CF-50 Wireless

Hi,

I have a CF-50 that I've owned and loved for years (CF50-MB2FDKM) (Bios - V4.00L10, dated 27/10/2005) and have just bought a second hand back up machine (CF50-JAKUJKE) (Bios - V3.01L12M29, dated 26/7/2005).

My old CF50 has the wireless card and antennae installed and it works fine, and the BIOS has the option to enable it.

My new (second hand CF50) has the wireless card and antennae installed but no option in the BIOS to enable it, so it doesn't show the card in XP Pro, and therefore doesn't work. Panasonic even made a big thing about writing "WIRELESS LAN" on the covers of the antennae, but then installed a BIOS that renders it useless.

I have searched endlessly for another BIOS that I can install that will enable the WiFi card, but am coming to the conclusion that it's just not out there. Panasonic tech support don't seem to answer their service requests.

Does anyone know how a trick that will allow me to enable the wireless card somehow?

Thanks

 

Try swapping the wireless cards. It's a good bet the 2nd unit doesn't recognize the card that has been put in.

Just for fun, go to device manager and search for new hardware. Windows may recognize the card even though the bios doesn't.

The bios only recognizes a few select Intel cards. I keep and old Intel card to put in so I can enable the wireless in the bios. Once its been enabled, I pull the Intel card out and put in an Atheros or other card that the bios won't recognize. Windows does see the card and everything works groovy.

Shawn

 

Thanks, I tried searching for new hardware in device manager but no joy. I also took the wireless card out and cleaned up the contacts and put it back in, but still nothing.

To swap the cards, is there an easy way of disconnecting the antennae cables? They're not soldered to the card, in fact they seem to swivel, but am not sure if there's a screw in there that can be easily undone so that I can move a card from one to the other.

The DMI viewer shows the third slot is populated which makes me think that the card is showing it's presence, but I came across a BIOS version (for a MK3) on one of the Panasonic sites that shows that the wireless network had been disabled in that BIOS, and I'm just wondering if the BIOS version in this CF50 is one of those.

Do you know if there is a utility that will enable me to make a copy of my V4 BIOS and flash it to the "non wireless" CF50? Risky I know .....

 

Yes they do...they just snap on to the card. Just go to ebay and find a card and see what it looks like

 

You do not want to try to flash the bios with a version from a different MK. You probably couldn't do it but, if it actually flashed you'd probably brick it.

 

Can you give us all the info that is on the wireless card? I strongly suggest waiting to flash the bios.
I am betting that is is just the "wrong" wifi card and the bios can't see it.

 

The info on the card is:

Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 LAN 3B Mini PCI Adapter Model Number WM3B2100

The card in the good CF50 has the same model number, but I can't see the rest as it has a Toshiba sticker all over it.


Thanks.

 

Well the 2100 is the stock card and the cf50 should see it. I say swap them and see what happens. The antenna connectors are called hirose ufl. They just snap on. You can usually lift them off by pulling or using a small screwdriver to pry upward gently.

From what info I could find your model came with wireless originally and it should work. I say the card is bad.

 

Have swapped the wireless cards and they both work perfectly in the "good" CF50 but neither shows a presence in the "bad" CF50, with nothing showing in the BIOS.

Am coming to the conclusion that it's a "crippled" BIOS as talked about in this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/212820-cf-50-wireless-detection-problem.html

But I can't seem to find a wireless enabled BIOS anywhere that fits the model number of the CF50 that I have the problem with, which is a little strange.

 

Read this thread for a last chance at making the wi-fi work
I have used this mod before in early cf-73's where I wanted to upgrade the stock Intel2100B card to a unrecognized type
It still won't show in the bios, the the end result was that device manager will see it
It links the pin-mod for m-pci wi-fi cards

http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...oks-atheros-ar5006x-mini-pci.html#post3715573
And more discussion
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/415482-cf-18-wireless-card-install.html

 

Thanks Alex, I tried the mod and taped up the two pins as shown ( that's a fiddly job) but it still wouldn't see the card.

The more I look into this, the more confused I get.

My "good" CF50-MB2FDKM is without doubt a Mk4 version. (1.7GHz, Radeo 9600) and my "bad" CF-50JAKUJKE is without doubt a Mk5 version ( 1.5Ghz, Radeon 9000).

