I Just Received my New(ish) CF-18 & MAN...

Do I love it! You guys were right... This is a slick little machine! I loaded the drivers per Tomcat in the other thread and... Voila... IMO! <Instant Male gasm> This thing is SOOO slick! I wish it were a little larger but I love all the little creature comforts they fit into it. I bought it for my wife but it was actually a test for me getting a CF-19. My only issue (and this will either prove out or not over the next few days/weeks) is the keyboard. As most of you know... I type A LOT! But I guess if I HAD to I could always get rid of the CF-30 and bring my old Dull Inspiron out of mothballs as I still haven't gotten around to getting that one on ebay yet. (Hmmmm... Come to think of it... it has a Hitachi, 720 RPM drive in it that I could harvest!)

I have it all set up like the Recovery Disks were used thanks to the other posts here. You guys are awesome!

Only one question.... I have a Verizon EVDO WWAN installed. Can I use SB555 Watcher to get that working? Or is that software only good for the CF-28/29? I should have all the software here somewhere... So if it is called by another name... Please let me know what it is.

Thanks!

 

Rick,
The bad news is that its not EVDO but 1xrtt. The correct driver is on the Panasonic.ca site. EVDO came with MK3 and up. Ask me how I know . What did you put in for a hard drive? I put a 60gb Hitachi 7200rpm HTS in mine. PM if you want to swap some goodies for one, brand new sealed in factory foil. We thought you'd like it.
CAP
EDIT: sb555verison_win2k_xp.exe

 

I am glad you like it. After i played with my CF-18 i had to get a CF-19 and now i just love it.

Capt is right with the verizon 1xrtt thing. It will work with the same watcher as the cf-29. A lot of the time these cards work without being activated as a lot of members here admit to there cards connecting to the net without paying for it. It is actually pretty slow i had one and it was just too slow for me to handle.

-James

 

This one was disconnected in the BIOS so I'm not sure it was ever hooked up... It's going through Battery recal right now so I will load it tomorrow....

 

As far as network speeds are concerned... with 1xRTT you can get about 20-23kbps downloading stuff off the introwebs, vs EVDO you can download at around 90-280kbps... Compare this to typical DSL of about 180-320kbps and typical cable of 350-900+kbps

It isn't worth the $50-$80/month (depending on your plan) for those slow speeds if you ask me.

 

Which is why I'll set up whichever one I end up with.... With Motorola Phone Tools so I can hook up via my cell phone if I have to.

Most times I'm close enough to a hotspot....

 

ehhh, hotspots suck lol... I just have my Sprint set up on NDIS... all I do it turn my Toughbook on from standby and it just connects and freakin works... EXCELLENT for that not so computer savvy girlfriend/wife when you are on vacation driving down the roads through the mountains

 

Yeah... But I refuse to pay $40 a month on something I'll use only once per month. I rarely need/use it on the road other than for GPS... Which I still have to mod into this one.

 

I m reinstalling SB Watcher.... Does it hook up to Ports 2 & 1? All I see available for this is 1, 2 & 4....

 

TB is all your hotkeys and drivers working correctly? I seem to remember a problem with the screen rotation that I don't recall ever being resolved? Can you confirm this?

 

Doobi,
Screen rotation has been resolved. Although now that you mention it I haven't tried to make it automatic. The front panel button issue was solved by Ohlip and Tomcat, and the tool bar control always worked. I'll try that over coffee in the morning, its the last shot the little sucker has at driving me back to drink!
CAP

 

Cap,

I bought one of the CF-29's (and a second one two days ago) and the front panel switch/lights are seemingly inop. Was this the same issue you had and if so, how did you fix?

 

ST,
No, if you look at a picture of a CF-18, there are 6 buttons and one led on the right side front just below the palm rest. The two to the left and the led are for screen brightness. The other 4 are for tablet functions, on screen keyboard, carriage return (enter), screen rotation, and security. They are for use when you have the screen in tablet mode and don't have access to the keyboard. These are the ones that were giving us trouble. On the CF-29 I think you must be talking about the wireless lights and button on the left. I haven't messed with mine because I don't have anything in the WWAN/GPS slot although my MK4 is wireless ready. I suspect they won't work if there is nothing in there. They work on my CF-18 because there is a 1xrtt cell phone modem installed.
CAP

 

Doobi... Yes... All the bells and whistles work! (Thanks to Tomcat, Teo and Cap!) I set up the screen rotation to auto. Now when I flip it... It automatically rotates to whatever position I need it to be in! (Or had set it to)

I love this little laptop and so does my wife. I'll probably buy another one as a "Parts project" and play around with it. Just to make sure I want it. Plus... My wife has taken over the new one I just got. So I can't have it apart in pieces working on it....

