CF-27, CF-28, CF-29 CD to DVD Swap Tutorial-Lots of Pictures!

I installed the Sony Optiarc model number AD-5540A. I will check the BIOS. Can you provide some details on what I am looking for in the bios? Thanks for you help.

 

First screen in the bios lists your drives
Primary Master= Hard drive
Secondary Master = Optical drive


Alex

 

My CF-28 does not show what you describe. First screen (Main) shows time, date, touchpad, etc. Second screen (Advanced) shows serial port A, serial port B, etc... Does have MP Serial Port, which was disabled, but did not allow me to select it until I disabled the IrDA Port above it. I enabled, and no change.

 

The first screen is called the info screen
Language
Model #
Serial #
Etc….. The last items list primary and secondary master drives
As I remember on the cf-28's

I don’t have a cf-28 handy but that’s what I think should be displayed

That’s info you need to confirm if the mod was successful
If you don’t have the info screen you can set cd drive as boot drive in the bios and see if a bootable cd works
If you cannot boot to your optical drive the mod was not successful

Alex

 

I have yet to do a conversion with the jumper and all, but here is something I came across recently that might help. I had purchased a CF-48 with a bad DVD drive so I asked for the sellers to replace the drive. The replacement arrived and powered up and spun, but did not show up in bios. I returned that one and have yet to hear back from the seller.
I had seen another drive for sale but was now skeptical about it cause it seemed old. Found another one that was supposed to be out of a CF-48 and purchased it for a total (with shipping) of $17.45 only! The drive was not what was pictured but turned out to be possibly better!! It’s a SR-8175-B and it’s made in Japan. Works fine and even has a jumper switch for master/slave/cable select. Does this mean that one does not have to perform the mod when using a drive like this one in a CF-27, CF-28 or CF-29? Pictures are below-

 

Try it and let us know!

 

Correct, the mod is doing the job of the switch that is on your drive by putting the drive in master mode. The actual switch is a very rare to find on slimline optical drives.

 

Ok Ken, I will do just that, even though the drive is for a CF-48 that I am putting together for someone. Will do it tomorrow (specially if it rains all day)and post it on here.

 

Ok, I set the drive to master, installed in caddy and tried it on a CF-28. Works fine! Showed up as CD drive in Bios and as a DVD drive in windows XP. Started up like normal too, no delay whatsoever. So, it looks like there are no problems and no need for a mod here!

 

Thanks Tomcat, a review of my mod under extremely strong magnifying lense showed that I did not had a good solder on the inboard side. All is fine and the startup speed is fine and starts from boot disk. Thanks for you help...

 

Thats great
A word on the Mod
Always try the replacement optical drive without the mod first
In the 40 or so installations with various optical drives I have found that you luck out sometimes and find a drive that is Master
If the mod is done first in that case you will have to reverse your mod to make the drive bootable


Alex

 

This is great advice and after reading this entire thread..., I did just that! The drive I bought at the hamfest boneyard is a Panasonic UJ-825B 4x Slim DVD Super MULTI Drive – Slot Type. So I assume that would make it pre-set as a Master and ergo would require no modification for installation in my CF-29!

Now, where is my lucky mod screwdriver?

 

Guys,
I finally did the mod and the experience was every bit apprehensive!!

Simply swapping the CD-ROM drive out with a Panasonic/Matsush!ta UJ-851 (LightScribe DVD±RW Dual Layer multi-drive) and without the R2 solder mod, the new drive was detected and listed in "My computer" as DVD-RAM Drive.

However, it wasn't shown in "Safely remove hardware" and upon rebooting, not recognized in BIOS, hence usable only in Windoze and not bootable. This is not a good start.

So I did the R2 solder the best I could and believed I did it right... NOT!

Still not detected in BIOS!! Upon closer inspection, it seems I had the iron at the spot for a tad too long (electronics is not my trade) and lost the solder spot literally. Instead of two solder points within the yellow box, only one on the right remains. The left spot is now just a hole on the board!! %^$@!!!

The head-worn loupe (and my eyes) couldn't cope with something this fine but fortunately, I was able to trace the line under a 50x stereo dissecting scope.

Yes, Rick, you did say to keep inside the yellow box but I fxxxed it up... and mine ended looking like the blue line...


The drive is now bootable and functions as it should.


Rick, I'm way behind those who did the mods earlier but I still want to say thank you for sharing. BTW, I saved your pictured thread when it was first posted, into my thumb drive for personal reference. Let me know if I can email the pics back to you.

I intend to practice more on soldering skills and my next goal is to swap out those in the CF-51.

Ron in SG

 

Azrial, so was the mod necessary for the UJ-825B? I like the idea of a slot-in drive as there's no tray and no messing with front bezels that get in the way. My 851 was a pull from HP DV2000 and the bezel is huge!

Ron in SG

 

I am blown away at the knowledge of the mods and contributors to this forum! I swapped out my cd/dvdrw from my Acer into my CF-28 and of course it wouldn't boot up. Removed it and headed for the FAQ and only read what Toughbook had posted in the very first post... no pics available anymore but it was easy to follow regardless. Works perfectly! Thanks guys!!

