CF-W8 Windows 7, screen won't stay dim

I bought a W8 a few months ago and did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit. I downloaded the ZIP file of Windows 7 drivers and followed the instructions in the Excel sheet (not a PDF in this version) carefully.

As far as I can tell, everything but screen dimming on battery is working. With my CF-W2, Fn-F2 would dim the screen and Fn-F3 would increase brightness. This should be the same on the W8 except it doesn't work. I can see the little graphic ramp popup. While I am hitting Fn-F2, the graphic goes down and the screen dims briefly. As soon as I stop, the screen comes back to full brightness.

After 2 minutes of not typing, the screen will dim as it should on Balanced power and battery. But as soon as I start typing, it goes back to max. This is a problem for conserving the battery charge. On a long night flight, for example, I'd like to conserve battery and keep the screen dim. I have tried all available power schemes and it is the same.

I emailed Panasonic tech support. They replied with a question: "Hove you installed the OS INF(chipset) file driver, Hotkey Appendix, driver, and Hotkey setting application?" I answered yes and that's the last I heard from them.

The fact that Fn-F1/F2 brings up the popup window suggests that my Fn keys are properly recognized. The fact that the screen is capable of dimming (after non-use for X minutes) proves it's not a display problem. What's left?

 

Welcome to the NBR Panasonic Forum.
This search might help you find your answer TEST site:forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic - Google Search I will see if I can find the Thread on the W8. A few of the W8 owners have tried to upgrade to W7 but am not sure how they made out.

Here your go
This thread was started when Panasonic (Toughonline) started this deal.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/554637-toughbook-w8-379-a.html

 

I checked out (actually read all 14 pages!) of that W8 thread, toughasnails. Mostly it was about trying to buy W8 at super low prices.

There were a few mentions of Windows 7. One person mentioned my brightness question, but did not have a fix.

Aside from that problem, I really had no other issues with the W8 and Windows 7 32-bit. All the function keys work, as does sound, wifi, etc.

 

That's one of the problems on here, we never know for sure if someone figured it out or not because they never come back to let us know. I do know that other models have this problem to. My 51 was having this problem with W7 and I had to reinstall the 3 hotkey program/drivers again. Hopefully someone with W7 on a CF-W8 will post and help you. Good luck

 

I did get a more substantive response from Panasonic after resubmitting my previous email to them. They note that my F1/F2 hotkeys are bringing up the screen settings popup. This because I sent them a screen shot. Then they suggest three things.

First, "it could be as simple as a stuck or defective key. ... You can take a can of compressed air and clean the keyboard and try that." Clearly it's not a stuck key, since I'm getting the popup with both F1 and F2 and it isn't staying open. However, to their credit, they say they will replace the keyboard if it's defective.

Second, it "could be the drivers/application, which might be needed to reinstall on it. . . . You can also reinstall the hotkey drivers, hotkey appendix, and hotkey settings application in that order." This is what you suggest, toughasnails, and what I will try. I promise to report back if it works or not.

Third, "if that does not fix it, then for testing purpose, revert back to the original Operating System and test the key functionality." No way. I'd rather live with the screen not dimming that go through a complete reinstall from scratch. Again to their credit, they offer to do it for me: "The last option we can assist you with is to send the unit into us, alongwith the recovery disks
and your copy of Windows 7 Ultimate where we can test the issue."

Actually, there is a fourth alternative. I have a complete Norton Ghost backup of my C and D partition. I could reinstall XP, test screen dimming for a hardware issue, and then reimage the disk back to Win 7 with all my programs. But I don't believe it's a hardware issue.

I do wish someone with a W8 running Windows 7 would reply stating whether the screen dimming works on their machine.

 

Well there is another way to but you need a spare harddrive...put the spare in and load XP and see what happens. I think it might be faster than running norton . My guess XP is going to run ok on it.

 

I just did the reinstall of Hotkey Driver, Hotkey appendix, and Hotkey settings. Made no difference.

I don't have a spare hardrive and probably don't want to take apart the W8 to connect one up anyway. I guess I'll just live with this minor inconvenience and hope someone else comes up with a fix, if there is any fix.

It did occur to me that there might be a workaround. I created a new power plan I call Dim Screen Panasonic Power Management (Power Saving). I set the display to 30% on battery. That way even if the FN-F1 doesn't work, I can still switch to the much lower brightness screen when I need to on battery.

I'll test this later. Right now I'm connected via a mini port replicator. To run on battery and open the laptop screen, I have to shutdown, disconnect, reboot, etc.

Ok, I tested my "Dim Screen" plan. I changed display on battery to 30%.
So far it seems to work. The only oddity is that if I press FN-F1/F2, it cancels my change. It actually causes this power scheme to revert its dim setting to 85% on battery.

 

Just maybe you do have a problem with W8 then since you tried the hotkey install twice and still no difference. If they are going to fix it for free then I would send it to them.

 

They will do the fix for free, but I don't expect they will do all the data copying and software reinstallation. That's a job of many hours.

 

Did you utilize this?

Windows® 7 Upgrade Support Module (For CF-F8/W8/T8 Series)

 

No, I found the drivers here On the .JP site, it assumes and upgrade from Vista. My W8 came with XP installed. I did a clean install, not an upgrade from Vista.

I talked to Panasonic support and no one directed me to the .JP site you linked to, TopCop. But now I know why someone there and on this site referred to a PDF installation instruction file. That's what's on the .JP website, although it only downloads for me as a blank file. One the US site, the instructions are in an Excel file.

