$6k CF-30 Mark III UPGRADE in IRAQ. HELP

Hello everybody,

My first post. I am currently in the U.S. Military serving at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. My tour is over in a few weeks! Prior to deployment I purchased a CF-30 Mark III with EVERYTHING minus windows Vista and GPS. I'm running XP.

I just purchased this machine with a 3 year EVERYTHING warranty from Panasonic (via Buytough and Craig M.) This thing has EVERYTHING (except GPS) that you can put in a toughbook. GOBI, fingerprint, card reader, touchscreen, spare battery, DVD Burner (waiting on BlueRay!) I've also recently had the hard drive upgraded to a 500gb. Even put in 8GB of RAM which I'll get to.

This machine is AWESOME! However......

I have the intel Centrino with the Vpro and I have 8GB of RAM even though the machine only sees 3.2. When I get back to the states I want to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP which looks like it will accept according to Panasonics Windows 7 page. However, I have two questions.......maybe 3.

1) Which Windows 7 can I put on the CF-30 ...32bit or 64bit? Is the 64 faster than the 32bit version? Will either or affect my RAM capabilities or processor speed?

2) I have the 8GB of RAM in the machine and I want to know what is limiting the machine seeing the 8GB of RAM? The Operating System or the motherboard? I'm going to upgrade whatever is limiting me if possible.

3) Can I upgrade the motherboard via Panasonic or another source? Any advice other than "don't do it, or it's expensive." for upgrading the motherboard? Because if I find out the mother board is the limiting factor, then I'm either upgrading the board or getting a Dell XPS if it can't be upgraded......

I appreciate it and I hope to hear from you.


Thanks,

Will
Balad Iraq.

 

1) Which Windows 7 can I put on the CF-30 ...32bit or 64bit?

- both.

2) I have the 8GB of RAM in the machine and I want to know what is limiting the machine seeing the 8GB of RAM?

- the motherboard chipset.

3) Can I upgrade the motherboard via Panasonic or another source?

- No.

A laptop isn't something you can "gung-ho" into running at the speed of light. Just get the E6400 XFR if you need 8GB RAM, although lord knows you need that for.

 

There was a recent debate about the 32/64 bit thing... It sounded like even Panasonic was confused by it. 64 should run faster IF you have a 64 bit machine... Which I don't think the CF-30 is, truly.

8GB RAM? I really think anything over two is most likely wasted unless you are tasking your CPU fast and furious. Win7 will help to open that up. The OS AND the motherboard have to do with RAM limits in a way. For instance... I have 4GB RAM on my CF-30 MK1.... But really... Everything over 3GB is wasted as it is not really recognized by Win XP Pro. (I plan on switching to W7 Soon hopefully!)

You can't swap CPUs or motherboards to go faster...

Other, more knowledgeable people will chime in I'm sure.

 

Hi Bono
We just ran into part of this problem at Edwards AFB. We are upgrading a lot of computers from XP to Vista
Addressable ram is limited by the hardware, Bios software and Operating system.
We are having to junk some computers as the hardware will not address even 2 gigabytes.
We can upgrade the bios software on many pentium computers to address more than 4 gigabyte of ram. I did not note what the maximum bios addresses could be.
Finally we ran into the limit of the operating system. 32 bit OS is only capable of addressing 3.5 gigabyte of ram and will ignore the rest of installed ram. To get your OS to address 8 gigabytes of ram you must use the 64bit OS configuration.

you need to get specifics answers on your computer as to how much ram the hardware, bios and OS can address and configure to that maximum.

Hope this helps

 

I would just like to know what you would need 8 gigs of ram for, if you don't mind sharing.

64bit OS is not faster then 32bit OS in CPU bound computations. If your computations are memory bound then 64bit will be faster IFF you install more then 4 gigs. 64bit is able to address more then 4 gigs (2^32 bits) to be precise it can adders 2^64 bits (16.8 million terabyte).