 

Its time for you to give him a rep.


ohlip

 

I could swear that someone posted a PDF File somewhere didn't they? Or didn't I? I'll have to go back through... I moved servers and lost the original pics... But I do have the original PDF file of it I can host...

Lemme shuffle through...

 

Personally I do the mod on a different spot
I am too shaky to do a good job at that spot


Alex

 

Guys, I was wondering... can we mod or jumper somewhere, the drive's Master/Slave setting instead of the R2 solder? That would make swapping drives much easier, no?

That said, I did the R2 mod with a 2nd caddy, using a UJ-850S, but this time I did it as per Rick's "prescription".... IN THE BLUDDY BOX!!

 

Alex,
Let me put it this way... To say that I have shaky hands doing that mod, is an understatement. It could have been worse without magnification aids.

Given my lack of knowledge in electronics, the end result will be disastrous had I attempted anywhere else!

Ron in SG

 

Ron, you need more balot before you go to mod that pcb board, Lol..
I'm sure no shaky hand.

teo

 

Hey Teo,
You and I will like the stuff but don't think the rest here will consider balot as "edible"!!

Anyway... I'll try to take some pics of the 51's CDD caddy board and see if it has that "R2 yellow box" for soldering. Swapped in a UJ-851 but it's not in the BIOS.

Ron in SG

 

I have modded caddies for cf-27,cf-28,cf-29,cf-30,cf-71,cf-72,cf-73,cf-74
There is a few ways to do it
You only need to close the connection between pins 45 and 47 on the dvd drive


Alex

 

If I look lost, I probably am. Do you close pins with solder or jumper or ...????

 

Its so short of a gap, solder works fine
If you make a mistake, you are in real trouble trying to remove the solder

Alex

 

Alex, I popped open an old CDD since pins 1~49 are inside the housing but oh gawd... these are really tiny and too close for comfort, to try with a good drive. If I don't mess up a dead drive, I'll mod one to see.

Have anyone tried those conductive silver paint or conductive pens from Maplin?

 

I need to work on getting the pictures to show. I don't know why they are not... Everything looks right.

R2 is on the little PCB behind the drive and plugs into it. I have done this three ways.... Jumpered it with a blob of solder, using a 000 resistor and using a small copper strand and letting the solder flow between the two points and then snip the end. I choose the latter for mine. You want to solder this quickly and correctly. The longer you alow the soldering iron linger and keep the solder molten... You will start to develop issues like the delamination of the copper from the fiberglass board.

Lemme work on those pics.... I also have a PDF that is complete that I can email to anyone....

Rick

EDIT: ALL the pictures should be up and working now. Please let me know if you have any issues viewing them.... If you are on dial up... Well... Be prepared to wait.

 

Okay ...toughbook arrived in the mail yesterday. IDE slim multiburner ordered today. Thanks for all the help!

One question ...how do you get the drive out of the laptop?

I slid the MP release door open, and pushed on the slider under it. It moves a little, and the CD drive also moves out a little ...1/8" or less. Then that's it. Is there another release or screws or something else I am missing to remove the drive? I tried pushing hard (not scary hard, yet) but nothing....

 

What model do you have? The CF-28s are kind of hard to eject at times... Especially if the rotation gears are stripped which can happen. The CF-29 should just pop it out.

 

I have a 29 - Mark 3.

So you just slide it over an the drive comes out? Are there no rotation gears on the 29? I don't mind pushing hard, but want to be sure I'm not going to wreck anything. One time, actually, it did slde all the way over (under much pressure) ...but the drive didn't move any further. It was as if whatever part of the drive I was pushing against didn't hold ...and the pusher slipped off (no resistance). I have never seen one of the drives out so I don't know the mechanics of what holds it in there.
Let's imagine I couldn't access the release slider ...based on the construction could I simply grab the drive and yank it out? Or is there a locking mechanism that the slider releases as you push it out? I'm thinking something isn't quite right....

Thanks for the help!

 

You might want to download the manual and read it thoroughly. I don't say that as a snub... But there are a TON of features on your Toughbook you need to read about!

Yes... On the CF-29 there is a sliding door on the bottom. Slide it over and you will see the edge of a latch that you pull toward the side of the laptop. (Obviously the side the caddy comes out of.) I've never really seen one fail.

Please try it out and let us know...

 

Okay, that is what I did. Knowing the release mechanism for the optical drive, is there anything you can envision failing? I just can't see what's going on inside so have no idea where to safely pull or pry. I stuck an aluminum flashlight into the slider to get a better 'grip' and the thing just wouldn't budge ...even under pretty extreme pressure. No obvious signs of chewing gum or epoxy anywhere.... I'll give it another look when I get home.

As for the manual ...I saw the CF-29 service manual on here, but haven't looked for the users guide yet. Good idea though - will take a look!

 

There may be a chance that the person who had it before you may have spilled something sticky that has it pinned in place.

