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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
 Posted - 06/26/2004 : 19:54:56
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Note that you will void your warranty if you try to do the following upgrade. The US version of W2 carries a 3 year warranty.
Thanks to LeoG.net and some posts from helpful members I finally upgraded my Panasonic W2 from 40GB to a 80GB Hitachi 5400RPM harddrive. During upgrade I found out that the wireless lan can also be upgraded easily.
The links provided by thrutchy was extremely helpful.As tmt pointed out from the Japanese webside links,breaking off pin 41 and 44 was all that was needed for the 5 Volt drive to work correctly.
http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5425
I bought the 80GB 5400RPM drive from zipzoomfly.com.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100524
While I was replacing the drive, I also noticed that the Wireless LAN Mini-PCI card, which was sitting on a slot and 2 wires connected to it from the left and right antenna.
I decided then that the Wireless lan can be upgraded to a 802.11g. Did some Google search and found out that there is a 802.11g card with the same dimensions. I bought the lan Mini-PCI card from buy.com
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10365075&loc=101&sp=1
Listed below are the steps I did to replace the drive and the Wireless card.
I opened the unit twice, first time to replace the Harddrive, 3 days later again to replace the Wireless lan card.
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1. 1 screw inside the CD/RW unit underneath the cover on left. Do this before you power down the unit. Otherwise you will have to force open the drive from the bottom.
2. 2 nut screws on the VGA connector on the top left side.
3. Take the plastic cover off the Wireless antenna near the Intel logo on the right side of the unit by prying the cover loose. Remove 2 screws at side of antenna.
4. Turn the notebook over.
5. 7 screws at back. Make a note of the screw positions in a piece of paper, since there are 3 long and 4 short screws.
6. 1 screw for the Memory Cover
7. 3 long screws holding the Honeycomb cover, next to the memory slot. These screws hold the keyboard.
8. 1 inside after the Honeycomb cover is removed.
9. Turn the unit over. Open the lid. Push The keyboard up from back under the battery. The top part comes up. Now lift up the keyboard. Pull the ribbon out underneath the TOUGHBOOK Sign. Unclip the ribbon from the unit very carefully.
10. 2 silver screws on inside just above the logo Intel Centrino under the keyboard
11. 6 black screws under the keyboard
12. Now close the lid and turn the unit over.
13. 4 screws holding the LCD Hinges at back (2 Screws each side).
14. Now slowly pull the back cover up.
15. Lift up the harddrive, disconnect from the ribbon. Before attaching the new Harddrive, make sure you have clipped off PIN 41 and 44 from the 80GB harddrive. I used a nose pliers to twist them off.
If you want to replace the wirelese LAN, unclip the 2 wires from the PCI card, Remove the INTEL network module, Replace with the new one. Clip back the 2 wires. Make sure that the wires are on the side and
not on the top since they might get clipped when you put back the cover.
To put back the unit:
1. Replace the back cover.
2. Screw back the 4 screws holding back the LCD hinges.
3. Replace the 6 screws. Make sure that the long screws goes in the correct place.
4. Turn the unit over and open the LCD lid.
5. Screw back the 2 screws on the right in the Wireless antenna and replace the plastic cover.
6. Replace the 2 screws inside just above the Intel logo. This is most difficult as there is hardly any space.
7. Replace the 6 black screws.
8. Insert back the keyboard. Make sure that the ribbon is tucked in.
6. Turn the unit over and replace the 1 screw inside the Honecomb.
7. Replace the honeycomb cover and put back the screws.
8. Replace the memory cover.
9. Turn the unit over open the lid.
10. Put back the battery and power up the unit.
11. Open the CD/RW and put back the last screw.
12. Using the Panasonic recovery disc, go ahead and restore the operating system.
13. If you also had replaced the wireless card, uninstall the old drivers and install new drivers that came with the new card.
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Kemplar.com
Junior Member
USA
322 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2004 : 23:50:17
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Nice. Very nice. 
