BIOS Grayed Out

On my CF-30 MK3 I started to have some problems while opening up programs. I rebooted and it just kept cycling in the OS start up screen. I went into the BIOs to chang the boot sequence since I was going to do a in place OS repair. It's then when I noticed that most of the itmes except for the 1st page is all grayed out. I was able to perform the diagnostic system and no problems were found. I am stumped to say the least. I have never seen a BIOS do this before.

Somebody please give me some suggestions

 

Is the bios set for defaults or setup mode? I can't remember what the name is for safe mode bios default setting. They all have it though.

 

You need to double check to make sure that the TPM chip is connected.

It's under the cover under the keyboard. I forgot to connect it once and it was puking up errors too. Just a thought.

Thanks

 

Just spoke with Tech Support. They have never heard or seen this problem before, or at least the tech has not. She said it sounds like a bad system board or the CMOS battery. Got the RMA # and will ship it out in the morning. She said if all goes as planned I should have it back by Saturday! Where in the world can you get this type of customer service besides Panasonic???

 

Rob-I have never messed with the TPM settings or had the KB off. It was working fine and then all of a sudden I could not open some programs. Crazy as hell...

 

Let use know what the problem turned out to be.

 

Will do! I'm very curious myself.

 

The Set Defaults is grayed out. Can't adjust it.

 

I don't remember but there was a hotkey combination to set the bios to defaults when booting on some models
The manual may have this info

 

Spoke to Heartland yesterday. From the sound of it they updated the BIOS, must be a secret update because the MK3 never had an update for the BIOS. They changed something that has to do with the screen brightness. I had explained to them that I did not feel it was as bright as it once was. Here is the part that pisses me off. I had explained to them how I had noticed there was a problem with the BIOS. I explained I started having some programs that would not open up properly. They freakin re-imaged the hard drive! I am oh so pissed. My secretary called them on Tuesday to have the shipment changed to my location here at the FLETC and they didn't do it.

 

Hi Toyo

When I work on computers with software or virus issues I always tell the customer up front all your data may be lost. I have seen other post talks about Heartland Services reimaging HDD. Any software problem and they will reimage.

Others can learn for this. Backup your data before sending in for repair. All your data will be lost!

-Nick

 

The main problem was a bios issue as he stated. Don't send the HD. I am in LE and never ever send them the HD if there is an issue. Any software/driver/virus issues can be dealt with in house.

Jason

 

HDDs are normally reimaged during service - it's standard practise in order to be able to load a default OS on to the disk to enable more checks to occur.

If you do not want the disk wiping, then do not send the disk in with the unit.

 

I haven't dealt with them in a while and I know that several people that I used to deal with are no longer there... But they always let me know what the issue was BEFORE they did any work. They also offered to reimage the hard drive for me a number of times when I sent stuff in under warranty... I declined. Not that I would lose valuable data... But I would just have to ghost back what I normally put on.

 

I was in a hurry to get it ready for the Fed Ex man so it slipped my mind not to take the HDD out. I figured if they need an OS in it they would have a caddy around there. My mistake for sure. I also didn't really think they would need to be in the OS to begin with when the problem was in the BIOS. This is the 1st time I have ever really dealt with the service side of Heartland, always just parts. I just hope my SSD is still in it

 

I got it back today, been installing all OS and stuff. They put XP on it

One of the things they did was update the BIOS to 3.00L23. I can't remember what it was before, but this version does not sound like my old one and they have never showed a update for the MK3. Can someone look at there MK3 and see what version they have?
They replaced the screen inverter, and gave it one heck of a cleaning. I have never been able to get the screen as clean and spotless as they did. I always seem to have little marks on the screen protector from my stylus.

Alex, as you are aware I have always stated that my MK2 seems to run better than the MK3 and I know you think i'm nuts Those days are over with! It is like night and day now. If the BIOS fix made this big of a difference they should all have this version.

Another thing that is interesting is that I bought this one off of Ebay. They never said anything about my warranty. I was under the impression that you had to buy it from a authorized reseller??

 

Hi Toyo

My CF30K3PAXAM bios is 3.00L16 I do think the MK3 is slower than my MK2’s.

 

Wow, that is a big difference. I would love to know what the differences are.

 

Unable to locate BIOS V3.00L23 on Panasonic support Anyone?

 

Still looking for this bios version for a CF-30 MK3. Any ideas short of sending to Heartland?