touch screen up front. When I get there if you are willing, I'll be picking your brain.

 

[pbgbottle]

i could load them up for you also . if need be .


also FYI

there should be no need to buy another operating system . that one should have a bios set up with code it in to do a royalty big box store offline activation . (dell,HP,acer ,etc.).type of activation called OEM SLP1.0 you will just need the right kind of Royalty OEM install media . which i most likely have here in my collection of Junk. .

if you guys end up needing a copy . if you are wondering what i am talking about just google . OEM SLP1.0 this info activates windows XP

or for windows vista /7 google . ACPI_SLIC table known as SLIC 2.1 which will activate windows 7 offline.





..

 

[Greg_B]

Another thing to look at Dave, depending on how fast it is, if you use the small original HDD's, and as the memory options are quite low...(600MHz == 384 MB, 800MHz == 512MB or768 MB, 1000MHz == 512MB or 768 MB or 1024 MB, depending on amount of onboard memory) is to get or make a light version of XP. XPlite and 2000lite Uninstall Windows components.

If there is room to add RAM...do it.

gb

 

[dieseldan]

Dave. I have three CF-28's. One I bought modded (bluetooth, DVD player, illuminated keyboard, large HDD, built-in WiFi), and two I have done some light simple mods myself (Change out HDD to a faster spin, larger GIG, solder/bridge board on CD to make cable select instead of master and install DVD player, change out to touchscreen, change keypads, etc.

... jeebus - anything you haven't modded !? Lookout McGruber.

 

[audaciousduo]

Cool, Thanks a ton fellas. I've got a call into the guy who Greg suggested. We'll see if he's able to do it. If not I'll give one of you a shout. I sure don't have the tech brain.