Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-11-04, 18:13:

Could someone post some pictures of the drive and I could provide some guidance on how to swap out the belt? It's actually quite […]
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Could someone post some pictures of the drive and I could provide some guidance on how to swap out the belt? It's actually quite simple on the EME279 drives once you've got a belt of the right dimensions:
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
The belt I've linked in there is what I install in any EME279 drive I find since they're all bad now, just a simple TPU print and I made a bunch of them last time I had the printer set up for printing belts.

I wish I could find the FDD module somewhere for a good price, I'm stuck with the space filler in the bay instead.

The hard drive died on mine too but it's working fine with a 1GB CF card that I formatted on another laptop that does have a working floppy drive. The 163 error you've got should go away once you're in the OS and can set the time, assuming that the CMOS batter is still working - from what I recall it's a rechargeable vanadium lithium cell that doesn't need replacing unless it completely fails to keep charge after the laptop has been powered via AC adapter for a bit.

I can post some pictures of the drive, however, unfortunately, I cannot provide you with any guidance on how to swap out the belt. I'm sorry.

Here are some pictures. I hope they're useful.
I made the decision to disassemble it only this much. I am hesitant to take it apart any further.

Wilius wrote on 2023-11-04, 18:44:

Here are some pictures. I hope they're useful.
I made the decision to disassemble it only this much. I am hesitant to take it apart any further.

Sorry folks, didn't see this because I was the middle of moving at the time. I've since then got a CF-41 that wasn't working and donated its floppy drive.

That's an EME279 type drive but it's got the PCB on top like the EME278 so it must be an early one. Pretty sure I have the same in mine and it's fine with the 65mm or 204mm circumference belt, with 1.5mm height or maybe 1.8mm on this page: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?
I might make the belts available though since I know how to 3d print a good working belt and I don't see them being very available right now. Looks like you can get an EME278 belt online and if it's a good quality belt it should work with that drive. These belts do need to be pretty stiff though, I've found a rubber band type belt can't generate enough torque because the belt stretches when there's resistance.
Here's some guidance on how to get it further apart, these panasonic drives are pretty robust apart from the belt.

Something I do these days is put 3v into the motor directly after fitting a new belt to see that it doesn't slip out or stick on anything.
The head stepper motor is another problem area with the EME278 / EME279, where they can get stuck partway through reading a disk. Put a drop of fresh oil into the stepper motor bearing and run it back and forth a couple of times to fix that.
Then once the drive is working, exercise it by having it boot a few times from something big like a win98 bootdisk with the ramdrive.

wilius please message me
I have an important question about this laptop
My email: Abbas.bagherzadeh1384@gmail.com

Hey abbas91621, I sent you an email a few weeks ago.
I hope you received it.

Hey! So I have the exact same problem as the original poster. I have a cf41 mk1 and finally got round to playing with it yesterday along with an old net WiFi serial modem. Managed to get ppp working and ‘online’

I decided it was time to transfer some files. I have a 16bit pcmcia to cf adapter and it installed its drivers and then the mouse stopped working. After several reboots it comes back temporarily but then dies. Same issue as the OP saying it cannot be detected.

I have taken both of the boards out and ensured they are all clean. There is no corrosion and the capacitors all look fine. I must confess that perhaps I didn’t read the original posters solution exactly because I see they mention a capacitor specifically in the track ball. That’s the one place I haven’t taken apart to look inside. Is this easy to replace if I have that issue?

Regards
Alan

Managed to get the trackball working. took it apart and the capacitor looked fine.
Everything seemed good except now I cannot use the serial port. the serial port, parallel port, vga and AT BUS? are on a back panel which is connected via some proprietary sockets. I think I may have damaged the ribbon cable.

I can get data in and out of the machine via Compact flash but I was enjoying playing with the old net serial adapter 😒

shame as I quite like the laptop