 

NICE! Glad to hear that TB. I also am thinking of getting one this year; or if I can swing it, a 19. We will see!!

 

Rick! send an invoice to your wife amounting to $437 s&h included. So that you can buy a replacement one. Lol




teo

 

Teo... Good one... I may try that. Actually she'll just tell me to list the Sony Viao... Which I will... Hopefully between that and the Dull Inspiron I have to list... I'll make close to enough to get a CF-19!

Well.. I have to say that Discount PC International has been very nice to work with. They were a little slow on shipping but they reminded me that they take 3 days to ship out. They offered me a complete refund (For the F9 key) or a partial refund of $15... I thought that was fair so I took the $15. Teo said he would send me an F9 key to try to snap on... SO we'll see.

I have an email into Heartland to check on a few parts. We'll see what they have to say....

 

Hi Toughbook,
Does your 18 have xp pro or Tablet pc 2005 installed. I am still debating whether or not to buy tablet pc at $185 and install it in place of my xp pro.
My front buttons and auto rotation does not work and I can't seem to follow the steps to get them to work with xp. I get lost with the lingo and command stuff that Tomcat and the boys were posting.
Rich

 

Rich,

I followed Alex's guide pretty much to the letter and it worked great for me installing Win XP Pro (Svc Pk 2). So it is easier to find I'll kind of paraphrase his steps. Here they are...

Prior to anything else you will need all the driver for your model. You can go HERE for your drivers and also to register your laptop if you want. It requires that you register but it is free and they have any/all the stuff you need. Personally I would download all English drivers and use the ones you need. (Or that are listed below anyway. For example, you may not have Bluetooth installed but it is a good idea to download anyway just to keep all your drivers together!)

Now... Install XP. If your disk is just XP Pro Svc Pk 1, upgrade to Svc Pk 2.
Now a list of drivers in order... Go to HERE and download the driver needed for your wifi card. I'm not sure why the stock one doesn't work... Perhaps someone will enlighten us. (Maybe no WPA?) The file name is;

English: 12.2.0.0_X_Drivers.zip Download
Ver:12.2.0.0 Date:1/5/2009 Size:7133 (KB)

You can unzip the file and then point the Network ? in Device Manager to the folder where it is stored and update the driver.


You should have all the drivers below (plus the others) in a Driver Folder on your desktop. They need to be installed in the order below. Now you can do the following;

Unzip the OS INF File driver, extract to c: and install and reboot
Unzip the Video driver extract to C: util and install and reboot
Unzip the Sound driver extract to C: util and install and reboot
Unzip the Modem driver extract to C: util and install and reboot
Now you can do the backward hotkey stuff...

The Hotkey plus driver should be extracted and then you go into Device Manager under the second unknown device direct to the plus driver and reboot. Now do the same thing with the hotkey driver as above , note there is only one unknown device in the Device Manager now. Then you can install the touchpad driver/touchscreen driver install through Device Manager by upgrading the mouse driver. Continue to reboot after each addition in this order;

Hotkey Settings
Hotkey Plus Manager
Hotkey Appendix
Software Key Board
Display Rotation Tool

By this time you will have the keys working and you can go into the Panasonic program list and modify the rotation and front key settings
Add any other drivers now that have been missed. (IE. Battery Recalibration, DMI, Handwriting, etc.)


Alex (Tomcat57) did an excellent job with this and deserves props. So far as I have heard... Everyone who has installed their CF-18 OS (Win XP Pro) using this method has had a 100% success rate.

Please post back here when you get your working!

Rick

 

Rich,
You should not install the tablet os unless you have a digitizer model. To add to what TB said, I finally followed the posted procedure on a fresh XP Pro SP3 install and it worked fine. My CF-18 from Australia had tablet installed even though its a touch screen and believe me it didn't solve any problems!
CAP

 

Please don't go near any more Dells. It will take away your toughbook fixing powers. If I didn't just have to do my business taxes then I would be shopping for a CF-18. Can you guys post some pictures of the new rigs?

