CF-@29 touchscreen issues

Just got my 29 and so far WOW! bought off ebay and ad said no touchscreen but low and behold it DOES! i installed the touch pad/screen drivers and enabled touchscreen in BIOS. when i touch the screen the cursor disappears into the lower right corner. i did the calibration in the mouse utility in the control panel and i touch the red X's and the black line takes me to the next one, all 9 X's,over and over again. when i press the enter key i get an Error DTM message, saying Parameter error, please input again.

i read the thread about trash in the bezel and ran a piece of card stock along all 4 sides and no trash.

Im running XP Pro SP3 on a CF-29ENKNXKM and the driver i installed is "mouse_29_2_d030178" i downloaded from the panasonic US site.

any suggestions?

so far i love this thing, the rubber keyboard is going to take some getting used to , LOVE the backlighting.

how is the backlit chickit keyboard?

 

You have the same issue that my mk-4 has
Chances are that it's faulty and you will need a new touchscreen panel
Browse through the forum posts that relate to the cf-29 and read about it

Yes your rubber keyboard takes time to adjust to it
Its the best option in my view for outside use, but if you use your keyboard frequently you will end up being quite frustrated with it
The hard key backlite model is fast and not too expensive as an upgrade @ around 100 right now

Rep to your ebay seller for listing it as a non-touchscreen
Many sellers on ebay just go by the specs and would sell it as a touchscreen, as they seldom test or in some cases provide the toughbook without the o/s included


Alex

 

Outstanding. You won't regret it. Better snap up one of Azrial's labels though. See BST.
The touchscreen sounds bad though. There are a lot of threads and posts describing the jump to the right issue. If you take the lid apart look for a sharp crease in the ribbon cable between the TS PCB and the TS.
Figure out a way to repair it and then tell the rest of us. My Mark 5 does the same.
Three ways to fix it.
1. Replace it with another upper half from a broken TB.
2. Buy a TS element from a commercial establishment $$$
3. Watch ebray for a replacement touchscreen element.

Good luck and welcome to the fray.

 

CF-29ENKNXKM DESCRIPTION:
Pentium M 1.3GHz LV (Centrino), 13.3" XGA Transmissive Touch Screen, 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD, 802.11b+g WLAN, Wireless Ready, Win XP Pro, Rubber Backlit Keyboard, Dual Pass-thru Connectors, Floppy Disk Drive, HDD/Battery Door Security Screws

Correct Touch Pad/Touchscreen Driver for a Mk2 CF-29 w/Touchscreen.

First off: does this have the factory load, or has it been reloaded with the proper Panasonic CF-29 Series Product Recovery CD-ROM set, or does it have the "standard" XP Pro w/o the Toughbook-specific drivers set??

 

I got the thing whiped clean so I used my XP Pro software and installed SP3 and downloaded the drivers from panasonic website as noted.

also, what does wireless ready mean? my WiFi works great, and theres an antenna on the Left of the top, looks like a cell antenna.......?

 

Thats for cellular WWAN
Your model will need a sled only (and a subscription)to receive data internet
The sled is installed above the battery
More about this on the toughwiki page


http://www.toughwiki.com/index.php?title=CF-29



Alex

 

whats a sled, where does it go? is that why hardware wizard doesnt show any unkown hardwares then?

 

Metallitera... Welcome to our humble home.

The "sled" goes just above the battery door. Look for the two screws that hold in the "WM Cover"... Those are removed (as well as the cover that protrudes into the palmrest area) and the sled slides into place. If you do not want or need the WWAN... You can also use the "Wireless Ready" laptops to take the "GPS only" sled. It is not state of the art... But it beats nothing. Or you may be able to find a WWAN/GPS except the GPS engine on those sleds are not as good as the GPS only type....

You CAN install your own WWAN and/or GPS by reading some of the posts and stickies.

One thing is for sure... And I am warning you now!... If you start playing with it you WILL become obsessively addicted and will want to start replacing ALL of your PCs with Toughbooks!

