A view and comparison of the Toughbook H2 / H1 HDD Caddies

Having acquired a working Panasonic Toughbook H2, without HDD and caddy, had to buy one to use it.

Little did I know I could have avoided wasting $50+ on an H2 caddy.

I searched online for a comparison of Toughbook caddies, with no success. If you find any, please share.

So I ordered one for me. As soon as the caddy arrived, I compared the H1 and H2. To my surprise were pretty similar!!!

The white is from the Toughbook H2, 

the black from the Toughbook H1

There is some difference in size, with the white being half cm, shorter from each side and the protrusions that slot it into place, are L shaped for the Toughbook H2, and rectangular for the toughbook H1. The spacing though is exactly the same.

You see where this is going?

Using a razor thin blade, I cut the rectangular protrusions into L shapes.

and it fitted right in!! Of course something has to be used on the sides to keep the caddy steady, as well as on the top to remain secured inside without wiggling. The data connector alone isn't holding the caddy firmly. 

The H2, booted the H1 windows, obviously without success. But proves the point.

Toughbook CF H1: How to access the bios without a keyboard

I recently got a used Toughbook CF H1 Field unit for play and job purposes.

It did not came with a cradle and I had thought it would be a pain to get into the BIOS and change anything if needed.
However when I gave it to my toddler to play with it, as it was turning on she pressed "KEY" button and entered the BIOS! :0
In there the A1, A2 buttons where working as left-right and the camera-RFID buttons as up-down.
The barcode button was the enter!

So there  you have it in case you where wondering like me.
How I have to open the thing up remove the WWAN module and add a USB port that I have seen floating cheaply on ebay.

update 22/6/15:
the WWANto USB card exchange didnt worked as planned. The internal USB port worked, but failed to recognise any USB storage that I plugged in. It did however recognise and was able to use, a wireless keyboard that I used with my android dongle. Perhaps it was just a (bad) cable issue but didn't test it further.

Toughbook H1 Stylus "Hack"

UPDATED!!
I recently got a toughbook H1 to use. I got it cheaply via ebay but without stylus pen.
Having a Toughbook CF18 pen I tried it and it worked fine!
So instead of giving 40 quid to get a replacement, I gave 3.50 and I will be able to do my job just as easy :)

Update, After I received the stylus I realised that this one, would not work with the digitizer screen. Only with the touchscreen models. It was rather disappointing, but I should have read the description better.

PORT COVER COVER FOR TOUGHBOOK CF-18 review

So some time ago I bought second hand a Panasonic Toughbook CF-18. It is rather dated by todays standards but works flawlesly so far. So along the way 2 of the port covers were ripped apart and gaping holes were left to remind me of the fact.
I was searching every now and then for replacements on ebay and elsewhere but their price was prohibitive taking into account the age of the laptop.
A few days back I found on ebay replacements for a reasonable 5$ per piece. I bought the ones I needed and waited. It is a pity it takes almost a month for items to reach Greece from China, even after Piraeus port was bought from Chinese company. Eventually I received them and today I installed them in my laptop.

Something was amiss. The covers did not fit tight on the ports. The reason for that as I realised was (probably) cheap manufacturing.
The ones I bought were lacking a signigficant feature as shown in the photo below:

The photo addmitedly was not taken with a steady hand, but the difference is obvious. The part of the cover that is supposed to make the cover water resistant (if not waterproof) is ommited on the cheap copy. I am obviously refering to the thin grooves that run around the cover at the part that inserts in the port.

So lesson learnt I guess.

broadcom BCM4318kfbg drivers problem solving on windows xp

Not long ago I got a cheap second hand Panasonic Toughbook to use at work. It came equiped with an Intel 2100 b mini pci network card, that kept disconnecting when a large file or large amount of data was downloading (even videos from youtube). So that begged for an upgrade. I got of Ebay.com a really cheap broadcom 4318kfbg card but the driver on the seller's page for some reason was not working and the card was useless. Contacting the seller, he told me that he had a driver for the card, but being rather slow to send it and check, I looked online for an alternative.
After bypassing the paid drivers websites and after numerous trials and errors with a variety of files found online I finally found this which as the name file (R151517.EXE) claimed was the perfect much for this card. (Thanks Robert)

It was indeed! Although the file failed to install on its own, since it was meant for Dell laptops, automatic search for the correct driver in that folder found the proper file to install and recognized the card as a "Dell Truemobile 1300 wlan". And immediately it poped a window with the available wireless networks.

Finally it works.