 

Thanks Toughbook and Cap,
I will give it another try. Cap you answered my question before I asked. Should I somehow delete service pack 3 or will the updates work with sp3. I believe you are saying they will. Toughbook is there any way to get rid of service pack 3 or should I keep it and proceed?
Rich

 

my advice to you is: Format the harddrive and do a fresh install, all garbage on the hardrive will be wipe out. I f you don't have xp pro cd I do beleive you can borrow from someone else and use th coa at the buttom. After that follow those instruction on how to install the driver properly to make to works. Good Luck.


ohlip

 

Rich,
What ohlip said, get a fresh start. I have a new Dull restore disk which is SP3 so I tried it on the first CF-18. My old SP2 Dull disk never let me down and I have never updated anything to SP3. When M$ tells me to back everything up and save all my files before I do an upgrade I'm not doing the upgrade unless I really need to. We got a bunch of new Dull Latitudes with SP3 at the office so I clipped one of the restore disks and tried it. It worked fine, I don't see anything different but I'm sure my driver install travails had nothing to do with SP3. Use whichever XP disk you have, but upgrade to SP2 before you load the drivers if your XP disk is older than SP2.
CAP

 

I can't imagine that Svc Pk 3 would prohibit the correct loading of the drivers. Besides... Someone needs to try it!

I think it is the order of how the drivers are loaded. Very similar to when you reformat a desktop... Start with the Chipset, video, etc.

 

Rick,
Read my post! I installed XP with SP3 before I loaded the first CF-18.
CAP

 

I usualy upgade to sp-3 before any driver updates (even chipset)
I have not had any issues other than making sure you do the driver updates in the descibed order

Alex

 

Wow I feel honored to have so many professionals discussing my Issue. I really like that Toughbook wants me to be the somebody who tries it. Yeh me, the newbie who works with power tools and wants to cut it open with a sawz all. Seriously guys thanks for the help. I will not have a chance to follow your directions until Friday night or Saturday. I am sure I will trouble everybody with questions.
Rich

 

Yeah... I read it... But I thought that you had the issue from installing the drivers out of sequence...???

I've never had an issue with a Toughbook with this before. I always install the drivers and THEN do the update.

Must be nice to have disks with Svc Pk 3 on them! But I use my Dull disks on Dulls and my regular XP (sp2) for everything else... If I don't have Recovery Disks.

 

Rick,
Anyone with a newish Dull laptop who didn't fall for Vista will have one. I'll check at the office, they just throw them out with the packaging and pay the contract "IT" guys to fix any problems. I might have an extra, I'll look . I have no reason to believe SP3 caused me any problems, the CF-18s just seem to be very fussy about the order in which you install their drivers.
CAP

 

Man O Manischewitz... Did I ever just score the deal of the month! I bought a "Non-Working" CF-18 for $190 shipped. It was stated that it didn't work but that there was no charger and no hard drive. I just got it in... It is a CF-18DDAZXMM... A 1.1GHz Digitizer model that looks like was never used. I'm serious.. Other than sticker residue on the lid... No wear, no scratches not even any dust! It literally looks new! However... No charger, no hard drive (But the caddy is there with no connector) BUT IT BOOTS RIGHT UP!!!! The only issue (which really isn't much of one) is that is has an XP Tablet COA and I do not have that OS... So I'll probably just put one of my new XP Pro COAs on it and install that.

Teo said that it looked like the connector for the CF-29 hard drive was the same or similar to the CF-18 so I will play around with one of those when I get the chance. But overall I couldn't be more pleased! Now I have one to experiment on.. Or maybe I'll give the newer one to my wife and take the older one to play around with as it has the serial port on the back and I like having that.

This made my day... I'm still cackling over their not knowing that it worked.

EDIT - The actual connector is the same... Same part number even... DFUP1268YA. I'll see if I can order a couple of them as I also have a few CF-29 caddys with no connectors.

 

Its confirmed that the harddrive connector of the cf-29 is compatible to CF-18. To somebody out there to clear this out only the harddrive connector cable ribbon not the hardrive caddy. Well! if you are handy enough maybe you can trim it down according to the slot to fit it in or I as I mentioned before probably a can of sardine will do the trick as I've seen that from ebay hongkong improvising a harddrive caddy.


ohlip

 

Teo... No I'll leave the fabbing of the caddy itself to someone else. I don't do that type of thing and then sell them. I have the metal caddy and the foam inside... All I need is the connector and heater element. The part numbers are exact. I just need to check with Kara at Heartland on Monday when she gets back from vacation to see if I can order just the cable & connector and verify that it has the heating element with it.

