cf-19 internal wi-fi card question

i have a cf-19 and i just installed an internal wifi card that i bought from heartland and i dont know how to make it work. i have installed the card and after looking in bios there is no option for WLAN all i see is LAN. can someone please tell me how to make this work? it is the card for my home wi-fi connection. do i just need to install drivers for this or what? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.

 

First, may I know where did you installed the card. I ask coz some people are confuse if they are not familiar with this unit. There are two slot for PCI-E slot. The wi-fi card or slot for it is only accessible by opening the whole buttom case. And the WWAN can be access only on the small opening at the buttom with four screws on it.


ohlip

 

i installed it into the small rectangle cover with 4 screws in it.

 

That slot is for WWAN (wireless wide area network) ie..verizon, at&t and etc. not for wi-fi. As I stated above the pcie slot for wi-fi can only be accessible by opening the whole buttom case. Are you sure you don't have wireless wi-fi card on it? If yes! you must unscrew 12 of them at the buttom but make sure you use a right tool so that not to strips its head on the process.


ohlip

 

this cf-19 never had the card installed. i bought it used from a guy that used it in a government nuclear facility and it couldnt have any form of wifi built in for security reasons. i just bought a wifi card from heartland and thought i put it in the right slot but i guess i didnt. looking in bios there is no option for WLAN only LAN. i have an electronics screwdriver kit. after i install it into the proper slot what do i need to do? do i need to load WLAN drivers? can you please give me a step by step on getting this to work? like i said before this toughbook was not built with WLAN or the option to turn it on. that is what panasonic told me going by my model/serial number. thank you for any help that you can provide.

 

Oh! yes, most of the issued toughbook for goverment agencies has no wi-fi capability for security reason. Now! we are sure where we gonna go now. I want to send you a service manual so that it more easy for you to start with but unfortunately you don't have yet chance/capability to pm somebody here as you need at least 15 post. BTW, I will correct my posted number of screws to unscrew. It is 12 not 9.

I am calling Tomcat57 or Toughbook to send you a service manual or you may post your e-mail address here and I will send it to you directly with exploded view on it.



ohlip

 

you can send it to [email protected] will this service manual tell me how to install and anything else necessary to make it work?

 

I will send you info
As ohlip reported the easy to get at pci-e slot on the bottom has different conections than standard and will not work

Alex

 

ok. now once i get the card installed into the correct slot what do i do to make it active? are there drivers to make the wifi card work? there is no option in bios for WLAN.

 

There will be when you install the card in the correct slot
Look for a part number on the card
Download latest drivers from intel downloads area
File sent

Alex

 

do i find the latest drivers on the intel website?

 

Once t you installed it on the right position it will appear on the bios. Then make it enable, BTW, what operating system loaded on the hdd and how it installed by Recovery disk or by just an oem xp disk?

ohlip

 

it has windows xp w/sp3. it had windows loaded when i bought it and have canged nothing.

 

I will place a down load link
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17751&lang=eng
Alex

 

many thanks to ohlip and tomcat. i really appreciate the help

 

On S.M page 23 of 84 If I am not mistaken, show you the detail exploded view of which screws to unscrew but first make sure the main battery is out together with the hdd then open up all of its rubber cover on its side, then gently pry it up slowly. Good Luck


ohlip

 

Wow... You guys were working through the night! ;

6linkslam.... Did you get your wifi working?

 

i did get it taken apart and installed properly but the wires that attach to the wireless card have me confused now. the tech manual really seens to tell me just enough to confuse me. the wires were clipped on in certain places when i took it apart but the manual is showing me to hook them up different

 

There is just two wires right
Are you asking if they make a difference

Alex

 

on the wifi card there is a connection for main and aux. going by the tech manual it seems that i have a wire missing.they show a short grey wire that goes from the card over to another connection. but the only gray wire i see goes down and under all of the boards.

 

ugh i dont understand these damn directions. now after looking at the antenna cable roiting again it appears that im missing 2 cables

 

Hook up to the main then
Yes I remember on the newer models that there is a jumper wire with a ufl on each end
I don't have any spares but I would bet that others here have a spare

Alex

 

Take a picture of it for clairity

Alex

 

where can i get one? cani get this from a local radio shack?

