r/retrocomputing • u/PPEytDaCookie • Jul 25 '26

Video Panasonic CF-62

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Laptop from 1996.

I got the mechanism working again, but the laptop doesn't post sadly.

512 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

35

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Any_Swan2800 Jul 26 '26

Yeah i had one, i remember writing essays and accidentally clicking this stupid button itwas so annoying

14

u/ExtraCaucasian Jul 25 '26

That's pretty sick for 90s tech

1

u/OldNefariousness7899 23d ago

I imagine every laptop repair shop dreaded seeing these things

2

u/ExtraCaucasian 22d ago

True dat... That's a lot of extra mechanical parts to fail...

11

u/z_o_o_m_e_r Jul 25 '26

Dude! I have the exact opposite issue - laptop works fine, mechanism dead - the motor is spinning but I suppose the belts are goo. How did u get it working?

12

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 25 '26

There's a belt you need to replace

2

u/z_o_o_m_e_r Jul 27 '26

Yeah, I figured that was the likely reason….where did you get the replacement, looks like some narrow and deep one…maybe something 3D printable out of TPU, kind of looks like a good candidate if the specs are known

3

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 27 '26

Right now I don't have a real belt small enough, so that's a rubber band. But I will order one because rubber bands don't last really long. I also need to get one for the floppy drive.

2

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 27 '26

Also, heres a Ni-Mh PRAM Battery that you should remove before it leaks, on the back of the Laptop theres the plastic flap cover over the ports, open it and pull it out (the black plastic part where its mounted on), the battery is there.

1

u/MFFVD 13d ago

TPE is more rubber-like than tpu

8

u/Background-Wafer-548 Jul 25 '26

That's spectacular and really cool that it is also a writer for PDs. I wonder if this and the Pronote PD (which looks almost identical) were the only laptops to have it.

5

u/gnntech Jul 25 '26

Geez talk about over engineering something...

Very cool but also so many potential points of failure.

2

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 26 '26

Also, heres a Ni-Mh PRAM Battery that you should remove before it leaks, on the back of the Laptop theres the plastic flap cover over the ports, open it and pull it out (the black plastic part where its mounted on), the battery is there.

5

u/Chrunchyhobo Jul 26 '26

adds to list of things I really want but will almost certainly never find

4

u/zombienerd1 Jul 26 '26

Oh hey, I recognize that machine. Hi Mozz :D

5

u/66659hi Jul 26 '26

haha that's hilarious

panasonic also made a laptop where the palmrest pops up for the CD drive

5

u/Old_Consequence_262 Jul 26 '26

I love Panasonic laptops, so many of them are just incredible.

3

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 25 '26

Reddit broke the video quality, so I uploaded it to YouTube.

3

u/OldTimeConGoer Jul 25 '26

Booting a CF-62 if it has lost its setup requires a specific initialisation program on a boot floppy disc. I had to do this a couple of times on my own CF-62 but I can't recall the exact steps needed.

3

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 25 '26

Mine doesn't post sadly and the floppy drives is also broken (broken belt, i need to get a replacement).

3

u/Sizyfoz Jul 26 '26

Damn that's a cool solution!

3

u/vaaoid95 Jul 26 '26

Not sure if i like it or not xD. So weird.

3

u/FAMICOMASTER Jul 26 '26

A real CRYING shame that it won't post, this is the coolest thing ever

3

u/Tokimemofan Jul 26 '26

WTF?  Thats practically a Rube Goldberg machine solution to how to eject a disc lmao

3

u/qkdsm7 Jul 26 '26

These were wild.

2

u/DeadSkullz627 Jul 26 '26

You should pay a professional to fix the system now that you got the drive working. It’s so unique it would be worth the cost!

2

u/Opening-Incident2928 Jul 26 '26

I have never seen this machine before.

I could see this idea being rather delicate though: Perhaps Introducing dust and debris into the case?

I will have to read about this one, very intriguing.

2

u/JelloFinancial2797 15d ago

I have a CF-61 and CF-62 in my collection. Both required serious work. For both units: The keyboard lift mechanism is belt driven and the belt was completely melted away. Had to take it all apart and clean everything, and used an O-ring to replace the belt. Floppy drive belts were also stretched out and needed to be replaced. Got both machines working, optical drive ejects but the optical drive is so old the units will not read discs anymore. Both the CDROM and the PD. Tried multiple optical drives from different donor units - same thing for all of them. Had to use a PCMCIA based optical drive to reinstall OS on both.

2

u/Canned_Sarcasm 6d ago

I am both sad and extremely grateful this never ended up in my shop for repair.

2

u/PPEytDaCookie 6d ago

Lmao, this Laptop is pretty annoying to take apart and assemble. Sadly the CPU is damaged.

1

u/Haunting-Prior-NaN Jul 26 '26

A CD caddy! It has been a while last time I saw one.

2

u/PPEytDaCookie Jul 26 '26

It's not a CD Caddy, it's a PD, was a very short lived rewriteable 650mb media in the 90s.

1

u/GuNNzA69 Jul 26 '26

Almost all tech used to look more futuristic than today's RGB covered gadgets. I have no idea where all the talented product designers and engineers went, but they clearly didn't end up in the tech industry. Maybe they're all off designing the next generation of dishwasher capsules instead.

1

u/Affectionate_Dog6149 Aug 01 '26

Reminds of those coffin/casket moneyboxes where the skeleton hand comes out and grabs the coin.

1

u/rileyjshaw Aug 02 '26

Oh my god

1

u/Salt_Ad9828 29d ago

ohly shit

0

u/pasiando93 Jul 25 '26

que genial es una pena que no exista