CF-19 Windows 7 install

I'm gonna attempt to upgrade my CF-19 to windows 7 later this week, but I have a few questions.
1. Is the install procedure the same as what is listed for the CF-18 install that was recently posted on this site?
2. Can and/or should I install the 64bit version of Windows 7?
3. What are the pros and cons of attempting this?

This is a great site with a lot of resources. Thank you for all of your help thus far.

 

Ill answer these questions as I have been running Win7 on my CF19 since the betas.

1. The install is basically the same as the 18. You do have to follow the order in which you install the drivers and such. Also remember to look in the driver directories for reg and bat files which you will have to run after installing the driver. I rebooted every time I had to run one of the files.

2. You can only install the 32bit version as the Core Duos that we have in our CF-19s dont have the 64bit extentions required to install Win7 64bit.

3. is null if you were talking about the differences between 32 and 64.

Hope this helps...

 

I have W7 installed on my CF-18ND(mk5). Since I was running Vista I did an upgrade which took less than an hour to complete. Unlike the previous post on installing W7 on a mk1 CF-18, I did not have any video problems. W7 correctly installed the Intel 915 GM video driver, SigmaTel audio, Intel wifi and Wacom drivers. The hot keys including the front panel brightness control worked. I did however lose the auto screen rotation and the 3 front panel buttons. All my programs/drivers transferred over with no problems including the USB to serial adapter (Prolific) which I was using since my digitizer model did not have the serial port.
Out of curiosity I swapped out the HD and did a clean install as would be required for XP users. W7 insisted on installing the standard VGA driver and I had no sound and no wifi ! I had to install the SigmaTel audio driver and Intel 2915 wifi driver to regain base functionality. Despite hours of effort I could not get the hot keys to work.
IMHO if you are not running Vista on your CF-19, I suggest you do so and use the W7's upgrade option. It might seem like extra effort but you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration in the end. You do not have to activate your Vista installation so you can borrow a copy form someone and upgrade to W7.
Toughbooks seem to have very special hardware configurations and require unique drivers not included in W7. I did not have any problems when doing a clean install on a friend's Dell laptop.

 

Thank you! 32 bit got it!

Good info! Thanks

 

I'm sure some of you have already seen or done this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428068

This thread just outlines how to make a legal retail windows 7 disk. You will still need a valid activation key of course (if you have a .edu address you can purchase windows 7 pro for 30 bucks)

 

I did both the Vista upgrade and the clean install on my CF19 MK1 following the steps outlined on the CF18 thread. I made comments on that thread of the little differences between the two, but in short, everything on my MK1 is working except the auto-rotate function of the screen. All hotkeys and front buttons work, and I added some of the recommended push-to-activate options on the front buttons as well. It is a really great build and I am very happy with it. Follow those instructions along with my comments and you should be A-OK!

 

Will do. Do you happen to know when windows 7 support will be available for the CF-19 and 30 from panasonic?

 

No clue on that, sorry.

 

Toyo reported that support is in the works , but only on Mk-3 cf-19/30 models ,so 99% of us are on our own to make Vista drivers work

Alex

 

Well hopefully that would take care of the rotational and button issue. I just recently did a clean instal of XP tablet to get a baseline benchmark using PC Mark 05. Once thats done I'll do one for Win 7.

 

PC Mark 05 Benchmark for fresh install of XP Tablet on CF-19:


Windows 7 Benchmarks to follow after install.

 

And here is the Benchmarks for Windows 7:


The install of Windows 7 is straight forward. Just do a clean install and follow the driver installation directions found in the CF-18 Win 7 install thread.

I do have one device that shows up as unknown, but I'm not sure what it is...

 

Details of the unknown device is shown below:

• 
• 
• 

Any of you fellas with a CF-19 and WIN 7 installed have a clue of what this may be? Its not the tablet button drivers or the hotkey drivers, those installed fine.

 

Its a wwan card
Its the same ID for my sierra wireless modem


Alex

 

Thats odd... I dont have a wwan card.

 

I have (3) items showing up ! on my latest W7 load
I have been using the cf-30 and have not had time to resolve
None show up on the other caddy on the xp load..thats where I found that info from device manager
Then you are going to have to go through everything and find something not working right
There is so many items like the buttons on the front etc to check

Alex

 

Alright. Brute force it is.

