CF-30MK2 Vista to W7 upgrade

I posted this on Toughbooktalk and thought it might be useful here as well.

I have one of Jeff's very nice CF-30MK2 (CF-30FCS85AM) to play with/sell. It has a Vista Business COA so I did a restore to factory. After Jeff related some of his adventures upgrading to W7, I thought I would give it a shot. The idea is to end up with everything working properly, as painless and quick as possible. I used a new Intel 240GB ssd for this experiment.

What you will need to have on hand to make the job smoother is a Vista Business restore disc, Vista Service Pack 1, a W7 install disc (I used an AIO disc I made) and the Vista video driver. You can also download and install the SP1 and video driver once on the desktops.

Here is Vista SP1:

Download Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone (KB936330) from Official Microsoft Download Center

The Vista video driver, video_1930_22_d070577.exe (15.0 mb) is available from the Panasonic Japan download site. Select all drivers, CF-30, CF-30F/G(mk2), Vista and search keyword 'video'.

Make sure the touchscreen setting in the BIOS is set to AUTO or TABLET before you start the install.


1. Install Vista Business from restore disc. When done, calibrate screen, for convenience.

2. Install Vista SP1

3. Uninstall the Intel Extended Thermal Model. Reboot. You reinstall it later in W7.

4. Insert the W7 disc and start the install from the desktop. To be sure there will be no other conflicts with your unit, you can run the compatibility checker.
4a. Select 'go online for updates'.
4b. Select the 'Upgrade' NOT the 'Custom' method.

5. After you have a W7 desktop do the initial MS critical updates.

6. If you find your cursor is jumpy after the updates, disable the GPS in the BIOS when you reboot.

7. Calibrate the touchscreen, using the stand alone Tablet Calibration program in Control Panel, from an admin account. It is the old XP style with 16 contact points. Do not use the calibration utility found in the Tablet PC Settings, in Control Panel for the initial calibration. Use it after you are done all the updates and installs.

8. Install the Vista video driver from Device Manager. Right click the display adapter entry and select update driver. Tell it you want to pick your hardware from a list, and once you have the Intel 965 chipset v7.14.10.1244 highlighted click have disc and point it at the folder you extracted the driver to. I put mine in the C:\util\drivers\video folder. Reboot after driver install. I never got a BSOD like some have reported. YMMV.

9. Finish the MS updates, including SP1.

10. Enable the GPS in the BIOS, setting it to 'Auto'. Install the GPS registry patch when back in Windows.

11. In Device Manager I had one entry with yellow exclamation mark, PCI data acquisition something. Right click on it and select 'Update driver'. Point it at the C:\util folder. It will find and load the Intel Extended Thermal Model driver. Clean DM now.

12. At this point the OS install is done. Now load any programs you want/need.

That's it. And yes you need a W7 COA to activate the OS but you do not need to do the phone activation. When you click the 'Activate now' link in the System properties window, you are asked to input the key, then the program goes online to check the key. After about 3 minutes, it should come back as genuine and be activated.

All in all, I find it a lot quicker and easier than a clean install of OS and manual install of drivers and programs.

EDIT:
Sadlmkr wrote:

Serious now and thanks to Kep for bringing it up.

"My touch screen works fine but is a half inch off from the pen point location."

THIS IS CLASSIC WRONG BIOS ACTIVITY IN WINDOWS.

I missed this post but OP figured it out.

In future Kep setting bios to defaults would have fixed this. Of course if you haven't done the GPS fix you might have to disable GPS then F10.

1. F2 to bios.
2. F9 yes to accept
3. Find Serial port portion of bios hit Enter
4. Disable GPS w/ F6.
5. F10 to save.

GPS part for unit with GPS. END EDIT

Thanks to Jeff for the info, help and guidance.

Have phun!

 

I've never been an "upgrade guy"... To me it just adds a bunch of files that you don't need and time I don't have.

What is the benefit of upgrading over doing a clean installation?

 

The advantage I see with an upgrade is that if you use the Vista restore disk, all the Panny drivers are installed already.
Not sure why to bother with Vista SP1 though.

 

Yes, Shawn, you are correct. All the drivers and programs are installed properly. Service Pack 1 is required by W7. If you do not install it the upgrade will fail.

Not only are all the Panasonic drivers and programs installed, but it takes much less time then a clean install with a generic W7 disc and hand bombing all the drivers and programs. At least it did for me.

 

I've been doing it a long time I guess. I have every driver I already need in different folders, by model. I just zip through it. Well... It does take time but mostly downloading updates.