Kemplar :: The Spartan Lifestyle Made Digital
www.kemplar.com |
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tangledweb
Starting Member
17 Posts |
Posted - 07/17/2004 : 09:10:24
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Good writeup. Thanks.
Do you have any feeling about whether the drive change has affected battery life at all?
I have a 20GB in mine, so will have to upgrade at some point, but I figured I would let a few others take do it first and wait for the inevitable bigger cheaper drives. |
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thrutchy
New Member
USA
97 Posts |
Posted - 07/17/2004 : 11:37:17
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According to Panasonic, upgrading the Y2 from 40GB to 60GB drops the battery life from 7.5 hours to 7 hours. I would imagine this loss is because the 60GB is probably not mixed 3.3V/5V like the 40GB and just 5V like the drives others are upgrading to.
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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2004 : 12:23:00
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quote:
Originally posted by tangledweb
[Do you have any feeling about whether the drive change has affected battery life at all?
There is some change(approx 45 minutes) since the 80GB does draw more power, however it has been made up with a much faster and larger drive with a 8MB cache. |
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tangledweb
Starting Member
17 Posts |
Posted - 07/19/2004 : 09:04:43
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quote:
Originally posted by huqa
quote:
Originally posted by tangledweb
[Do you have any feeling about whether the drive change has affected battery life at all?
There is some change(approx 45 minutes) since the 80GB does draw more power, however it has been made up with a much faster and larger drive with a 8MB cache.
Thanks. I agree that seems pretty acceptable. |
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redgrass
Starting Member
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 12:19:24
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Hi all, wld like to post my experience upgrading the W2 HD. I did follow Huga's detailed process, I also bought the Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 80Gb ATA-6 2.5in 5400RPM Mobile HD (RAM slot 172 pin, 2.5V, Micro DIMM, DDR SDRAM, PC2100 Compliant) from Zipzoomfly for $173 (it was in stock and I received in 2 days). I emailed Huga and asked him a few questions: How to recognize pin 41 and 44, was his W2 still running okay these days, battery power loss, booting the Recovery CD from the DVD/CD, etc. He was amazing, providing answers to my emails the same day. KUDOS to Huga. Now my experience:
1. make sure you start off with the proper tools. I used a nose plier and a set of precision slotted/phillips reversible blade set w/ antistatic handles (sells for $24.95 in any hardware store). The phillips head that fit all screws was #00)
2. set appart a space where to work. (Small screws are hard to find if they fall on the floor and hard to identify if all mixed up on the desk.
3. make a sketch of the back and front of the W2 as you progress and identify where the screws belong. The screws are of different sizes and you could do some damage by replacing the long screws where the short ones go.
4. Prying out the cover protecting the wireless antenna was a bit tricky. When doing so you think you are breaking the W2 case... not so... just be gentle and use a small screwdriver applying gentle but steady force untill you see it come appart.
4. Take your time.
Remember you are voiding the Panasonic 3 year warranty!
In all it took me about 3 hrs to have the upgraded W2 up and running. I am glad I went through the upgrade as soon as I got the 40Gb W2... I would hate to reinstall all my software and personal documents 6 months to a year down the line.
The unit runs a little hotter... there seems to be some increased heat dissipation. But it runs faster and I have approx 80Gb space turning the W2 into a powerhorse.
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thrutchy
New Member
USA
97 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 13:00:29
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Anybody know if it's possible to upgrade to a 7200RPM drive instead? From what I've read, they seem to use about the same power (why?).
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cj3209
New Member
75 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2004 : 13:19:35
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"Remember you are voiding the Panasonic 3 year warranty!"
How do you know that this is the case? Have you contacted Panasonic International? From my experience with DELL, the warranty is intact as they consider a HD upgrade a user-upgradeable part - kinda like upping your RAM.
Obviously, if you damage the notebook while performing the upgrade, I can see Panasonic charging you to fix that but a HD upgrade, frankly, should not void the warranty.
But I do not run Panasonic so I could be dead-wrong...
