Toughbook Bios

[Bran Bast]

Waituntil Lost_N_BIOS replies asking you to dump the BIOS so he can dump the UEFI vars, then you can change the SATA speed variable to let your 19 run at SATA3.

Oh, and get yourself some 1600 or 1866 MHz RAM modules, the HD 4000 iGPU absolutely loves high speed RAM.

Hello to everyone ! I have a Panasonic CF19 MK6 and i need to mod BIOS for enable SATA 3. It is downgraded by manufacturer to SATA 2.

So first i dumped BIOS with fptw (i also attach dump here). I noticed that when i write back BIOS i get "Error 280: Failed to disable write protection for the BIOS space!" . Seems that my BIOS is locked (or sort of write protected mechanism).

Info about system: Panasonic CF19-MK6

Computer Brand Name: Panasonic Corporation CF-191G-50DE

Motherboard Chipset: Intel QM77 (Panther Point)

BIOS Version: V6.00L14

Intel ME Version: 8.1, Build 3002, Hot Fix 72

How can i disable write protection on my BIOS and how can i enable SATA 3 in BIOS ?

@bubu782001 - please see below for how to dump BIOS region with FPT, once you do that send me the biosreg.bin file and I will give you variable to use with this guide for grub/setup_var

[GUIDE] Grub Fix Intel FPT Error 280 or 368 - BIOS Lock Asus/Other Mod BIOS Flash

Yes, please my reply above. Additionally, if you want to add more thoughts, or ask a new question etc, and no one has replied yet, please edit your post and add the new info instead of making a new post, thanks

If desperate you could always boot up a Live Ubuntu on a USB stick which is a very good tool to have around. If it works then it is your Windows USB stick and if it does not it is something deeper. See: Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus on Windows Ubuntu

Open ImgBurn and choose Mode -> Build, or use the Ctrl+Alt+B option. This opens Build Mode and you will see this screen. From here, you can add/remove files or folders to your ISO. You can choose to type the folder location in the drop down box,...

Just a thought. The toughbook comes installed with Windows 10. When trying to boot from a USB stick, I seem to remember that you had to do a full shutdown from within Windows so that it was not in some hibernation mode before the USB boot option appeared. See: 2 Ways to Perform a Full Shutdown in Windows 10

If it is not recognising the USB stick as it boots then it will not give you the USB option. So with you USB plugged in press the on switch and try mashing F10/11/12. On some systems the USB must have the boot flag set as well (I use gparted for that one).

As an experiment you could try Ubuntu on a USB stick. Create a bootable USB stick with Rufus on Windows Ubuntu

There is a Run Check BIOS job that checks the version in the text file, and a WMI that says if the bios is not like the text version, run the exe associated to that model.

Then, I added a reboot. And the restart has a condition that says, TS variable NeedReboot=YES, then the pc will reboot.

The issue I'm having is that if I image, say, CF33-1, the CF33-1 check BIOS will run, sees if it matches or not, and even if it matches, there is a reboot. I don't know the proper logic to tell it to reboot ONLY if it had to run the exe update.

I know for a fact that you need a reboot step in MDT to control the reboot or the TS breaks. But I only need it to reboot if the bios gets updated.

There were a few extra things to add. When the BIOS is not the highest, it gets upgraded and a restart occurs, then the

TS continues on.

If the BIOS is the current version, for one model, my Check BIOS merely says:

In the case where it checks the version when it does match, it still tries to install the BIOS, does a restart, and at the end

of the TS I get one error, Code 300, which means the version already is installed.

So rather than spend any more time on wondering why it installs when its already there, I gave the installer an exception code of 300.

At the end of the whole TS, its a white screen with no errors or warnings.

Thank you for all of your input and suggestion!

If I understand correctly, we are wondering when the TS variable NeedReboot is changed to YES so that we can finetune the logic in TS. Yes, you're correct, a reboot task is required prior to using the new version BIOS. Commonly, the value is set to YES when a BIOS upgrade progrom is executed and the reboot is suppressed so that a consiquent reboot task is taken place to contine the TS without any breaking (hook is generated before rebooting)

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I need the logic to both say, upgrade the bios if it isn't the highest, then reboot and proceed with the TS.

If the BIOS already is current, just move on. Right now, even if the version is current, the pc reboots.

In the diagram I'm attaching, it looks like he's doing one BIOS check and a restart if YES, and then underneath has all of the models.

According to the diagram I attached from that site, they're doing the reboot after the BIOS upgrade. Either way,

there is nothing telling the TS what to do if the BIOS versions match.

I just get prompted that the bios is already upgraded and I have to click OK to proceed.

For debugging, we can manually execute the following example cmdlets to simulate the logic. Or, the script you've provided (bios-check.ps1) will log information to BIOS_Update.log, could you share this log for further analysis?

Its only when the versions match that it messes up. It installs it anyway, or tries to, then throws that popup that its already current. It should be skipping that step if they match. Thats the issue it has.

Thank you for the valuable input. Yes, we are talking about the same thing. Please understand that we don't have the exact environment for testing. Guess the script is for task (1), right?

And the suituation is: the Restart Computer (2) task was not skipped, right? So, we suggest to track when the variable NeedReboot is changed (as mentioned above). The short eight-line cmdlets are just to manually test to see if the logic is correct. If possible, you may test in your environment and share the result.

Thanks.

I've made a slight change to my TS. I have a folder for one model, then the Check Bios Version for that model, and install the upgrade if the current vers does not equal the newest.

IF they don't match, the upgrade runs and the restart occurs.

However, if the versions DO match, the upgrade still tries to run and I get a popup box that says Your Bios Is Already Up To Date.

And it requires a click on OK for the TS to proceed.

Whatever the 'if matches' should do, doesn't. It tries installing anyway. That's where the issue lies.

What I see from the diagram is only one Check Bios. I have 3 models, with three different BIOS version numbers.

Rather than try to sort that out, I have each version beneath each model, separated by their WMIC identity. I'm not sure how

they are separating out different models according to the sample TS.

I have read through both the two threads for several times. It seems we missed the actual screenshots (not shown correctly) and script in the actual environment. I suppose the right structure of TS is as below:

Note: (1) the folder only groups the tasks and it never do the selection so we encounter multiple reboots currently

(2) please change the TS as listed above and try again, if any problem is encountered, please share the script in BIOS Check and Upgrade task for further debugging.

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It has three ariel contacts but my 52 only has two ariel wires. It should still work ok but as far as I can tell from my research I will get limited or zero functionality on the 5.0GHz spectrum. If I add another ariel this functionality should be restored.

I could not get the card to function. Apparently there is a hack regarding pin 20 which I tried but still no joy. I may have borked the card as I cut the trace for pin 20 as I did not have any nail lacquer.

As to updating the bios to sort put the wi-fi, I can not find any bios updates for my Mk1 on the Panosonic site. All the bios updates seem to relate to Mk3's and upwards. One of those may work but I am a bit wary of borking the pc with a wrong bios.

I spent some time hunting some ram and finally bought these 4 x 2 GB's for 12.99 which was by far the cheapest on E-Bay. I have tried one stick in another machine and it works. So I will install two sticks on the 52 tomorrow, 4 GB should be plenty for the way I will use the 52.

In the meanwhile. The reason I have become interested in Toughbooks is down to my sister. She does a lot of fancy cooking and needs to have a copy of the recipe to hand. She was concerned at how much paper she was wasting and the cost and how paper sheets do not get along well with sticky hands and surfaces.

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