The above is theory, in practice there are performance difference due to different drivers for 64 bit and 32 bit (these differences might or might not be noticeable), in this case the winner is decided by how well the drivers are implemented. More importantly to the memory question is the hardware limitation, if your hardware/bios can't address more then 4 gigs then you will never see all 8 with no OS.

What baffles me is the amount of memory you want.

I run 3 machines: a Sony with 3 gigs, it never exceeds ~500 megs, a Dell with 1 gig, it never exceeds ~350 megs, and finally a server that is my print server, router, firewall, primary work machine, synergy server, raid backup server, as well as WLAN and LAN streamer, here I sometimes run into trouble with my limit 1 gig : (. The point of this was: why do you need 8 gigs of ram on a laptop? I would really like to know.

thanks

 

Hi Bono
I went to the Panasonic site and got this line from the pdf on the CF-30

"Memory - 2048MB SDRAM (DDR2-667MHz) standard, expandable to 4096MB"

The maximum memory the CF 30 Mark 3 is 4 gigabyte. You can address 3.5 gigabyte with a 32bit OS install. The 64 bit OS install could allow you to access the additional 1/2 gigabyte of ram, But,

64 bit is not a great solution. Here is an excerpt from an article about windows 7 by Paul Thurrott. http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_ff_x64.asp

"Unlike with 32-bit XP versions, many hardware devices will not work on XP x64 because of a dearth of 64-bit drivers (32-bit drivers will not work in a native 64-bit OS). Likewise, many software applications will not install or run because of various issues, including a surprising amount of 16-bit application installers and poorly-designed version detection."

I could not find any reference to installing 64bit OS in the Pentium dual core processor in your computer which leads me to suspect the CPU will not work with a 64 bit OS and the drivers on the your Toughbook may not work work in a 64 bit OS.

Sorry I can't give you a more definite answer on compatibility. You will probably have to contact the Panasonic engineers on this question of installing a 64bit OS in the CF30.

Sincerely,

 

I didn't think the MK3 could handle 8GB.... Mine goes up to 4 and its an MK1

 

32 Bit XP-Pro is limited to seeing less then 4 GB of Ram. The OS is the limiting factor, even if the CF-30's BIOs is not. Upgrade to a later or x64 OS and it will see more of your RAM. Whether that makes it faster, well let us know.

Good Luck!

BTW Sonoronos, not trying to get into a pissing contest, but how is telling someone to get a Dell Latitude E6400 in the Toughbook Sub-forum in anyway helpful?

The Toughbook is a proven machine.

The Dell, who knows, there are not enough of them out there to be seeing meaningful data on how they respond to use in harsh environments.

I am not a Toughbook expert, but I will wager I know a lot more about what holds up under these conditions then most.

 

Yeah... I missed that... I can't believe one of OUR forum members recommended a Dull laptop... Sheesh....

The next thing you know we'll have the Lenovo people over here....

 

Bono -

If you can see all 8GB in BIOS, upgrading to win7/64 should make it all available. NO 32-bit M$ OS will see more than 3.5 GB or so; it's a limitation of the fundamental structure of the file system.

Some 32-Bit *NIX variants can use more; but that has to do with fiddling address extensions inside the kernel than the inherent theoretical limitations of the 32-bit environment.

That said; I'm with Gothed on this one; NOTHING that you should be doing with the limited hardware resources (Mid-range video/audio, and bare minimum LCD) of a Toughbook will NEED 8GB of RAM. THE MACHINE IS JUST NOT MEANT TO BE USED THAT WAY.

Toughbooks are meant to be a bulletproof (OK - bullet-RESISTANT) workhorse machine, not a top-end gaming rig. PERIOD. Trying to turn one into some AlienWare rig is like trying to make a Ferrari out of a Dumptruck. In THEORY, it could be made to work... but it would be easier to melt it all down & start over from scratch.

mnem
OK... Thoroughbreds over here, and all you Clydesdales over there... NO CLYDE... GET OFF OF DALE... NOW!