 

Rick, for wireless, you might be able to wait until WiMax is rolled out nation wide (As soon as the digital cable transition is done with this summer). We have a company out here offering $20/month mobile wireless (unfortunately it's via USB sticks right now), but that kind of thing will spread across the country eventually.

 

I'm always in my shop.... Why do I need WiMax?

I'm sure it will turn into a "Must Have" thing.... I usually go for that! But I'm in no rush as I rarely need it. I do want to mod in GPS though...

 

Well... While the CF-29 MK1 is loading windows I took a CF-29 hard drive connector and swapped in the old 40GB drive out my my 1st CF-18... Now I know what they were talking about... It doesn't read the hard drive for some reason... I'll have to take it apart and see...

 

Well I found out at least part of the problem... I installed the caddy from the 1st CF-18 into the 2nd one. The BIOS reads it fine. I just don't want to boot with it as it may see the digitizer and start loading/unloading drivers... And I have the 1st one set up perfectly.

Anyway... The HD connector is the exact same part number as the 29 so I stole one from another project to use. The one thing the 18 caddy didn't come with was the two pins that guide the connector home. I started working on some pins on my little metal lathe until I figured that I could probably use some aluminum wire. I found some in some #2 wire I used when I wired the basement... I bent it into the correct shaped, tapered the pins, banged the wire to the correct thickness in the anvil (yup.. another anvil story) and installed it. All I can think of is that there is some sort of switch behind where the pins go as the alignment isn't exactly like the stock one... But VERY close. Also the aluminum wire is just a hair thinner. So I guess I'll be taking the bottom off the CF-18 to check out what's going on.. Unless anyone knows here...

 

Best option is taking the buttom off and you can hook it up the harddrive with the connector perfectly, Place a foam( not the styro) beneath and also at the top when you ready to close it again and a portion again on the harddrive cover. It is just temporary, only to test the system anyway.

ohlip

 

Well... It will not work with the connector I have. And I do not have a spare hard drive caddy for a CF-29 (Other than the one I had.)... So I need to buy a few caddys for some upcoming projects and maybe I'll take the multimeter to the one I have searching for whatever may be wrong. It will boot off the other connector so I still got a deal... I just need t spend a little time and money to make it perfect!

 

Well... I finally figured it out... And it took me taking off the bottom of the laptop to figure out why as I didn't notice this when I compared the stock caddy in my first CF-18 to the boogered leftovers of the 2nd. The hard drive ribbon cable of the CF-29 is the same in all respects EXCEPT the length of the connector at the end where it meets the mobo! The CF-29 connector is about 1.5mm shorter and this is enough to keep it from working in the stock caddy. So... I had to engineer some changes. I took the bottom off to see how the two met and what it took to engage. I needed to cut up an old fake credit card and use two thicknesses of that to make the connector go out far enough to contact. Plus I had to trim the sides of the connector a little and bend part of the caddy just a hair. All things done are reversable if I need the cable in a CF-29 or I get the proper cable for the CF-18. The only other thing I did was to add a little foam tape to the foam on the inside of the door to make sure it stays pushed up against the mobo connector. I am loading XP Pro on it now!

Now I need to got to the Panny website and download the digitizer program so I can install that instead of the touchscreen driver. I'll do everything in the same order as pointed out in the other thread and substitue the digitizer for touchscreen in the order called for... I'll keep you posted.

As with everything... It works... You just have to MAKE it work!

 

TB -

I hope your Digitizer software is complete; my experience with Tablet PCs is that the OS has about twice the DLL library and some special HAL extensions, and as a result some pretty hinky configuration is done DURING the installation process which is why every Tablet PC I've ever owned either required the Restore Disks or a snurched copy (M$ never sold Tablet retail) of XP Tablet. As for your Wacom Pen - I use a UP710E - It's got high resolution pressure sensitivity and eraser on the other end, plus it only cost 30 bux from Buy.com.

mnem
Toze.

