Driver Issues CF-29

I have had several toughbooks and installed lots of drivers but this one is for the books.
I just bought a cf29 1.3 ghz cf-29ctjgzkm none of the 29 series drivers work at all it says not for this machine....
well I tried all the 30 series then all of the 28 series and guess what... the 28p series drivers all worked save the touch screen.

What sort of wild animal do I have here. What could possibly be going on?? Could this be some sort of hybred??

Help!!!
Here is the belarc printout
Operating System System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States) Matsua Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd. 001
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1.30 gigahertz Intel Pentium M
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Not hyper-threaded Board: Matsua Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd. CF29-2 001
Bus Clock: 400 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies K.K. V2.00L17 10/06/2005
Drives Memory Modules c,d
64.09 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
55.95 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TS64GSSD25-M [Hard drive] (64.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 002455390509, rev V1210, SMART Status: Healthy 1272 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'Onboard' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM' has 1024 MB
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 10.49 GB 2.48 GB free
e: (NTFS on drive 0) 53.60 GB 53.47 GB free

Network Drives
None detected
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
local user accounts last logon
chris 7/26/2009 6:41:11 PM (admin)
local system accounts
Administrator never (admin)
Guest never
HelpAssistant never
SUPPORT_388945a0 never


Marks a disabled account; Marks a locked account None detected
Controllers Display
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller [Display adapter] (2x)
Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) [Monitor]
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) or Compatible CardBus Controller (2x)
Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (2x) Multimedia Audio Controller
Virus Protection [Back to Top] new Group Policies
No details available None discovered
Communications Other Devices

Atheros Wireless Network Adapter
primary Auto IP Address: 192.168.0.194 / 24
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Dhcp Server: 192.168.0.1
Physical Address: 00:02:8A:AB:83:AC
Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
Dhcp Server: 192.168.0.1
Physical Address: 00:0B:97:51 1:5E

Networking Dns Server: 192.168.0.1
Microsoft AC Adapter
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery (2x)
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Unknown Device
USB Root Hub (2x)

 

Based on your model no. it is not a 1.3ghz. It is an Mk1 series a 1.2 ghz. To make sure you have the right model, boot to bios at the start up. At the very first page the model no. is listed at the top followed by serial no. Pls confirm the right model no. and go back here for any Q?

ohlip

 

That is strange as well. Yesterday I read a post someone had to find out just what toughbook they had and I tried that very suggestion.

There is only the bios version listed. There is no serial number or model numbers.

The bios is the next thing I will check against other models.

So what are the chances that my cf-29 has the cf28p chipset with a 1.3ghz centrino. Million to one? Then there is the buss speed of 400mhz and the 2700 1gb memory. I wonder if they make a ddr 2gb memory on a single card? That may be what is going on here. If so I might be able to help others with my altered bios? What else could it be??

The touchscreen driver for either models doesnt work but it does show up in the bios screen. Wow what a puzzle!

It is possible someone altered the bios, but to what end?

This has puzzled the panasonic folks as well!

Is this unheard of or what? Perhaps this is a long lost prototype?

I also noticed that it had two processor looking chips with the lower heatsink attached to both is this normal for the cf-29?

We'll keep plugging and get this figgured out.

If anyone wants pictures just let me know and I'll post them.

 

Please use this thread to respond or post issues... I deleted the other duplicate posts as they are too hard for others to follow if they are looking for the same answers as you.

Teo is right... You have a 1.2GHz... Not a 1.3GHz... You had the wrong drivers.

There is probably more than a million to one chance that someone altered the BIOS. But you can reflash it usually if you have any doubt. If the BIOS had been changed... It most likely wouldn't even boot.

No offense but there is more likely a human error here.

Please read all the stickies at the top of the forum. They will give you all the links you need to ensure that you have the correct drivers from the correct places. There are only a few places on the web, other than Panasonic's sites, where you can get the correct drivers. So... Use the links provided.

You do not have a CF-28 chipset in your CF-29... You RAM on the CF-29 is limited by the manufacturer... You have a base of 256MB and can add another 1028MB or a 1GB stick of DDR... NOT DDR2.

 

Just post the pics.

Regardless, I highly doubt it's any kind of special prototype.

It sounds like it's been "messed with" prior to you getting it.

 

Well I took the bottom off the CF-29 and the processor IS 1300 MHZ for sure.
No doubt. The case may be from another cf-29CTK. The bios nomenclature found both in the bios window and on belarc suggests a CF-29E mark II. The unit came bare bones and having some intermittent power issues now getting better. So there wasn't any drivers to start with only bios. If the wrong bios simply would NOT work, except to reduce it to a paper weight, then the bios must be correct for this unit to even work correct? Then by deduction the V2.00L17 bios is only for CF-29E then since my unit is using this bios my unit must be a CF-29E not c. But then if this is true why does it only download and use the CF-28P drivers, and it does have problems with the CF-28p inf chipset driver.
something has been messed with but the bios driver is original at least in name and date. Next thing for me to look at... Does anyone know the size file on their CF-29E bios I am hoping next to copy mine and compare sizes with a V2.00L17 bios off another CF-29E. I will get some pictures of my computers do I just paste them in this message box?