 

Thanks everybody.....to answer a few questions....

First off......I am NOT a computer type...I know enough to be dangerous and I usually take people that "sound smart" at their word if I can't trip them up with a few questions, which is and can be an expensive way to go about life. However.....

1) I am working mainly with 21mp RAW photo's and photoshop CS4 which seems to be bogged down quite a bit. I go to open a folder with 100 RAW pics, and 70 will open and then the rest get the red X on them and the screen popup that says "Insufficient memory, cannot open" or words to that affect. The toughbook is saying that it's the memory. Otherwise, when I go to edit a huge file (photo) and I move it to edit, it's fine for a bit, but then she bogs down after a bit of editing.....again, a memory issue. I use the machine in a very rough environment as you can imagine and being deployed, I need this laptop to survive. I've bombed out a few machines that had incredible speed etc, but either got rained on, stepped on inside my backpack etc. Hence my need for this magnesium beast. I know it's not a gamer...clearly. I just have the money and I want to squeeze every ounce of speed I can.....damn the money.

2) I already have the 8GB 2x4 chips in the machine. I ordered them as a result of talking to Craig M. at BUYTOUGH who said "we have installed 8GB in our CF-30 here in the office, and we noticed a substantial increase in speed" and that is a direct quote. So after questioning him more, he couldn't give me any stats and then ignored my Emails for a while....and finally, I said heck with it, and just put the ram in, hoping that he was right....which now I'm finding out that he was not. Hence me asking you good people for advice.

So as a result of the above, here is where I'm at.....I'm going to put Win7 32bit (the posts above make it sound like the 64 bit won't get me speed, and may cause driver issues), in the machine for a bit more speed hopefully and see what that does.

But seriously...is there NOTHING else I can do to eek out some more speed? Right now, I'm actually contemplating a sale. Stand by for a loaded CF-30 for sale if I can't get some more speed out of it after I get back.

P.S. What is a ROM drive physical or software and does it make a machine go faster? I have that according to stuff I've seen and I don't know what it is.

 

By the way, I had originally purchased the Dell toughbook in February, and I trashed the hard drive throwing it in a Hummer.....put a new hard drive in (not shock mounted at all! and is hard mounted to the body of the laptop!!) so hopefully the new Dell Latitude E6400 solved that minor oversight. That is when I bought this machine.

 

Seeing your use your best improvement will probably be seen by employing SSDs. I have never worked with PS myself, however I believe PS is exactly one of those programs that can benefit immensely from a good SSD.

Get a high end SSD, not the cheap stuff. Toughbook has some experience. I would suggest the Intel extreme. If you wan't to carry a library of stuff, then you might find that the SSD has insufficient memory. If this however is not your primary PC and just field work you should be fine. [SSDs also cost quite alot ]

Let us know how much ram the bios reports, and how much you see after installing a 64bit system.

thanks

EDIT: this here suggests you can get better then 15K sas drives out of an ssd: http://download.intel.com/design/flash/nand/extreme/Photoshop_CS4_Performance_Comparison.pdf

EDIT2: again I have never worked with PS, but the internet seems to suggest that 4 gigs is enough for photo editing.

8 gigs only being required for movie editing.

 

http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/panasonic/tarantula/?tab=customize

If linux can see the full 8gigs then 64bit windoze should also be able to.

with 8 gigs and an SSD you'd have a killer machine (in the laptop realm).

Now if you except it to behave like a desktop, then well, you will never get close to that performance. After the above mentioned upgrades your bottleneck will probably be your CPU.

EDIT: to get windows to play nice you might want to tell it to not cache thumbnails, and even better just don't use them. Just list all the files (unless you need the visual)

 

Bono, you might solve your problem by just increasing the virtual memory of your machine, rather than risk the BSOD by over-ramming it (IF you pardon the pun). I would try that first.

 

Well... No offense.... But I would be on the phone (email) with Craig.... For $6k, he should come to Iraq and do this for you...

