CF-52 Mk2 JUST DIED HELP!

I have a CF-52 2.24Ghz CF-52GCMHXAM here that I picked up about 2 months ago as new old stock. EVerything is OEM on this machine running Windows Vista Business which matches the COA. All drivers are OEM Panasonic.

I was working on several projects and had just installed Hex workshop. I go upstairs, get a cup a coffee, get distracted for a few minutes with the dog and I come downstairs to find it hanging at blue PANSONIC logo screen.

I can't boot past, there is no option to get into the BIOS. I've bulled, optical drive, battery, HD, RAM to reseat it, everything and it won't not move past the blue screen.

I can't boot from the optical drive. I'll try a USB next.

Is this a POST failure?????

HELP PLEASE



Model Number:
CF-52GCMHXAM

Status:
DISCONTINUED

MSRP:
$2,149


Description: WinXP (Vista COA), Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz, 15.4" WXGA, 160GB, 1GB, WinXP, Intel WiFi a/b/g/n, Multi-drive, No Bluetooth, Smartcard, Fingerprint

 

did you try hitting F2 several times at startup? (this is starting the bios setup)

 

Yes, I get nothing. No error beeps, nothing at all. There's a black empty space below the splash screen logo where it would normally say Press F2.

 

You can try to start without the HDD, i don´t see any reason for this (if it is a ram or keyboard fault, it should give a error beep)
You could try reseat the keyboard connectors

 

No joy with the HDD removed, I'll try the keyboard connectors.

 

Another thing you can remove is the wifi card (can´t do any harm to eliminate all possible causes)

 

Ctrl + F7 at Panasonic bluescreen starts the self-test. Worth trying, maybe it'll tell you where to look.

 

Ok, I'm really have a bad type day. I just turned around from this PC to the toughbook on the desk behind me and its apparently successfully booted itself back into Vista???????????

The "this device can perform faster" msg keeps popping up yet nothing is in any of the USB ports.

Dare I reboot again to run the self test, !

 

And the problem returns. Its booting super slowly....

 

Myself I would wipe the HDD and reload the OS with the restore disk. It's worked for me in the past.

 

Did you remove all the accessories at the same time and try to boot it? Ram, optical drive, HDD, USB devices, PCMCIA, WIFI, WLAN etc.
You probably need at least 1 stick of ram to boot it. How many are in there? If it's one, it may be a bad ram stick. The cf 52 does not have any on board ram, does it?

 

No on board ram on it

 

Ok, so the updated status is this.... Super long boot 8 minutes. When Vista does load, everything is as normal and the laptop functions fine. I'll try again removing everything and booting into bios. I go from the Pansonic blue screen directly to the Vista Business logon screen, no windows splash screen comes up.

I have two ram sticks for 4gb total. I keep getting the "this usb device can perform faster msg" and yet no external usb devices are plugged in. I did a -overall switch on the chipset drivers just in case that got hosed somehow.

As for a re-install image this is the one toughbook I have that I don't have the factory restore disc for!

 

With "this usb device can perform faster msg" and a 8 minute boot time it sounds like one device on your pc is USB internally and that is causing your problem as the pc is trying to boot from it. Do you have a fingerprint scanner, smart card, wwan or anything like that extra on your toughook.

 

Or a damaged USB port. Look inside each one with a flashlight and magnifying lens. Any bent metal?

 

Yes, there is the OEM fingerprint scanner with appropriate drivers from panasonic on this machine. I will try and disable/uninstall it and see what happens. Yes there is a smartcard reader, but no smart card installed. I'll check the ports for damage.

 

Well, looks like I'm SOL now as I can't get back in to windows to disable any of those devices now at all!

 

No way to get into the BIOS ?

 

Because of the Fp-reader and the smartcard, just pull it out. Only 2 screws. One on the top and another on the bottom, if u pull the HDD out.
If u would have Bluetooth: Under the cover above the FP-reader is the Bluetooth. 2 Screws for the cover and another one, if u had lifted the cover. Now u can slide out the pcb and disconnect it.
Had u checked also the portreplicator on the bottom of the chassis, if there is any liquid or dust?

 

If you can't get to bios without a HDD installed, it IS a hardware issue. I doubt drivers will make any difference at all. I suggest you do any further testing without the HDD installed. Continue unplugging everything you can and try each ram stick individually. I get that usb warning also once in a while on my desktop. No change in any connection, it just appears and goes away.

 

F7 to boot mgr. then F8 to advanced boot/repair options tried & failed?
No luck with the self-diagnostics?

