Touchpad Problems

Hey Guys,
I finally got my baby in the mail today...and of course I have some work to do...guess that comes tih pull a $120 800mhz CF-28. So here are my curent problmes.
I have no working touchpad, yet DMI viewer says there is one. There is also an unknown device...go figure cant seem to find a driver for it. Any suggestions

Wanted (will pay money for)
1ghz motherboard
13.3 touchscreen
Port Covers (PCMCIA, DRIVE, AC, BACK)
Latch for BACK cover
Screws for side cover latch
Selling (Extra Parts from this Project)
Regular Keyboard (working condition)

If any of you have parts you are interested in selling -- PM me with a price.

 

Another two quick questions:
I just swapped the keyboard of a rubberized one I purchased. I noticed the F11 key is red. Is this normal and why is this.
Also where does this ambient light sensor I read about go and where can I find one to install.
Thanks
Ty

 

For F11 - the key is used in some police applications to be an emergency call button.

Don't have anything on the sensor, except I think it would be underneath a small hole on the upper left in the hinge cover.

 

The unknown device is most likely the HKey drivers. See Modlys website to download. As KLBOO has said, the red F11 key is normal and was used as an emergency call button. The light sensor is installed under the hole above the F4 key. To get access, flip the unit over and you will see an odd shaped cover plate. Remove the four screws and carefully peel back the plastic, this is where the sensor goes. That's all I know about it.

 

Someplacehere, in a thread started by fendereff I believe, there are some pictures of the cover plate Doobi mentions, but I was thinking the PCB that is shown under it was for the emissive keyboard.

 

That is correct Klboo, it is for the emissive. I thought that is what he was talking about. The rubberized I think does come in both the emissive and non-emissive? I could be wrong though. I was just commenting on the statement he made of looking for the sensor install location.

 

According to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210510
the rubber keyboard is non-emissive.

 

thanks for the info, looks like that was the problem. Still trying to figure out the trackpad issue (currently I have what was a TB over my desk
Also Addition to the parts needed lits:
Covers for all ports and the lever that lock the back cover in place.
Thanks

 

I guess this comes down to what one means by "emissive". I would think that anything that emits light is emissive.. and every rubber keyboard i've ever seen has emitted light! the rubber keyboards use nice, simple LEDs for the light sources though, which doesn't require the high-voltage inverter board. For whatever reason, they decided they couldn't use nice, simple LEDs for the full-stroke backlit keyboard though.. instead they used a technology similar to the backlight behind the LCD panel, which requires a special high-voltage power supply. (just like the backlight behind the LCD panel!) the end result is the same for both backlit keyboards, one just requires additional circuitry to achieve it.

 

Hmm.... the touchpad (not touchSCREEN) doesn't work at all? That is a rare failure indeed. Did you check the BIOS to make sure it is enabled? if not, then i would guess that the little ribbon cable pulled loose at one end or the other

 

I'd agree with Gravitar. If it was working poorly, jumping, etc, we would be on the hunt for what is causing it to mis-behave, but it sounds like it's not enabled or connected.

 

checked the bios it says yes....and a friend broke this thing down tonight while I was at a meeting and he reported back that it was connected? I guess time to hunt for a new touchpad?

 

Very possible. You should see if there is a physical break in the ribbon cable for the touch pad when you open it up next time.

 

will do but even then I'll still have to replace it right, the ribbons aren't exactly repairable right?
also you don't happen to have an extra I could buy off of you right?

 

I might have one from a 600, but I'll have to see if I damaged it when screwing around... I test my bad hardware alot

I'll get back to you by tomorrow night if you don't already have a line on one. Keep in mind, I'm really slow at stuff unless I've got a fire under my ass.

Edit; Easier said than done. I found my upper half from my parts 600, and I'm trying to get the trackpad out... this puppy is glued.

 

modly's got first dibs, but if he doesn't have one for you i have lots

 

sweet thanks...also i found a panasonic diganostic program, anyone know if this might help? And if so how to run it all i have here is XP and wont have access to my software library (ie OS disks) till after this TB project is done....

 

Got em' disassembled?

That was tricky as all hell getting this puppy out, and I'm not 100% sure I didn't break it.

Notes and lessons learned. There is alot of silicon and glue holding these things in. There is also another connector on the board itself that goes to the front side of it (So check that first! It's a 4 pin connector under the translucent orange tape).

Still doesn't work? I'll mail this one out to you for the cost of shipping ($1.60 I think, I'll double check though), but it won't get out til Saturday.

Hope you've got some silicon to put it back in.

 

I wont have time to disassemble her (again) untill at least tomorrow night, but I;ll check on that and report back.

 

Anyone know a easy way to make a book disk (dos)

 

The CF27 ones are the same and they don't silicone them on the 27!

 

got the panasonic program working....it states no pointing device detected.

 

In that case, double check the connectors. There is one in front of the Mini-PCI slot that housed the modem, and one under the motherboard (That'll be a fun one!) that attaches to the pad itself.

 

Update: fixed the touchpad -- thanks for the advice Modly.....guess which one had fallen out....your right that was sooo much fun...i think I'll de-solder all the board components and re-solder them just for fun :-D...seriously thanks though....now if i could only find the other parts i need....

 

At least you "had fun"

Now you've fully disassembled the lower half... so next time will be a cake walk.

