Newby CF 28 question

Hi all, great forum! I just got my "new" CF28 off epay and all seems good. I have one question, it came with a CD drive that works fine but also had a CDrw/d drive that when inserted the laptop won't boot up it goes to the setup/ boot screen. Is this a driver issue or do I need to change something in setup? I tried to search for this issue but only found mods to a DVD rw hack. I only want to load programs I have on DVDs I have other DVD burners. Any help is appreciated, Thank you, Fred

 

All you need to do is go into the bios and change the boot order so that the computer will boot the harddrive first. Or press the escape button as the computer is booting, this will take you to a screen where you can change the boot order.

Welcome to the forum.

 

Fred -

I'd suspect someone tried to upgrade their cdrom but didn't know how to hack the cdrom caddy for use with generic cdrom drives. This creates a conflict with the Hard drive which causes the failed boot.

Do the dvdrw hack; it should fix your problem. Of course, if you don't have a dvd drive in the caddy, it' not going to read dvds.

Mnem
Bibble!!!

 

Thank you for the replies, I did the change in setup, it now reads: 1) hard drive 2) CD drive; 3) floppy
I saved changes (F10) and it is still the same problem, goes right to setup.
The CDRW/D drive is a Panasonic # CF-VCD271
It says "DVD ROM & Compact disc rewritable" on the door.
Does the computer have to have CD burn/ DVD run software installed first? or will windows media player work?
Thank you, Fred
ps when I look at the DVD hack thread there are no pictures only a red X and will not show any images.

 

Fred -

The Panasonic # CF-VCD271 label you see is on the CADDY; the drive inside is most likely NOT Panasonic. This is what causes the conflict. Sorry I couldn't copy the link for you earlier; I was posting from my iPhone.

Go here:

http://www.toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads/HDD & CDD swap/CF-28 CD to DVD Swap.htm

To READ From the drive, you do NOT need any special software. To write to it, you'll need to install an ASPI driver (to write from within Windows) and/or a disc authoring program like Nero or Roxio. To play DVDs, you'll need a DVD player program or DVD CODEC for Media Player (it WILL NOT play DVDs without a DVD CODEC, which is usually only easily available with a player like WinDVD or PowerDVD).

mnem<~~~ Well-paid DVD Feeder ~~~<<<

 

To boot from your drive, as mnementh has pointed out you will need to modify the drive
I have done the mod dozens of times

Alex

 

That did the trick! It works normally now.
This is a great resource!
Many thanks to everyone
Fred

 

You're welcome!

Glad we could help!

mnem
Why is my son bouncing up & down like a Jack Russell terrier?

 

This is the same thing that happened to a service customer on his CF-28 I now have in the shop. He bought it off ebay 2+ years ago and thought he bought it from me. I told him I didn't recognize his name but he insisted that he bought from me. Well... The CF-28 showed up. His tech told him that it had a bad motherboard as he kept getting a "Disk error" I figured it was a bad drive. It was... I am reloading XP on it now.

The original seller tried to copy my/our mods and did a VERY poor job of it. Mis-matched screws, missing screws, the wrong hard drive caddy, the DVD caddy hadn't been modded (like Fred's wasn't!), etc... Of course it was painted (the guy didn't mention that) and it looks REALLY bad now as the paint is spraycan quality and there are scratches everywhere on top. The thing is... The rest of it looks almost brand new and they screwed it up by painting it!

I am in the middle of fixing everything now.

 

Hi Rick. Your drive mod is excellent. Thank you. Will other drives work in this mod, or just Optiarc AD-5540A? Regards, Voytek.

 

Any non-panasonic DVD drive should work fine. (Certain Panny drives do not require the mod... They are plug and play!) I just used the Sony as it was the nicest one for a good price. I've also used Samsung and NEC... And I have 25-30 more to mod in the next month or so.... Good thing they don't take long to mod!