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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2004 : 07:59:06
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quote:
Originally posted by cj3209
"Remember you are voiding the Panasonic 3 year warranty!"
How do you know that this is the case? Have you contacted Panasonic International? From my experience with DELL, the warranty is intact as they consider a HD upgrade a user-upgradeable part - kinda like upping your RAM.
Obviously, if you damage the notebook while performing the upgrade, I can see Panasonic charging you to fix that but a HD upgrade, frankly, should not void the warranty.
But I do not run Panasonic so I could be dead-wrong...
If you call Panasonic USA (1-800-527-8675) they will tell you so. The HDD is not a user upgradeable option. Panasonic USA does not offer a HDD upgrade for W2. |
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cj3209
New Member
75 Posts |
Posted - 08/12/2004 : 11:54:38
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quote:
Originally posted by huqa
quote:
Originally posted by cj3209
"Remember you are voiding the Panasonic 3 year warranty!"
How do you know that this is the case? Have you contacted Panasonic International? From my experience with DELL, the warranty is intact as they consider a HD upgrade a user-upgradeable part - kinda like upping your RAM.
Obviously, if you damage the notebook while performing the upgrade, I can see Panasonic charging you to fix that but a HD upgrade, frankly, should not void the warranty.
But I do not run Panasonic so I could be dead-wrong...
If you call Panasonic USA (1-800-527-8675) they will tell you so. The HDD is not a user upgradeable option. Panasonic USA does not offer a HDD upgrade for W2.
Ahh, I see. Thank you.
Actually, I was really inquiring about the R3 which is only available via importers. I want to upgrade the HD in the R3 and was wondering if that would void the Panasonic Japanese warranty. I haven't gotten a response yet from iCube.us (they import the R3) but judging from Panasonic USA's response, they would probably act similarly. Too bad.
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cj3209
New Member
75 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2004 : 12:34:14
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quote:
Originally posted by cj3209
quote:
Originally posted by huqa
quote:
Originally posted by cj3209
"Remember you are voiding the Panasonic 3 year warranty!"
How do you know that this is the case? Have you contacted Panasonic International? From my experience with DELL, the warranty is intact as they consider a HD upgrade a user-upgradeable part - kinda like upping your RAM.
Obviously, if you damage the notebook while performing the upgrade, I can see Panasonic charging you to fix that but a HD upgrade, frankly, should not void the warranty.
But I do not run Panasonic so I could be dead-wrong...
If you call Panasonic USA (1-800-527-8675) they will tell you so. The HDD is not a user upgradeable option. Panasonic USA does not offer a HDD upgrade for W2.
Ahh, I see. Thank you.
Actually, I was really inquiring about the R3 which is only available via importers. I want to upgrade the HD in the R3 and was wondering if that would void the Panasonic Japanese warranty. I haven't gotten a response yet from iCube.us (they import the R3) but judging from Panasonic USA's response, they would probably act similarly. Too bad.
Well, according to iCube, I will be voiding the Panasonic Warranty if I upgrade the HD but I will still have the one-year iCube warranty.
Soon to pickup an R3
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Kemplar.com
Junior Member
USA
322 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2004 : 19:14:40
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quote:
Actually, I was really inquiring about the R3 which is only available via importers. I want to upgrade the HD in the R3 and was wondering if that would void the Panasonic Japanese warranty.
Well, Panasonic isn't quite as sick and twisted as Sony when it comes to checking for signs of upgrading. So as long as you keep that old 40GB drive around (in case the unit needs repair and you need to swap the drives), you *should* be okay.
Of course, signs of wire clipping might be a dead giveaway.
Kemplar :: The Spartan Lifestyle Made Digital
www.kemplar.com :: forum.kemplar.com |
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conics
Starting Member
Japan
14 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2004 : 23:10:55
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Please note, I know for a fact : opening the case (beyond RAM upgrade) of the Japanese Panasionc R3/T2/W2 is voiding the warranty.
so if you upgrade the HDD / Wifi / anything.
just opening it voids warrnaty...
