CF-31 Mk2, Windows 8, Fan and the Screen brightness

Honourable forum members,
I have a CF-31 Mk2 running windows 8, and I found it required a fair bit more work than my CF-30 mark 1 which pretty much worked with W8 right out of the box. This surprised me, since I thought the newer machine would be much better supported.

One issue I have is the fan, which appears to be running constantly except when in concealed mode. When I leave the TB without suspending it I usually put it in concealed mode just from preventing the fan from sitting there sucking in dust. I run passive cooling policy, and have set the Panasonic fan control setting to "low speed".

You guys with standard W7 install, do you also have fans running constantly, or have I done something wrong?

The other challenge I have is the screen backlight level. In order to get reasonable brightness for indoor conditions I need to take the (Fn+F1) brightness to minimum (which actually makes the screen go black), take it one notch up (Fn+F2), and then point the mouse at the adjustment slider and drag it HALF a step down.

When it is in concealed mode of course the screen is very dim, and perfect for night time conditions, however I'm looking for a few more step between concealed mode and the lowest setting. Are the rest of you experiencing the same thing, or is it my install that is messed up?

Best regards,
- T

 

Sorry for bumping this, but can't anyone on this forum tell me if the fan on a CF-31 mk2 is supposed to run constantly? Because mine does, unless I run in concealed mode...

-T

 

What's the full model number and the bios version?

 

CF-31JBGEA1M
BIOS Version: V2.00L12

Thanks,
-T

 

Here are some search results to read..
https://www.google.com/search?num=20&safe=off&pws=0&q=cf+31+fan+site%3Aforum.notebookreview.com%2Fpanasonic&oq=cf+31+fan+site%3Aforum.notebookreview.com%2Fpanasonic&gs_l=serp.3...3867.7899.0.8498.9.9.0.0.0.0.128.1107.0j9.9.0.msedr...0...1c.1.60.serp..9.0.0.5R40N4Wh9zs

It seems as though the fan does run all the time..

 

Model Number:CF-31JBGEA1M
Status:_DISCONTINUED
MSRP:$5,389
Description: Win7, Intel Core i5-2520M 2.50GHz, vPro, 13.1" XGA Touch, 320GB(7200rpm), 4GB, Intel WiFi a/b/g/n, TPM, Bluetooth, Dual Pass (Upper:WWAN/Lower:Selectable), Gobi, GPS, Emissive Backlit Keyboard, No Drive, Toughbook Preferred

 

Frustrating but I was never able to completely shut the fan down, unless choosing concealed mode.

I know however that the fan is under software control. Why? Because in certain cases the machine hangs for a few second after sleep mode. During this brief hang the fan stops, and then starts again. There is probably some software utility out there that can control the fan 100%.

-T

 

Shawn posted some good links for articles, my favorite is:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/735573-rick-s-cf-31-mk1-review.html
You must know that ToughBooks are a special breed. They design things in for a purpose. Why would anyone want to take over control of the fan is what I'm thinking right now?

 

"however I'm looking for a few more step between concealed mode and the lowest setting."

(these are simply my thoughts on the matter)
i searched on google for responses to similar questions .
i found plenty of "complaints" that state that the fan runs all the time ...
what i did not find (yet) was a qualified answer from *someone in the know* .

by answer i mean something along the lines of :
"yeah , it will run all the time (at varying speeds) because the cpu and gpu need to be kept cool .
the amount of passive cooling used/available does not allow for completely "silent running" 100% of the time unless the cpu and gpu are throttled back considerably in order to limit the amount of heat produced" .
of course , throttling back the cpu and gpu will "hobble the horse" and it will not be able to pull near as big of a wagon .

i imagine that (most of) the fan speed controls in windows were "bypassed" or "written around" in the bios in order to accomplish/achieve the "heat safety factor" that the engineers at panasonic deemed acceptable .
it would be nice to find/have a concise answer from panasonic .

 

Thank you for your replies.

Because the fan is completely unnecessary when operating a word processor, it just sits there sucking in dust which will reduce the thermal performance over time. This is a big advantage of my CF-30 which doesn't have a fan.. In an ideal world the automatic control would have stopped the fan when not required, but this seems to not happen.

Panasonic has already provided the concealed mode to stop the fan manually. However, the concealed mode is additionally the only way I know to dim the screen down to night level, so if one wants to turn the fan off but keep day-level screen intensity, one has to reboot the machine and change the bios setting for concealed mode. This is a waste of time, so being able to fully control these settings through the normal user interface would make the CF-31 more useful. Unless of course it is just me who has a driver problem in Windows 8.1.

Best regards,
-T

 

I don't think you will ever have to worry about the thermal performance going over time. Looking at how it's setup....nope

Yes the 30 has no fan BUT it's a lot slooooooower

I can reboot my 53 (SSD), go into the BIOS and back into W7 in 64 seconds. Your 31 should be around that unless you are using a spin drive which is a waste of time.

If you only have 1 driver problem with W 8.1 then you are doing good....no joke....you are doing good because I have heard some wild stuff about W 8.1 (the new Vista )

 

Conceal mode should have a hotkey. Fn+ f8 on a cf31..
Full rugged models are designed for desert sand use. A bit of dust is a non issue. Water is a non issue. I suggest using the original os to get optimal performance as it was designed. Win 8.anything is going backwards.

CF31J has a conceal mode utility available for download at Panasonic.com. I checked on Win7 32bit.

OR look at CF31 mk3 It has downloads to upgrade to Win8 properly. Instructions and new drivers.

 

Well...My machine is used for work. Shutting down each open window/project/VPN session in order to set normal screen brightness without starting the fan, takes a lot of time and disruption. Since you asked, I have a reasonably responsive 1TB SSD, and 8GB or RAM which I believe is the maximum supported. I'm not asking for much. Just a proper passive cooling policy outside of concealed mode.

Yes, I have been using it a lot! That's the only way I know to get the brightness down to minimum (and the fan to stop.)

Windows 8 user interface sucks. It absolutely blows. However, when used with Classic Shell I find it to be a better W7 than W7. On my CF-30 it has been absolutely wonderful. Fast, responsive, and well supported. (Since XP went end-of life I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter for the CF-30.) I feel that W8 is at least as fast as XP on old hardware, and faster than W7. I certainly never thought my CF-30 mk1 would be as good as it turned out (with a 500GB SSD and 4Gb RAM). It's been used as my main work machine for a year. And I came from an i7 quad core laptop.

Shawn,
Thank you, very valuable information. I will check.

I have, thanks to your earlier advice. That's how I got the machine set up for Windows 8.1, and it's worked well. My driver flow chart is as following:

- If the native W8.1 driver works well, and there isn't any reason to suspect improved performance or functionality by other driver, then let the native driver be. If not:
- If the CF31 mark 3 has a W8 driver, then install this. If not, or if not working:
- If the device manufacturer has a W8 driver, then install this. If not, or if not working:
- If Panasonic has a W7 x64 driver, then install this. If not, or if not working:
- Ask Shawn.

Cheers,
-T