 

LoL just as you posted your reply I found some pics on here about the WWAN sled. How is the reception of the GPS only sleds? and are the rubber keyboards like mine hard to come by? The more im typing on here,the more im thinking about tryin to possibly trade for a chi type backlit keyboard......BUT it will prolly accumulate a lot of cat hair.....how do these rubber KBs hold up to alot of typing?

 

Toughbook is here so he can answer your other questions but as a cat owner myself I will answer this for you
Cats have fur and its a toss up , ,you will need to clean it off the rubber keyboard as it attracts the fur or blow the fur away on a normal keyboard with compressed air


Alex

 

Cats... Yick! Well... I used to have a trained cat that I loved... But THAT is another story!

The rubber keyboard will hold up fine... But you cannot type as fast and, although it is pretty much sealed and waterproof, you need to take great care when you clean it. The silicone key pads can and WILL tear if you vigorously scrub it or wipe it off. If you are gentle... It will take normal wear fine.

The emissive keyboard is the way to go... Look in the BST section.

The OEM GPS only is adequate for most. If you only need street navigation then it should work fine. However... If your life depends on it... I would build your own. The pinouts are published here. You will need a few skills... Soldering and such... But you CAN come up wth a far superior product than any "kit" you can find on ebay or the OEM GPS....

EDIT: BTW... I took in a Toughbook last year that was used by a vet... It even came with the guy's laptop case (covered in hair of all sorts) and his card. There were all types of animal and human hair throughout... But it still purred along.... ahem.... It worked well.... And it was a fairly easy cleanup.

 

Did you get all the necessary (or optional) drivers and utilities installed?

"Wireless Ready" means it's prepared for the installation of a Wireless Wide Area Network ( WWAN) cellular modem, and the antenna on the top left of the screen is for that modem.

 

With the six cats residing here it's "routine" that I have to clear out about a pound of cat hair out of the cooling system inlet screen of our Dεll Dimension mini-tower.

 

Is there a need for the rubber keyboard? i really am thinking about the chiclet keyboard. also,my rubber KB isnt seated all the way on the lower right side, so i took out the 4 screws at the bezel above the KB and the L side ofthe KB is stuck, cant lift it up. didnt wanna break anything so i stopped. looked at the service manual and tried again,this time taking the hinge cvers off,still same problem. any ideas?

yes.

 

There is double sided tape below the kb
Pull it gently up and get a knife between to help
Be careful to not bent the kb

 

I love my rubber kb, although it does take some training to get used to. The chicklet is way easier to type on, but my rubber kb doesn't get mommy hair, dog hair, dust, dirt, and other "detritus" stuck behind the keys or wrapped around the key guts..... I wipe down my 29 about twice a month with %90 isopropyl; works great.

The kb's are installed using double sided tape. Remove the 4 screws and bezel, take a dull butter knife or similar thin, strong flat instrument, and gently lift up in sections, a little at a time. You will find that the keyboard finally just pops off.
I say dull, becuase you can accidentally cut one of the ffc's (cables).
I bent my keyboard a little the first time I pulled it out. It wasn't a sharp bend, more of a gentle curve. I just flexed it back, reinstalled, and viola, good to go!

 

Well back to my touch screen, i tried two different drivers and i also loosened up the phillips head screws on the bottom of the lid and now the cursor doesnt go to the bottom R corner anymore,but rather bottoms out directly below where you press. you can barely see the tip below the task bar. i can drag my finger across the screen and follow the mouse arrow tip along the bottom of the task bar. i used a business card to drag all 4 sides of the screen bezel and no trash. im thinking about taking the cover apart and seeing if there is something smashing against the bottom of the screen? or is this typical dead touchscreen symptoms?

 

1st off, welcome to the board! As TB stated you will become addicted very soon.

Why don't you do a clean install, and I mean CLEAN install of the Panasonic OS from the recovery disc. Unless you did that and I missed it. The TS, among others, can be very tricky. One thing to keep in mind is that Panasonic does there drivers like no other. They are trying to make it simpler but you just have to make sure you follow each step by step exactly how they describe you to do so.

