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    Newbie CF_28 hardware question

    Discussion in 'Panasonic' started by brisk13026, Oct 5, 2008.

  1. brisk13026

    brisk13026 Newbie

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    Hi all, new to the world of toughbooks, just bought a CF-28 and CF-29. With the help from all of you in this fourm, I sucessfully upgraded the 29 to a Western Digital 160GB/5400 rpm HD (couldnt find a 7200rpm locally, the 5400 was on sale for $90.00 and didnt want to wait for one from a internet vendor), Intel 2200 801a/b/g wi fi card, and 1GB stick of extra RAM in the slot.
    Here is where the fustration begins...on the CF-28 (CF-28STBGCDM), it currenty has a 60GB HD and 512K RAM. When I received it the OEM modem and ethernet cards worked fine. I reformatted the HD and loaded XP Pro. I changed out the mini PCI's to a 3Com combo card (3CN3AC1556B) and the intel 2100 wifi that came from the 29. Now I cant get the 28 to even recognize the new hardware, even as a unknown device. The current BIOS version is V3.00L12C. Do I need to update the BIOS? Also isn't there a BIOS update involved to allow a increase of the RAM to 768 total? Any suggestions?

    BH
     
    brisk13026, Oct 5, 2008
    #1
  2. gray-beard

    gray-beard Notebook Evangelist

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    Did you download and install the chipset driver, and the lan and modem driver?
    I installed 512 in my mk2 and it works fine.
    512 should work with no problems on your mk3.
    Just make sure you get the right 512 for the Toughbooks.
    Leave the bios as it is.

    Bob
     
    gray-beard, Oct 5, 2008
    #2
  3. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    Bios is current
    Look in bios to see if the add-on cards are listed, and make sure you enable them.
    If you still can't see them in device manager try swapping the positions in the mini-pci slots, and remove 1 at a time to troubleshoot.
    As for the 512 ram look in the other posts here, as there has been a lot of discusion on these fussy models.

    Alex
     
    Alex, Oct 5, 2008
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  4. brisk13026

    brisk13026 Newbie

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    yep, all the drivers I could get my hands on are loaded (incl. chipset, modem and lan), still no success. Is it possible because I reloaded xp from a disc borrowed from a dell desktop, that the generic drivers for the mini pci slots were not included in the original install? or does this not matter? I'm still mystified, I never run into this particular problem before. Also on the ram, I've read the various posts, and was hoping to use any stick as long as it had 4 chips per side, good thing I didnt spend any considerable amount of money on that stick I have.
     
    brisk13026, Oct 6, 2008
    #4