CF-29 Mk4 BIOS?

I have searched and searched. Panasonic, this forum, etc. I found a v5L13 BIOS but it is for a MK5 and it won't install. All I seem to find is listings for mk3 and below. What am I missing?

BTW, I am trying to get a Transcend 64G IDE SSD (set to master) to work in a CF-29L unit and the BIOS sees it but Acronis balks at the end of the restore and XP doesn't see it at all. So, I thought a BIOS update may fix this. BIOS is currently at v4L12.

I'm not an IT noob by any means but I'm not a Toughbook Veteran either. I know enough about TBs to understand they are a completely different animal than other LTs. Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

Did you try - http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/computer-support-bios.asp ?

This doesn't sound like a BIOS problem. More than likely you need to partition/format the drive first. If you see it in BIOS, than the BIOS is good.

 

If you got to the panasonic Canada site you will find 4 BIOS updates, not sure if these are the ones you need but check them out
https://panasonic.ca/english/customercare/sandd/softwarequery.asp

I would not try to install a bios update from another model.....you could end up with a nice "door stopper "

 

Most specifically:

BIOS Upgrade for EVDO Support
BIOS Upgrade for a CF-29L/M for an integrated EVDO module running Windows XP SP2
29m4bl11.zip [zip, 2mb]

BIOS Upgrade for EDGE Support
BIOS Upgrade for a CF-29L/M for an integrated EDGE module running Windows XP SP2
29m4bl12.zip [zip, 1.8mb]

BIOS Fix for PXE Support
BIOS Fix for a CF-29L/M to support PXE running Windows XP
29m4bl14.zip [zip, 501k]

 

Thanks guys. Yeah, those locations are where I have been but I was hoping I could find a newer version of the BIOS. I read in other forum locations that there seems to be a newer BIOS but I can't find it anywhere. Perhaps it was for a mk3 or something. Since there is so little difference between the mk4 and mk5, thought the BIOS would work or that there may be a newer version of the mk4 around somewhere.

I'll keep chugging on it, probably with the latest mk4 BIOS you guys linked to and I saw earlier. I just didn't want to keep banging my head if there was BIOS knowledge that I was missing. There is a lot of unique little things to learn about the toughbooks that only experience can teach. Thanks for quick replies!

 

Note all files have a 4 in them. As in Mark4.

 

Thanks. I upgraded to the v4L14 BIOS but no help. I gained the PXE feature but still can't use the SSD. I have a feeling it's a conflict between the SSD controller and the CF-29 controller. I tried all three jumper combinations with no luck. The BIOS sees the drive but nothing does or can write to it. (WinXP Setup, Acronis or Paragon drive utilities.) I guess it's not a huge surprise. SSD drives can be a little tempermental with older systems, esp PATA. I think that is what is happening here. My other option is to just throw a large PATA hard drive in and gain a bit of performance with platter density.

 

Assume that also means no jumper at all?

 

There is thread here to read
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/545481-sata-ssd-cf-18d.html

Looks like some adapters or sata ssd's work while others do not work

I am not too happy right now with my pata ssd in my cf-18
It suffers a common issue with ssd's using the jmicron controllers
A stuttering problem
The boot time is real fast,but sometimes it takes seconds for a window to open when clicked

I am working on some tweeks,but at this time I am thinking of tossing it and putting a normal hard drive back in

 

Jmicron is the same brand of sata to ide 2.5 HDD adapters the work inconsistently. I see a pattern developing.