My Mk4 has a BIOS Version V4.00L10, but my Mk5 has a BIOS Version V3.01L12M29, which is very close to the BIOS versions shown on other threads for Mk3 Versions. Why would a Mk5 have a Mk3 BIOS installed?

I'm well confused ....

 

Well the only resolution is to get the bios changed

You have to check every single downloads link in Cap's driver download links , there are some that a password is required

 

Sorry, where do I find those?

 

You find them here,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/356620-toughbook-drivers-manuals-sources.html
The stickies are here to enable new members to find 99% of the answers to all their questions. The problem is: Nobody Reads Them.
CAP

 

According to Panasonic Toughbook Support, both the " CF-50xxxxDxx" Model and the " CF-50xxxxJxx" Model are Mk4 units (the " J" being Canadian).

What is that " Mk5" unit's Model Number from the first BIOS screen?

 

If your BIOS shows V3 what ever, it almost absolutely a MK3. Disregard the model number as the case can be changed, the label can be changed and the model and serial number in the BIOS can be changed but the BIOS change from MK to MK will most likely lead to a brick. Another way to check is to look at the motherboard. Someplace it will state what MK it is. For instance, on a CF-51, if you remove the memory cover and then one of the DIMMs, there is a label there with the part number of the motherboard such as DL3UP1448BAA on the one I am looking at right now. At the bottom of that label is another line that shows CF51MK226D13823 which equals CF-51 MK2. If you don't see that label, it is also silk-screened on the motherboard. On the CF-51, it is under the second DIMM. I haven't seen a CF-50 motherboard but it will be there somewhere, I just don't know where. I have seen it on board for a CF-48, CF-49, and others.
Something else you can use to verify the MK is the program CPUID CPU-Z. Do a web search to find it. This program will give you quite a bit of info about your system. Part of that info is the Mainboard tab. Here you will find the model number such as CF-29-4 on the CF-29 I am using to check out what I am saying here. I have just used it on a CF-51, CF-74 and CF-29 and each time it checked out reporting the correct MK number.

 

Good points , the info is conflicting

Toughbook Support

Lots of good info there, used to distinguish what model he has by looking at what hardware windows reports

For instance

 

Just as an update, I went to to copy some files onto the laptop via a USB stick and then realised that the USB ports didin't work .... they had also been disabled in the BIOS!! Somebody really didn't want this Toughbook talking to the outside world, so that kind of forced my hand a little bit.

I could have lived without the wireless card, but the USB ports had to work.

Downloaded the 3.01L12 BIOS from one of the links, held my breath and went for it. Bingo .... success, it fired up and the wireless card is now enabled and there's nothing in the BIOS saying that the USB ports are disabled.

Thanks to all for your help,

Colin

 

I got 3 CF-18's a couple months back. Was suppose to have wireless in it, but would not show up in device manager. I took the back off of it and the wireless card was missing, modem and lan was unplugged from the mother board. Not sure if the usb port on the CF-50 is on the motherboard or on a secondary board. May want to see if it is plugged up.

 

Glad it all worked out.

 

Great: but you never posted the unit's Model Number displayed on the BIOS screen.

 

Sorry, the BIOS Screen now shows the following:

Model No:CF-50JAKUJKE
Serial No: 4JYAA01247
CPU Type entium M 1500 Mhz
CPU Speed: 1.5 Ghz
BIOS: V3.01L12
Embedded Controller: V3.01L12

etc.

The BIOS used to read V3.01L12M29 - I'm wondering of the M29 stands for modifications to the base BIOS?

 

Intel® Pentium M 1.5GHz LV (Centrino), 15" TFT XGA (1024 x 768), 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 802.11b WLAN, CD-RW/DVD, Windows XP Professional, UK distribution

Obviously, it's a Mk3 CF-50

If it still has the "b" WLAN card in there, I would suggest switching to at least a "b/g" card; such as the Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG or the Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915ABG (or the ubiquitous EnGenius EMP-8602+S 802.11a/b/g ).