You can always remove the bottom plate with precision (Wiha or equivalent) screwdrivers... And get it out... Then you can also change your wifi card at the same time if you are so inclined. The Engenous 600mW is VERY popular.

If you go into USER CP and add your email address I would be glad to send you ALL the info... User Guide, Service Manual, Schematics, Board Layout, etc.

Just let me know...

 

Thanks for the additional thoughts. I did get an email address in my profile; if you have chance to send me the 'must have' CF29 info I'd appreciate it.

As for the optical drive ...I eventually put some more muscle behind it ...and it did come out. Only 3 pieces! Not bad.... So the issue was, the back top of the caddy is a separate piece of plastic clipped on. This had come off and was twisting and binding on the top of the caddy slot. One of the clips broke off, but one piece of tape has that back in good shape. I just wrote some files to a DVD - so I guess it worked!

FYI - it seems harder than I would have thought to find a cheap slim IDE DWDRW drive. I did a query at pricewatch.com and found one for $40.99 shipped free (cheapest by $9). It's an HP branded LG according to the site. XP sees it as a DVDRAM drive, and I just burned a DVD+R disc with it. It also has lightscribe.

The nice part was, based on some comments in this thread, I tried installing it with no pin mods it came right up! So it must be a master.... I did have to remove a back bracket (2 screws) ...and it came with 2 faceplates (had to swap the one that was on it).

http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=ide+slim+dvdrw&gallery=0

That's the search I did to get to the drive I ordered.... No, I'm not associated with the site.
http://3btech.net/hplggsslide8.html

Thanks for the GPS tip - will check that out next! Addicted....

 

The R2 mod is for making the drive visible to the BIOS so you can boot from it; we've seen many members report that they CAN use the drive in Windoze, but CANNOT boot from it to install OS.

mnem
R2Bleep2

 

Ah, okay. I got the impression that if it wasn't master it either would not be recognized at all ...or cause the machine to take forever to boot.

In case anyone is curious, I did check, and the drive is also bootable (without any modification).

 

Is this the one you bought ?
http://3btech.net/hplggsslide8.html

HP LG GSA-T20L Slim IDE 8x CDRW DVDRW Combo Burner for Laptops w Lightscribe - Universal Drive Fits Most Notebook PCs.. Store Part# - DVDRWL-HP-GSAT20L

 

AKKK... I bought from these guys once... It was a nightmare. I complained about damage to one of the 10 slot-load DVDs I bought and they were like, "Hey... Who cares?"

VToughbook... I still see no email adress when I click on your name.... You need to update "User CP" and add it.

 

Yes, that is the one I ordered. Can't comment on customer service ...it happened to be in fine shape when it arrived. It's a new unit supposedly, though there is some 'wear' on the top label, as though maybe it was stored in a pile of drives unprotected from one another?

Not sure where I need to add my email? Went through the User CP menus several times. When I click the Email/Password link ...it takes me to a page to change my email or password ...and my email is already saved in there. On the mail 'Profile' edit screen I see no place to put in a password ...just stuff for instant messaging etc.... I ended up manually typing it in under the location field.

Oh, now take a look to the left:

<---- My email is listed there - not sure where it's supposed to go.

I'm sure I'm going to Mr Spam now!

 

Options,Receive Email from Other Members

 

Thx. Done. Thought as a moderator he'd have the admin email permissions which was selected....

Ugh. Just ordered a second Toughbook.

 

Actually.... Tomcat and others do a pretty good job of keeping the spam harvesters away.... I've never gotten any from here and I've been here for 4 years.

Zipped file will be on the way shortly...

EDIT - Just sent... But they are all around 7MB in size zipped up... So I hope Hotmail will let you do it.

 

We are fairly safe here , but I delete email references on posts and having it your location it would end up showing in google searches, so thats not a good idea either

I think that 2 Toughbooks is a good for a start lol

Alex

 

Thx! Got the attachment. Now to start my readings....

 

Hello everyone, toughbook newbie here. I picked up one of the tiger direct off lease specials CF-29HTM50BM and of course immediately tore into it. Upgraded the ram to 1.5 gigs and HD to 320 gigs. I had a spare DVD drive sitting around and installed it as well. I get the long bios boot time and bios does not see drive. XP does see it. I took my caddy apart to do the solder mod and my board looks noting like the ones shown in toughbooks how to. Nothing says R2 anywhere. I will try and post a pic this evening but more than likely tomorrow. Any insight would be helpful. This site and those who contribute kick !

 

I think that was discussed in another recent thread maybe a few pages back... It was a caddy I have never seen before. I think he figured it out but don't remember how he did. (It might even be further up in this thread.)

 

I went through every page on this thread and did not see anything. TB I sent you an email a few days ago. Did you get it by chance? I cannot PM on here most likely to newbie status

 

I don't recall receiving it... Please try to send again...

 

I resent, just did a cut and paste, HD question I answered myself.

 

Same issues, same fix. Will this R2 box help?

Curious... but does that CDD caddy belongs to the CF-29 or one of those aftermarket products?

Welcome! Guys..... more fresh meat!! LOL!!

Ron in SG