So almost a year ago I got a call from someone with a brand new Toughbook that failed after 1 week of use, no power at all, I couldn’t resist taking this job because these machines cost between $2500 to $3500 and a pretty decent and over engineered machines, what could have possibly overcome the rugged design and caused the machine to fail so early in it’s life?
Liquid damage but not the normal kind, this was caused from condensation because that machine is left powered off overnight in a really small office on a work site with an air conditioner set to chill the room to the lowest temperature possible, the humidity must also be really high so in the middle of the night the magnesium alloy of the chassis must be the coldest thing in the room and a magnet for condensation, if not during the night then it will be after the machine is powered on and the internals heat up.
The CPU fan was then spraying the liquid around the machine, see photo 2 below.
the plastic sheets covering the mainboard to protect from liquid ingress did the opposite and liquid pooled under the plastic and ran along the board under the plastic……..Amazing.
So Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55 one weakness is really cold conditions with humidity above a certain level……don’t take one on a trip to Antarctica, really expensive dehumidifier. The detailed specs for this model states IPx3 water resistant rating, The Toughbook 20 and 33 convertible and G2 models are apparently IP65 dust and water resistant.
The customer called again about 8 months later and told me it had worked fine since so staying up all night instead of sleeping and speed running getting this done was well worth it.
