CF30 BIOS & Problems

Hello, I am new to the forums Searched the post and could not find any problems similar to mine..

I got this from my dad originally it was used in his work truck untill he lost the bios password and could not find a single local laptop repair place that would even touch it for under $500 long story short he got a new one and now its my time to play with this thing.

I was able to remove the bios password using ************ in the process once the password was removed, the internal sata controler stopped recognizing the hard drive in the bios I have tested the hard disk itself and it works I also bought a replacement which I am using (Externally USB Booted XP on the toughbook) then once all was removed and I got a drive working externally (without pagefile) I am able to set multiple bios passwords!!! I have 2 different passwords that work when I turn on the laptop and prompted for the bios password which I have no clue what happend there but I have not tried to change (+add) another password to see what it does

I would like to find a BIOS update for Vista/Win7 and hopefully it might help me solve my BIOS issues and I might just have a working hdd agian?!

I have a
Panasonic Toughbook: CF-30CAQABBM (According to BIOS)
CF-30CTQAZBX (Hard drive Caddy)
Phoenix Bios: 1.00 L14
Phoenix EC: 1.00 L16

Doing Research I have Found these BIOS files but the model numbers on the site do not match what I have and I don't feel like nuking this and crippling it anymore then it already is


Model Number(s): CF30CTQAZBM, CF30CTQAZLM cf30c_mk1_ec_v110l10_4vista-m-2007-0048-binary.zip (147466 Bytes, English)
Operating System(s): BIOS
Release Date: 2008/2/8 Version: V110L10
VISTA specific EC for CF30 mk1 computers.
REQUIRES VISTA SPECIFIC BIOS ALSO (V101L19)
CF30 mk1's were shipped with XP and XP specific BIOS and EC (V1.00Lxx). These must be changed for Vista to work properly.

Model Number(s): CF30CTQAZBM, CF30CTQAZLM cf30c_mk1_bios_v101l19_4vista_r-2007-0128-binary.zip (705135 Bytes, English)
Operating System(s): BIOS
Release Date: 2008/2/8 Version: V101L19
VISTA specific BIOS for CF30 mk1 computers.
REQUIRES VISTA SPECIFIC EC (V110L10) CHANGE ALSO
CF30 mk1's were shipped with XP and XP specific BIOS and EC (V1.00Lxx). These must be changed for Vista to work properly.

Any Help or Suggestions?!
Thanks in advance

 

Actually the model numbers do NOT have to match exactly. What you have to worry about the the MK of the one you have. In this case, you have a MK 1 based on the first letter after 30 (CF-30C.....). If you are running Vista, you can use the first one you listed. If running XP, find the BIOS for XP and use that one. Thinking on it a bit, you may not have to upgrade the BIOS at all. When you go into BIOS, check to see if the HDD is shown on the Information page. If not, you have other problems.

 

Thanks for the info, I am hoping to move to vista once I get this HDD problem solved, I am on XP currently....

I have taken this laptop to serveral repair shops and with my tech background as well I have tested all I can with what I know and have had no luck I have confirmed from shops and my experance that the controler itself tells me its good there are no problems with it, I have swaped the hdd to one I knew worked still failed the only other thing I can think is the ribbon cable attached to the hdd tray has gone bad but one of the local shops says they had tested the cable to find nothing was wrong

When I enter the BIOS or Windows it never shows the HDD
Hardware "says" its fine, I hope to perform this BIOS upgrade and hopefully this will help solve my issue.

If you have any suggestions I am welcome to try anything you have

P.S any recommended flashing tool for this bios I should use with care?

 

gothsm.... Welcome to the forum... A word of warning... I needed to alter your first post as we DO NOT discuss how to bypass BIOS passwords on this forum. Your software may have damged the BIOS and rendered the machine unusable at this point. I hope that is not the case.

However... If you read the stickies at the top of the forum you will find the only trusted Panasonic links to drivers. You may need/want to register with them to get full access to all drivers and BIOS upgrades.

The BIOS flash is easy enough. Download the proper file and follow the PDF directions for your model. Then go back in and set time and date and you should be good to go.

Without recovery disks you would need any XP Pro installation disk and the COA from the bottom of your laptop. (If you intend to reinstall your stock OS) You would then need to download all the proper drivers in their proper way. Panasonic drivers are not all sef installing drivers so you will need to use Devce Manager to update the driver and point it to where you unpacked it.

If you have recovery disks then it is a 25 minute installation and then running all the updates.

If you have other questions... Let us know....

 

There is some information about the sata controller on panasonic's web sight. I read somthing about having to load a sata driver on the CF-30 MK1. I dismissed it as I was not having trouble loading windows. If you can't find it let me know and I will look it up and post. It's in the download section on there site.



TB2010

 

np with the edits,

Those discriptions are from the panasonic.ca site and are legit but it does not give me an idea as to a flashing tool and I have not check the bios to see if it gave me an upgrade option or not, I have flashed most of my bios updates with tools provided with them normally on a utility download or with the bios itself from the manufacture

 

The xp to vista upgrade or down grade is made to run from windows. If you can't get your computer runing I'm not sure you can upgrade. You can update the bios version with the floppy disk. get the pdf and go to reading. I Have not done it this way on a panasonic toughbooks but I'm sure there is lots of people here that has.

Look in robs downloads under Darrin Gartrell. The bios your looking for is there.

They run in windows just read the pdf

TB2010