 

Then you would be the perfect person to compare the two methods. Why don't you try the upgrade route on a unit and see how it compares to the clean installs you usually do? One advantage to the upgrade is that you do not need to 'babysit' the unit/install as much.

 

I can load that drive in 15 notes......
I use a special mk3 image........It still needs a good coa though.

 

I used to have a bunch of different drives that were sys-prepped by model and the way I had different models modded. I must have had 7-8 different drives. Everything was updated and all you had to do was to enter your name and the COA. Pretty cool.

 

Okay I did the uprade on my MK2 and there were a few issues...
1) No stand alone tablet calibration program in the control panel. Touch display works fine but it is just out of calibration.

2) Hot key for dimming and brightening the display will not adjust. Icon shows up on the screen when activated but does not adjust.

3) Had to uninstal the toshiba blue tooth utility as it was flagged as incompatible and allow a generic Microsoft drivers.

Note: I did a fresh install of Windows Vista before the upgrade to Windows 7.

Anyone have work arounds to fix any of these issues?

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

Windows 7 has it's own calibration program but I just can't remember where it is but it's there. I had the same problem but just missed it. mklym will be around soon to tell you where it's hiding .

 

1)Use the calibration utility in the PC Tablet program in Control Panel.
2)Did you use the Vista video driver?
3)Does it work?
Did you use a Panasonic Vista Business Restore DVD? If you did, the calibration utility should have been in the Control Panel.

 

Re: Vista Restore....using Panasonic Vista restore DVD.

I like to see the drivers in the right place.....i.e. C:\util
The units that I have restored are all FCS85AM ...the only exclamation mark is the 5725 WWAN. Upgrade to SP-1 or enable Windows upgrade and the WWAN fixes itself.

The unit has a Vista COA, and is salable with a legal COA.

Calibration is super key, type cali and accept calibration.... Panasonic driver not necessary.

Mark 1 are different as they require a bios change. 20/11.

That's about it.

 

2) Yes it shows Intel 965 chipset v7.14.10.1244 but I did get the blue screen immediately after the driver install from util2. So I had to remove the video driver from "util" with a "111video" folder rename, otherwise it kept installing the windows 7 generic video driver on startup and would not allow the 965 chipset v7.14.10.1244 driver to be installed. I just did a driver repair/re-install of 965 chipset v7.14.10.1244 driver but will wait to do the restart until the windows updates are done to test it out. I will check it then for FN key proper operation tomorrow after these updates are done.

3) Yes Bluetooth seems to work because I was able to install a blue tooth mouse and keyboard I use when on my 24" monitor. I also have a DG technologies DPA5 Bluetooth J1708, J1939, J2534 dual CAN communication device I still need to install and I will need to try a file transfer.... but yes so far the generic drivers seem to work. I routinely transfer Cummins ECM customer calibrations from the company PC to my personal CF-30 PC via Bluetooth, so it is kind of an important feature for me.

1) I still can't find any Tablet touch screen calibration tool. I used the search box but found nothing but a "Tablet PC Input Panel" and this has no calibration other than handwriting recognition. I'm doing the 142 windows updates now so I'm kind of stuck for now while that finishes.

I have zero exclamation marks in the device manager and I have no GPS to patch so I seem to good in this respect.

I don't understand this phrase... Calibration is super key, type cali and accept calibration

Yes I did the OEM Vista business restore CD, followed by a fresh and properly licensed Windows 7 upgrade over the fresh Vista restore with SP1 installed first.

Thanks for the help!

 

I am on the CF-30MK2 that I did the upgrade on.

2) I don't understand where the "111video" folder came from. On this unit, the video folder in util and the one in util2 folders are the same, Vista Driver Revision: 7.14.10.1244. If I recall correctly, the first boot after the video install gave a blue screen, another reboot should get you to the desktop.

3)What does the Device Manager show for Bluetooth? I have 3 entries under Bluetooth, Bluetooth RFBUS, Bluetooth RFHID and USB Bluetooth Driver (ALPS). The generic MS Bluetooth drivers work well, so that might be a non-issue.

1) You should have a 'Tablet PC Settings' program in the control panel. Open that and on the 'Display' tab there will be a calibration program.

The 'Super' key is the 'Windows' key. It is between the 'Alt' and 'Fn' key on the left side of the space bar. You hit the Windows/Super key and the start menu pops up with the cursor blinking in the search box. Type 'cali' in the box, hit enter and the calibration program should open.

To me 'OEM' means a generic, non-retail version. Did you use a Panasonic restore disc? There is a big difference between an OEM OS install disc and a factory restore disc. Big difference. If you did use an OEM disc, and not a Panasonic disc that would explain why you are having problems.