For my purposes, according to Panasonic tech support as I quoted above, I need the Hotkey Driver, Hotkey Appendix, and Hotkey Settings. But on the .JP site, all I see of those three is the Hotkey Driver. It is the same version as I downloaded from the US site as part of the ZIP package.

 

I have exactly the same problem on my CF19 running with W7 32bit.

FN+F1 / FN+F2 and brightness control buttons on front of machine working both, brightnes increases and decreases but only for a few seconds than it jumps back to maximum contrast.

Installed al drivers and so on.

 

Please email Panasonic support. The more people who raise the issue, the better chance of it getting elevated and resolved. Maybe.

 

This issue was brought up some time ago on the CF-30 MK3 with Win7 Pro 64bit. I never did get it resolved myself. I just learned to live with it. Since then, I got a copy of the Panasonic Win7 Pro 32bit recovery DVD. I used that to reimage my drive and all those issues disappeared. Based on that I would say it is a software/driver issue vs a hardware failure.

 

I don't think you will get a lot of help if your toughbook never came with W7 or if there never was a restore disk for your MK model. Now if you had a 19MK3 or a 30 MK3 which has a W7 restore disk for them (32bit) you would get it resolved.

 

I don't know what panasonic might do for rusty503 with his CF-30. For the W8, even though it did not come with Windows 7, Panasonic does support Windows 7 32-bit officially for that model. I guess that's why they offered to take my W8, reimage to XP or Vista to test, and then to reinstall Windows 7 (if I sent them my Windows 7 cdrom).

 

@Randysea

I don't have the answer to your problem but, I do have a W8 with Win7 Pro and the Fn F1 F2 keys do work properly. The blue box pops up and the screen dims or brightens as it should. So it is possible.

I installed Win7 @ 4mos. ago and don't remember if I did a clean install with the Panasonic drivers or used the Vista recovery disc then upgraded to Win7 and installed the Panasonic drivers.

 

hi there
not really a solution but a way to dimm your screen
just use the energy managers side from the systemsmanager
on the bottom there is a slider which you can move

to reach the energy options faster just make a shortcut to your desktop






short cut

 

My guess would be the display driver. I've seen the same symptom, the hotkeys show brightness up/down working but it doesn't stay there and reverts to previous brightness when you stop pressing the Fn key. You need to re-load the Panasonic OEM Win7 (or Vista) driver for that or compatible video chipset, then make sure Windows does not "update" it.

 

there is no driver for win 7 64 bit os
or i couldn t find it

 

Probably no compatible driver for 64-bit. Not clear why you would want to run 64-bit on a CF-W8 since it cannot run > 4 GB of memory.

If you have a Brightness slider in Power options and the hotkeys work, then you should be all set. Usually when there are problems with the Brightness not staying, the Brightness slider is also missing.

 

it can run more than 4 gb
look 6gb ram





the problem seems to be with all win 7 32 and 64 bit

i have the slidcer in energy options but still this problem

 

I'm sure this will help you
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-internal-speakers.339198/page-3#post-9669560

 

no

 

First result using Google...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-operating-system-to-windows-7-64-bit.560236/


second result

http://translate.google.com/transla...nic.co.jp/dl/install/w8gwb_c.html&prev=search

Official info

http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/itn/support/win7info2_f8w8t8.html

My personal opinion ...forget 64bit and use Win 7 32bit..with official drivers and install instructions.......

 

ok

 

Looks like you are trying to run Windows 10, not Win7. That's new territory to most here.

 

i have this issues under win 7

the scrennshot is for dokumentation of 6 gb ram running in the w8


i test win 10 too here is the win 10 thread
you can read everything there

@Shawn i will run win 7 64
everything else works perfekt, so why change to win 7 32 bit where people have the same issues

and my recovery cd win vista is in english, but i want german windows

what i will try ist the vista 64 hotkey driver perhaps it works

and i googled too and discovered links one and three too

only your second link was new for me

 

You could load Vista 64bit using the official drivers then UPGRADE to Win 7 64 bit.
That has worked for several guys trying to get a 64 bit version of Windows to work.

The following is the same advice and opinion I give everyone who has the 64bit Windoze blues...
I suggest 32 bit because all the drivers and install information is available direct from Panasonic.
64bit gives minimal benefits over 32 bit. But 64 bit is a LOT of aggravation to install. As you are finding out..This is the same advice I give everyone. Over 95% of the computer users will never need 64bit or use any of the advantages it can offer. You must have over 6gb of memory(which you do) and use programs which can use 64bit..Most programs don't ever use 64 bit..64bit Windows is media hype and not much else. It is valuable for large business's with huge spreadsheets and specific 64bit software. To the normal even heavy computer user it is a waste and just complicates things.. Many times it slows things down.

 

I agree with Shawn. I have a spare HDD/Caddy for this CF-53 I am using now and a lot of programs will not run on 64Bit. For one my printer will not work with 64Bit...no drivers so if I need something printed I have to put in the 32Bit HDD/Caddy. My 53 is no fast with 64Bit than 32Bit. If I had known this before I could of saved myself about $200.00...the cost of the 16GB memory...yes all hype.

 

i have to search very much in the www.
so it happens often that 5 to 8 sides with each 20 to 30 tabs or more is open
so 6 gb and more is very useful

and as i told you
the system works ok it is only this issue but it doesn t bother me much
i found a way to handel it
i do not want to do another install orgy with all my programms to make new licensecalls

the next thing i want do is to build in a ssd and copy my system to it
and testing a bit around with windows 10