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    CF28M craps out upon startup

    Discussion in 'Panasonic' started by Psych0Thrasher, Apr 6, 2009.

  1. Psych0Thrasher

    Psych0Thrasher Notebook Evangelist

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    So this little guy is bugging me. I don't necessarily need this guy to work but it just bugs me that I don't know what it's doing. So I start it up and it goes through the bios boot and I press Esc to boot it from the disk (so I can put an OS on it) it does the press any key to boot from CD and goes into the OS set up then the screen turns off like it's going into standby mode and never comes back. It seems to still be running because the little hard drive led still lights up when i press a key but the screen never comes back. Battery is bad but I have it plugged into the wall. Plug isn't bad because I plugged an exact model computer into the same adapter and it works fine. Anyone got a clue whats going on?
     
    Psych0Thrasher, Apr 6, 2009
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  2. Toughbook

    Toughbook Drop and Give Me 20!

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    It sounds like your hard drive connector isn't seated correctly or you have a bad hard drive...
     
    Toughbook, Apr 6, 2009
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  3. Psych0Thrasher

    Psych0Thrasher Notebook Evangelist

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    well i got the computer from San Antonio police department and it still booted with their operating system on it, which makes me nervous because these drives are supposed to be wiped due to the sensitive material on them. anyway back to the problem, it boots with the OS that's already on it but when I try to boot it to get a clean installation it just gets to the blue install screen then the screen turns off. very confusing
     
    Psych0Thrasher, Apr 6, 2009
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  4. mnementh

    mnementh Crusty Ol' TinkerDwagon

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    Try booting from floppy & do an FDISK on your HD; there may be something security related in the MBR.

    mnem
    Floopy doopy!
     
    mnementh, Apr 6, 2009
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  5. Psych0Thrasher

    Psych0Thrasher Notebook Evangelist

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    ok just so everyone knows I didn't have my coffee this morning so i missed something dumb and simple. in the bios it was set to boot on an external monitor. a simple change and now it works fine... I feel like a tard. lol
     
    Psych0Thrasher, Apr 6, 2009
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  6. mnementh

    mnementh Crusty Ol' TinkerDwagon

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    Ahhh... so the laptop wasn't dying, just not sending video?

    You musta caught some of whatever's wrong with me...

    mnem
    Been dere, dunnat; burned the shirt.
     
    mnementh, Apr 6, 2009
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  7. Doobi

    Doobi ToughBook DeityInTraining

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    I think it may be set to boot to external video on startup in the BIOS. You might want to check that.


    Just didn't want you to be the only one to miss the obvious! hehe
     
    Doobi, Apr 6, 2009
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  8. Toughbook

    Toughbook Drop and Give Me 20!

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    It still shouldn't matter. All the CF-28s that I ever had that were set to external monitor still booted up fine with the stock LCD... Just like it knew that no monitor was attached.

    I may have to try that again tomorrow just to check again...
     
    Toughbook, Apr 6, 2009
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  9. Psych0Thrasher

    Psych0Thrasher Notebook Evangelist

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    now that you bring that up sir. i'm gonna check it out here in a bit to see if i was being a dumb@$$ or there was a legitimate problem that just isn't rearing its ugly head anymore
     
    Psych0Thrasher, Apr 7, 2009
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  10. capt.dogfish

    capt.dogfish The Curmudgeon

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    I have looked like a hero more than once by reaching over and hitting >CTRL-F3 a couple of times when someone on the dredge thought the display had gone down. I always try that first.
    CAP
     
    capt.dogfish, Apr 7, 2009
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  11. Connor922

    Connor922 Notebook Evangelist

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    I confirm this too no matter what is was set to it usually booted to the internal LCD if there was no monitor attached on all my 28s
     
    Connor922, Apr 8, 2009
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  12. Psych0Thrasher

    Psych0Thrasher Notebook Evangelist

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    well upon resetting these computers completely BIOS and all, the BIOS has the default setting at External Monitor and most of them would switch over after the screen flickers black a few times but I guess this one just didn't want to. But I haven't had any problems with this one since I suppose this one just wanted more attention than it's brothers.
     
    Psych0Thrasher, Apr 8, 2009
    #12