 

Photoshop is not a disk-intensive program in terms of continuous throughput. It is memory-intensive program, and depending on what you're doing, CPU-intensive.

That said, Bono, you may want to take a serious look at your workflow, which is extremely important because you work with RAW files. I don't shoot raw often, but I use Aperture on the Mac to manage all my photos. Adobe Lightroom is another popular program that is available on the PC, and works with RAW formats (make sure it works with your camera's files first! 21mp... 1ds mkIII? in that case yes. )

Why do you need to open 100 RAW files at a time in PS? If you're converting them to JPG or such, you can make Photoshop Actions (read: macros) that do the same. If you're doing comparisons, etc. then Lightroom will be of immense help.

*WARNING* Completely OT:
Bono, since in you're a combat camera, may I suggest the National Press Photographers' Association workshop "Short Course" which was actually heavily sponsored by the USAF. It was previously called the "Flying Short Course" until this year. You'll meet a ton of other incredible photographers, have your work ripped apar.. I mean critiqued by multiple award-winning photogs as well. Great personal development and networking. And this is where you also get to ask people "so what's your workflow like?" I'm a video guy, but I've also been to the stills workshops and everytime there's always a good number of military photogs there too.


Semi OT:
Please don't tell me when you're selling the CF-30 because I really can't spend any more on this stuff!!!! PLEASE!! SOMEONE BUY IT THE MINUTE HE POSTS IT... PLEASE! SAVE ME!!!!

 

Bono-

D@MN. I stand corrected. you really DO NEED all that heat...

If you're trying to manipulate very large images, then you DO need the MOST RAM you can get running in this machine. Before you change your OS, MAKE SURE YOU CAN SEE ALL 8 GB IN BIOS. If yes, then Get into Win7 64-BIT Edition - it's the ONLY way you're going to use all of it.

Next, get yourself a 4GB Flash Drive that's rated for use as a ReadyBoost drive; THIS WILL MAKE A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN YOUR FILE PROCESSING SPEEDS. Look here for a good basic discussion of what drives are fast enough; they have a list of known ReadyBoost ready flash drives.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=186

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

Don't go crazy looking for the biggest, fastest, most expensive drive out there; for ReadyBoost you have to format the drive in FAT32, and you're going to want to make it dedicated. Even if you get a bigger one, it'll only USE 4GB, so anything bigger is a WASTE.

ReadyBoost is essentially a 3rd level cache; we used to have add-on boards with that feature for just this sort of thing.

I'll give you a real-life comparison of the improvement:

The machine I'm typing on RIGHT NOW is an Athlon64 with 2GB RAM (Max supported by the BIOS) and a 4GB ReadyBoost. Without the ReadyBoost, I could typically keep 14-16 browser tabs open at once (I'm a multi-window ABUSER) in 1680x1050 32-Bit resolution before FireFox would cough and occasionally die. WITH the 4GB ReadyBoost drive, I routinely keep 30 or more tabs open as well as a couple .PDF files, a WordPad document or two, and an instance of TaskManager all the time. It runs stable and fast; when there's lag, it's from my Roadrunner service, not the PC.

I'm not sure, but I believe the SD-card slot in your CF-30 is SD-HC compatible; if so, you should be able to permanently use a SD-Card in that slot for Ready-Boost.

I'm using a 4GB SanDisk Ultra II SDHC Plus for this machine; it is the Class 4 version, with built-in USB 2.0 on the other end (UBER-HANDY little card). Even if it won't work in the SD slot, it WILL work on the USB side for ReadyBoost.