“Hmmm! Could be!”
--Bugs Bunny

 

Logically, I would have thought that it was a MK3, as the CPU is slower than the Mk4 and the Radeon graphics card (9000) would appear to be a slightly lesser spec than the Radeon 9600 in the MK4, however, the list that Alex posted a few posts back says that it's a MK5, and there are other snippets of information that tend to back that up.

When I flashed the BIOS, all was well, but then the hard drive would'nt boot. The drive was an encrypted Flagstone, which required a password to allow it to fire up, and even though it asked for and accepted the password, it would always revert to the BIOS screen and then just ask for the password again. Obviously, the BIOS had previously been modified to allow that drive to work, and my flashing of the BIOS caused it to lose that ability.

So I changed the hard drive for a normal IDE drive and re-installed XP, which also meant that I had to get the various drivers from one of the Panasonic sites. I searched the pages for any drivers for a JAK* laptop and without exception, every zip file came in the form *****_50_5.zip, which I would have thought means that it's for a MK5 CF50.

It's all working fine now, but I'm still baffled by the version number / MK number conflict.

The only driver that seemed to cause a problem was the wireless driver that would cause a blue screen of death every time it tried to connect to the network, which I eventually solved by replacing the W70n51.sys file in the windows/system32/drivers directory with one from my MK4 and it all worked fine after that.

Good game .... have learnt quite a lot.

 

Note on wireless drivers
Always load the latest available from intel, and ditch the crappy Intel proset if you are using it ,just let windows manage your connection , as its been known to cause blue-screens

 

Stick around. You can learn quite a bit more from this forum.

 

I just found this forum and the post, when searching for a solution to exactly the same problem
Mine is also CF-50JAKUJKE, with IntelPRO/ wireless 2100 LAN 3B, but the BIOS is already V3.01L12M28, so should be OK?, but it still doesn't show WLAN.
Everything else is OK, after XP re-install (I bought it bare), apart from this b****y wireless
Hopefully someone will have more clue than I do
Chris

ps thank you guys for a great forum - very helpful! to the likes of myself (new Toughbook convert).

Totally puzzled btw with this mk business - should be mk4 (J), but it appears to be mk3. According to another thread it should be:
CF-50JAKUJKE
J - Pentium M 1.5 GHz Centrino
A - 15" XGA with 64 MB VRAM - USB 2.0
K - 40 GB HDD - 256 MB RAM
U - FDD - Combo - 802.11 Wireless LAN
J - ???
K - Windows XP Pro
E – UK
It all looks OK, apart J (third from last) that is not listed??

 

Notice in this post, the bios does not have the M29 or M28 at the end of it. Try to flash the 3.01L12 bios NOT the 3.01L12M28.
That's what solved the issue for the original poster.

 

Thanks Shawn,
Now that you have pointed it out...

I have downloaded 3.01L12 from:
https://panasonic.ca/english/customercare/sandd/softwareResults.asp
This is supposedly for "...Model Number(s): CF50EAKUCDM, CF50EAKUCKM ..."
so hopefully will be OK for mine as well...

And of course I still have no clue how to flash BIOS, but I suppose if in doubt google

On the other hand there was someone in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/networking-wireless/429841-panasonic-cf-50-2915abg.html
who supposedly solved the problem by changing IntelPro 2100 LAN3B to IntelPro 2915ABG ???

Chris

 

You won't have to find a floppy drive. CF-50's have floppy and DVD/CD drive built in.

 

As I've never done it (BIOS flash) before, I am approaching it a bit like dog approaches a hedgehog ie carefully, so I hope you won't mind final sanity check:
My plan is as follows:
BIOS update

1. Create a bootable diskette with no config.sys or autoexec.bat.
instructions:
- Open My Computer, right-click the A: drive and click Format.
- In the Format window, check Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
- Click Start
2. Extract or copy the files from the zip file to that diskette.
3. Make sure the computer has the AC adapter connected.
4. F2 - change booting order? so that PC boots from floppy?
5. Re-boot the computer, booting from the diskette.
6. When finished, remove the diskette and restart the computer.

Question 1:
as above, do I need to change booting order in BIOS to make sure it runs from the floppy?

Question 2:
do I need two separate discs? One for ECMOS.EXE and another for BU50M3.EXE,

or do I copy the whole lot (ie R-2003-0155-Binary), which consists of:
biosup.bat
V301L12.503
ECMOS.EXE
BU50M3.EXE into one disc?

