CF-M34 battery restore

Hi there I found a Toughbook Cf-m34 that is in somewhat rough condition. I put the notebook away in a box many many years ago but to my surprise it still boots. I want to try and restore it. The battery does not work and it doesn't have a HD. Battery indicator blinks red.

I would like to try to place an ssd in the notebook and also new cells in the battery. Any pictures or instructions on how to rebuild the cell would be great! Also, any ssd suggestions for this computer?

Thanks for any help!

 

Welcome to NBR Panasonic Toughbook forum

Rebuilding the battery will not work. Read here... http://www.toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2005
and the SSD read this... http://www.toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1869

 

yeah ...
rebuilding the battery pack is like kicking a dead horse .
it is not the cell replacement that is difficult , it is resetting the "chip" in the battery pack .
your indicator is blinking red ... do not pass go , do not collect 200 bucks .

a quick check of sneezebay returns nothing , but a battery is available for a CF-17 ... from across the big pond :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-P...322769?hash=item3adcf7ae91:g:MtcAAOSw2gxYylTx
a "new" battery at amazon :
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...ywords=CF-17+battery&rh=i:aps,k:CF-17+battery

 

Ask Shawn what SSD he has in his M-34.

Do they make IDE SSD?

The problem is there is no room for a 2 1/2 inch sata SSD and an adapter.
Here is an example of a Lenova SSD. I haven't looked for a IDE adapter for this.

 

I have a team of 6 squirrels writing on nutpads.

 

They sure do... http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=+...088.m2428.l1313.TR0.TRC0.Xide+ssd&sqp=ide+ssd

 

I have this in mine with a sata to ide adaptor

 

Much thanks everyone for your helpful replies. Hmm unfortunate there's no way to reset the battery chip but I really appreciate the advice.

-edit

found this while searching for battery replacement, anyone attempted this method?

ScubaStan says:
September 25, 2014 at 8:20 am

"Try jumping the positive pack voltage to the computer-side positive voltage input. This should ‘Jump-start’ the battery management circuit and get power flowing. That’s what I had to do when I re-celled my CF-M34 pack."

For ssd, I suppose one of these adaptors would work coupled in with 1.8 SATA ssd?

 

The sata adapter should work.
However some BIOS's don't like some of those adapters. It could possibly be some trial and error.

 

On my M34 and CF-28 some of those adapter will cut your speed way down. One I have is a Msata to ide and it is locked to 30mb / 30mb speeds. Some are better than others. Ide to compact flash always worked well as a hard drive in my CF-28 but the ones that are larger in storage size are very expensive. I tried even SD card to ide adapters. Will work for linux but not windows. I was going to mod windows to make it work but never got back to that project. I started experimenting with those smaller adapters to cut down on the size in the caddy.

What Mk M34 do you have? They have 7 Mk's of them plus the CF-17.

 

Hi, thanks all for the input. This one is MK 6 I think, sticker is barely readable but I can see the third letter shows "v".

Which adapter would be most compatible for this particular model? I thought about CF too as a possibility, perhaps 16gb or 32gb.

ADOR, is this the CF adapter you have?

 

I have an old CF-41 whose battery management has decided the battery is bad, and has turned it ‘off’, so no matter what I hook to the management board, no power comes through. I am still waiting for somebody to come up with a good way to reset them without having to spend over $150 on some unheard of software from a questionable website.

Shawn I read your post about the battery replacement attempt. Just wondering if you ever tried ScubaStan's solution for the battery chip gone bad

Try jumping the positive pack voltage to the computer-side positive voltage input. This should ‘Jump-start’ the battery management circuit and get power flowing. That’s what I had to do when I re-celled my CF-M34 pack.

 

I never tried that and personally I never would.
Litium Ion batteries are explosive and jumping out the safety features is dangerous in my opinion.

My life is worth more than a $100 battery.

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes you're correct Shawn I don't think the mod is worth the risk if this particular solution cannot be safely confirmed.

I would still be interested if there is anyone else who has experience with this mod please feel free to chime in. Since this is obsolete hardware there are possibly other m34 users who are also looking for a budgetable solution to replace the battery and keep its portable convenience.

 

The best solution is to do a dump of the firmware on the battery controller chip.
Figure out how to reset it.

 

No, that isn't the adapter I used, I haven't used that exact style. Let me dig up a few pictures of the adapters I have tried.

 

hmmm ...
along with a dump of the firmware , there might be a little "back engineering" in order .
i do not have an M34 battery on hand but i do have one for a CF-C1 and a couple of batteries for a '19 and a '31/32 .

messing about with any rechargeable cell/battery controller circuit/system is fraught with hazards .
i do not recommend nor endorse "bypassing" any of the safety devices/circuitry .
also , this is not an area for those of limited knowledge to venture into .
i have been at electrical and electronic repair and engineering for a whole lot of years and have seen what happens when someone is not aware of the *fine points* .
let me address the *supposed* fix for the M34 battery that involves a momentary jumper ...
the addition of a simple series resistor of about (say) 33 to 330 ohms would have provided a degree of safety when exploring the "unknown" ... even a 500mA fuse would have helped .
it is better to destroy a resistor or pop a fuse than let the magic smoke out of something .

 

Lady came to me with a new kindle, battery was swelled up. After talking to me and a youtube video she took it home, put it in a metal bucket and left it outside until Amazon sent her a return box with hazmat sticker. Having that battery blow off in my face just doesn't sound like much fun.

 

this seems rather apropos :


/me starts to saw open a battery pack .

 

Was bucket full of water? was laptop ON when it was dropped in bucket?
Bonus points for the video of the magic smoke coming out.

 

Nah, just told her to make sure it was outside so if the battery blew it didn't burn the house down. Bucket was recommended just in case as it was swelled up so bad it was breaking the case. Amazon sent her a new $400+ top of the line Kindle for free and a letter of apology, that's how it should be done.

 

heh ...
i like the reactions of some people .
all the way from "doe in the headlights" to screaming and jumping around .
and ... i hate to tell the guy with the powder/drychem fire extinguisher that he is performing an exercise in futility .
the best thing in his case would be to leave it alone or throw something non-flammable on top of the comp to prevent the spread of secondary fires and wait until the action ceases ...
then get the laptop into a sink , bathtub or outside (gloved hands) and get after the couch or where ever it was sitting with the extinguisher .

these types of fires are difficult to extinguish or (ahem) "control" .

 

Sounds great, what is your current setup?