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View Full Version : Just got ANOTHER tablet - ST5010D



DaveTN
05-07-2008, 12:24 PM
I have been a Tablet PC advocate since almost the beginning and have had my share of tablets over the years. But yesterday I came across a deal I couldn't refuse.

About a year ago I posted some pics of 20 ST5010D's stacked up at a medical office I used to work at. They just went EMR and purchased the tablets. I set them all up for them and got them going with EMR then moved on in my career. Anyway, yesterday I went to visit and saw a stack of the tablets in a corner of my old office and asked what happened to them. There was 5, one with a cracked screen, one with a bad digitizer, onother with a bad HDD, one with a bad power switch and one that wouldn't boot.

I asked what they were doing with them and the manager told me nothing since the support contract ran out. Well, I seized the opportunity and told her that I could get at least a couple fo them working. She asked how much and I told her I'd trade the work for one of the tablets if I could get them working.

Several hours later, I had three working tablets for the office and one for myself. I scavanged several parts, including the digitizer from the one with the broken screen and used the RAM from it to give myself an extra 512.

So, now I have a very nice ST5010D, A Gateway CX2620 Tablet dual booting XP-TPC and Vista, a Toshiba M200 with the 2.0 Dothan and 2 gigs of ram running Vista. And......I just bought a Samsung Q1! (Doh! Should have waited) My past tablets are the venerable TC1000 and the somewhat problematic Portege 3505.

Since I'll be starting PA (Physician Assistant) school, my Gateway is gonna serve as my portable desktop as it's just too heavy to use as a tablet. My M200 will be my all around tablet and the Fujitsu will be my "OneNote Notepad" which I'll use for all my notetaking in school. The M200 served me well for that in my undergrad. My little Sammy....well, I'll see what niche it fits into. I'll put it to good use though.

David

WNewquay
05-07-2008, 01:49 PM
Nicely done Dave.

You provided a great service for your customer at a completely reasonable rate.

Score!

Steve S
05-07-2008, 01:53 PM
Dave: A fascinating story; it goes to show that knowledge (especially computer knowledge) is a great thing!

Good luck in PA school!

DaveTN
05-07-2008, 02:08 PM
Tinkering with it right now. Works really good and man is it lightweight. I really liked the "tablet experience" with my TC1000 and rarely used the keyboard. I'll admit that with my M200 and CX I have been using the keyboard more than I *should*. [:I]
With the fujitsu, which came with the IR keyboard and extended battery (which shows 5.5 hours remaining)! Boy does this thing run hot though.
I had fun taking apart the other ones. In retrospect, I should have taken pictures to post if anyone needs to see the insides but I was more focused on getting them fixed and returned...and geting mine working.
Overall, its in almost perfect shape except for one little nick in the screen cover. I can live with that.
I'm working on a laptop for them now and am going to trade the "work" for one of their bump cases and delux stands. :D

David

digitaldoc
05-08-2008, 04:28 AM
Nice job Dave! Maybe you should visits some more offices with expired support ;)

Hope you have more than a Gig in that Sammy.
http://www.crucial.com/ Will tell you what you need.

DaveTN
05-08-2008, 05:51 AM
I will ...as soon as I get it. Right now it is "on fedex truck for delivery". I feel like Kevin and JK waiting for their new arrivals.
I had bought two 2 gig sodimms for my Gateway tablet but they didn't work..it only supports a max of 2 gigs. Since I had already sent in the rebate forms, I couldn't return the memory. I'm hoping that it will work in Sammy. If not, I'll just list it (the memory) on the forums or ebay.

David

DaveTN
05-09-2008, 02:01 PM
Just keeps getting better... But first, thanks Steve, WN, and Chris.

Gonna do some surgery on sammy (after all, my plans are to be a thoracic surgery PA :D ) ..although, wouldn't it be a brain surgeon to operate on a UMPC?

Anyway, I came home from work today and there was a gift on my desk. The office manager sent me another extended battery and the dual battery dock charger, a slip case and a bump case!!

David

WillAdams
05-12-2008, 01:44 AM
Wonderful!

I've read other reports that the Fujitsu Stylistic ST series is easy to work on --- am debating looking into that myself, I've just gotten an ST-4110 (once I work out some kinks in the ebay transaction) but the case is in pretty rough shape, despite an attempt to repair it (not helped by a mediocre coat of spray paint) and there's some dust under the digitizer.

Do you have any pointers for disassembly (and cleaning and successful reassembly)? Or know of any dimensions for the case? I was thinking of making a new one out of wood....

William