Just be careful when you're shopping for ANY SanDisk Flash Memory; there's a LOT of counterfeit SanDisk out there. This is straight from the manufacturer: SanDisk (JUST LIKE SONY) ONLY SELLS IN HERMETICALLY SEALED RETAIL BLISTER-PACK. PERIOD. If a vendor is selling SanDisk in OEM or BULK, IT IS COUNTERFEIT. Your particular vendor may not know it (or may just not WANT to know it - nudgenudge, winkwink - how am I getting such a great deal on a truckload of name brand flash memory); there are vendors selling on Amazon who are selling counterfeit product. Most of the counterfeit product is NOT ONLY substandard, much of it isn't even of the rated capacity; they reprogram the memory controller to report a bogus capacity, and you may never even realize it until you try and save a file or folder of known size and it kakks out halfway through.

mnem
Getting tired of bruising my knuckles on the ground...

 

Photoshop has options to help
My friend has one of those Pro Nikon camera’s that saves in Raw and I remember him building a multiple processor large ram capacity system and he tweaked items in Photoshop like the (scratch disk)
And like the dragon says, windows is able to help with Ready boost



Alex

 

I have no idea how to increase the virtual memory?

Gothed: What is an SSD? I really didn't understand most of your post, although I'm sure it made sense

Also, due to drivers issues brought up here, I'm thinking that the 32bit Win 7 is the way to go?

Also, how do you tell the machine not to "cache thumbnails?" What would this hurt if I turned it off? Opening files etc?

 

This ready boost drive, is it a flashdrive or thumb drive that you just plug in when you're using the machine? Or is it a card that I plug in when using the machine? So it's like an external ram chip? Please break it down for me a bit. Any drawbacks to using it?

 

I just read about the ready boost....and as soon as I get Win7....I'm in. Seems like it's worth a shot.

So does anybody think that Simply putting Win7 32 bit would allow my system to see the 8GB of RAM...or what about the Win7 64bit? It sounds like some people say 64bit will allow 8GB, but then others have said NOPE, your motherboard is limiting you to 3.5? Maybe I'm just slow. Not only that but it sounds like even if 64bit Win7 were the answer, I'm opening myself up to a slew of driver issues upon re-install of drivers? Do I have that right?

 

my 2pence (yes im a brit!)

win7 64 bit is a must, purely to address all the memory... no 32bit OS will see past 3.5gb of memory.

readyboost uses a normal usb thumb drive or flsh card as a cache, a long as it passes various criteria (which almost all do now!)... but forget ready boost, its awaste of time with your configuration. flash memory is a lot slower than real ram, but faster than hard drive.

disable the virtual memory page file - again, you have acres of memory so swaping to hdd will slow you down.

that will produce the fastest general use pc... you have a specific demand for your machine so depending on the scratch disk options in PS you may need more secialised tweaking.

OT
8gig and a vpro - would make the toughbook even tougher... the ability to run one or two virtualised operating systems would give rednudancy and DR options that would otherwise be unavailable...

forgive the spelling, but im on my UX1XN today

 

I'm going to disagree with Matt here on a couple of points:

Win7 will NOT like it if you disable the PageFile... it is even MORE finicky about it than previous versions of Windoze were (A LOT more overhead in the OS).

ReadyBoost WILL NOT be a waste of time in your case; for the same reason we STILL install 3rd level cache in large servers.

Third - Matt - not to be harsh, but it is pretty evident from the preceding discussion that Bono is a novice hack... encouraging him to get into stuff like managing his pagefile at this stage is just BEGGING for trouble. It's TOO EASY to blow up your OS tinkering with this kind of stuff.

Now - for the most important stuff... BONO - PAY CLOSE ATTENTION.

32-Bit Win7 WILL NOT... FOR SURE WILL NOT... address more than 3.5 GB RAM. You NEED Win7 64-Bit for that. PERIOD.

You may STILL NOT BE ABLE TO ADDRESS ALL 8GB IF YOUR BIOS DOESN'T SUPPORT IT. THIS IS A HARDWARE LIMITATION, NOT OS.

LOOK IN YOUR BIOS - IF IT SHOWS ALL 8GB PRESENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE IT ALL WITH Win7 64-BIT.

If it doesn't show all 8GB present, then you most likely WILL NOT be able to use all 8GB you have installed; in fact, it may very well CAUSE system instability and MAY NEED TO BE REMOVED down to the maximum specified by Panasonic in the owner's manual.

