Oh, yes. Santa HAS been busy. But I'm talking about the 260+ that ADOR pointed me towards on eBay; it just arrived today very well-packed and EXACTLY as described. A few notes while Windoze loads...
It has:
1GB RAM, 1.8GHhz Centrino, 30GB TravelStar, GPS, TS and battery which does appear to be charging. It's in fair to good condition, has perfect screen with better than average brightness and all covers intact.
First impressions:
It's coyote-ugly. No, really. If a ToughBook and a cinderblock had an illegitimate love-child, this would be it. It looks more like one of my engineering-class prototype devices in a screw-together generic box than a laptop.
HOWEVER. Once you get it fired up, as with every other junkyard dog computer I ever built, what you notice is what's on the screen not what the box looks like.
All the service covers are nice, rigid cast pieces, unlike some on ToughBooks. +1 GoBook. The latches on the media bay are shrouded by these !@#$!%!! wings which, while I can see they're supposed to protect the latch, make it so you almost need 3 hands to open the door. The PCMCIA bay has no such interference and is as convenient as the other is a PITA. -1 GoBook.
Not too impressed with the plastic top LCD shroud; I certainly will not be using it as a stepstool which I HAVE done before, all 300 lbs of dwagon fatback standing on my ToughBook. Also the plastic parts; instead of using self-tapping screws, they have these brass blind nuts and machine screws. I know they're supposed to be better; but the plastic always cracks out around the brass and they come loose. This unit is no exception and I frikking HATE fixing those things. Also, after looking at how the parts go together, I can see a clear path for even rainwater to get inside the LCD cover, and the LCD is NOT completely sealed under the inner sheetmetal shroud. -10 GoBook.
I REALLY like the handle functionality-wise; as ugly as it is, being able to use it to tilt the laptop is EXCELLENT. +1 GoBook.
I've found in my pile of bits another compatible power supply; this one is a Toshiba Part # PA3468U-1ACA Model # PA-1750-04. It's rated 19V @ 3.95A, EXACTLY what the GoBook rating plate calls for.
Okay; I'm at the desktop on the new install of Windoze; time to go load drivers.
Oh, BTW - I've named it: CRUSHINATOR
mnem
Windows Install. Wasting your life 30-60 minutes at a time.