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[kevin_standlee]

Because we got the minimum required repairs (tree clearing, shelter propped up) over the past couple of days, we did not have to work on the property today after all. Instead, Lisa wanted to go over to the town of Rickreall for the Salem Hamfair & Computer/Electronics Swapmeet. There Lisa poked around buying old radios and parts. Someone was selling a Panasonic Toughbook CF-27, which is part of the most-hardened line of the Toughbook, although a bit old. (Toughbooks have three variations; a not-very-tough "business" model, a "semi-tough" model, and a "mil-spec" model that looks like you could drive over it and it would still work.) The price was right, but it's missing a power supply. The owner swears that it worked, but the battery in it was dead, so it's not possible to check it out. She decided to take a chance on it anyway. Hunting around online later, it turns out that a new power supply costs almost as much as she paid for the computer itself. Here's hoping it works!

The laptop does not have a CD-ROM drive, which she would want. We'll wait until we're sure that the machine will actually boot before investing anything more in parts. The previous owner said, "Oh, you can just copy your CD-ROMs onto a USB memory key and run things from there." Except that as far as we can tell, most games that require the CD-ROM to run will insist on the CD-ROM, not some other device. I'm not enough of a hacker to work around that.

Comments

[johno.livejournal.com]

Just how much did you pay? If a Igo or other other replacement power supply costs more then you paid?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

$76 including $16 shipping for the power supply. Lisa wanted an original Panasonic power supply for that specific model, not one of the generic power supplies, which would have been cheaper. (She paid $100 for the Toughbook.)

[johno.livejournal.com]

They are expensive and a little behind the curve in tech, but the toughbooks always recieved high ratings for what they had. And they did live up the hype of just how much abuse they could take.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

And that's exactly why Lisa wanted one. She's generally very hard on her equipment. A laptop computer that can survive being dropped off the back of a truck is just the sort of thing she likes. And being a bit behind technically isn't something that bothers her as long as the machine will run Locomotion, Roller Coaster Tycoon II, and Age of Empires.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

As a follow-up: the vendor was out of stock on the new power supplies and offered me a refurbished one at roughly half the cost. I hope Lisa doesn't have a fit about this; she can get very picky about such things.