(I have discussed this with the Panasonic warranty center in Japan)
-Brett
[ http://conics.net ]
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demstav
New Member
53 Posts |
Posted - 01/17/2005 : 17:30:51
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| hi my friends. I want to aks you about the panasonic W2 HDD. I want to upgrade my 40GB HDD to 80GB. Can you tell me a bit how i can regognize the pins? Also. will any 2.5" HDD fit? |
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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
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wizwith
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2005 : 15:23:59
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Thanks to everyone who contributed to this post. My Let's Note was dying -- I was getting the BSOD and the HD was unbelievably slow. I would have mail-ordered one of the Hitachi drives, but could not wait, it was that bad.
I went to a local Best Buy with an in-store 10% off coupon, and got the 100 GB Seagate Momentus Drive (5400 rpm). I followed the instructions, and finished upgrading in about 1.5 hours.
One thing I would add to this post and recommend for those attempting this repair:
1. If you have Norton Ghost or the Apricorn drive copy utilities, it will make your life a lot easier. You can mirror your old drive by connecting the new drive to the laptop via a USB or PCMCIA cable, and upgrade to the new one without reinstalling all of your software. With the new drive installed, XP installed the new hardware and asked to reboot. Everything seems to be working pretty well so far.
Good luck!
WW |
Edited by - wizwith on 10/10/2005 01:13:39 |
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wizwith
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 00:14:59
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My wife's W2 HD started acting up, so this was my second time replacing the HD. Since this was an earlier model, I also decided to upgrade the Wireless LAN from b to b/g.
This time, I thought I would include pictures to help out those that want to do the same thing as my way of giving back to huqa, thrutchy, and others whose posts helped me complete my own upgrade.
Per the usual caveats, YOU WILL VOID THE PANASONIC WARRANTY AND MAY IRREVERSIBLY DAMAGE YOUR LAPTOP. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Tip: Make sure that the screwdriver you are using fits well. There is a lot of loctite on some of the screws and you could end up stripping the heads and unable to open the machine.
I selected the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 120GB HD, which I purchased from Buy.com for about $150:
"http://www.buy.com/prod/Seagate_Momentus_5400_2_Hard_drive_120GB_internal_2_5inch_Ultra_ATA_100/q/loc/101/201643041.html"
I also purchased the
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection - WM3B2200BGMWWB2 for about $30:
"http://www.buy.com/prod/Intel_PRO_Wireless_2200BG_Network_Connection/q/loc/101/10376132.html"
Tip: One of the best things I did was to back up the old drive and then Ghost it to the new drive. I let the backup and Ghost routine run overnight, but it seem to take about 3-4 hours to Ghost the old 40gb HD.
I have taken huqa's instructions and added the picture references that I will try to include in this post.
0. Start with the CF-W2 (0) and back up/Ghost the drives.
1. 1 screw inside the CD/RW unit underneath the cover on left (1a). Do this before you power down the unit. Otherwise you will have to force open the drive from the bottom (1b).
2. 2 nut screws on the VGA connector on the top left side (2).
3. Take the plastic cover off the Wireless antenna near the Intel logo on the right side of the unit by prying the cover loose (3a, 3b).
Remove 2 screws at side of antenna (3c).
4. Turn the notebook over.
5. 7 screws at back. Make a note of the screw positions in a piece of paper, since there are 3 long and 4 short screws (5).
6. 1 screw for the Memory Cover (6).
7. 3 long screws holding the Honeycomb cover, next to the memory slot. These screws hold the keyboard (7).
8. 1 inside after the Honeycomb cover is removed (8).
9. Turn the unit over. Open the lid. Push The keyboard up from back under the battery. The top part comes up. Now lift up the keyboard (9a).
Pull the ribbon out underneath the TOUGHBOOK Sign. Unclip the ribbon from the unit very carefully (9b).
10. 2 silver screws on inside just above the logo Intel Centrino under the keyboard (10).
