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@tylersticka@social.lol

Post #1790300

2026-04-29 23:04 UTC

A family member is getting rid of some things, including some old computers. One of those is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-37 from 1999 (I think?). It’s super thin for the time, and the magnesium shell is basically pristine. I’d like to turn it into a little Win9x nostalgia machine. Except, it won’t boot because the CMOS battery is bad, and I can’t find any info online on how difficult that is to fix. Any advice from the #RetroComputing crowd?

Replies (7)

  • @csilverman@mastodon.social 2026-04-29 23:18

    @tylersticka@social.lol I changed one of these in an old PC laptop a while ago—might've been a mid-90s Toshiba—and it was pretty straightforward if I recall. In that case, the CMOS battery was a standard CR2032 that plugged into a socket on the board, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/JINTAI-Battery-Replacement-1-11IGL05-1-14IGL05/dp/B0D6RJHRQQ Not sure about the Toughbook, but I did a little searching just now and the wrapped battery with wires appears to be what a lot of PC laptops use.

    Open ##2904192

  • @FlashMobOfOne@mstdn.social 2026-04-29 23:31

    @tylersticka@social.lol Not sure if this is helpful, but I did a search on Marginalia, which is really good at finding vintage and older web pages, it's possible this set of results may be more helpful. https://marginalia-search.com/search?query=CMOS+battery+fix&sst=SE-1ac9e216995a530d

    Open ##2904196

  • @tylersticka@social.lol Here's the link to the manual at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/manualsbase-id-249998/mode/2up You can download the manual from there. It says, "The battery should only be exchanged by authorized service personnel," it doesn't include detailed disassembly instructions.

    Open ##2904197

  • @tylersticka@social.lol been a while since I looked for laptop service manuals. This promised to be the right thing for a CF-37, but is instead for the CF-27: https://mail.barrister.com/tf/Panasonic/Panasonic%20Service%20Manuals/Service%20Manual/CF-37/cf_37ndeddxx.pdf Looking at the upper right of the exploded diagram, the battery looks like a coin cell wrapped up with a tiny plug that plugs into the bottom of the motherboard. The CF-37 might be similar and it might even be under one of the service hatches on the underside - I'd start there and see what you can find without disassembling.

    Open ##2904201

  • @snep@y.diskcat.com 2026-04-30 00:09

    @tylersticka@social.lol Another CF-37 owner? Never thought I'd see the day! They are such unobtanium nowadays, even info is somewhat sparse, at least last time I've looked! The CMOS battery is removable and located right next to the CPU fan under the bottom shell, I wish I knew what the connector is called though

    Open ##2904204

  • @Twisted666@dobbs.town 2026-04-30 00:34

    @tylersticka@social.lol Isnä t some seatching the Ebay your friend in this matter? Something chinese....do you need to mend it it with welding?

    Open ##2904216

  • @scrottie@bsd.network 2026-04-30 01:35

    @tylersticka@social.lol Fan of the Panasonics. I've had one Let's Note or another for years and a couple of Toughbooks. That's part of the "semi-rugged" line if I recall. Battery should plug in to a little two pin socket, and something like this should work: https://www.ebay.com/itm/234186171173

    Open ##2904217