 

mnem,
That's just a little over my head, or maybe a lot. With the exception of the aforementioned fancy oskb and handwriting recognition I have every tablet function the CF-18 is capable of, screen rotation, automatic screen rotation, tablet buttons, tablet button option applet, etc purring along on my machine. I'm running a fresh XP Pro SP3 install and all the drivers there are. So if Rick can replace the touch screen driver with the digitizer driver and the wacom pen driver, what else could we need? There is a well documented work around for installing the TIP, including gestures, to run on XP. Microsuck says Tablet is for all of the functions specific to each manufacturer, did Panasonic just cover that with the drivers? Inquiring minds want to know, or think they do.
CAP

 

There is also a different version of the hotkey plus driver for Tablet vs. regular XP. With the tablet version, it moves the configuration from the panasonic "Tablet Button Settings" app to the "Pen and Tablet Settings" under the control panel. It should also make the on screen keyboard button start the tablet input panel instead of the panasonic OSK application.

If you go to the panasonic site here:
https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pc/itn/drivers/d_menu_en.html
then select CF-18D/E, XP Tablet SP2, English, then get the "tablet buttons driver", you'll get the right hotkey plus driver for tablet.

I suspect that Tablet being OE only is because of the difficulty in getting all the drivers installed and working correctly. Newegg does sell the OE version of tablet, it's about $180

nine

 

Alex (Tomcat) was nice enough to stay up until 2am (Actually 3am I guess) with me helping me out. I found out just enough to know that I need to try to reinstall everything today. Yes... There are like 6 different files that need to be installed over the touchscreen model... I was just worried about the order of install.... So... Swap the digitizer for the touchscreen at that install point?

I have a host of "honey-dos" this morning but will be back in a few hours...

 

Rick,
I'll be looking for an update here. I just took a look on Panasonic.ca, and the driver list shows the "Fujitsu Takamisawa touchpad/touchscreen driver" as belonging on both the digitizer and the touchscreen models. Am I reading ahead of you and Alex? I hadn't really looked at the digitizer models yet and sort of assumed that there would be a different driver for the CF-18DDxxxx. Is there a new complicated procedure in my future?
CAP

 

Cap'n-

You are probably missing the entire point of Tablet PC, being as your entire experience with it is as used with a "convertible" Tablet PC that ALWAYS has the keyboard available (I'm not trying to be snide here - it's a totally different attitude towards computing). The intent of XP Tablet was to make a version of Windows that didn't "think" the same as regular Windows, but was designed to be intuitively useable WITHOUT mouse or keyboard; a more "organic" approach to computing. The OSKB and handwriting recognition are CRUCIAL elements of this philosophy; we won't get into how successful M$ was in their implementation,

My HP TC1100 is one of those models; the Geeks at HP said they wanted to make something that would work like a PADD from Star Trek, and as such, the keyboard/mouse were considered "vestigial organs" and made to be left off; only connected if absolutely needed. My personal opinion is that the reason it didn't take off like wildfire was not the software or the design, but mostly the price point. They were priced and marketed as enterprise class hardware when they needed to be shooting at the mainstream "I'm not sure I want a computer" segment.

The TC1000/1100 family of tablets STILL engender FIERCE loyalty in their users; I believe that if they had continued development instead of dropping it, today's version would be something entirely out of this world. The only things I wish I could change about mine are really refinements; I would like it to be half as thick and half the weight, and more reliable with the handwriting recognition... I would like BOTH Penabled AND touchscreen operation, so I CAN type ON THE SCREEN if I need to... and maybe, a signature cap application that ports just like the clipboard, so you can drop an actual handwritten signature into any document. THAT would totally rock my paperless office!

mnem
Of course, the Voice Recognition thing with Majel Barrett's voice... *Shudders little Trekker shudder of delight*

 

I am reloading now and plan on using the Wacom driver....

I am only installing the drivers listed under Tablet SP 2... So there are a few drivers left out... So far...

EDIT - Hmmmmm... No screen rotation tool on Tablet SP2.... What to do... What to do...

Edit2 - Ahhhhh... I forgot to add the digitizer when called for... Oh well... We'll see how it goes!

 

Okay... On the touchscreen model this is SOOOO much easier.

I am assuming that I must install the screen rotation tool but that I can skip the keyboard app??? Because I can download and install a different keyboard app?

 

Well... I need something else cause this is just pissing me off!

I reloaded all the table drivers and still no worky! The only button that works is the KEY button and that brings up Windows Task Manager....

I'm going to go work on the car!

Now I know why GunHog found that one in the trash... FRUSTRATION!

 

Hi Rick,

If you have to start again, can you do a Ghost image after you install the basic drivers, then if it goes pear shaped you've not knocked back quite so far?

Robert.