Question 3:
do I copy the folder (ie R-2003-0155-Binary) to the floppy or just it's contents?

Anything else I have missed?

Thank you very much!

Chris

 

You need to check the boot order to make sure the floppy boots first.
I copy them all to one floppy.
Just the contents of the folder.
Run the laptop from AC power or mains as it's called in the UK, not the battery.

 

While waiting for the floppies to arrive (no quick trip to the shop for me, in the wilderness), I have tried to check serial and model number with Panasonic Toughbook support and here is the answer :
"...I just checked the serial and this is old military equipment which we
are not allowed to deal with..."
Which explains modified non-standard BIOS and disabled WLAN.
Still debatable (at least in my mind) whether it is mk3, mk4 or mk5, but I suppose it doesn't matter too much?

Chris

 

Panasonic Professional Mobile Computer Support FAQs

That should help you sort out the MK.

 

In the US driver selection they list the Mk's as:

Mk1 - CF-50W/Y
Mk2 - CF-50A/B/X
Mk3 - CF-50D/E/F/G
Mk4 - CF-50xxxxD/J (canada)xx
Mk5 - CF-50xxxxExx

Also listed like this on the .jp site.

 

No it only adds to the confusion
It says "...CF-50J/K (Mk5) -- Intel® Pentium® M Processor 1.5GHz ..."
Well mine is CF-50J****** so it must be mk5 ?, and indeed the processor is as above, but...
BIOS is V3.0****** so it must be mk3 ?
Motherboard is CF50MK4***** so it must be mk4?

I suspect this is typical UK MOD procurement story - they took perfectly OK notebook, added their own mods quadrupled the price and left us all puzzled

Chris

 

Since this is pieced together it sounds what is your system specs?

CPU
ATI video card

That will narrow it down some more.

 

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 1.5GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, 64Mb
and BIOS release date 03/09/2004

Chris

 

Going by the ATI Radeon it is either a Mk3 or Mk5, if the processor is original it's a Mk5. You posted a J earlier as your model so I would say it's safe to say it's a MK5.

 

Yes, I would tend to agree with you that it is either mk3 or mk5.

My only concern about flashing BIOS (after re-reading the whole thread for the umpteenth time) is what CRC (original thread starter) reported after doing his BIOS flash:

Not really keen to change the hard drive... and it looks like mine is the original Hitachi drive.
Hitachi was one of the manufacturers making HDD FDE.

Is there a way of checking if this HDD is FDE? without messing it up?
Chris

 

Just to say thank you to all those who replied (in this thread and private messages) - finally flashed BIOS today and it was all OK. HDD was not encrypted (just regular Hitachi), changed WLAN card to 2915AB, downloaded driver directly from Intel and Bob is your uncle another happy customer!
I also increased RAM to 1280 and ended up with very respectable CF-50, just perfect for what I need.

Chris

later edit:
I was a bit too quick ... :
2915AB wouldn't detect any networks
Checked with USB WLAN adapter and all was fine.
Put the original card (ie 21003B) back in and everything is fine.
Apparently I am not alone in having problems with 2915AB ? (see http://forum.notebookreview.com/networking-wireless/429841-panasonic-cf-50-2915abg.html)
I don't know why it doesn't work, but it's going back to the seller
Ordered instead Broadcom BCM4318 4318 - hopefully will have more luck with it ...

 

So far I have only used the 2100 and 2200 in my kids units. They only use them at home close to the router so I haven't had a need to upgrade them on that yet.

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

I have purchased several of these cards from this guy with out any problems on my other toughbooks. He even has a link to the correct driver on his page. I haven't tried it on a CF-50 yet though.

With max ram they do make nice machines. I like having the floppy and optical drive both in them. I use my personal one as my floppy machine. The most intinsive games I have thrown at them is MINECRAFT and FEAR. Both played fine. I had to turn MINECRAFT down just a tad though.

 

That's encouraging - thank you!
I guess it will be few weeks before it gets here from China, but I will report the result when tested.

Chris

edit (20.05.2012):
arrived yesterday (25 days to deliver from China), took a bit of faffing around with drivers and eventually it works fine - so happy ending and satisfied customer!