11. 6 black screws under the keyboard (11).
12. Now close the lid and turn the unit over.
13. 4 screws holding the LCD Hinges at back (2 Screws each side) (13a, 13b).
14. Now slowly pull the back cover up.
15. Lift up the harddrive, disconnect from the ribbon. Before attaching the new Harddrive, make sure you have clipped off PIN 41 and 44 (15a, 15b) from the harddrive. I used a nose pliers to twist them off.
If you want to replace the wirelese LAN, unclip the 2 wires from the PCI card (15c), Remove the INTEL network module, Replace with the new one. Clip back the 2 wires. Make sure that the wires are on the side and
not on the top since they might get clipped when you put back the cover.
To put back the unit:
1. Replace the back cover.
2. Screw back the 4 screws holding back the LCD hinges.
3. Replace the 6 screws. Make sure that the long screws goes in the correct place.
4. Turn the unit over and open the LCD lid.
5. Screw back the 2 screws on the right in the Wireless antenna and replace the plastic cover.
6. Replace the 2 screws inside just above the Intel logo. This is most difficult as there is hardly any space.
7. Replace the 6 black screws.
8. Insert back the keyboard. Make sure that the ribbon is tucked in.
6. Turn the unit over and replace the 1 screw inside the Honecomb.
7. Replace the honeycomb cover and put back the screws.
8. Replace the memory cover.
9. Turn the unit over open the lid.
10. Put back the battery and power up the unit.
11. Open the CD/RW and put back the last screw.
12. Using the Panasonic recovery disc, go ahead and restore the operating system.
13. If you also had replaced the wireless card, uninstall the old drivers and install new drivers that came with the new card
When you boot up, you should see the new drive (Finished).
Take your time. Replacing both HD and WLAN should take about 2 hours. It's worth it to be able to triple/quadruple your hard drive storage, and also speed up your wireless LAN, all for under $200 (plus any software licenses for backup or replication)
Good luck!
WizWith
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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 12:04:18
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| Great job on posting the pictures. Thanks |
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bigjohn
Junior Member
361 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 22:59:48
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| The pix look better than the Panny manual. Kudos to you wizwith, wish I had these prior to replacing mine! |
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Kiwibru
New Member
USA
57 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2006 : 14:47:19
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| Priceless! My W2 went to my sister but now if and when the HD goes I have the best possible review of this process. THX... |
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lapimate
Starting Member
New Zealand
20 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2006 : 06:45:47
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| Wizwith: How did you deal with the heat sink transfer paste between the heat sink & CPU? Did it just separate nicely without breaking up? Or did you replace/repair the old paste (with what)? |
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wizwith
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 15:32:13
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That's a good question. I did not even realize what that was. Since I replaced the hards drive after I transferred the data, the unit was still warm as I recall, and the paste was still pliable. It separated nicely as I pushed on the keyboard from behind. I assume that the heat helped to reseat the paste after I put everything back together. YMMV. Did you also ask huqa or thrutchy on their experience? Sorry I couldn't be more help.
WW |
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huqa
New Member
68 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 10:57:58
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quote:
Originally posted by lapimate
Wizwith: How did you deal with the heat sink transfer paste between the heat sink & CPU? Did it just separate nicely without breaking up? Or did you replace/repair the old paste (with what)?
In my case the paste seperated(it was still pasty) with half on the back of the ribbon and half on the back of the unit. |
Edited by - huqa on 05/16/2006 10:58:29 |
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tmt
Advanced Member
2680 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 11:55:13
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Regardless of how pliable it is, you should always clean both surfaces and replace the paste. The thermal bond is molecular and is damaged by the separation, it never goes back with the same heat transfer properties. This is especially true of the wax-based compounds, commonly found.
Tom. |
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wizwith
Starting Member
5 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2006 : 23:34:56
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Probably a good move, considering the paste is only a couple of bucks at RS.
Great suggestion!
WizWith |
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Topic |
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Upgraded my Panasonic W2 HD / Wireless lan