I have the chicklet style on my 30's and love them. I almost chose the rubber but changed my mind. The chicklet style is VERY easy to keep clean. You can blow away on it and wipe it pretty good if you have too. I was suprised to see read that InterestingFellow uses 90% alcohol? I would think it would harm the lettering or discolor it in some way? I will blow my computer really good, wipe it down with a warm damp rag with a little bit of cleaner. I follow that up with a nice polishing of a car wax I have. When I am done it is clean, smooth, and protected rom the UV very well. I use mine in just about all types of weather.

Have you tried to run the internal hardware repair test? It will test the TS and will give you a pass or fail. That might help you in the diagnosing part. You should find that repair function in the BIOS section.

Good Luck!

 

Didnt get any restore discs. Just the computer. I domt recall seeing a test option in BIOS. Ill look again.

 

If Forum "Modder-ator" Toughbook doesn't have a set to sell, you can get a set here or from a reliable ebaY™ seller here.

 

If i downloaded all the drivers, is there a need?

 

"It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

You may want to upgrade the hard drive sometime in the future, and the genuine Panasonic CF-29 Series Product Recovery CD-ROM set makes restoration a 30 minute job.

 

Some of the Panny drivers and programs you will learn that that they are already built into your OS, especially W7. Unless you want to duplicate some of them go ahead and load them all. I run W7 which has alot of the same programs already at my disposal. The drivers for the hardware that is in your computer is more important than the programs.Some of the MS drivers will work just fine, but then again they won't. You really just need to play and learn with it.

 

Thanks, glad to be here. im already addicted, dunno if i wanna sell my touchscreen 28 now LoL

back on topic, i dont see a internal hardware repair test/function in BIOS........

P.S.

My BIOS is V2.00L16

 

Just updated BIOS to 2.00L17, still didnt see test functions.

 

@ metallitera

That might be a feature only on the mk-4 or mk-5 models








Alex

 

You have a bad touchscreen... Trust me. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

 

Killjoy .....

Your not invited to the party









Alex

 

Was advertised as non touch so not butt hurt over it.

Whats a fair price on used parts to fix it

 

You may be able to find a complete top lid with working touchscreen for $75 - $150 depending on condition...

 

In your "humble" opinion < >, what is the best Model of CF-29 Touchscreen to use?

 

just picked up on this thread - i had a similar deal 9 months ago - bought an off-lease cf29 advertised as no touch screen and found out it had one but was a bit weird. I had cursor and driver problems that i solved but the screen surface was hazy and gave off weird interference patterns and halos making it a pain to look at - after a few weeks i got serious and found a non-touch replacement. I was not too worried about the touch screen aspect of the tb otherwise i would have not have bought one which did not spec touchscreen. So once i knew i could get a replacement i decided to have a look and tore the lid apart - it was all fairly straight forward. Then i got brave and gently lifted one corner of the touch screen membrane and took a peek underneath ( i powered up with it all in pieces so i could see what was there). Clear as a bell and shiny new! I removed the whole layer and its cables and put everything back together again, and have never looked back - i suddenly had the screen i had paid for at zero extra cost. So this is another possible route to take with damaged touch screens. hope that helps someone because it did me.

 

@ rickshawallah

I have not done this as I worry about getting lint or fur on the panel

Is the display noticably clearer and possibly brighter now, as I might try this



Alex

 

Totally bright and totally clear and glassy. No stickiness at all - It's like a high quality screen and seems as though that is exactly what it is with another layer of touch sensitive material added over the top. I have been cleaning it regularly with a spray screen cleaner and soft cloth and this works well. It really was like getting a new screen - i was quite surprised. I think there is no anti-glare coating so it picks up background reflections but in the replies to my questions about the blown usb someone has pointed out that a new protective layer could be added and by the tone of the reply it seems he may have done the same as me. Meanwhile, Tomcat57, do you have that board or bit of a board that fixes my usb??! ready with money and soldering iron! ollie

 

Yes , I will unsolder it enough to make the component small enough for airmail
Will work on this tonite ,and then email you for details








Alex

 

That's a very good use for a non working touchscreen. Is it bright enough now without the membrane to be used in sunlight?

