CF-19 mk2, brightness buttons, yellowish screen

Hi,

I've recently got CF-19FHYGFAG mk2 and got more or less everything working under win7 with few remaining (smallish) issues.

Can't get brightness buttons to work. Key presses are registered, OSD pops up, brightness goes up or down but instantly reverts back to predefined value. Is there fix for this? When Panasonic key utility is removed brightness control works but then it's impossible to unmute sound. I'm using latest intel display driver, not the older Panasonic one.

Also display is quite yellowish compared to my other monitors. It has 2480 hours . Is CCFL bulb obtainable/replaceable on these?

Scrolling on touch pad sometimes doesn't work (intellimouse wheel mode).

What is expected battery life? I get about 3 hours with ECO/warm climate option, wifi and display at 65% brightness.

 

You MUST use the Panasonic drivers.
You must also follow the Panasonic install instructions exactly
They are tuned for the buttons to operate.
The standard Intel drivers are for laptops without those buttons.

Yes the CCFL tube is available. I should have a extra bulb or two here., I also have the inverter.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...reen-wont-stay-dim.599999/page-2#post-9922749

You can replace the lamp, but my experience is display will remain yellowish. I don't know why

It's not possible to remotely fix something that doesn't work only sometimes You'll have to do that yourself

Your battery life is good

False. They are too old to use them. And buttons are not under display driver control.
I never use Panasonic video or chipset drivers if there are newer ones direct from Intel.
Also Panasonic installation instructions for Win7 are waste of time

 

The display driver has nothing to do with brightness????? What????????

Where is the ignore button?

 

I'm sure Heartlands has it for sale ))))

 

what OS are you running ?
if it is vista or W7 , you can/might be able to correct that yellowish cast screen .
there is a section in the control panel for setting up "color correction" and "cleartype" .
(i am betting in your case that red and green are a bit hot or that blue is low ... it is a juggling act)

if it is XP , you can download a program called "quick gamma" , it will allow you to adjust the color temperature and gamma .
(this will also work on vista and W7)

 

Young Grasshopper, you are not paying attention.. ...

 

First off..... Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook Forum

You are not alone...more or less . The CF-19 MK1 and MK2 are not Windows 7 friendly as you are finding out. It does run good but I never could get the front buttons to work right so I put XP Pro back on it.

I have been a member of this forum for 6 years and I have only used Intel's drivers twice (CF-30 + CF-51) On the CF-19 MK1/2 I used Panasonic's Vista drivers. If you were to ask any senior member which driver to use they will tell you to use the Panasonic driver because they were custom made/built for the CF-19 .

Since you are a new member and my guess this is you first Toughbook let me explain... False is not really the right word to use here but some might say I have had better luck using the Intel drivers...I know BaRRmaley has had better luck as he stated here.

When you say other monitors do you mean other CF-19?? . Heartland Services installs new CCFL bulbs but will not sell just the bulb now due to the high rate of returns. You see many were buying and installing them but did not have a clue on how to install them. Once you put you fingers on the bulb it was toast so they would try to return them. You say the 19 only has 2480 hours but you don't really know the history of it. Maybe the screen was replaced with a 12800 hour one...we really don't know. I have one just like yours with 4200 hours and I replaced every thing but the screen and its still the same.

 

Kerozin..I don't like your avatar. Might be well received in Yemen, but this is not Yemen. If you are trying to be funny, take another run at it. That's all I have to contribute to your thread. GL.

 

Yeah, this is my first Toughbook

Intel drivers work great for me, even hardware acceleration in Chrome works, only issue is hardware brightness buttons. I can change brightness in control panel with no problem. Only mentioned Intel drivers because in few older posts someone suggested that maybe using Panasonic drivers can fix that but this looks to me more like hotkey utility issue.

It's yellowish compared to desktop monitors I have. Like 3800K vs 4200K temperature. It also takes quite long time to warm up (5 min) but it's still reasonably bright, about on pair with good desktop monitor on same brightness level. Someone also mentioned that screen remained yellowish even after replacing CCFL tube so maybe various transparent layers in LCD get yellow tint over time when exposed to heat and UV rays.

 

Don't drone me, bro

 

First off.
I guarantee you the video driver AND the hotkey driver work together on a CF19 for the buttons to function.
I know this for a fact as I tried the latest Intel driver on my CF19 and the buttons did NOT work. I installed the Panasonic tuned drivers and the buttons now work as they are supposed to.

-My Cf19 is a mk2 with win7 installed. It's the very same setup that you have.
The yellow tint is probably the inverter. Change the inverter and see if it solves the problem. If not, then change the CCFL tube.
If it was mine, I would convert it to a LED backlight..I did on all of my Toughbooks except the M34. (I haven't got to it yet)

 

Thanks for clarification on that. Can I just uninstall Intel driver and install Panasonic one with no extra steps or precautions?

I've never really seen inverter fail in that way. In most cases which I came across, bad inverter won't even turn CCFL on but it's worth a shot since you probably have much more experience with identifying that kind of problems than me and it's sure easier to replace inverter than tube.

Any suitable kit available on ebay? How complicated is it?

 

here is my very own write up..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/cf19-digitizer-led-install-in-lcd.757371/

 

No worries, not my style.