some more questions about the CF-M34 - CD-rom boot/wireless/Paintjob

I have 3 questions concerning the Toughbook CF-M34 mk2 (400Mhz).

1 - Can it boot from a USB external CD-rom drive ? (even when its not an option in the BIOS , i can only see Boot from C: or A:/C

2 - I can buy several cisco aironet 350 series pcmcia cards (the same ones that are used in the 3rd hidden pcmcia slot of the CF-28s). In 2 of my CF-m34s 400mhz, i have 2 grey cables with the connectors for the wireless. Is it able to use this cisco aironet 350 on my CF-m34 mk2s ?

3 - What paint is best to color the outside of this cf-m34s ? Is common car spraypaint good enough ?

I ask these questions, because i am able to buy 20 CF-m34s mk2s dirt cheap , and want them refurbish and paint them nice and sell them to other toughbook fans... I dont want to sell machines that are difficult to install. So therrefore my question concerning the USB boot.

Oftherwise, future users of my CF-m34s have to do the trick i used to install XP....

 

1: ~Toughbook Talk~ Toughbook Discussion • View topic - TBT CF-M34 FAQ Check out the last post in that thread by Springfield.

2: I have not personally tried that combo, but if you haven't bought yet I can see if I can boot from a live cd on my Mk2 M34 and see if it will see it. I have a couple of the 350 cards lying around.

3: ~Toughbook Talk~ Toughbook Discussion • View topic - Painted Toughbooks

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/660962-tropical-color-toughbooks.html

4: And while we are on the subject of wi-fi cards, ~Toughbook Talk~ Toughbook Discussion • View topic - Best WIFI card to use

3Com 11a/b/g WIFI Wireless PCMCIA Card 3CRPAG175 WI-FI Fast Shipping from USA | eBay

The above card will also fit in the Pcmcia slot and the rubber will close tight. You will have to open the rubber and then push the spring loaded black part and it will pop out a little bit and then that turns the card on. I have used this card on CF-28's, CF-07's and CF-T1 before.

 

Agree it's a nice solution for WiFi. I found if I carefully shave a little rubber off the inside of the PCMCIA cover at the center rib, it closes easier.

Keep in mind any 400 MHz unit will run PAINFULLY slow with WinXP. You might try Win 2000 or a cut-down version of XP (ADOR is our resident expert on that)

 

Springfield, i use Windows XP SP1 on my 400Mhz Mk2 with 256 MB ram. Its not painfully slow, when i only use 1 program at the time. I didnt try multitasking a lot, nor did i try to use the internet. I only use it to play games or to draw nice pictures with the touchpad.

Ador, reply 1 - from toughbooktalk, was made by me. My other nick on the net is alphamale2039, hihi.I indeed find the solution for the CF-18/CF-m34 for using a usb-stick... but i am now searching for the CD-rom option.

Thanks for all the replies.. Any more replies are ofcourse welcome to this topic....

 

Well I just plugged my usb dvd drive into my M34 Mk2 and it booted to dvd fine. It went to the boot option screen in ubuntu 12 remix. There is no hard drive or caddy in the unit. I have in the bios the floppy drive type set to the 03 (usb option) if that makes a difference.

My drive is a Samsung model se-s084, the same one I have used on a LOT of other Toughbooks.

This trick didn't work on my CF-17 Mk1

Once you get to where you can cut windows down to size you would be surprised what it can do speed wise. You can even use a alternative to explorer.exe the windows shell. It replaces the shell completely. If you were using linux it would like be swapping from ubuntu to kubuntu, in terms of speed. There are ones to make it like windows 7 and there are ones that tone it down.

The most I have seen XP cut down and it still boot was a 86 Mb Iso file.

 

That is fantastic news. I think that i am ordering 12 units tomorrow.. Great. Thanks for trying the USB Dvd unit on the CF-m34 mk2 !

 

Not a problem, it's one of the units I have up for sale, It just haven't got it gone yet. It was replaced with Mk7.

 

OH, i just looked at my CF-m34 bios setup, and i only see the option

[LEGACY USB SUPPORT] enable/disable

You wrote "I have in the bios the floppy drive type set to the 03 (usb option) if that makes a difference."

I dont see any option to set the floppy drive to anything....

my bios version of the 400MHz mk2 is V2.02L14 M30

 

Bios version V2.01L11

Under the advanced tab it has one more slot under legacy usb support. That slot is called "Floppy driver type:" It give two different part numbers, CF-vfdu03(usb) the other option is CF-vfdu01 (has a special end on it and plugs into the dock).

 

I just tried to boot the CF-M34 with a USB cd-rom player. When i turn on the CF-m34 i hear the CD-rom seeking the disc. I did disconnect the internal harddrive of the CF-m34. After about 10-15 secs i got no operating system or so....

That sucks. I used this USB CD-rom also on the CF-m34 mk3 (700Mhz) and my CF-18 mk1, and those boot nice from it.

Damn, why doesnt my CF-m34 dont boot....

Maybe i have to downgrade the bios, so that i can have the same options as you have.