I have seen the CF-29 non- touchscreen in the sunlight and the screen brightness is incredible!

Now, as much as touchscreen is desirable, I personally need brightness and would be willing to sacrifice the touchscreen on my own CF-29 to that end.

My first post here although been lurking for a while. Want to thank all of you for passing along your knowledge and experiences to those of us that need it.

Philip

 

@ bluesmoke

I have noticed the difference as well between the standard non-touch and touchsceen models

I agree that brightness is very important, and plan to remove the useless panel on a mk-4 that I have

That was a great suggestion from rickshawallah



Alex

 

Looking forward to your report.

Philip

"If you are concerned about your screen brightness,
you could be a nit picker"

 

i would love more details on how to remove the touch-membrane layer! I bought an SBC cf29 and the touch screne is dead (pegs to the bottom right). I have had my cf28 appart a million times so i am not scared But other than the non touch this cf29 works great,and I would hate to peel off something important

 

I just disassembled my lid and removed the lcd and found only a one piece touchsceen panel in front
Without a mat cover like you would use on a picture the lcd is too likely to be damaged as its exposed

Looking at the panel I see where there is a benefit of removing , but I need to protect it properly

I will put this idea on hold for now


Alex

 

another thing I was thinking about before i broke out the screw driver was; what about the gasket that is around the frame of the lcd. I am refering to the one that we always clean with the flat tooth pick to remove all the crud, wont that be all torn away and not seal properly anymore? Another question is the non-touch 29's what kind of membrane/protector do they use if any could it be purchased seperately, or could we just get something at the local office supply store that people use?

 

Use a dental pick to separate the gasket from the glass. Work the tip in at 1 spot, and work it around the screen. Once the tip is in, make sure not to scratch anything with the sharp point (I turn mine sideways and use the backside of the curve).

Non touch 29's have a plastic screen, and all 29's are supposed to have a thick heavy duty screen protector. pushing on the screen is the best way to tell which type it is: touch screens don't flex very much at all (glass), while non touch screens flex much more.

 

my layer came off quite easily - it soon becomes apparent when you look around inside that there is layer which is connected to something and is independent to the rest of the screen. But of course care should be taken. The gasket still works fine on my screen - no gap visible and when i re-assembled there was still pressure to keep out water and dust etc. Be brave i would advise and get a bright and easy to read screen - i don't see much of a downside to the operation if the touch element is failing.

 

hello all, I am new to the forum with my recently aquired cf-29. I was told it is a touchscreen model but its not working at all. I have enabled it in the bios, but do not see it in the device manager. Not sure now if it IS a touchscreen model. Can it be determined by the full model # ?
CF-29EQKGSKM. Also have an intermittant condition whereby the display goes totally erratic upon first booting up, mouse icon jumping around, no mouse control, pop up menus opening and closing, only solution is to power down and try again. Also the fcn f2/f3 for screen brightness has no effect. Could I have a bad touch panel? Thanks in advance.

 

My diag...se will be you have TS syndrome issue. Sorry, man! thats what we call it to this issue. Anyway, you have an OEM gps builtin into your unit. Go into the bios and disable it. Then download the gps patch and installed so that to stop the happy mouse. After that enable the gps and it will be fine. Read the FAQ for the whole info.

Btw, welcome to the forum.

ohlip

 

CF-29EQKGSKM

E = Mk 2, Intel® Pentium Mobile 718 1.3 GHz Processor
Q = 13.3" XGA Touch Screen, Dual Hi-Gain Antenna Connectors
K = 40GB HD & 256MB RAM
G = Floppy Disk Drive, 10/100 Ethernet
S = CDMA Verizon (no voice) WWAN & GPS
K = Windows XP Professional w/SP2
M = North America distribution

 

i need recovery disc for a cf29f, i was told it was a mk2. anybody can help me? contact me [email protected]

 

A CF-29F is a Mk2:

Intel® Pentium M 718 1.3Ghz LV (Centrino) CPU

When posting for assistance, please include the entire Model Number; such as:

CF-29Fxxxxxx

If no one here has one, it's Mark Hawkins to the rescue!

Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 Recovery CD - Restore CD