~Toughbooktalk~

I was contacted by a China wholesaler last week about buying Toughbook parts from him. Now the prices were like cheap...real cheap compared to Heartlands so he sent me a bunch of samples for the CF-19 and 30 . Now the caddies, badges and cover sheets were very good quality and I was happy with them. The port covers were a different story...if you noticed on the OEM covers they have a rubber ridge on the side all the way around them to help seal out water and dust well the china ones do not, these are flat all the way around the edge . It has the same markings as the OEM ones... if you are looking at the two of them it's not hard to pick out the OEM one. I will post some pictures later on tonight or morning so you all can see for yourself what I mean.
I want everyone to know what they are buying when they pay $6.50 for a China one and $12.00 from me. For what they sell them for I can't even buy them from Heartland for
The wholesaler I dealt with was very good and all his other parts were great and he ships fast (DHL) 3 days to Canada fast $25.10 that was a great.
Check back for pictures tomorrow

PS: Please don't ask who the seller is...he asked me not to say.

MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS nicks@nb.sympatico.ca if you need port covers

Blair,

I'll betcha a nickel that if you work out a deal were you buy a couple hundred of them, they'd modify the molds to make them better.

Can't wait to see the pics!

Ok here are the pictures of the china port covers (left side) and the OEM covers (right) The china covers are made out of hard plastic and do not flex as good . i can not see them lasting as long as the OEM ones. On the CF-30 ac/dc China cover it is dented in not flat as you can see in the picture (1) . As you can see in the next 2 pictures the sides are flat and does not have any rubber ridges to keep the dust and water out . The last port cover picture you can see a line going across it...they all seam to have this. The CF-19/30 Toughbook badge looks good...it just does not have the raised letters which is fine with me...these make a great car/truck window or bumper sticker .
I for one like saving money but this is not the way to do it. I take my Toughbooks every where and I like not having to worry that water or snow will get to it . Picture don't lie...you be the judge.

CRAP! Those look like... CRAP! lol

They need to make a few improvments before I'd use that in one of my customers toughbooks!

I know at least one guy that would probably use those port covers, But I ReAlly Don't want to put his name here and have him find it via Google search again. Some turds are just better left flushed.

Good one

Thanks Blair for an excellent and trusted review! But frankly, if they are worst then the OEM they are pretty bad! I can not believe that Panasonic can not make these parts with more durability. The rubber port covers on my friends Go-Book are far superior to those on my Toughbook!

I do agree with you...the go-book port covers are by far better

Ewww! Yuckyputz! Those belong on an Acer!

mnem
*FLUMP* ZZZzzzZZZzzz...

I finally received the 3 aftermarket port covers a couple of weeks ago, that I ordered from a HK seller on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/261068304385?ss ... 1439.l2649
The DC and USB covers are exactly like those in the pictures above, same plastic, no ridges on the sides, same concave dent on the DC one.

I don't have OEM DC/USB covers to compare, but I can say this:
* first, when replacing the metal bracket under the bottom, one of the screw holes on the USB cover had a smaller diameter, so it would not go in all the way, until I enlarged it a bit.
* the DC cover has to be pushed hard to stay (barely) closed, and even then, it doesn't stay flush. after a short while, it comes open by itself.
* the USB cover seems ok though, remains closed and flush, for now
* the Serial cover: as you can see from the image, the thin part where it bends over the edge, was a real letdown. The plastic turned white-ish after the first time I bent it. It won't take too many open/close cycles before it breaks.
I didn't even bother to mount it (the OEM serial one I have is worn, but still makes a good seal and stays in place).

Plastic will never make a tight seal with metal, rubber is the way to go.

I should have bought the OEM ones from the start, but now I really know why .

P.S. Blair, that's the review you asked me for, more than a month ago; at least their color is black