burning smell from the underside of my CF-19

Does anyone ever experienced a burning smell from the underside of a Toughbook or more specific a CF-19?
It might have been working hard on a full scale virus scan & a indexing, but I never had this before.
Bit scary if you ask me? Any advice/help?
I'm going to backup everything just to be sure.

 

Check the battery to see if it is overheating,other than that pop the bottom cover off and take a look around.

 

Yes but on a CF-51, mine was the battery. It only had only 12% battery wear on it but it got so hot it was hard to hold it in your hand. Tried it in another 51 and the same think...it was toast. Could be your problem too.

 

pull the base and look for damage...You don't want things to get worse..

Verify that you are using a 16volt charger and not a 19 or 20 volt one by mistake......
Was it plugged in or battery only?

Original or aftermarket battery?
L-ion batteries are very dangerous if they overheat..
If you even a little bit suspect the battery..Throw it out and get a new one.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/lithium_ion_safety_concerns

 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!!

First of all I only use original stuff. Original charger, original batteries. Battery is bought new and from dec. 2013.

When the smell occurred, I was working on power, in a dock, with a battery in.
I first made backups like mad and then opening up the base, the smell was more faint and there was no evidence of any hotspots.

Next thing was to get copying a lot, full virus scan, together with the indexing service on full throttle. It got warm, even a bit hot but it didn't smell like it did before.
Only change I made was to do it without the dock, but with the power directly plugged in. No smell, no warm battery, nothing.

So this gets me to the next question: I've got a CF-VEB181 dock. They are not sold by Panasonic for the mk5, just for everything until mk4. Is there anybody that has an idea why this change has been made? It might be the dock that is going south? Or are 181's not compatible when you draw a lot of power? And should I buy a 191 version that is mk5 and up compatible? They are around €450 incl shipping around here, that's a lot of money!

 

email the dock maker and ask what the difference is??

 

It's from Panasonic and I never got a clear answer from neither dealer nor importer other than: "use the 191 with the mk5, Panny says so."

 

I think there is a shortage of power or a bad contact. Or both problems at once when it becomes hot.

GBP 59.99

 

GBP 59,99 is much better!!!

 

Check the unit docking connector(CF-19 unit). It may damaged or with a shorted pin during the undocking. It happened as I've seen it in a couple of unit. It is replaceable very easy. Just unscrew two screw at both end of the connector and then pry it up gently(assuming you already taken out the bottom cover).

ohlip

 

Check dock and 19 side, both looked pristine. But I more and more begin to suspect the dock, it might not be able to handle the power of SSD, processor, display & lighting combined with charging the battery at 20%.
One other small thing is that the second display on my dock is randomly not extending, but duplication when I do dock. I need to undock, dock again, undock, dock again before it registers as a second screen instead of a duplicate.
So I ordered the 191 dock in the UK and we'll see how it goes. I really hope my 19 is oke, as I just can't afford a mk7 right now.

 

ordered the new dock and it should be in tomorrow!

 

!@$#@^%#&$*&^*&%#^
I did buy the dock, said CF-VEB191 in the fleabay add, but what shows on my doorstep? A CF-VEB181!
aaaaaarch.
mailed to the seller.

EDIT: Seller only has 181's no 191's, so be aware if you're looking at these!!

 

I have a Ledco dock for a 19 but don't see any model number on it,big,heavy brute. I have no use for it if you are interested.


Oops,just noticed you are in the EU. Cost a fortune to send this beast over there.

 

thanks, it's a nice one! but I need one for a desktop, these are more for inside a car/ambulance/fire truck, I think?

 

Yes it is,got to be 10+ lbs of steel.

 

Is it very different from pannys own vehicle dock!? That's steel and heavy as well

 

check voltage/amps of the charger...we have had issues with these before.

 

did the voltage, nothing wrong. checking amps is less easy, but these are original chargers I have. That one is only 2 years old. (made in Japan btw )

I'm going to do a complete clean install, w7, office, adobe etc. etc.

 

Can you post a photo of the AC adapter label.

 

I've encountered this mostly with desktops but sometimes dust smells just like burning electronics.

 

Hope this is readable...

 

Very good adapter.
I think you have to disassemble your laptop and pull fried cockroaches out of there

 

I really do hope there are no cockraches in an IP65 laptop
But I did pull the bottom off, but no obvious signs of burning sensations...