If you don't understand what I mean when I say Look in your BIOS, then you REALLY need to print out the content of this thread and take it and your Toughbook to your local Computer Guru and get some hands-on help.

mnem
Lending a helping claw...

 

Thanks for the advice.......so here it goes.

I do understand how to look into BIO's for my RAM, so that I will do. I'll get back to you on what it says.

Next, I will not be putting Win7 64 bit in the machine....based on what you've said and what others have said about the drivers and compatibility with drivers etc. I will put the Win7 32bit......

I will NOT be touching page file stuff. I've tinkered before and have ended up scrapping a machine because of it.....I will not do that with a $6k Toughbook.

If the BIOS do not say 8GB, then that RAM is coming out.....and going on Ebay unless someone here wants to buy it. I am very careful when putting in and taking out and I do it in our clean room. It's about 2 months old and apparently hasn't been used

What does a READYBOOST cost?

 

Modding a CF-30 to attempt to do what you want to do sounds like an exercise in both time and money, where the end goal is unclear.

BTW 21MP RAW photos should not be causing problems on a 4GB RAM system, I do it all the time.

 

It is a component of Vista and Win7. Go HERE for an overview.

 

Bono -

Your 32-bit Win7 will NOT have any advantage driver-wise over the 64-bit version; it was Windows XP 64-bit that Microsoft never bothered to write drivers for.

Any drivers that work for the 32-bit version of Win7 will work in compatibility mode on the 64-bit version; in fact, I'm using 32-bit Windows XP drivers for the sound on the Win7 64-bit install I'm typing this message on right now.

If you use the Win7 32-bit install, you GUARANTEE that you will NOT be able to use more than 3.5GB of your RAM. See here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778(VS.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

And this good starter discussion on the subject here:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3124

As for the ReadyBoost drive itself:

There is no "SPECIAL" flash drive JUST FOR ReadyBoost; all you need is a USB Flash Drive that is fast enough. Google for it; you'll find 1,000 hits for people selling drives KNOWN to be compatible for use; the links I gave you in my first post will give you a good starting point for models to search for. You PROBABLY have a compatible flash drive LYING AROUND ALREADY; all you'll need to do is TRY IT once you have Win7 installed on your machine.

You will see many manufacturers are selling Flash Drives that are supposedly "Optimized" for ReadyBoost; by the time you pay for them, you may as well have bought the extra RAM (Which you already HAVE).

Now IF you already have Win7 32-Bit available... and you DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT... then YES, it will be an improvement over Vista 32-bit... think of it as the "De-cr@pified" version. You'll have less memory wasted for the OS, and you WILL get the benefit of ReadyBoost.

If you have to PAY for your Win7, GET THE 64-BIT VERSION. You can deal with the driver issues; you CANNOT make Win7 32-bit address all that RAM.

mnem
Oi.

 

You know, there are times...

It is pretty clear that this user's issues don't stem from a lack of SPEED, but rather poor memory management. I can tell you from experience that, when working with large image files, you don't need huge processor power - you just need to be able to get it all into memory. I was handling 20MP image files almost 10 years ago, and I didn't have 1/10th the processor power in my workstation he has in that laptop.

Just because his machine's issues manifest as "being slow" doesn't mean a faster processor is going to fix his problem; you have no idea how many "slow" machines I've fixed with a simple RAM upgrade or Registry Enema.

mnem
The higher the faster...

 

First: Assume I don't make sense, English is my second language and I ramble.

SSD: Tom's Hardware gives a nice introduction: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-x25-m-SSD,2012.html

SSDs are the thing for servers right now, high IO is were they really accelerate things. Their form factor means that you can have server class performance in a laptop.