 

When you say restore disk do you mean a Microsoft OS disk or a Panasonic restore/recovery disk which is a image of the hard drive when it left the Panasonic factory ??
We are talking two different cd's here.

 

That's Jeffspeak...It's his own language...I think he talks to the sheep....He keeps promising to post a glossary.

 

He used a Vista restore disk from Panasonic......Then the Win7 disk over that, doing an upgrade install.

 

Exactly I used the Panasonic Vista business disc :thumbsup:

 

I now have a working FN brightness key. :thumbsup:

I did the 111 added on the video to prevent it from installing the generic driver. Because I could not get the vista panasonic driver to overwrite it. I have since removed the 111 though.

Generic Bluetooth driver and the Generic Bluetooth Enumerator driver are 6.1.7601.17514. There are only two entries.

I can find the display calibration for color contrast and such but no tablet PC calibration or touch screen

Thanks again for the help.

 

That's for sure...I'm still learning that goat language

 

Okay I think I figured out the Bluetooth issue. After the compatibility check the Toshiba Bluetooth stack was flagged and it instructed me to remove it as it could cause issues with the Windows 7 upgrade. I did not re-install it, but let windows assign a driver during the upgrade.

I uninstalled the generic driver in the device manager and installed the Toshiba drivers from util folder. I got a memory failed error on shut down. Once restarted there were no errors that showed up and I have my old Bluetooth interface back. I paired my mouse (keyboard and DPA5 are still at work) and the mouse works fine.

So the only issue that is left seems to be the touch screen calibration

 

Once I get that touch screen issue resolved I will do a Norton ghost 15 image of the drive to preserve my progress and then I can begin putting in all my software.

Is there a driver I can re-install for the touch screen? I don't see anything that references the touch screen.

My touch screen works fine but is a half inch off from the pen point location.

Thanks again for the help!

 

There should be a calibration, not the battery calibration, utility in the util folder, maybe in the touchscreen folder. Run the exe and you should be able to calibrate the TS.

I am on my CF-29MK3MINT in the shop so I can not check, going by memory.

 

Maybe you could give him a screen shot of it. I would but all my W7 Toughbooks are non-touch . It should be there because if I am right it's part of the W7 OS.

 

Okay, I'll go get the unit and fire it up. Post back later.

And yes, it is part of the default programs loaded when installing, as long as a touchscreen is detected by the OS.

 

Check this out, in the red circle does it say "Pen or touch available" ?? It might not say the same as yours I just took out the "non" in the picture because mine is non-touch.

 

Okay I figured it out!
I went into the bios and changed it from a touch screen to a tablet PC and now I can find the utility to calibrate it.

Thanks again guys!

I just realized my backup drive is at work so I'm done until I can get it LOL. Oh well... best laid plans of mice and men

 

I didn't even think of checking that. I will update the original post with that info. You could have set the BIOS entry for the touchscreen to 'AUTO' as well. Thanks.

Here are the screen shots anyways.

 

Actually, that is "Linux Speak" for the "Windows Key." Jeff was just being super correct in that the CF-30 will run more then one OS.

 

I thought my ears were burning.

As least Bill likes it. How can it be a Windows key if I don't run windows? (much)

Shawn is writing the glossary. He is the answer man.

Blair..come over here and I'll show you the difference between a sheep and a goat. My girl's are upset. They say baa to you.

Here, Shawn, add this to the glossary. (stolen from a WIKI)

Apologies to OP as we have fun with your thread. (Original Poster)

Jeff

 

Serious now and thanks to Kep for bringing it up.

THIS IS CLASSIC WRONG BIOS ACTIVITY IN WINDOWS.

I missed this post but OP figured it out.

In future Kep setting bios to defaults would have fixed this. Of course if you haven't done the GPS fix you might have to disable GPS then F10.

1. F2 to bios.
2. F9 yes to accept
3. Find Serial port portion of bios hit Enter
4. Disable GPS w/ F6.
5. F10 to save.

GPS part for unit with GPS.

And why I wrote this now...It's for the people reading this and not saying anything...not the OP.

Professor Burd

 

I have updated the original post with your info. Thank you Professor Burd.

 

I have added this thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/427461-read-before-posting-ultimate-toughbook-resource-thread.html

 

I just completed a Clean Install Win 7 Pro 64bit with 8gb DDR2 Ram with new 512gb Crucial SSD,everything working good and fast
CF-30FWSAXAM and CF-30KWPAQAM Of course I made images too,13 days of pain,but finally everything okay