 

Houston, I think we have a problem....

I formated an harddrive with MS-DOS. copied the BIOS v201!11!12 to it.

The booted to it, and downgraded the BIOS. Everything went allright... after some secs a screen came up. press a key to shut down. So, i did.

Then restarting the laptop.. Black screen.

1 long beep - followed by 2 short beeps.. Black screen..
(according to the service manuals of the CF-28 and CF-29, this means a BIOS ROM error)

CTRL+ALT+DEL doesnt work anymore. I cant use FN+F3. it doesnt react. Only power off or reset.... still a black screen. and the 3 beeps....


. I bricked my CF-m34 ? how could this been ? Any change / trick to get it back working ?

the autoexec from the bios contains this line:

promm342.exe v201l11l.012

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/404987-how-recover-bad-bios-flash-phoenix-bios-only.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hardware-components-aftermarket-upgrades/435277-phoenix-bios-crisis-recovery-no-floppy-yes.html

I have never had to use this yet.


(if you can't get it un-bricked send me a PM and my 400mhz unit is yours for the price of shipping, if you don't won't the whole thing I can send just the motherboard)

 

But is the CF-M34 bios the same as a phoenix bios ? Otherwise it would not be wise to use this phoenix recovery program....

 

The M34 has a Phoenix bios.

Here are some shots of mine.

 

I tried the WinCris.Exe program, and swapped the CF-M34 bios into the wincris files.

Turned on the CF-m34, and it just beeped one long , then 2 short beeps, and black screen. Nothing happening...

Maybe I have to press a key combination, to invoke the bios flash update from a usb stick ?

 

http://www.toughbookmanuals.com/manuals/cf-m34/

If you don't have it already here is a list of some Mk2 owners manuals and a later service manual.

Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes - BIOS Central

PhoenixBIOS Beep Codes

1 Long Beep, 2 Short Beeps
One long beep followed by two short beeps indicates that there has been a checksum error. This means that there is some kind of motherboard issue. Replacing the motherboard should fix this problem.

Well lets hope not, we will need a different plan of attack. I have seen a couple of references in old wiki pages about doing the bios flash though the dock. Do you happen to have the dock?

Since the bios battery is easy to get too try pulling it and booting to maybe clear out the checksum error.

 

I left the BIOS battery pulled off, for about 40 minutes or so. Still a black screen.

Maybe the CF-M34 also has the CRM (Phoenix Crisis Recovery mode). Because the begin of the bios still works (it beeps....)

I got some info here:Bad BIOS Update - Phoenix Crisis Recovery mode issue
HP Communities - Bad BIOS Update - Phoenix Crisis Recovery mode iss... - Enterprise Business Community

but not a solution for the CF-M34. On some other forums, they talk about using a key-combination, but it seems, that those keycombinations are difrent for IBM,samsung,etc. .... some use Windows key+esc, others use control+d,etc.etc. makes it a bit more difficult...

And i have NO USB floppy drive. only USB flash disks and a USB CD-rom

- I have the CF-VEB341 dock, but it only fits the Mk1 (300Mhz) machine.

 

Besides the Panasonic branded USB floppy it's just basicly a rebranded TEAC one.

USB FLOPPY

CF-VFDU03
TEAC FD-05 PUB

USB CD DRIVE

CF-VFDU03
Teac cd-210PU

 

Those items you mentioned seem rare and sometimes expensive on E-bay.

Anyhow, i ordered 11 other CF-m34s mk2 (400MHz machines). I might use the bricked CF-m34s keyboard and other hardware as spares to fix some of those 11 others....

Ador, thanks for offering me a cf-m34 motherboard, but isnt shipping this from the USA to Europe, not a bit expensive ?

 

I think we picked up the dock for around $30.00 shipped and the USB floppy for $8.00 . Yes it does cost a little more to ship to Europe but its not that bad. A lot of sellers will inflate the shipping charges....like double BUT they have a good reason why and it comes down to trust.

 

It can get expensive, but the rate is set on weight. That is why I offered to take the motherboard out.

I got the correct floppy drive now. I have the usb teac floppy and cd, the dock only panasonic floppy and usb panasonic branded one (got a package deal on a CF-17 early dock with floppy, but for some reason the Mk2 up won't work in the dock but the 17 will). I have seen them offered at time around 70 bucks for the usb floppy at times. I picked up a lot of 10 awhile back for 30 bucks shipped. I sold a few to the guys hear and have about 4 or 5 left for trade material or just incase.

 

The 11 CF-m34s arrived last week. I also got a new way to install them with Windows XP. Using Norton Ghost, its easy to make a ghost image of a clean Win XP sp1 / Sp2 installation. I am impressed by the fast speed of copying a ghost image on a blank hd.

Instead of 60+ minutes installing XP each time for another CF-m34, using a ghost image only
takes 3 minutes. Cool.

--
Tried to paint the display back-cover with cheap spray-paint I still had from some years ago. The paint stays very very sticky... like glue or something. So it was useless. I had to remove the whole crappy paint. I guess the paint was bad, because it only costed 4 euros at the local Dutch HEMA shop...