But look into the ready boost first, it is much cheaper option (but a rugged jump drive sticking out of a USB port? just seems prone to failure, but the SSD seems like a good option)

let us know how it works out

 

An sd memory card (one of the faster type more expensive) might work well for readyboost if you are not using that for your camera memory cards as an alternate to a usb type memory storage

Alex

 

Gothed-

I LOVE SSDs. They ARE THE BOMB. But when I think of what this guy's trying to do... and then trying to walk a novice hack through setting the partition alignment, or trying to explain why if he's going to spend the money on an SSD, he needs to cough up the BIG BUX for an SLC model that costs more than twice as much for half the capacity of the MLC models everyone's hawking...

I just shudder. Besides... he REALLY needs to get his memory issues sorted FIRST, before we go messing with EITHER.

I've said all I want to on the subject...

mnem
Look over there.. is that the POPE?

 

Bono,

I am not even going to try and give any thoughts as the others that have chimed in are WAY above my pay grade when it comes to 'puter experience. However, I have been around this forum (and others) long enough to have fingered out that when mnem speaks, STFU and listen. He has probably lost/forgotten more than either of us will ever know when it comes to the architecture and/or software of our lovely Toughbooks (not to mention others). Not to dis anyone else's opinions, but if mnem was Kimber Delta Elite and the others a standard issue M9, which would you trust YOUR life to? Bottom line, the man know whereof he speaks.

Sniff...sniff, I suddenly smell sulfur and hear the rush of wings.....

 

sorry if I have caused more confusion then good. I agree with everything you have and are saying.

**gothed returns to lurking

 

Ok.....I'm a liar and I just wanted to make up a story that has no ending?

Thanks for your advice.



Gothed, Trooper and MN......Thanks! (Except for the part where you keep calling me a hack . You guys are great and I really appreciate the time you've given to the subject. I'll be putting in the Win7 64 bit then.....are there drivers for all of my panasonic gizmos' and gadgets?...fingerprint, card reader, bluetooth, touchscreen, gobi, etc.....with Win7 64 bit. I'll also be trying to learn more about the boost issue so I can implement when I get to the states.

Didn't someone say that my machine is currently a 32bit? Will it accept a 64 bit version of Win7?

How do I set up my machine to use it's resources better? Such as not caching thumbnails and using ram more efficiently. Is that something a HACK like me can figure out?


Our replacement unit arrived today, and I am so damn psyched to get back to the states. I've had enough of the prayer music, women that are covered up (that's just wrong) and sand......

 

You can find all the W7 Drivers at the following:
http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/itn/support/win7info.html

Unfortunately they are all 32bit drivers... Who knows it may work with 64bit. Post back let us know what you tried and the success or failures.

Welcome back btw.

 

Bono -

The Intel SL9300 CPU that is listed for your CF-30 IS a 64-Bit processor; Win7 64-Bit SHOULD RUN on it. Win7 provides a "Compatibility-mode" option for installing software from other versions of Windows; the 32-Bit Win7 drivers that Toyo & medic directed you to SHOULD work in compatibility mode. SHOULD. I don't have a CF-30; I CANNOT SAY FOR SURE EVERY DRIVER WILL WORK.

That said - Win7 32-bit CANNOT address all 8GB in your system. PERIOD.

THIS IS WHY I ASKED YOU FIRST OFF IF ALL 8GB SHOWED IN YOUR BIOS.

If it DOES, you should be able to use it ALL with Win7 64-Bit, but Win7 64-bit WILL BE AN EXPERIMENT, as Panasonic DOES NOT YET HAVE 64-Bit Drivers for the CF-30.

If you don't see all 8GB in BIOS, you probably WILL NOT be able to use it all, EVEN WITH Win7 64-Bit.

So... for the umpteenth time...

HOW MUCH FLIPPING RAM SHOWS IN YOUR BIOS? :wink:

As for calling you a hack... that's short for hacker; it's a term of respect around here. It's the novice part you should take exception to, if at all.

mnem
How many hacks would a Windoze Hacker hack....?

