CF-19 Does my Toughbook have a Touchscreen at all?

Hello,

this is my first post here. You may excuse me, my English is not so good. So maybe there has been this question already, but it would take too much time for me to find out, because I am so slowly in reading English text.

I have recently bought a Toughbook CF-19 MK1, my first Toughbook.
It's a CF-19CDD42UG.

The seller described it having a touchscreen and tablet function.It had a pen included (a black plastic one with a white point and a key on it.)

There was no system included, soI had to install Windows OS by myself. I tried installing different drivers, but the touchscreen still does not work. The pen works, as a ringlike symbol appears when I come close to the screen with the pen in my hand. But absolutely nothing happens when I touch/press it with my finger / nail.

I am wondering, if it
a) is a missing Driver or
b) a defective part
c) or doesn't have a Touchscreen at all?

Because I could not find any threads regarding this problem. Most of them are about wrong calibration or something else. I did not find a thread about no reaction of the Touchscreen at all.

I would be very glad, if someone can help me.

 

Your best bet is to buy a recovery DVD as the CF-19 is difficult to restore correctly without one. Where are you located? And it appears you have a digitizer screen,the pen is needed to run the screen,your finger will not work.

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

What OS did you install.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/cf-19-guide-f-a-q.746328/

It looks like you have a digitizer, does it have a grey pen with a clicker on the side?

And as Toughasnails said what OS?

All CF-19's have some kind of touch.

There is standard touch screen that comes with a black pen, it's just solid plastic. This touch will respond to the pen or your finger. Then there is digitizer. It will only work with a pen. (later on there is dual touch that has both but your Mk1 wasn't offered with it.)

I think looking at your model number you have a digitizer, what OS sticker is on the bottom of your toughbook. If it's XP Pro it's touchscreen, if it's XP tablet edition it's a digitizer. Vista could be either one.

 

It's a digitizer only model....You finger will not work, you must use the stylus pen..Digitizers are much more accurate than a touchscreen...

The C means it is a mark1
The first D tells me it is a digitizer only model
Not sure about the second D
The 42 probably means it was custom built for some company or Government agency.
U indicates the OS was...TabletPC, MUI
The G indicates its a German model.

 

Hello and many thanks for your reply!

This is what I feared..., that it does not have this touch (by finger) function at all. I do also have a ThinkPad X41t which can be used with a digitizer pen, too. I thought this CF-19 could be used by fingers and a pen.

I am from Germany and I chose Windows 8, because as I read it is supposed to be easier to use with a touchscreen. Almost all drivers were automatically installed by Windows. I only had to add some for tablet keys and something else. (I also tried a linux live system; on the bottom is a XP-Tablet Edition sticker.) But as far as I understand it is not a driver issue anyway.

So, have I got it right, a CF-19 MK1 model which can be used by finger and digitizer pen does not exist at all. It is either a touchscreen which can only be used by finger and any pointed item OR a digitizer screen which needs an inductive pen to function?

That's a pity. It makes this Toughbook become less cool than I thought it would be. Another question: If I Exchange this one with a touchscreen model, could I use a (simple plastic) pen for handwriting on the screen and would OCR work or is that type of Screen too inaccurate?

Thank you again for your help!

 

You have it all correct.
.......A swap for a touchscreen model sounds like a good idea for you.
.........Yes a touchscreen will work with any plastic object.
OCR should work on a touchscreen model..If your writing is messy like mine, you may need to adjust your handwriting so OCR understands it.

Your best solution may be to invest a little more money and get a slightly newer model (mk3 and later)with dual touch. Dual touch models have a digitizer AND a touchscreen. That's what I choose to use. Are you planning on writing large documents?

I have an extra dual touch mk3 here with high hours. Shipping to Germany may be expensive, I don't know.

 

Hello Shawn and thanks again for your reply!

I find it really interesting to see that the Toughbooks do tell us how many hours they have run already. As I've never seen this feature on an IBM ThinkPad, I cannot rank what is high and what is moderate or low. My CF-19 MK1 does have 9170 hours. I am wondering what might break on a model with high hours, aside from higher physical wearout when it was used more often in field work.

Where do you live and would you like to take for your extra MK3?

 

I am in USA...
Actually I don't feel high hours makes much of a difference either..Especially since the mk3 and later have LED backlight for the LCD..The LED's are brighter and don't dim with age like the old style CCFL backlights.

Private conversation started

 

IF you do swap out your Mk1 digitizer to get another CF-19 with regular touch make sure it's a Mk2 or higher CF-19. The regular touch on a CF-19 Mk1 can go bad, we have seen a lot on this board, but we have never seen a bad digitizer. So just keep that in mind.

 

Shawn...give it a try.. I think it will work now

 

@ADOR Thanks for this hint.

And thanks for your assistance @mod, it's really a helpful and nice board here!