CF28M P3 600E Posts, but hangs when installing any Windows variant

I just received a toughbook CF28mbfabem notebook from ebay today. Came with a windows 98SE COA. 20 GB hd, 384mb, Ex RIM owned machine. On ebay they showed it with a fresh windows XP install. I received it with a wiped hard drive... So far I can only get it to work with a boot disk. I've done a win95 install all the way through to win xp sp3... it installs to the point of the first reboot after copying the various files to the hard drive. After that, it just sits. I've swapped the drive with 3 other known good drives, same thing. If I remove the hard drive, the computer boots up then says can't find operating system. I can get it to boot up off of a floppy or cd boot disk to msdos, but that is it. Do I specifically need the OEM recovery discs? Or is there something else I'm missing.

 

Just a thought but have you got a USB drive plugged into it when you do this? I found that my CF-27s won't boot if they have a Kingston 4GB Flash Drive still stuck in them. I have no idea why either.

Also reset your BIOS to the factory defaults. I'm struggling with a CF-27 right now and these things work for me.

 

No usb drive plugged in. Gone as far as removing the installed extra ram and still the same.

 

I've also set the bios to default

 

Might consider sending it back and asking the seller to configure it as advertised.

 

I have installed W98 and XP on the CF28MK1 ,none have been restored using the restore disks ,they have been loaded with w98se and xp disks
Make sure the hard drive caddy connecter (with the rubber tab)is pushed in firmly to the cf28 m/b
If thats OK I suspect a hard drive issue

 

We've actually had this happen before but it never got resolved:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/423260-how-get-floppy-drive-cf-27-parallel-cable.html

 

I've swapped in four different drives. 2 I know did work (a fujitsu MHF2043AT from an old p2 200 I used for automobile diagnostics - RIP; a Toshiba MK4025GAS from my daughter's laptop when she upgraded).
I used a MSDOS 6.22 boot disk in the cd rom to boot.

This is my config.sys file:
DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS /testmem : off
FILES=30
BUFFERS=20

DEVICE=cd1.SYS /D:banana

LASTDRIVE=Z

This is my autoexec.bat file:
@echo off

MSCDEX.EXE /D:banana /L:R

When I use fdisk, I get 1 partition Status A Type HPFS Mbytes 1906 System 9 Usage 100

None of the Hard drives show up in Fdisk at all.

If I use the Windows Recovery console then Fdisk, It sees whatever drive was installed. I've type fdisk /mbr in the recovery console to see if it will repair the MBR. It says it's corrected, I reboot... no hard drive...

 

Sounds to me like a fault in your partition table; probably has another partition that's set to active/boot competing with the one you're trying to install to. Try running FDISK from your bootdisk and nuke the partition table/create a new one. Use FAT32 NOT NTFS; NTFS often causes problems with hanging during install on older BIOS. you can convert to NTFS once the OS is on the drive if you install XP.

The other thing you want to verify is that there aren't any jumpers installed on the HDD itself; they could be setting it to slave. Check in the BIOS to see what your HDD is identified as.

mnem
Welcome to the Nuthouse!

 

So your saying use the windows recovery console to access FDISK and then format the drive in FAT32? Then reinstall windows using the existing drive structure when asked to do so? As for jumpers on the drive, it has a cluster of 4 ( :: ), space, then a group of 43 ( :::::::::.:::::::::::: ). I don't see a jumper anywhere.

When the system posts, I get Fixed disk 0:IC25N020ATMR04-0; Atapi cdrom: CD-224E. Bios lists the 20gb hd as primary master, secondary master is the cd rom

 

After formating in FAT32, I then proceed to fixmbr; \Device\Harddisk0\Partition0. Thinking good to go... Type Map; C: fat32 19069mb \device\harddisk0\partition1. Type Fixboot, can't find the system drive or drive not valid. Is fix boot saying this because it is looking for the NTloader that gets installed in windows? Or do I still have a problem?

 

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

I had the same problem with a Mk2 CF-28 turned out is was a stick of bad ram. Try doing MEMTEST and see what it says.

 

Okaoy...

Everything sounds right in the BIOS... have you tried removing the RAM module? It's possible you have a fault in your RAM...

Just run Windows setup to the point where it asks if you want to delete the current partition; say yes, and tell it to format as FAT32. DO NOT do a quick format, do a FULL FORMAT. You want to know about it if there is a fault in the HDD, and formatting will usually find it. If it completes without error, continue with the install.

Do you have a Floopy drive for your ToughBook? You can do it all a lot quicker from a Win98/WinXP Setup disk; you can also create a bootable MEMTEST86 disk and use that to validate all your RAM.

mnem
My best educated guess...

 

So I literally spent ALL night trying to sort out the drive issue. I used UBCD V5.03 to check the MBR and Drive info as well as to format the drive. Was able to finally when I woke up this morning, see that windows had started to install. Went through the adjusting your computer settings, etc... Then it reboot after finalizing configuration... Been sitting with a black screen after it reboot.

Is it possible the cable for the caddy itself is bad? If the harddrive ias completely removed and I boot from a CD or floppy, it takes under 30seconds to get to Dos. If the hard drive is installed it takes almost 5 minutes in boot to DOS... I'm at my wits end...About ready to toss this $100 Piece of S@#$ out the window...

 

Sounds like a possible damaged ribbon cable; take the cable out of the HDD caddy and inspect it under a magnifying glass. You've been handling this thing a lot and those ribbons are pretty fragile; I'd bet a dollar you'll find a broken solder joint or torn trace on the ribbon itself.

mnem
Life is messy. Bring a sponge.

 

I finally managed to speak to the ebay seller about the problems I've been having with the laptop. Based on info I provided as well as citing info from here, he has agreed to ship me a new drive caddy.

I also took a much closer look at the ribbon cable, several sections have a "different tint" to the tracks... The traces I perceive as being good all have a uniform "rust-brown" appearance on a light brown background. A few traces along the curve of the cable down toward the motherboard had a brighter almost gold appearance...signs of coming through the plastic and exposing the actual gold/copper wire?

 

Hard to judge just from your description; damaged traces are usually pretty obvious physical damage once you find them. The problem is finding the damage because it can be very small, sometimes even just a nick in the right place can ruin a ribbon.

mnem <~~~Ribboned for her pleasure~~~<<<

 

I might also suggest installing the OS onto the hard drive from a different machine, or from a HD caddy, then reinsert into the laptop and see if it works.

 

please if you can run a Memory Test as Alot of Failed Attempts to Install an OS can Hang or Fail Due to a Memory Issues.

 

How long am I suppose to let it run? I ran it for 6hrs last week and it said my ram checked out fine

 

That should be more than sufficient. Have you tried installing the OS onto the drive outside of the laptop and then putting it back in with the OS already installed? This could help rule out caddy issues, caddy connectors, caddy cables...

 

The fact that you've tried several drives and still have the same behavior, as well as the fact that having the HDD installed interferes with boot from floppy drive indicates a failure somewhere in the IDE controller subsystem; I'm still betting on that ribbon cable.

Have you got another caddy or can you get another caddy to try?

mnem
Caddzilla. Rarr.

 

I swapped an 80 gig from another non toughbook panasonic laptop... Only has Windows XP installed into my CF28... Same thing. Waiting on the replacement caddy to come from New York state... USPS regular mail...

 

So I'm happy to say, that I received my caddy today. Currently in the middle of installing a slipstreamed XP SP3 setup. After that I'll install my automotive diagnostic software and then on to GPS mods. I've already complete the wifi mods, other than an antenna that is enroute. I want to thank everyone for all of your input and patience.