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    CF-19 MK7 BIOS Dump

    Discussion in 'Panasonic' started by tomcatsniper, Mar 17, 2016.

  1. tomcatsniper

    tomcatsniper Notebook Geek

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    Hello,

    Does anyone have a BIOS dump for a CF-19 MK7 ?

    A dump with AMI flasher produces a 5.7MB file which can be written back (only with AMI flasher) without issues it seems but it doesn't fix any of my issues.

    As a second topic; does anyone knows how to unpack/decompress the .exe file that Panasonic provides for BIOS upgrades? I managed to unpack the exe to the point which it creates a file approximately 3MB in size which cannot be written via the AMI flasher or EEPROM flasher directly to the BIOS chip. That 3MB file seems to be compressed or in a format that only the Panasonic flasher can understand it.

    BTW: The BIOS chip is a MX 25L12835F 8MBytes if anyone is interested.
    I was not able to identify the EEPROM that is associated with the BIOS, maybe it is on the other side of the PCB. I didn't dismantle it completely yet. If anyone have more details, please share. Or is there any EEPROM associated with BIOS and TPM in the Toughbooks?

    Thanks!
     
    tomcatsniper, Mar 17, 2016
    #1
  2. Shawn

    Shawn Crackpot Search Ninja and Options Whore

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    What cha trying to do?
    Curiousity...
     
    Shawn, Mar 17, 2016
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  3. t456

    t456 1977-09-05, 12:56:00 UTC

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    Maybe; can manage Dell bioses, but not sure about Panasonics. Just upload it somewhere and we'll see.
    That's a bit weird; the '128' indicates 128 Mbit, so 16 Mbyte. For an 8MB bios you'd expect '64' for the eeprom. Perhaps it has a neat, dual-bios recovery option somewhere?
     
    t456, Mar 17, 2016
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  4. tomcatsniper

    tomcatsniper Notebook Geek

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    I am trying to fix a CF-19 which I got from our IT guy for work.
    Background story: One of the colleagues left the company, gave back the laptop and the IT guy just power it on checked if it loaded the OS and powered it off. After 6 months I requested a test laptop for a project with a serial port but the serial is not working because it is disabled in the BIOS. BIOS is password protected and everything disabled except LAN and WiFi. The IT guy gave me a USB-to-Serial adapter which I hate and I want to fix the issue and enable the onboard serial port and VT to be able to use the virtual machines. The laptop will be replaced/recycled end of the year and I cannot get approval to spend the money for replacing the motherboard.
     
    tomcatsniper, Mar 17, 2016
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  5. tomcatsniper

    tomcatsniper Notebook Geek

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    Sorry, my mistake. It is 128Mbit -> 16MB. I was thinking correctly but wrote it wrong. I don't understand why the AMI flasher only dumps 5.7MB.
     
    tomcatsniper, Mar 17, 2016
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  6. tomcatsniper

    tomcatsniper Notebook Geek

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    tomcatsniper, Mar 17, 2016
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  7. Shawn

    Shawn Crackpot Search Ninja and Options Whore

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    Blair,
    Do you need to deal with this situation?
     
    Shawn, Mar 17, 2016
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  8. toughasnails

    toughasnails Toughbook Moderator Moderator

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    That is one thing we are not allowed to discuss on here. Sorry forum rules. You will need to send it to Heartland Services. Price around $300.00 .
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...yone-who-posts-in-the-panasonic-forum.351660/
    To the point... There will be ZERO TOLERANCEfor anyone asking for anything having to do with how to bypass/reset passwords,
     
    toughasnails, Mar 17, 2016
    #8
    Dannemand likes this.