 

I have a Panasonic Toughbook (lite) CF-W4. Running Windows XP version It's been stellar & problem free for 3+ yrs. Suddenly (ie overnight) the touchpad is non-active on normal boot-up. I have no external mouse drivers, just the usual Synaptics PS/2 driver. I can work-around the problem: If I check set-up on boot (ie F2 key), the touchpad is listed as enabled... I exit set-up without making any changes and voila, the touchpad works! If I *don't* go thru the F2/set-up/no changes sequence, Windows loads, and seems to work fine except for no cursor/touchpad action. My question: is this a sign I need to update my touchpad driver, or is it a problem with my BIOS or start-up sequence, or...??

 

Man, you people are finding harder and harder problems every day

Without knowing the full model number (Usually the next two letters/numbers after CF-W4 on the bottom are the important ones), I'll have to make this generic for now.

Try these;
http://panasonic.ca/PDP/Drivers/mouse_r4t4w4y4_1111_d040785.exe
http://panasonic.ca/PDP/Drivers/mouse_r4t4w4y4_2222_d040785.exe

Then try these;
http://panasonic.ca/PDP/Software/touchpad_t4w4_11_d050888.exe
http://panasonic.ca/PDP/Software/touchpad_t4w4_22_d050961.exe

(The first link in each is for the CF-W4GW, the second is for the CF-W4HW).

When I get home from work I'll try to find a BIOS. Which BIOS version does it say you have?

 

I'm not positive but it might be a BIOS or touchpad problem if it keeps disabling itself like that. It may also just be coincidental and not the cause in which case I'd try out Modly's drivers.

 

CF-W4GWDEZBM.
Not sure re: the BIOS. I'll check next time I boot up (?). Thanks Modly for the urls!!!

 

I have a 27 acting strange also. Trackpad and touchscreen wont work. BUT, if I boot the computer with a PS/2 mouse attached, touchpad works fine, still no touchscreen. All is enabled in the Bios. Just a beater and no real motivation to fix, but would be nice if it worked. I reloaded about everything I could think of and still nothing.
Win2000, Cf-27LBA
Rick H...

 

This may be far-fetched, but do the TB's use a CMOS battery? And could this cause it to "lose" the touchpad?

 

I am not finding any BIOS updates for the W4 at all. It's like they pretend it doesn't exist almost.

Found some cool stuff while I was looking though. Found the current MSRP sheet for all new models... Service manual for the W2... Employee profiles at Panasonic's toughbook devision... But no BIOS updates.

 

That's the line I was on when asking about the BIOS settings being reset though the touchpad is enabled by default.

 

The 27s do for sure. It would follow that if this were the case, the computer would not be retaining any of the other CMOS data either (like the time/date). i wonder if that's the case

 

Absolutely. But if the battery were BEGINNING to wear down, what, if anything, would go first? Or would everything be affected at once?

 

try to reinstall the touchpad drivers. i dont know if thast was already mentioned (too many pages).

 

UPdate: workaround of "go-into-BIOS -recheck-enable-on-touchpad" has ceased to work. I'm now reduced to using a mouse (oh so less portable!!). The drivers Modly provided are the same ones I already have... How do I determine which BIOS/CMOS versions I have? My other CMOS data (time/date) is not affected.

 

Yeah, I did the drivers re-install. Didn't seem to take (no diff in the files) -- there is difficulty in that if an external mouse is used (ie to be able to navigate through an installation process), the system doesn't recognise the flatpad/touchpad as installed. If I start up without an external mouse (and even if I enable touchpad inthe bios), the curser doesn't work and at some point in the installation process you just can't navigate using keyboard commands. Catch 22: can't re-install touchpad drivers without the touchpad working....

 

Not to confuse this thread but to get back to touch pad issues - I just got a 1Ghz - 28 and the touch pad is jacked up - seams to be very sensitive and does not work like it should. It does not move by itself like I have seen with the GPS but really acts stupid. Before I rip it out and replace it is it possible it may be a driver issue ? I was focused on replacing it but after reading this thread was wondering if anybody had experienced this, I assume so. I had a parts 600 apart the other day to remove the touch pad and stopped because of all the silicone holding it in - did not have time to mess with it.

As always thanks guys -

 

I'd see if you have a loose connector first, Mega-man. Is it a touchscreen model too or no?

Liz; Sorry for no response last night. I got this headache that started killing me so I called it an early night. All these high powered electronics must be giving me a brain tumor or something.

I'll look into it more, but sadly the W4 is very un-mentioned anywhere so my chances of finding anything are slim.

 

It is a touch screen model but I have a non touch screen on it. I moved the HD from my old 800Mhz and it does have the touch drivers installed. Am I just confusing the computer by doing this? It also acts this way under Ubuntu if that helps. I will check the connector and probably reload the driver - otherwise I guess I get to rip it out - Thanks

 

With it doing the same under Ubuntu, it sounds hardware related but I'd still try re-installing the driver in windows anyways.

 

Touchpad issues... Hmmm.... Things to check...

The little connection that wraps around the motherboard sometimes pops out... ESPECIALLY if someone has worked on the laptop before. Case halves must be split to get to this.

Try installing and reinstalling the driver. Make sure your driver IS installed by updating the driver in Device Manager. Point it to the touchscreen driver. Both regular screens AND touchscreens use the touchscreen driver!

Try swapping COM ports. I think Modly (?) had a prior post somewhere where this worked for someone.

As far as parts... You should go to www.heartlandsi.com and get the phone number.... Call for parts prices. You should look up the part numbers PRIOR to calling to save them the agg. Also have the model number ready that you intend to install the parts in. You'd be surprised at the cost of new parts VS ebay parts... Heartland doesn't have everything for the 28 but they have most of the stuff we usually need. If they don't have it.... Go to... You guess it... EBAY!