 

There are only two unknown device on device manager when you freshly installed the win 7. One is the the hotkey driver and the other one is the newmisc(miscellaneous driver).


ohlip

 

Yep! newmisc was the driver for the unknown device. THX

 

Well I have (3) thats one more that you so the last unknown would be my wwan card
That is when I get around to getting to fixing those ! in device manager

Alex

 

Hey guys it has been a while. Glad to see you are all still here. I hope that i have some more time to come by here and lend a hand.

Anyway i am having a problem and hope someone knows how to help me.

I have installed W7 on my cf-19 and everything seems to be working great but i cannot get the sound to work. The driver will install and it shows it is working but no sound. I know the speaker is good as it worked fine in vista.

If i have the standard windows driver installed it will give me sound if i plug a headset into the back port but i cannot get sound out of the front speaker, if i install the normal sigmatel driver nothing works at all even the back port.

It is driving me crazy. I did a clean install again and followed the directions for vista to the T but still no audio.

Any idea's out there?

Thx,
James

 

I did a clean instal and just used the default drivers windows 7 provided. I'll list what drivers they are after my turkey coma.

 

If you go to the Windows 7 page on Panny's website you will find the instructions in a PDF, all the drivers and some other good info. Your model will not be listed but use the machine that is the closest to yours. In the instructions it will list what software is which. This way you can see if it is the same as yours.

They just added the 19 & 30 on the 25th. I already had W7 loaded on my Cf30 MK2 and MK3. However a couple of items were not working correctly. On my MK-3 I simply download/installed the new drivers and it works perfectly. On my MK-2, which is not " Supported" by them for W7, I was able to get everything working as well just by using the MK3 drivers. Panny uses the same drivers for ALOT of there machines. As an example, before they released the 19 & 30 drivers on the 25th I used some from the CF-52 on mine and they worked perfectly. You just have to read them good, do a little tweaking here and there if it doesn't work.

Here is my original post;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=435377

 

I tried the CF-19 Audio Drivers and it will not install. That was first on my list.

The audio seems to be diff on the cf-19 mk3 and the cf-19 mk1 i use it has sigmatel audio and the mk-3 uses soundmax i think.

Thanks for trying

-James

 

You said you used the directions for Vista to the letter? What about the instructions from Panny on loading W7? This is another animal when it comes to some of these drivers.

 

Question to see if anyone else has this problem. I pulled the new Panny doc on installing W7 on my CF-19 mk2 but, I don't have a vista cd so I started with a clean install of W7.

Everything was going well until I loaded the wireless switch driver. My previously working wireless got permanently disabled and I cannot uninstall the wireless switch driver (tells me to enable wireless first which is grayed out)

Now I had tried loading the W7 mk3 wireless nic driver but, apparently the hardware is different so I loaded the newest version from Intel than the wireless switch driver. I think that is were I went wrong. Should I have tried the Vista wireless driver or the Vista wireless switch driver first?

Thanks,
-ScurvyDog

 

I originally had the same issue. Here is what you do:

1. Go to bios and disable the wireless switch
2. load to windows 7 and enter control panel
3. go to add remove programs and uninstall the wireless switch util
4. reboot
5. relogin to your wifi network
6. at this point you should be good to go

hope this helps

 

That helped me get the wireless switch unloaded!

What I don't have working after loading all the drivers per instructions are the below. I wanted to check to see if anyone else had them working on a mk2 before beating my head against the wall. Any thoughts on what drivers may be the cause?

1. Wireless soft switch
2. Cannot get the front keyboard and rotate buttons to work but, the lock button does as well as brightness
3. Auto-rotate does not work. So with the tablet switch no idea how to force it to rotate.
4. The Fn-F7 or Fn-F10 to put the laptop to sleep.

 

For your #2 issue you must:

1. Install the Tablet PC button drivers
2. Then you must go to C:\Util2\drivers\meitbtn
3. Then you must Run MeiTBSet_STANDARD.reg to update the registry
4. Restart and your front tablet buttons should be good to go

For your #3 issue... Well auto rotate will not work, but you can use the front buttons to take care of that.

I'm not clear about your #1 or 4 issue... more details maybe? Did you follow the windows 7 install pdf to the T?

 

Scratch #2 off the list. Thanks.
#1 revolves around the wireless soft switch program. It's adds the icon in the taskbar tray that allows you to turn on/off bluetooth, 802.1a, 802.1g. See previous post were I install the wireless switch driver and it grey's out the 802. options and disables them. Bluetooth still works.

#4 My user manual says that if you use the Fn-F7 key (has little blue cpu chip) it is supposed to put the laptop in standby. But, I never could get it to work in xp either.

 

You did go back into the BIOS and enable it again didn't you?
Also, did you load the .inf driver 1st?