 

Not likely
For now just hook up the main
And hold of on the other as I know that someone here has a jumper

Alex

 

will the wifi be operational with just the main hooked up?

 

Yes it will work for now
You need both hooked up for best reception


Alex

 

Sounds like you may not have WIFI antennas on that unit. The gray wire is for the WWAN and will not work for the main wifi antenna. The two missing ones should be one white and one black wire and will lead to the antenna's mounted on the left and right of the LCD.

 

ok i still have nothing. it will not see my wireless network'

 

there are antennas. i just took the black side covers off the side of the monitor and there is a green board in there with wires connected

 

Yes but are they WIFI? they should be labeled as to what they are for.

 

ok. i will lookagain. what other types of antennas would they be?

 

Ther is WWAN and bluetooth.

 

ok the one on the left says LAN-MAIN(BLACK) the smaller section of antenna below says EVDO-AUX(BROWN) the antennas on the right side of screen says WWAN(GRAY) and the smaller section says LAN-AUX(WHITE)

 

Ok you have the two antenna's now you have to follow the black and white wire back to the bottom of the unit. As I said the gray wire is for the wwan antenna and you should not have that on your wifi card.

 

yeah thats what i was thinking. the white wire should go to aux on wifi card and im missing the short gray jumper that goes to main and i just leave the gray wwan hooked up where it was originally. right?

 

One might be direct to card
The other will go to the docking station connector , and then it will have a jumper cable to you new card

Alex

 

yeah the tech manual shows the white aux wire coming from the aux port on the card and disappearing under the board and it does go up to the antennas and then it shows the short grey jumper coming from the main port on the cand going ovev a short disntance to a port next to a black wire. the distance from the main port of card to the other end of connection is only about 3/4" apart. what is this part called where the other end connects?

 

i keep getting an error message also when i try to do the wireless setup wizard. the error msg says. depending on the wireless software running on this computer,the wireless setup wizard might not work. the zero configuration is enabled. anyone know about this? i have it hooked up and it wont recognize my network

 

You must of hooked up the darn intel proset utility to manage your connection
more delails please
And you need to make sure device manager has the wi-fi card working fine

Alex

 

all i did was install the card and followed a link that was provided in this thread. the link was to the intel website. it was to load the drivers for the card. once i installed the drivers i could see the wlan in bios and see the device in the device manager. also could the wireless icon in the startup tray

 

A search for networks has no networks showing then
Or a search for networks is not completed as windows reports a problem with zero config
Would you normaly see more than your network

Alex

 

it has never shown me any networks. there is more than one wireless network here. they are secured and unsecured. but i cannot find any.i cant even complete the wireless setup wizard. the device manager says the device is working properly.

 

to answer your previous question the search for networks has no results and i get the error when trying to complete the wireless setup wizard

 

I have never used the wireless setup wizard
I just click on the wireless in the taskbar and search for networks and connect
I will put the xp caddy in my cf19 and see what I have showing there
I normaly use W7 on the cf-19

Alex

 

i finally freakin got it to see my wireless network and i got it to connect also.i went in to wireless cnnections and clicked change advanced settings and then clicked the wireless networks tab and enabled the box that allows windows to configure network settings and it recognized my network. now im on. holy crap i cant believe it. this thing has been a pain in my butt.

 

i have went through all of these settings already but i guess it just wanted to work when it decided to. computers can be touchy sometimes i guess. maybe i wasnt holding my mouth right. again thank you to everyone that has helped me through this. i really appreciate everything. i suppose all i need now is the short pig tail for the main antenna and im set.

 

That was easy !!
All you need now is the short jumper wire so you can use the aux antenna
Someone here will have that ,I might even have a spare as they are used on quite a few models

Alex

 

i guess i could even call heartland back to order one huh? can i find one at a computer store or is this something that only toughbook uses?

 

I will look to see if I have one, or wait until someone reads the posts here,its a very common panasonic part
I am using the xp tablet caddy in the cf-19 now and wow I forgot how fast the Mtron ssd drive is

Alex