Will buy some more expensive Car-paint.. Hopefull the expensive paint wont stay sticky.....

 

First, excuse my poor english. Second, you can use some kind of primer... the procedure to paint them (I think) need to be something like "sand, remove paint, apply some primer, paint... light sand (to fix bad paint, drips, etc), paint and finally apply some kind of protector"

All of this (paint, primer and final protector (varnish is the right word?)) can be found, at least in Southamerica, in spray cans.
By the way, I think you must use some real light sanding paper.

Luck! (and show us your final work).

 

Ador, i just checked my 11 CF-m34s.

4 have the V2.02 L11 M30 bios
6 have the V2.02 L14 M30 bios

and i got a strange one with the V2.02 L11 M30 bios, but this one is the only Mk2 that also displays the MODEL and Serial number. The other 10 dont do this.

I just saw that you use an mk2 with BIOS V2. 01 L11 M30.... My ones all have the v2. 02 L11 version.
also you have the Processor Serial Number - option. It seems that there are 2 versions of the mk2 (to make things a bit more complicated)....

A version with a 400Mhz Pentium III and
a version with a 400Mhz Celeron with SSE...

Maybe thats the reason that i bricked that CF-m34.

The serial number of al my CF-m34 mk2s is :

CF-M34WA4YZG

On the toughbookdrivers page are many drivers for all the Cf-m34 machines, but not the W version...
http://www.toughbookdrivers.com/drivers/cf-m34/

They only have drivers for the Cf-m34 mk2 J version....

Could this be also the reason, why the screen-rotation tool for Windows XP does not work with my cf-m34s ? (i tried to use the d-2001-765_disp_rot driver)

Do you (Ador) or ToughAsNails or somebody else point me to the correct bios version for this machine, so i can use CD-rom...

 

I just spent the last hour looking and I could not find nothing for the MK1 or 2 BIOS.

 

Sorry, I don't have anything saved for that one. It was like it when I got it.

 

Okay, anyhow thanks for the efforts. I am now fiddling with the CF-m34s.... Testing if Windows XP sp1 is faster as xp with sp3.... if the speed decrease is a lot, then i stick with sp1. otherwise, i'll install sp3 on all of them.

More software works with sp3. Adobe reader 9.0 doesnt install with sp1... but it installs with sp3. Works a bit slow with huge files, but with enough memory its okay.

 

Oh, and i got wifi some weeks ago. So, i also tested wifi on my cf-28s,cf-29s, cf-18, cf-27 and the cf-m34s. Works great... surfing the net while in bed, or when i am on the toilet....

 

I have found adobe reader to be a source of bloat here lately and have deleted it. I am currently using foxit reader.

 

I just found a Phoenix Bios Editor : "phoenix bios editor v2.2.1.3"

Has anybody tried to modify the CF-M34 BIOS to have some extras. Maybe I can change the Mk1 and mk2 bios of the CF-M34 to support USB-Boot.

I downloaded this file PhoenixBiosEditor2.2.13.zip from the Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source: Downloads website.

But my AVG Antivirus gives me a virus warning. (trojan Generic6.apyy) when I want to install this Bios editor....

 

It is a hacker so most likely you will get a false positive from it. I have used a copy from bios mods before and it was fine. I haven't personally messed the bios of the M34 yet. Maybe when I these these other projects out of the way I can get back on my Mk7's.

 

I installed the Phoenix Bios Editor on my CF-28 mk3. It loads the BIOS of the CF-28 and CF-M34 in memory. But gives a message that some command words are in Japanese and cant be translated/edited...

Anyhow, its nice to see how this program works. You can change many things and also test the BIOS screen. All the options of the Toughbooks are visible. Even the hidden ones.

I played for an hour with this program, but understand that it takes a lot more to edit a bios ... as just changing or copy + paste some words.

like assembly language etc. And thats way too dificult for me. Maybe that some other members of this forum program assembly, and are able to change their BIOS roms.

 

Hi, i now have bought 4 x CF-M34 mark2 with Pentium 3 400Mhz processors. They are all the Cf-M34JADWYL version. BIOS version is V2.01L11

I can not boot from CD-rom . I have an external CD-rom drive connected with an IDE-USB interface.

Anyhow, i want to update the bios to 34m2bl14.exe

I have the 20214L.012 file for the BIOS, but i also need the file for the EC upgrade. It seems that i have to update the EC first, and then the BIOS.

Otherwise, i might brick the laptop.

My current problem is: I cant find the EC file anywhere on the internet. Are there any users on this forum, who can supply me with these files: L1220180.BIN and pecm34m2.exe ?

Thanks in advance.

 

Have you checked both the Japanese site as well as the Canadian site? I think there might be an Australian site too.

I know I just downloaded a Touchscreen driver I needed the other day from the Japanese site as the main US site didn't have the one I needed.

 

Have you checked here yet.. Toughbook CF-M34 Drivers

 

I downloaded most if not all drivers of that website, but couldnt find the files for the EC update.