CF-29 Touchpad Replacement

Hello

Seeking help. I purchased a CF-29 yesterday that is perfect in all respects except the Touchpad, it is incredibly slow especially on the Y axis, a full top to bottom swipe moves the cursor about 2 inches.

Model # CF-29ETKGZKM, has touchscreen, no GPS

Bios - Last, touchscreen and touchpad is enabled in bios , also tried disabling touchscreen

Touchscreen calibration - didn’t make sense but tried anyway)installed

OS Reinstall - XP SP2 and al the recent drivers

Touchpad driver – Latest posted on the Panasonic site, installed manually by pointing to the correct .inf and confirmed installation.

Touchscreen works perfectly as well as an external USB mouse. For my use I need the touchpad.

Am considering replacing the touchpad. From the service manual it looks as though you remove the palm area cover sheet to expose some screws and then the touch pad is mounted to a plate with adhesive. Would like to hear from anyone who has performed this so for confirmation and guidance, especially with a parts list, not sure if the cover sheet is reusable.

Thanks and appreciate the information on his forum, helped greatly in my decision to buy.

 

what you do is this

pull up the palm rest cover sheet, there will be either 4 or 5 screws on a t shaped plate around the tp, then another adhesive sheet, pull that up and stick flathead screwdriver under the top left side of tp and then pry it up.

also go into the bottom cabinet and remove the hdd/batt cable, and unhook the tp cable to the mb and you will see the cable from the tp to the pcb. unhook that and cut around the black tape where the cable is.

before you perform this you may want to get a new tp, part number N2ABEC00006, a new palm rest sheet, part number DFGB0198ZB and you might want to consider a new t plate just incase as they crack easy. espically the mark 2. that number is DFGE0075VA

and when you put the new tp on you can just use double sided tape on the bottom of the tp to hold it to the cabinet.
you can get all these and more from heartlandsi.com, but you will have to call them to order as the store is not set up yet.

 

TBtech29,

Thanks for the prompt reply, appreciate the time you spent outlining the process and including the part numbers and caveats.

I decided to proceed with completing my setup today using a USB mouse and identified other anomalies of this system that seem to be HW related as well. As such am going to accept the sellers offer to return for refund.

Again, appreciate the help I found here and hope to be back soon

 

what is the first 2 of the serial, some of the mark 2s are still under warranty.

 

TBtech29

The first (2) digits of the serial number are 4E.

I called the Toughbook hotline this morning before I had a chance to give the serial number I was told the warranty only applied to the original owner. Would love to keep this unit

 

If I'm correct then you warranty ran out in May 2007. Panasonic sometimes will give a 3 month grace so that would take you out to Aug, 2007. TBTech can correct me if I am wrong... But I'm pretty sure that is the case.

 

Toughbook,

Any idea how much Heartland would charge to replace the Touchpad out of warranty. Am fairly the other problems I found today (wifi, usb,etc) were driver related as I have everything fairly solid except for this Touchpad

 

heatland charges 130 for labor/ testing fees, 35 shipping, 15 insurance (optional) + parts.

 

yep that is correct.

 

Thanks again

 

Update:

Decided to do this myself, Tbtech29, your instructions were dead on and long with the service manual it wasn’t bad.

Some of the part numbers in this thread and the manual were a little stale. Kara from Heartland was very helpful

Here is what I ordered

Touchpad N2EABEC00006 (The Touchpad)

Touchpad PCB DL3051266AAA (I ordered this just in case)

Palm Top Cover DFGE0075VA-0 (The plastic frame around the TP, TBtech29 thanks for the heads up, mine didn’t break but was twisted pretty well, no easy way to get off cleanly with that tape

Palm Top Cover Sheet DFGP0198ZB-0 (This is the actual palm rest cover you peel off)

Adhesive Sheet DFHR3560YB (Along with the screws this secure the palm top cover)

Tp Bottom Tape DFHR3643ZA (Tape that secures the Touchpad to the case)