 

Thanks for the props... it's nice to feel appreciated. I'll try not to let it go to my head...

mnem <~~~ Knows just enough to know how little he really knows. ~~~<<<

 

Seriously, as a fellow photog, I would recommend a look at your workflow first and see if there are ways to improve with your current hardware. I know as geeks we always want the bestest fastest biggest machine.

 

I am using the 1Ds3 which is slso a 21mp RAW, I usually transfer the files to the CF-19 with 4 g ram ,and XP pro, CS3 , without any problem.

 

Well, his problem is this:

I'm not sure if he's opening up 100 RAW photos or simply trying to look at all of them. Windows is incredibly inefficient at reading/making those thumbnails. Which is why I asked about workflow, if he uses something like Adobe Lightroom to catalogue and view. Works well to enter IPTC data as well. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't search via IPTC metadata!

 

MNementh.....I just looked in the bios and it says:
Mem Size 8192 mb (DDR2)
Available Mem 3228 mb

So it looks like I'm on a 32bit system now, and it SEE's the 8GB of RAM but of course is only using the 3.2gb. How am I doing so far?

However, your most recent comments about drivers for the 64 bit being an EXPERIMENT just took the wind out of my sails. I'm not sure I want to do the experimenting....I've already killed a machine doing an experiment a few years back.....

Everybody is saying that I should have no problem but then why do I have big red X's in place of thumbnails when I'm reviewing a folder of RAW pics (thumbnails).....about 3/4 will open, and then the others have the big RED "we ain't opening this crap" X.

 

I think this was mentioned before . . all of the Photoshop users I support have to use a different drive (or possibly a different partition may work) for the scratch disk . . doing this will greatly help the performance of the machine

Not sure what options are avail. on your ToughBook for a second drive ?

 

I agree....but I'm simply opening folders in Canon's stock software.....most of the time.

I have been using lightroom recently, but I'm new to the software and am just learning how to use it.

I'm shooting with a Canon5D Mark II. When I shoot the HD video, download it, and then play it on my CF-30....I can truly see the limits of my CF-30....choppy playback.

I am determined to seek the knowledge high and low, from east to west, to find a way to eek every single bit of speed I can out of this machine. I will soak another grand into this machine without thinking twice if it means better performance.

 

No option for a 2nd drive. Thanks.

 

MMMhmmm...

Bono -

ARE YOU sure YOU'RE IN BIOS?

I've NEVER seen a message like that generated by the machine's BIOS - you should be looking at a bunch of Text Only menus, and it should be under the first section called "System Information" or something similar.

The message you're describing sounds like the Sys Info Pane from within WINDOWS - your BIOS is what comes up BEFORE you start loading Windows.

On the other hand, the fact that you do have SOMETHING reporting all 8GB IS PROMISING.

Do us both a favor; take a clear pic of the screen where you're seeing this and post it in the group. Remember you have approx a 580 kb filesize limit...

mnem
Good hunting!

 

Bono, The cool thing about experimenting with the Toughbook is that you can always throw the Receovery disks back in and reimage it to stock pecs.... You can't really do any physical damge by trying some of the suggestions here. Mnementh is the one to heed.... His word is golden.

And I am curious about that note also.... The BIOS should just show you a flat size amount... Not tell you how much you have and how much is available... That sounds like System Properties.... Click F-2 at boot to get into the BIOS and see wht it shows on the first screen. (Should be first screen anyway.)

 

I just booted into my CF-30's bios because I was curious about that too. and lo an behold it says the same thing

Memory Size 3072 Mb (DDR2)
Available Memory 2984 Mb

must be something new for Panasonic bios
my model is an MKIII also

 

my guess is that it tells you how much memory it reserved for the PCI bus etc..

for example, how much memory have you reserved for your on board graphics?

 

I looked in the bios on my cf-30 a mk-2 and mine is about the same available with 4 G installed
So it looks like we are out of luck with getting more ram shown on any O/S as its a limitation of the chipsest or bios-Not an O/S issue as the bios will not know what O/S is loaded at that point


Alex