CF-W2 DVD-RW replacement, now won't boot

Hi,

New toughbook owner here (girlfriend had a CF-R1 for a few years, decided to go Toughbook semi-rugged), and I love these laptops, but.......

I recently bought two CF-W2 Toughbooks (semi-rugged, Pentium M ULV, Intel 855 Chipset, 256mb ram, 40gb 3.3v hd, 12.1" lcd, DVD/CD-RW, Intel 2100B 802.11b wifi), one with working DVD drive, one without, and one of them the M key on the keyboard was loose.

Then a little later, I started getting major HD problems on the one with the working DVD drive; http://www.cyberpunklove.com/articles/38/harddrive-problems-with-the-panasonic-toughbook-cf-w2 documented here... So figured I would switch HD's or something...

I refixing the M-key (which required removal of the keyboard, someone assembling this had gotten the long and short screws on the under-side mixed up).

I wanted to switch the HD drives, so the one with the chassis in nicer condition would have a working one.

So, while trying to do this, I realised I was dealing with stripped screws as my Philips #0 didn't work, and neither did 3 other Phillips #0's.

So, I went to a friend of mine and he drilled the stripped screws and I disassembled and re-assembled with switched drives.

I realised during disassembly that you have to be REALLY careful with regards to the little switches next to the DVD drive (power and open drive).

Unfortunately, now, neither of them boot, and the one that I want to get working, sometimes the charge light glows when I have the adaptor in, and sometimes all 4 frontal LED's glow.

I haven't been able to find a service manual or updated BIOS for these laptops, and would love to find one or the other, and also get some help with this problem, ie suggestions, etc.

Tomorrow a computer repair guy is having a look at it on a don't fix it, I don't pay basis, so that might help.

So in summary, CF-W2 appears to be dead, any suggestions on how to make this computer work again?

 

My guess is that in switching the drives, you got the ide connector misaligned try removing the drive and see if it will power up normally, then reinstall the drive and carefully orienting the pins.

 

hi tough-2-go, thanks but I tried booting it without a drive and didn't have any luck.

I will try more thoroughly next time and maybe take some photos.

The other side of the connector is really difficult to get to, as it is between the centrino logoish area and the motherboard (it's the bottom that lifts off really cleanly to give you access), so I can't quite check that without further knowhow or a service manual.

I have a friend who is really good at fixing these sorts of things, unfort we're now in different countries and he suggested binning it, but I really do want to recover the laptop if I can