 

Your BIOS number came out on 10/11/2005 and is the latest available. The only way you can really screw up a BIOS flash is if you disconnect the power during a reflash. If it boots to the BIOS then I doubt someone screwed it up.

You say there is NO serial number in the BIOS?

You say there is NO model number in the BIOS?

To post you will need a storage site to host the pictures and then post the link with the "Insert Image" button.

I would not try any more CF-28 drivers... You may do more damage than good. They are not supposed to be installed on the CF-29. They may work partially... But then so does a round peg in a square hole... If you push it hard enough. That doesn't mean that you should.

 

None of the machine bios's will start running to a floppy.
I wanted to flash the bios again. The laptop works fine. I'm typing on it now. I just wanted everything to work as intended. I was going to flash the bios that the laptop has now but it won't even look at it. How very strange.

 

I have alot of experience with the CF-29E as everyone here knows of all the struggles I have had with them. The ones I have are "custom" ordered for a police department so I cannot use recovery discs (which is very lame) I have to go into them and manually put on all the drivers and software. About half of them will not the BIOS flash.

Anyway what I'm getting at here is that you may have a custom ordered or even altered unit. So keep trying the mk2 drivers and even some of the mk3 drivers may work to (my modem driver was MK3). Keep us informed and we'll keep trying to help you

 

Dumb question.... Have you tried changing the boot order?

Do you have a User's Manual?

 

I say post the pics. Let us take a look at what you are seeing.

 

I now have noticed that the computer beeps when I turn it off but it has no sound music at startup at all. The troubleshooting guide says that it is not configured correctly but I can never get to a point where the driver and the device are active togeather. When it automatically selects the realtek 97' driver for install once it installs I get a blue screen and it reboots.
I think I might also have motherboard issues. I wrote panasonic for a bios update that will move past the current bios protection.

anyone interested in the pictures let me know and I will email them to you.

I will keep you all posted.

 

Oh how do I freeze a blue boot screen so I can read it?? It lasts for .25 seconds and reboots.

Thanx!

 

Well, you get a your audio does not work and you get a blue screen because that is not the correct audio driver. cf-29 mk1-mk5 use sigmatel drivers not realtek. Check the FAQ and read the part about the drivers again, I don't think you got the correct driver.

 

No offense... But we can help you a lot more if you would answer our questions in the first place instead of just posting more issues and not letting us know the answers so we can help. Otherwise you will just become discouraged and sell it or throw it away!

Now...

1. You mentioned that the BIOS was "protected"... Does this mean that it is asking you for a password that you do not have?

2. Do you have a User's Manual for thi laptop and have you read through it?

3. You said you can't get it to boot from the floppy... Is this because you cannot access the BIOS or because you haven't changed the boot order?

 

I don't have any idea what you are asking for here. No makey no sensey

 

1. You mentioned that the BIOS was "protected"... Does this mean that it is asking you for a password that you do not have?
***No password issues. The bios for any of the cf-29s will not load to a floppy, the puter says not for this machine. its like the puter will not accecpt a new bios.
2. Do you have a User's Manual for thi laptop and have you read through it?
**I have several that Ive gotten online and have read them through.

3. You said you can't get it to boot from the floppy... Is this because you cannot access the BIOS or because you haven't changed the boot order?
**I can acess the startup bios that is no problem. Simply none of the panasonic bios's for the cf-29 series will load to a floppy. I assume that is how we still do it anyway.

4 The realtekk software wont work on a sigmatel driver. none of the cf-29 drivers from any site will load. except cf28p. the blue screen was happening as a result of the conflict between software and hardware and it would have writing on it but only for a second and I wanted to read it. I will look for a sigmatel driver from sigmatel perhaps it will load.

__________________

 

You need a set of Recovery Disks and CD Rom... I can almost guarantee you that nothing is wrong with your laptop that can't be fixed with a few keystrokes at the correct time with the correct drivers. (Unless someone else has taken it apart and assembled it back incorrectly or hacked it together with incorrect parts.) Either way.... You shouldn't load drivers for the CF-28 onto the CF-29.

Have you read the stickies about how the drivers need to be installed? Not all of them are executable files... Some drivers must be installed via Device Manager...

Where did you get the info on your model number? From the bottom or BIOS? I thought you said something about the model and serial numbers not showing in the BIOS... Is that correct?

If you have installed the CF-28 chipset onto the CF-29... You will have to start over with a fresh reformat. This may be part of the problem.

