Operating systems wats a good operating system to install on a panasonic cf-71 tough book

Not too sure what your question is but you mention "Laptop sound card". I'm pretty sure that on your Panasonic Tough Book the sound circuit is integrated into the motherboard. You may just need an updated or fresh load of your audio driver which you can find here: http://www.do-download.com/System/Backup-Restore/Panasonic-Toughbook-308435.html along with all of your Laptop's drivers.

Go to Panasonics web site and download them, for free.

Drivers for all Panasonic Toughbooks can be found:

http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/itn/drivers/d_menu_en.html

Select your Toughbook Model first,
then select your operating system (XP SP2).

Good Luck,
Regards,
Richard - Montreal Based
Panasonic Canada Toughbook Authorized Dealer since 1989

According to: http://www.upgradecomputermemory.com/ram.cfm/memory/P/Panasonic/Toughbook-Series/Toughbook-73-CF-73

your CF-73 has "integrated" 256MB of memory, and supports a maximum addition of 1GB of RAM.
The web-site says about $33, which _definitely_ is a good investment to speed-up your computer.

You could go into safe mode and change your password, you can do this by tapping f5 key when system is starting up, then go to your control panel then into user accounts. Just make sure you are logging in as the administrator.

If your not running windows xp you will have to tap f8 when starting system for vista.

Hope this help. :)

Here is driver download link for your Notebook

http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/cgi-bin/itn/toughbook/dl01.cgi

In
Content Type (Category)    : Driver

Model Number                  : CF-73X/Y(mk5)

Operating  System            : Windows Xp SP2

 Language                         : Your choice

just Click the "SEARCH" button

and download the drivers.

That's it.

Your video chip IS going bad. Send it to Panasonics service center. They can fix it for you at a reasonable price.

The sound electronics are integrated and on the main board, there is no 'card' in the unit. You can see the complete specs here:
CF-73 Specs

Yes it is VERY likely the harddrive that is damaged given the symptoms that you are reporting, most especially if the drive was in use when the drop occurred or if it was onto a hard surface. I recommend just purchasing a new 2.5" 320gb sata drive off of ebay (asking to make sure it is compatible with your system) as they only cost $65, and self disassembling. Instructions for disassembly can be found here:
http://www.laohu.co.uk/r4/hdd/cf-r4-hdd.html

otherwise you can take the computer into a shop and pay them to fix it.

Trying this link to see if you can get this information.
Its Panasonic's website, toughbook section

Also try this link.