Questions about upgrading CF-W5

Greetings to the Forum,

I just picked up a nice CF-W5 and am looking to put a WWAN card in it. I was hoping someone could tell me if I can upgrade this unit, and if so, what part numbers do I need to make it happen. Model # CF-W5MWUYZJM.

Is there a newer BIOS available? I have v3.50LII. I looked through the Panasonic site, but found none.

Last thing; where to buy quality (OEM?) batteries?

Thanks.

 

The card it should have is MC5720 or MC5725. There is also two dip switches under the lid where the WWAN card goes. Not sure of the right combo, I remember to get WWAN to show up in the bios I had to have one up and the other down.

Here are some good pictures, it's a W8 model though.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/561641-gobi-wwan-card-cf-w8.html
I see they list another card that works in this thread also.

Last few batteries I got was off ebay, they have been harder to get here lately.

 

Thanks for the reply ADOR.

I will give the other thread a read in the morning.

Were the batteries generic or NOS?

 

I would say OEM batteries. We all try to stay away from the cheap knock offs

 

They were used originals, still got over two hrs on them. I don't know if the W, T or Y models have a smart chip in the battery or not.


edit: I see on the bay right now under the search "cf-w5 battery" there are several to choose from, 20 bucks on up. It's in a mix of aftermarket batteries. Make sure you look at the stickers on them closely.

 

@toughasnails, ya, generic batteries tend to cause problems so I stay away from them.

I got what I think is a sweet deal on this W5. Paid $100 for it. Came with factory restore discs, manuals, everything but the original box. The unit is almost mint. A couple of scratches on the front edge and a bit of wear on the palm rest by the left touchpad button. The battery shows a little over 4 hrs run time. Have not done a battery calibration on it yet. Because it is such good shape and was cheap to buy, I don't mind spending some money on it.

I would like to put a WWAN card and an ssd in it, get a small Pelican case for it and carry it on my HD this summer.

One thing I forgot to ask about is maintenance and repair manuals. The Thinkpads have great manuals you can download from Lenovo site and I was hoping Panasonic had something similar for the Toughbooks. I would like to take it apart to clean it before it sees life on the road.

Thanks for the info guys. Off to read the Gobi link ADOR posted.

 

Sounds like a good deal on it. The only thing I don't like about them is the IDE interface on the hard drive. Also you can find some info here.

~Toughbook Talk~ Toughbook Discussion • View topic - TBT Business Class Machine Thread

This is also the last model that is fanless. The 7 and up series have a fan.

Windows 7 also works great on them too.

http://tim.id.au/laptops/panasonic/CF-W5LWEZZBM.pdf

 

Here is the link for other service manuals too... Future proof » Tim’s laptop service manuals

 

Service manual for CF-W5. Awesome. Thank you ADOR. Some good info in the first link also. Thanks.

Ya, I thought it was a good deal, that's why I bought it. There is a CF-30 for sale locally for $500 that is suppose to be mint I am thinking of checking out.

Yes, SATA would have been better than IDE but at least there are ssds available for them. 128GB will be more than enough space for me.

Ya, I knew the W5 was fanless. That is why I want to tear it down, clean it and refresh the TIM before putting it into daily service.

I might try a flavor of Linux on it but will probably upgrade to Win7. Have ran the adviser and it said all was good except to download the Win7 WiFi driver from the manufacturer before the upgrade. I want to try the upgrade, as compared to a clean install, so I can retain the Panasonic software. As it sits right now, it has been restored to original then all Win updates, so an upgrade should cause no problems.

 

@toughasnails, thanks for the link. Looks like lots of good info, and not just for Toughbooks. Excellent.

 

As you will find out the Toughbook service manuals don't really tell or show how to take it apart but if you know your way around a laptop it will be OK. It is good if you need to order parts because it does list most of them or I can get the ones it don't.

 

I took a quick look through the manual in the link posted by ADOR in post #7 of this thread. It seemed good. I am going to try and find the time to go through it this weekend.

At this point I think the only parts I will be needing in the near future will be those required to put a WWAN setup in the unit. There is no sim card slot in the lid, so maybe it might be quicker and easier to replace the whole LCD and lid assembly with one already setup for a WWAN card. Then all I would need to do is buy a card to put in it. Any idea if LCD/lid assemblies setup for WWAN are available new, or used?

 

Just remember these models have a LOT of different sized screws. I usually try to have a large area to put the screws on spaced out like they came out on it. Some of the older models are real pain splitting the case to swap out the hard drive. You don't have to split the case on these.

 

I can get them from Panasonic new BUT you will not like the price. Your best bet is to keep an eye on ebay for another W5 that has one installed.

 

Okay, thanks. I'll check out ebay.

 

Depending on what card you want, if you can't find anything let me know. I think I may have a Panasonic branded card or two lying around.

 

Thanks ADOR, I'll keep that in mind.

 

Three of the kids have Mk3 CF-74's with wwan, doubt it will ever get used. I think those cards are 5720, not sure who the supplier is.