~Toughbooktalk~

My 29MK4, running SolydX Linux, takes about an hr to get past the blue Panasonic screen when booting. I am hoping it is a dead CMOS battery, have some on the way. Any one encounter this before? Any suggestions what it might be, and how to fix it, if not a dead CMOS battery? Thanks.

If it is a dead CMOS battery your clock on the laptop will revert to it's Born On Date.... If it is holding the time correctly and isn't prompting you with a F2 at boot to set it every time... The issue is with Linux.

It is happening most of the time, but not every time, an error message that the time and date are wrong, once was a mouse/touchpad error and once in a while it gives no error after sitting with the blue Panny screen displayed for an hr or more.
I pulled the caddy from my daily driver, the unit I am having problems with, and put it in an identical MK4. That unit boots in seconds, every time, with no errors or lag at blue Panny screen. I can't see that it is a problem with SolydX, or I would have had the same problem on the second unit. At least that is how I see it.
If the daily driver gave an error message ever time it booted, I would be sure the CMOS battery is dead, but it doesn't. That is why I am puzzled.

That sounds like a hardware issue to me......I never saw a CMOS battery cause the boot to hang..

The POST is stuck trying to diagnose the problem..
This is exactly why it jacks me that I can not turn that silly blue Panasonic screen OFF and actually see the post in action..

1)Pull the base and check or swap the touchpad board.
2)swap cmos battery while the base is off.
3)Memory failing
4)motherboard going south

Thanks Shawn. What got me thinking it was the CMOS battery was that I got the time/date error(s).
For the time being, I am going to keep runnng on the backup unit. The CMOS batteries should be here Mon. or Tues. Once I have a new battery, I will run through the first three points you listed. If none of those fix the problem, then I will swap system board.
A bit of history of these mk4s. Earlier this year I bought a lot of 38 CF-29LTQGZBM-B units. There were from the electrical utility company in Alberta. The majority of the units had spent most of their time in vehicle docks, but a few looked to be foreman/supervisor units. The daily driver I am having problems with has hardly a scratch/mark on it, obviously sat on a desk and never in a dock. The unit I am on now looks very well used, many miles in a truck.
It seems strange to me that the pampered unit is the one with a problem, while the unit that rattled up and down powerline right of ways, gravel roads and what not works like a top. Go figure, eh?
Next week is looking to be intense, probably full of 15+hr days. Next weekend I will have time, I hope, to run through your checks and will post back the results then.
If anyone else has ideas, I will add them to the list.
Thank you.

Hey Bub.
I think correct time has more to do then we know.

For instance GPS won't do shite until synchronized.

I'm betting it's bad memory.

Or maybe that's *me* with the bad memory, can't remember . . . .

I am with Ken, bad memory.

teo

Thank you for all the responces. Last night I put a caddy with Mint 17 into the daily driver and it booted with no problems. I then put in the caddy with Navigatrix and it booted with no problems. I then put the caddy with SolydX back in and the unit boots with no problem.
I swapped out the 1GB memory stick, Panasonic CF-WMBA601G, for a 1GB stick of Axion memory. The unit booted the same as with the Panny memory, so I put the Panny memory back in the daily driver.
Shawn's post got me thinking about hardware problems. I remember, at one point, seeing a message as SolydX started to load, something about fast TSC calibration failed. I have not seen that message since I ran Mint and Nx. Fast TSC calibration would be the touchscreen? The TS always worked when I got to a desktop, didn't need calibration. Originally I had to repair the TS on this unit, as well as most of the TS in the other 30+ mk4s. I did the repair once and it has been good since, about 6 months.
To verify that there is no problem with the 1GB Panny memory, I will run Memtest on it and will report back the results.
I have not gotten a time/date error on boot in days. Even after sitting for hours not plugged in.

Could be on mainboard memory.

You could unplug touchpad(use usb mouse) unplug touchscreen. Remove all extra ram sticks. I am sure there is a burn in prgam that will auto reboot. Let the program run til cows come home and see if you get milk.