 

Yes it was bios enabled and working in XP before I flattened the laptop and upgraded. I did not load a .inf specifically. Here is the order I performed
1. Base W7 install
2. Tried mk3 panasonic wireless driver. Failed said incorrect hardware
3. Upgraded to latest Intel wireless drivers for my specific card
4. Ran setup for the mk3 wireless switch install. Wireless disabled and greyed out in the soft switch.
5. Downgraded wireless driver to Vista mk2 wireless driver from Panasonic. Still greyed out in soft switch.
6. Downgraded soft switch drivers to mk2 Vista. Still greyed out.

Cheers,
-R

 

And here is the Benchmarks for Windows 7 with intel X25-M SSD:


And here is the Benchmarks for Windows 7 OEM HDD:


Thats a 35% overall difference for the total PC Mark score between the SSD system vs OEM HDD system.

Looking at just the hard drive test alone, the SSD out performed the OEM HDD by 315.92%.

This post is for those who maybe wavering about Platter type HDD or SSD on their W7 toughbook system.
With an SSD I would argue that you would notice the biggest gains in overall performance on your computer, and lets face it, toughbooks aren't known for their speed/performance.

*Note: Not all SSD perform well or better than Platter type HDD. You should use intel X25's as the gold standard and go from there when deciding.

 

So you didn't install the .inf file? That is the most important driver from Panny to install. So I thought! I do know that they always say to load this driver/file 1st before anything else. Can someone else pipe in on what all the .inf file has in it please?

Yes SSD's are the cat's . I have an Intel X25-E 32G. I only wish it was bigger. I need to sale that freakin thing, I don't use it!

 

+1 for the .inf driver
You will need that first

Alex

 

Hello do you know with Atoo the performance of a SSD because my Crucial C300 64go have a problem or i think it's because i don't align SSD befort install Seven .

I have 7.1 in performance indice on controle panel and 140 max in read and 51 in write .

I don't test with PC Mark because i don't use Windows media player and would not install other software so i use Atoo and .. i not remember but poor performance .

I install the Inf drivers but nothing so i think it's necessary to install Seven new one after align SSD .

What do you think ?

Thanks

 

SSD alignment seems to be debatable on the Internet forums I have read... Some say it is only good for synthetic benchmark testing.... Others say it has real world advantages.... You can decide.

Chances are... If this is your first Toughbook... You may end up formatting and reformatting and reinstalling the OS MANY times until you get it perfect. The guide above will help you a great deal with where to download drivers and what sequence they should be installed.

 

Sorry to drag this old thread up, but it did help me get the tablet buttons working on my CF-19CHBAXBM (thats a Mk1 touchscreen only model)

The only real problem I'm having now is that the screen rotation is not rotating the touchscreen input.

So for example, if I rotate one click to portrait using the front tablet button, then I click with the touchscreen on where the windows start button is now is (ie, the lower right edge of the normal landscape screen / ie. where the start button is being shown when in portrait), the cursor goes to the lower right edge of the displayed (portrait) screen (ie the top right edge of the normal landscape screen), rather than on the start button right under where I clicked.

So the screen rotation is rotating, but the touchscreen touch position is not being transformed to the rotated screen properly.

I think this might have something to do with the fact I had to use an XP driver to install the Fujitsu USB touchscreen on this model. I couldn't find a vista install, the only one I found was a digitiser driver (tscreen_1930_11_d070150.exe), which doesn't work at all.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

What happens if you delete the XP Driver and allow Windows to find it?
Did you install the Pnotify Driver? In the instructions from Panasonic it says something about having to install this only for the 19 models for the screen rotation.
I would find out the latest 19 models with the same Hardware that your's has that pertain to the screen rotation and try those models Driver. I am not too familier with the 19 and the screen rotation so that's as much as I can help you with that one.

 

Look at this thread. It seemed to help alot of other 18 owners get W7 running properly.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/559626-just-case-somebody-needs.html#post7219533

 

It installs it as a Microsoft USB HID device, touchscreen works, but there is no way to calibrate it and it is out by about an inch. Running the setup.exe in XP compatability mode gets me the driver and calibration utility that works fine (except for this rotation bug). If I install the only vista exe for the "touchscreen" I can find, I get a calibration util/driver for the USB digitiser model, and it doesn't work for the USB touchscreen I have.

yes I did that, it is a b*tch to get the screen rotation tablet button working, and onscreen keyboard button, but I got there in the end, or so I thought!