 

I disabled the smartcard reader and the finger print scanner in device manager and I'm booting normally twice and can access the BIOS upon power up. I completely disabled all USB boot options. There was boot from USB disk, USB CD and USB LAN. I'll try ctrl F7 now and see what comes up. My gut tells me it either corrupted drivers or a physical hardware problem with the smartcard or biometric boards.

I pulled the smartcard / fingerprint reader card and we're back to booting slow, no bios access!

 

Ok I'm about worn out with this thing. Once it boots the laptop works fine except coming in and out of sleep mode I'll get lots of USB dings. I've disabled in device manager and physically pulled everything in every combination and it still won't boot correctly, give me the BIOS F2 menu or boot in less than 10 minutes. SInce I've had all the usb type devices out of the latop where does that leave me? A bad mobo and chipset?

My last plan is to uninstall the USB hubs in device manager and see if that helps. I'm going to go order a OEM recovery disk set, but I'm really leaning towards a hardware failure.

I wonder if I should try a restore point backup?

Since I've eliminated all the devices that use USB I'm pretty confident this is some kind of corruption/failure of the chipset hardware that controls the USB since that's the only thing I can't disable. I have force re-installed the panasonic oem driver with no change in behavior.

 

Try to update the bios and see if that helps. If there is an update.

Can you completely disable usb in the bios? I know you can switch off usb legacy support.

 

Panasonic doesn't show a BOIS update on any of their support sites. I've only been able to get into the BIOS menu 4 times during this mess, that's it. I disabled all USB devices for booting. Still no joy. I've tried multiple uninstall install of the Chipset driver from Panasonic with negative results. Tried the AHCI/SATA driver, nada with that either.

 

If you don't already have one you can download the service manual. Has POST error codes, advanced error codes (only available with port replicator), self-diagnosis test details and other stuff.

 

I finally managed to get to th F2 BIOS screen and started a Ctrl F7 diagnostics. I left only one stick of ram in on this attempt and it booted even though I've done this several times already.

Lets see what gets reported back!

 

Hope you set bios defaults first?
Results can be misleading otherwise.

 

I did reset the BIOS. Ctrl F7 diagnostics report nothing wrong and I ran them 3 times including the FULL tests on hardware that offered that option. I'm still having boot problems and not getting the BOIS F2 option. Last boot put me into the windows was not shut down properly screen and got into safe mode. Rebooted and still hanging on the splash screen.

 

I did a system restore to about 2 weeks ago. I've reset the bios to defaults again and disabled all USB booting. I'm getting more consistent boots now with POST apparently passing, giving me the F2 selection and then continuing to boot windows. I am still getting boots where its freezing at the splash screen.

I'm going to see how many boots I can go through with only one stick of ram in the main slot.

 

What are the numbers on the ram? brand speed etc..Do they match?
I will stick to my story that it's a hardware failure.
I have one of these, it's similar anyway. I never dealt with this seller. He was first in the search results.

3 in 1 Mini PCI/PCI-E LPC PC notebook Analyzer Tester Post Card Diagnostic | eBay

 

I still get the hanging boot with either stick of ram or both inserted. I am at a complete loss at this point. Last idea is to re-image the laptop once the OEM restore disk arrives.

 

If you haven't already done this, download the HDD diagnostic for the brand HDD that is installed and test it. If possible, run the DOS version instead of the Windows version.

 

Kensington, 2gb x2 for 4gb total. Yes they match. Same ram it came with when I got it two months ago. I've made no hardware changes since I bought it.

Hard drive passed the Ctrl F7 diagnostics and the SMART test from within windows. I'll go DL its speciific diagnostic program.

 

If I read correctly, didn't it give you problems even with the hard drive removed? You couldn't access the bios. If that's correct then why continue with trying to fix the hard drive when it had problems with the drive removed. Even with a new drive with a factory image, the problems that occurred with the drive removed are still there.
Disable all extra devices in the BIOS if you can. Not the BOOT menu. It's a different page that allows you to enable or disable wlan, wifi, fingerprint, modem, etc.. If it gets stuck and won't let you into the bios, it's a problem that the POST is finding. There is a key that eliminates the blue Panasonic screen and shows the POST text. I don't remember it, but I will look.

 

Yes it did. I'm getting stuck on the splash screen about every 4-5 boots. If you can find out the key to get rid of the splash screen to see if its displaying a POST error would be fantastic.

 

Put an email address in your info or PM it to me.