Non Responsive CF-18 Touchscreen

Hi all,

This is my first post. I bought myself a CF-18 with model number CF-18KHH54BE. 've tried the Panasonic checker on the model number and it can't find anything for some reason. The touchscreen does not work at all, I have looked in the device manager and can see a driver that says it's to touchpad/touchscreen. Touchpad works fine. The installed OS is XP professional.

I've looked around on this forum and from what I can tell it's a touch screen rather than a digitizer. The little pen whole is shorter than the one on a digitizer. IS there some software I can get that can diagnose the issue? I've looked and looked and can't find anything that's helping. The Calibration software doesn't do anything at all. I can't see any physical damage but being a physical touch rather than digitizer I'm guessing it could be damaged without being physically apparent.

Any help you could offer would be very much appreciated.

Regards

Celtic

 

CF-18KHH54BE


CPU - K - Pentium M 753 - 1.2GHz (Centrino) 802.11a/b/g
LCD - H - 10.4 XGA High Bright Touchscreen
HDD-RAM: H - 60GB HDD - 512MB RAM - dual ant. connectors

Wireless Options:Z - None The 54 probably indicates it was custom order for a corporation
Integrated Options:X - Base model I can not find who 54 is though.

Operating System: B - Windows XP Pro SP2
Destination: E - United Kingdom


If it is a CF18KHH 64BE

CF-18KHH64BE mk4 September, 2005
Europe
PM753 (1.2G ULV)
60GB
512MB
Touchscreen..
WLAN abg
WWAN EDGE (WEW18005)
Bluetooth (WBT182)
Keyboard UK
Notebook XPP (English)
British Telecom (UK) 64 indicates who it was made for
Silver Latch, Special BIOS, Ext.combo drive attached in a pkg.

 

Did you get the unit with the OS loaded or did you install the OS yourself? If you did the OS install, did you use factory restore discs or a retail XP disc?

There is a good chance the touchscreen is dead. The later CF-18 models had touchscreens that often failed. You can use a Ubuntu Live CD to check if the touchscreen is there. See this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/524581-ubuntu-10-10-toughbook-version.html

If it is dead, contact Sadlmkr, the OP of the thread in the link above, he is might be able to help.

 

Hi Shawn,

Thanks for the info, I'd managed to find it all on the forum bar the last part. You are correct it was in deed a typo and is a 64 not 54 as I had typed

 

Hi mklym,

It was already all installed when I received it, everything else works, all buttons, touchpad etc work fine. It's just I have zero response from the touchscreen.

Thanks for the Ubuntu tip, I'm downloading ubuntu now and will install it to a USB stick and try that as a test

Latest LTS was 12.04, hoping that one works

 

Well I ran Ubuntu 12.04 from USB stick and it didn't have a working touch screen. I ran the same USB on another toughbook (a digitiser one instead of normal touch, all I could get to test with) and touch screen worked just fine.

Looks like this one may well have a faulty touchscreen

I'll contact the guy you recommended. I'm in UK though so probably not a lot he can do sensibly form that distance.

Thanks for your help

 

Shipping from the UK will be killer. One last ditch effort to try is unplug everything on the touch and re-plug it in.

 

You will be very happy with a new touch panel. Of course the price is an issue but the end result is sweet. Grab a screen protector at the same time. I see 3 or more Chinese knock offs on ebray for 39.99+9.99. Or five for $173.99. I can not remember which China panels I tried once but they worked. I felt the material was more prone to shatter...shattered one and threw it against the wall after applying too much pressure. Bezel had a little lump there. It's a tight I hesitate to say perfect fit. THERE...you have all the information I have. Shipping for five seems high but they sandwich it between multiple cardboard layers....takes time.
Can we get some input here folks on a recommended seller. If I was buying some I would buy from the guy that the other two stole the image from.
I have one only panel at this time or would talk about sending you one.
If you unplug - replug the FPC from the TSPCB you might get lucky as Paul recommended.
The higher price units include tape, I prefer to preserve the old seal.

One more thing, what is the result of:

Code:

$dmesg | grep Fujitsu 

From Ubuntu 12.04 Terminal. No result is bad mobo. Positive report is bad touchpanel. Spaces are critical as are capital letters.

BTW welcome to the soiree.

 

Hi sadlmkr,

I gave a result about the touch panel I'm glad to say. So hopefully a replacement panel is the way to go. Can you recommend a decent "How To" ? I'm sure there are lots, some better than others.

Thanks for your help

Huw

 

Also would you know if the part number I need is DFWV08A0049 ? There is somebody within about 10 minutes drive of me selling a new screen with that part number

 

That's the LCD NOT the Touchpanel that you need.
New Replacement Touch Screen Panel for Panasonic Toughbook CF 18 CF 19 CF18 CF19 | eBay

Gotta run.

They are easy after the third one. I'll walk you through it. Later.

Jeff

 

Thank you!

I nearly bought the wrong thing then.....

 

Do You see it in the BIOS ? It's enabled, right ?

Greetings

 

Yes it's there and it's enabled. Thanks for checking the H-Bert, wouldn't be the first time I'd missed the obvious!

 

I've just bought the same model and it too had a dodgy touchscreen. The touchpad and external mouse were fine, but any time the screen was touched the pointer would disappear off to the right side. Turns out it's a poor connection between the touchscreen panel cable and the controller board in the lid. With a bit of wiggling of the flat ribbon cable I was able to get the touchscreen responding, and have wedged it in place with a bit of rolled-up tape and it seems to be holding

Might be worth trying before shelling out the cash for new parts.

 

Thanks Wallace,

I'll certainly give that a shot first!

I actually bought a handful of them, 2 are totally dead o the touch screen, 2 do what you have just described. So I'll give those 2 a whirl

Thank you !

 

It's worth trying all of them. There's only 4 wires in the connector, and poor connection could stop the whole panel working. I suppose it could also be a cracked conductor in the ribbon cable making intermittent connection too, but the connector being loose, dirty, or corroded is more likely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=454-hT9bRMM&hd=1 is a good video showing what to do, and shows the connector I'm talking about quite clearly.