Thanks for the suggestions. The main problem it seems is that no other CF-19 models had USB touchscreen. It looks like they went back to PS2 combined fidmouse type like the CF-18 always had. Thats why CF-18s can just use the 19mk3+ win7 drivers from that main thread, but I cant becasue mines on USB in the 19mk1 touch. I can only find vista/win7 drivers for the digitizer and/or fidmouse type screens, and not for my USB touchscreen.

Were there any other toughbook models of that era (core1duo, i945 chipset) that have a Fujitsu USB touchscreen (and vista/win7 drivers)?

 

Have tried the drivers direct from Fujitsu?

Win7 32 bit: Touch Panel Driver Software : Fujitsu United States

Win7 64 bit: Touch Panel Driver Software : Fujitsu United States

CF-19 Mk2 uses a usb touchscreen. I believe all CF-19 and CF-30 touchscreens are usb.

 

Yes, it says "Installation not completed".

Does anyone know which software component/driver is responsible for controlling what the touchscreen does when the screen is rotated?

It seems to me that the touchscreen driver shouldn't have to know about rotation, it just passes the mouse x,y coordinates to the system. It must be something else that translates them into actual on-screen interactions, which is where the rotation is broken in this case. I think it might be the disprot thing that is broken. Because when I put the CF-19 into tablet mode by twisting the screen, the disprot skips portrait mode and goes straight to landscape 2 mode. But it works fine when in non-tablet mode. (the touch translations are still broken in landscape 2 mode btw.)

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think its a problem with win7 itself. My OSK and rotation tablet buttons only work once I have manually started and used the built in win7 OSK at least once after startup. So I think there must be some registry entry that needs changed because win7 itself is wrongly translating the touch inputs to be where they would have been on a non rotated screen.

Just to clarify. If I put the screen in 1st portrait mode (taskbar on the right edge if looking at PC in normal portrait mode). And I click on the windows start button. It interprets that as a click on the system clock/or show desktop, at the far end of the taskbar, and shows the cursor there too.

 

yeah the display rotation is a tricky one at least for me it was hit or miss. I upgraded my installation from vista with display rotation working (installed by Vista Panasonic disc) and it worked fine. Did a reinstall to get all the steps right in case I needed to reinstall. Everything but display rotation worked. I tried everything for days til I finally nuked it and started from scratch again following all the same steps and bam it worked. I did nothing different but there you go. I know pnotify and disprot are very important .

 

Ok I will give it one more go when time permits (that will be 3rd time lucky).
I don't have a 19MK1 vista restore CD so I can't try that route, I think that would be easiest like you say.

 

Close with the driver links, those are for the PS/2 connected ones. The correct one is the USB one.

Fujitsu USB Touchpanel Driver Windows 7 32bit NS01B-0559-0554 V1.0L02

Now, got everything more or less working on a CF19 Mk1 (CF-19CHB23BE) but I'm stuck on the display driver, followed the directions in the CF-18 thread and it (mostly) works, but any change to brightness causes the screen to flash and it's getting annoying. The only other drivers I have yet to install are the GPS Patch and the Globetrotter WWAN card ones. (Incidentally, installing the GPS internal module on this was a pain. Customer sourced one from a popular auction site and the result was a card which didn't give enough clearance for the WWAN / Bluetooth card to go back, so, removal of the bluetooth card support frame, slight filing of the GPS PCB and some doublesided foam pads later, it all works) The machine has also had a Seagate Momentous XT Hybrid 500Gb drive fitted. I just wish I could fix the display flashing.

 

If your screen is flashing then it's the Hot-key Drivers, Fn F1 and Fn F2 are more than likely not working either. Follow the install order for all the drivers very accurately.

 

actually you could be onto something there, the display didn't start it's momentary flashing until the hotkey drivers were installed. That said I brought up the install instructions on a second laptop and followed them precisely step by step, the tablet keys and the Fn keys are all working perfectly it's just the screen still flashes. Oh, and the scroll section of the touchpad does nothing.

Just wondering, could it be the bios version? Since the Cf-19 also has an Embedded Controller could it perhaps be related? That said I haven't found a bios upgrade this thing will take yet. Current bios version is V1.00L13 M14 with EC 1.00L11 M10 and every bios I have found supposedly for this model of Toughbook says 'Not for this model' when I try to install it.

Any clues? Hell, Since it's a completely clean notebook I'm even willing to set up TeamViewer for someone to log into it and take a look remotely.

 

Links fixed in original post

 

No worries,

Now, if only I could fix the scroll on the touchpad issue and the Display issue I'd be a happy man and my customer would be happy in the morning.