CF-18 won't charge or run from battery

I have a CF-18 (newer model with 1.2Ghz CPU) that I have had for a couple of years (eBay purchase). All of a sudden it will not charge the battery or run from the battery. I have tried 3 different batteries. The laptop sees the battery but does not charge it. And if I try to run from the battery, the laptop just powers off if already running from AC or won't turn on if powered off with no AC-connected. External battery charger works fine to charge the batteries but the laptop will not run from any of the batteries. The laptop will run from AC fine.

Any ideas what could be wrong and how to fix this? Are there any hardware manuals available to show me how to disassemble the CF-18?
Thanks for any help.

 

Is the battery light on/ off, blinking/not blinking???? What color is the battery light? Is it flashing? When plugged in and battery in slot?

 

With the laptop plugged in the battery light is a steady green with a fully charged battery. When I put in a battery I got off eBay recently to test it blinked red because the battery was pretty much discharged. After charging the battery in the external battery charger, the CF-18 battery light is steady green. So the system recognizes the batteries and their state but will not charge or run from any of the batteries.

In XP the battery shows as there and fully charged but only shows running on AC... never charging even when the almost fully discharged battery was in.

I tried running the battery recalibration utility to reset a battery but the machine shuts off when it tries to discharge the battery.

 

Flashing red means bad batteries...

 

After charging the one battery I recently got from eBay in the external charger its no longer flashing red, its solid green (mayble slightly yellow compared to the AC led. And the other two batteries were never flashing red so relatively sure its not the batteries. Seems unlikely that all 3 batteries would be bad... and the panasonic external charger doesn't have a problem with them.

 

The battery plug is directly soldered to the motherboard check it for damage if it isn't damaged then you may be looking at a motherboard replacement unless you can locate and fix a bad fuse. Everything is super small SMD and even if you lucked out and found a bad conponent you probably will not be able to identify it or find a replacement. Sorry wish I could be of more help.

 

Problem solved. Many thanks to the kind person who sent me the link to the service manual. I was able to remove the bottom cover and take a close look at the battery connector. One of the pins (marked +) in the laptop that connects to the battery was bent. Bent it back and all is well. Guess I will have to be more careful inserting batteries since looks like the connector is soldered to the systemboard.

 

Thats great it worked out


Alex

 

Any chance I can get a copy of the service manual also? I have about 80 CF-18/BH/DH/FH/NH/KH all with various problems. Mostly with bad touch screens on the NH/KH and other with the red battery light blinking... and all out of their 3 year warranty.

Thanks,

 

billy send me an e-mail and i'll help ya out

 

Are all of those unit not on service right now?



ohlip

 

Yeah, he's trying to get them running. they were used on construction sites and he was telling me that they had the crap beat out of them. Trying to work with him and see if we can help him get some running.

 

Billy,

We had several touch screen failures with the CF-18. I made contact with Panasonic and they agreed to replace our touch screens because of a manufacturing defect. You might contact your Panasonic rep and have them put you in touch with a Technical Manager from Panasonic. These were also out of warranty.

 

Could I get a copy of that CF-18 service guide to please? [email protected]

 

I also need a copy of the service manual. [email protected]

Thanks