CF-19 getting text BIOS screen

What does this mean when it only posts this screen? I have switched HDD, battery, Memory, wireless card. Gone into Bios settings and set to default. I have even ran the panasonic diagnostic screen and it passes. Please help.

 

I guess you don't have the OS (XP) installed yet.

 

Even without an OS it should still come up with a drive error.......................... OS not found.................

Take all memory and all drives out, Reboot and see what happens. Then install the devices one at a time. Did you try a different hdd caddy?

 

Wild guess - when you loaded your OS did you remember to change the boot order back to hdd first afterwards?

 

It was a fully functioning laptop with OS XP installed and in the field. The crew called and said the screen just started showing up. When swapping out HDD, it was the whole caddy system I replaced.

i removed the memory and the HDD and it wouldnt do anything so I put the memory back and it still does the same thing. The memory that is in it now is new and not the same memory that was in the machine at the time the issue started.

 

You have to disconnect-reconnect CMOS battery.
This problem is not Panasonic only, just a bug in that BIOS.

 

Yes, the CMOS battery is the first thing I tried. The initial screen was an F1 but it was always locked up. I removed the CMOS battery and got the F2 option now and it doesnt lock up, but I cant quit getting the message. Maybe a Bios upgrade, if there is one available.

 

There is a BIOS update for the MK1 but it is for the windows 7 upgrade unless someone else knows of one.

 

Update folks: This think gets weirder and weirder. I plugged a mouse into the usb port in the back and i dont get the error. I plugged mouse up to see if I could flash the bios with the same version i got-in case it was corrupt (Worth shot). When I unplug mouse, the POST screen returns. I saw the mouse initialized but thought it was part of the normal page. What is going on???

I checked the POST errors in the service manual and it doesnt list anything about mouse initialized.

 

can you disable the touchpad and or touchscreen in bios? Sounds like one of the 2 has a hardware issue.

 

What you are seeing you would normally NOT see if the bios wasn't flaky. (possibly the bios script) It's not using "echo off" or in Linux "quiet splash".

Now what? This is a tough one.

If you want to..... try this:

Remove all power.

Unhook cmos battery.

cycle the switch for 30 seconds ...several times until your fingers get tired.

Re-attach cmos batt..........maybe even a different one?

Plug in power supply only and boot. (my thinking here is this eliminates acpi issues since the batt funtions are run on acpi.) What I mean is someone told me to do this one time and I tried to reason out ....not installing the battery. It makes as much sense as anything else. (wry shrug)

When this doesn't work...........do you have an identical unit to copy bios from?

Good luck.........

Do this after what Shawn said........thinking, thinking......O.K. it's in the field and being used. Something happens. So....initialize mouse equals touchpad....you try with PS/2 mouse?......that's serial port and it works.....Yah it could be a problem with the touchpad.

Sorry to be so windy but I just wrote everything down as I thunk o' it. (sic)

Jeff...all the best...

 

Had u tried the self diagnosis test (CTRL+F7)?

 

Or you may check the USB port,. It maybe something on it or a bent pin. This comment is based upon your story.

ohlip

 

Well I finally got to the bottom of this. After trying other USB port by accident, I narrowed it down to a bad USB port on the HSDPA PCB (USB port on the back). Once I replaced that, it worked like a champ. This has got to be one of the weirdest problems I have encountered to date. Thanks for all of your hard work and interest in helping me. It seems I found the right forum to join. I have 45 of these lovely works of art and they always trying to throw me a curve.

 

Cool