We need to make sure EXACTLY what model number you have. This is the ONLY way to make sure you get working drivers and install them correctly. The bottom is the wrong place to look.... The BIOS is where you need to look.

 

I am sure you would be correct in most cases. I was using the panasonic website witn the login I think there is only one. I started trying to download any of the drivers for a cf-29 and my machine would accept none of it. I tried to download every single driver for every function and was met with driver not for this machine. I then out of desparation went first to the cf-30s then to cf-28's.
I started all of this with a new hard drive and a fresh install of XP.

The panasonic stuff didn't work at all. Possibly because I dont have a model number in my bios.

Well I solved all of my problems less one small one last night. The driver detective is a waste of money. If anyone wants my copy I will give it free.

The solution was at user-guides.co.uk It was a bit challenging to start up but this program I paid $17 US went through and removed ALL of the windows drivers and installed everything for me including the touchscreen with all of the origional drivers that the cf-29 needs.


Still had a sound issue however the disk I downloaded did have the correct driver for the sound I ended having to uncheck the " drivers that are compatible with this unit, and instead selected intel drivers - 82801ca/cam ac'97 audio controller and presto it all came to life.

The only problem that is new is when My puter sleeps it wont wake up the display at all. I can see the lcd with stuff on it but it wont light up.

Its okay because the hibernate works just fine and the Solid State Drive is pretty quick bringing everything up anyway.

The suggestion about the sigmatel chip helped the most. I stripped the puter down and found a sigmatel chip to confirm that was what I had and I was off and running.

The site at user-guides.co.uk might have driver systems for every computer known to man. It was incredible and again a bit user unfrendly but all the drivers worked.

Thank You guys for all of your help. It was sure nice having someone to bounce these things off of.

God Bless You All!

73's from Chris KD0EMI General

 

Chris,

Glad you got most of it sorted anyway.... Now that we know a little more... If you have NO model number and/or no serial number in the BIOS... Then something is major league WRONG. To my knowledge... This is not an accidental, "Oops... I messed up!" type thing that someone can do to their BIOS. The only thing I can think of short of someone who either works at Panasonic or is very knowledgeable is someone who may have been loading a BIOS update and interrupted it somewhere in the installation process. While normally I would think that this would turn your laptop into a brick... Perhaps it didn't in this case.

I think the reason that you can install the CF-28 is that the CF-28 drivers were not near as picky as the CF-29 drivers. There were only a few that addressed the BIOS to make sure you had the correct one. Which is a reason this forum took off so fast.... A lot of people were trying to get their CF-28s working and had a lot of driver issues.

I hope this helps...

Panasonic has the availability to change models numbers in the BIOS. I know that Heartland does this as well when they add new equipment to a Toughbook. They will update the BIOS to reflect equipment change and then add a new sticker over whatever prior one was already on the bottom. This way the model numbers on the bottom and tin the BIOS match.

Here's what I think is happening to you. When you install a driver or install the OS via Recovery Disks for that matter. The BIOS is addressed to ensure that you have the correct driver. When the driver or disk goes to instal...It looks to the BIOS to verify it as either the correct MK# or model number for the driver or equipment installed. If you try t install something wrong... You will get the dreaded, "This model not supported"

Now... Since you have no model number in your BIOS.... All drivers will be unsupported since there is no model number in the BIOS to verify.

So... Brick it? Stack it in the fireplace? Not so fast... I think you can still work around all of this... I have had to do this several times when the BIOS didn't match perfectly. All you need is a good unzipping utility like WinZip. I assume that you have all the correct drivers that you need. First... Set up a file on C: that looks like C;\Util. Then instead of trying to double clicking for the driver to go install itself.... Right click on it and tell it to unzip to the C:\Util directory. If you are loading the LAN driver... Make it unzip to C:\Util\LAN... Then you may or may not need to go into each folder to install it manually. If you do not see an EXE file in the folder then that usually means that the driver must be installed via Device Manager.

There are several files that are pretty much mandatory if you want to unlock everything within the Toughbook. Hotkeys, touchscreen, etc. There are others like the DMI viewer that are not needed but give you info about your Toughbook.

 

TB you should put that last part about unzipping the .exe file in the 29 FAQ drivers section.

 

My thought is that someone installed a non-panasonic bios that met all of the chip requirements. Thereby excluding themselves from panasonic drivers that are Panasonic-bios specific. That is most likley why I got the machine as parts off of ebay. Well except for sleep everything works.
Now once this is done you can't go back to the panasonic bios unless you have a disk that doesn't look for branding yet installs it. Yep you guessed it the guys that have that are the manufactures of toughbook...for this they recomend you send them $125 plus shipping. For $16 I took care of it at user-guides.co.uk Still cant download the panasonic drivers but who cares everythig works. Thanks GANG