I'm going to do a full restore this evening, just to be sure it's not software that is driving my 19 mad.
I did change a lot (finger print scanner, 4G LTE upgrade, and a lot of software that I installed/de-installed, just to look if I liked it or not).
Perhaps that will help.
We'll see and I'll let you know.

 

If there is no fried cockroach inside, you are late. His friends pulled him out before.
Operation "Save Private Ryan" )
I've seen some dead bugs in one of CF-18s Oh, CF-18 is IP54, not IP65. Bugs used those 11 (IP65 minus IP54) to come through ))

P.S. Maybe that smell was not from the laptop, but table or something like that.

 

Keep up the cockroach humor

But it was on a clean desk on a dock, so it wasn't even touching the desk, it was having enough space underneath.

 

Ok, desk was clean, but did you check your burger wasnt stuck between the laptop and dock ?

 

Hmmm, burger. That reminds me: I haven't had souper yet and it's almost 23h .... I'll be back in a bit!

 

Just a bit longer, but my 19 has a clean install and a few things are obvious from the start. First is that I've got my MC7305 working perfectly from minute one. I don't use the aircard program, but I just installed the drivers and changed APN login and password within windows. That works much better. Second thing is that I got a cold fix, indoors, within a minute (I didn't time it, but looked like in 30-45 seconds with 11 satellites. That is much better than before and also much much better the the Ericsson I had before. Warm fix indoors is within a few seconds.

One other thing I noticed is less lag in some programs. Perhaps a clean install a year/6 moths just keeps it better running?

 

Hope you talk about Windows 8
And, if you didn't format this SSD, use Paragon alignment tool.
I'm sure there is no need to reinstall new versions of Windows

 

Nah, i don't like w8, i still use 7.
But doing a full system scan with MS essentials turns the outside temperature up to 49,8C / 121,6F
Is that high or normal?

 

Not sure what's up with yours, but there is about to be a burning smell underneath 2 of my units.....From a bonfire .....
The past 2 days remind me why I am a hardware guy and not a software guy.

 

they are so obnoxious?
Temp is slowly going up a little bit, 51,8 now.

 

Calling them obnoxious would be being extremely kind..Obnoxious was 36 hours ago...

 

what are you doing then?

Edit: 53,6 and still going up slowly. Keyboard is getting pretty warm as well, 47C. Going to stop the scan. The CPU has been at 50% all the time, nicely dividing the tasks between the 2 cores and the 2 threads.

Could anyone else check how warm theirs get when doing a full virus scan? Room temperature is 24C here.

 

I know on my CF52 with normal use the fan comes on at 135F..Shuts off 105-110F

How are you measuring the temps?

 

That is core temperature? This is the outside casing measured wit a fluke ir

 

Yes that's the core temp.....My Fluke ir temp probe is at work...
Core temp is at 115F right now..just typing on the board.

 

What program do you use to read out core temp?

 

I found this handy battery program that read the temps also...It's much better than the standard Windows battery minder.
Just hover the mouse over the battery icon on the taskbar and you see the temps..

It's called BatteryCare.

BatteryCare

 

Here a little linux.

Code:

sudo apt-get install acpi # if not installed already.

Code:

man acpi# for the manual

Code:

cc@CF-30CCS85BM ~ $ acpi -ti
Thermal 0: ok, 41.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 130.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 1 switches to mode passive at temperature 90.0 degrees C
Thermal 1: ok, 41.0 degrees C
Thermal 1: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 105.0 degrees C

FWIW

 

Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

 

Alex,
Did you ever figure out what was wrong?

 

No, its a bit odd, but looking at the prints, I cat see anything wrong with them. No scorching, discoloration or other marks. I've been pushing my mk7 really hard as well, but never got the burning electronics smell. Luckily.

 

That's it seems like there is a component on stress. It maybe due to a loose connection or a running short. Running short is line that is not totally shorted but when there is a time it become shorted either by a dust, moist or an expansion. Check it out the connection that you worked on t before, It may not properly sh..tted, lol...

ohlip

 

Thanks for the suggestions!
I had a more radical solution: I swapped my mk5 bottom cabinet with a mk7 that had a heavily damaged screen. The mk7 was cheap and came from forum member Almstprfct1. Worked nicely, upgraded it with a 4G modem, 8gb memory and a 1TB Samsung SSD. Pretty happy with it
One other thing I do appreciate on the mk7 is the usb3. That makes my life sooooo much easier!