TP SW FFC DFJE9177YA (Cable from TP PCB to the MB, just in case)

My parts arrived this AM (ordered yesterday)

Here is the process I followed (per the SM) with additional insight from TBtech29 in this thread and my own observations

1) Removed battery, drives, etc)
2) Removed the memory cover and the ram)
3) Removed the screws on the bottom cover (see the manual) disconnected the speaker and removed the panel.
4) I removed the black plastic panel in the HD compartment (3 screws) as the TP PCB to MB ran under the panel
5) I disconnected the (3) cables from the TP PCB board, (2) screws and removed it. At this point the (3) cables are loose, at minimum you want to remove the tape holding down the cable to the TP (cable routed under the HD/Batter Bracket). I removed the tape from all (3) and removed the TP PCB.
6) I opened up the screen and started working from the keyboard side
7) Starting at an edge I peeled back the cover sheet, I was most nervous doing this as I didn’t know how the status LEDS were actually mounted. No big deal 
8) I then removed the (5) screws in the Touchpad cover, this is also adhered with a special stenciled double face tape sheet in the whole area, so lets just say it was well adhered, when you pull this up be careful as the LED assembly is taped to this as well, in my case I had disconnected it from the TP PCB. If you are replacing the cover you want to carefully peel off the LED PCB and a black plastic spacer
9) Now you can remove the Touchpad, again, well glued on.

Replacement

10) I test fit the new Touch Pad, then used the sheet I ordered to permanently adhere it.
11) You will see that the LED assembly is keyed and only goes in the base unit one way (led PCB then the black spacer on top, both should sit flush)
12) Test fit the palm top cover, then applied the special two way tape sheet to it (you will see that along with the tape there is a clear Mylar section to protect the LED’s) remove the paper from one (side with the clear plastic) affix to the plate (careful lining everything up) remove the paper on the other side, install and fasten with screws.
13) At this point you could install the cover sheet but I wanted to do that last just in case there was a problem
14) From the bottom of the unit I installed the new TP PCB, replaced the cable from the TP PCB to the MB and routed, plugged in the other (2) cables, I also taped these down and they did at the factory.
15) Installed the plastic panel from the battery compartment.
16) Reinstalled the bottom panel.


Results

The Touchpad is a little better, now I would say usable. Don’t know if I have been spoiled on other systems (especially those with Synaptics panels) but it’s really disappointing. Fujitsu, the manufacturer of the TP, uses Synaptics units in their own notebooks, even units that have Touch Screens like their B units. The panel is very sensitive but it seems as though it doesn’t sample at a high enough rate. Not bashing, I have owned allot of Notebooks and understand why everyone loves these, just deserve a better TP

After testing I was ready to install the Palm cover, was surprised to see the area around the Battery Status LED’s did not have double face tape like the rest of the sheet. Looking at the old sheet it looks like it was a separate sheet. To my surprise my old one looked fine so I reinstalled it, when/if it gets worn I will pickup some double faced tape and install

Hope this helps someone else, sorry I didn’t take pictures. Wanted to give back to this forum in some small way

 

Good job cmor.

Go here to zip up your touchpad; worked for me!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=262057

 

Pappy42

Thanks for the suggestion, I did try that program but despite allot of trial and error with the settings if found the mouse to be responsive but overly sensitive.

Am curious what settings you are using.

 

The program is still in testing phases, and something more polished will be released as I get more feedback.

I personally use the following settings,

3 x-factor
5 y factor
25 threshold
4 precision

Lower the factors if it seems to jumpy. Increase the threshold if the touchscreen gives you problems being jerky, up the precision if it is too hard to do precise movement.

I've gotten very little feedback in the thread I started to give me suggestions to improve on things, I'm really all ears here for you guys.

Jay

 

cmorr,
I'm a real pilgrim when it comes to computers, so I just used the settings as they were when I downloaded. Works fine on my 29 with lots of improvement over "stock".

 

Glad it worked for you