Tried to upgrade Toughbook SX2 to Windows 10.. some troubles

Hi all,

I understand the SX2 is not on Panasonic's list of compatible toughbooks for W10, but having seen encouraging results of people succeeding with older notebooks, I decided to go for it.

Generally installation and operation went ok, except for a few issues:
- chiral scrolling in circular touchpad does not work in uwp apps
- brightness control is borked - attempting to Fn+F2/3 to change brightness results in the slider returning to max brightness. Changing via the battery panel in the taskbar results in the screen capacitors emitting a high pitched noise at any brightness level lower than 100%.

Hoping some other brave soul has succeeded and I can find a solution for the above!

 

This behavior is normal for toughbooks. Fix is standard. Rename this file C:\Program Files (x86)\Panasonic\Hotkey Appendix\hkeyappv.dll to something else and reboot.
Re noise - I think it will not help. I believe brightness level can be changed only by backlight leds, no other way. So if there is a noise - it will not disappear after keys fix.
Re touchpad - I don't have the circular one, so I don't know

 

have you researched the drivers at the panasonic site ?
(those oem/opm manufacturer (touchpad , etc) drivers do not always work , see just below)

while not a *fix* , this is meant as some input for a *sanity check* .
W10 is not compatible with many makes/models ... some not as old as one would like to think .
as toughbooks and comps "panasonic" are not designed as mainstream items but rather for reliability and so-forth , development of drivers and bios updates will be slow in coming , if at all .

"but having seen encouraging results of people succeeding with older notebooks ..." .
yes , some have succeeded , some are *making progress* and some , most likely , have thrown in the towel .
some time back , there was a spate of individuals truly and totally *bricking* older machines when attempting to load a linux OS on them (leaning toward higher numbers with toshiba) .
i personally tested this with a toshiba that had a cracked lcd ... nothing to loose ... yep , i wound up with a door-stop on the first try !
do i really want to risk borking one of my toughbooks just for the sake of a supposed "cool" factor or do i want a machine that i can fire up that does the job ?
when i weigh the true advantages versus the "golly-gee-whiz" factors , it is hard to justify investing the time and money .
recent case ... a nice acer laptop that *someone* had tried to go from W8.1 to W10 on ... it was a mess ... i could not get W10 to load ... period , nor would W8.1 load to any degree of stability/usefulness and after a couple of months of off-and-on searching and manufacturer/forum chasing , i simply gave up on it and loaded W7 on it ...
even though the best information said that the machine never has come out with W7 !
i had to pick and choose drivers through trial and error ... and there was a fair amount of error involved .

hopefully , going back to W7 (or whatever OS was in the SX2 to begin with) will be easy .

 

Microsoft is telling everyone that W10 will run on all computers but will it run right.....NO. I tried it on my CF-52 and 53 but the problem I had was that Microsoft wanted to look at all my files, contacts , passwords and my Internet history which ticked me off. My stuff is private and they have no business knowing what I do. Before anyone installs W10 they need to know what Microsoft is up to. I went back to W7 and never looked back.

 

Hahahahahaha

 

I do want to TRY win10 on my CF19 mk6
Dual touch , fingerprint and a camera.. On paper it is a perfect candidate for Win10.
I will try on a extra drive in my mk6 test mule.

Looks like there is a driver cab file for a Cf19 mk7 ---Win10 Close enough to try on the mk6

 

Amen Brother! I will run W7 until End of Days... But I am taking my first steps to go over to Linux 100% of the time eventually... Probably in 2020 or a little after. Until then I will play with both!

 

No problems at all. No risk ))

 

I am guessing that I will like Win10 on that CF 19.
Makes it much easier since I can use an official driver cab file.

 

"No problems at all. No risk"
wanna buy a bridge ... cheap ?

have you googled and seen how many people have lost files , data , and in the extreme , wound up with toasterrific machines ?
i honestly do not understand how you can , in good faith , say "no risk" .
common sense , logic and (most of all) awareness would dictate the reality of the fact that there is a risk associated with any OS change in a comp ...
especially a comp that a person is using at the time and the OS install is an "in place upgrade" .

personal note:
in these forums all of us should be aware that individuals come here looking for information and guidance .
some of these individuals have not been around as long as some of us here , nor do they possess the experience that some of us have .
as such , each of us has a responsibility to be honest in any advice , what we say and how we say it .

 

I'm not interested in this info really
My answer was directed to Shawn and it was safe enough, no risk at all )

 

I suppose I should have posted my Win10 on a CF 19mk6 thoughts in a different thread to avoid confusion.

I know BarrMaley has been running Win10 on a CF 19mk6 for quite a while without any real problems. That is good to know. The real risk on a CF 19mk6 is can I adjust to Win10 and learn to like it.

I do plan on cleaning it up and disabling the built in spyware.

Win 10 installs on "other" machines have caused problems. I do not know why as I have not investigated it that much.
I would not install Win10 if Panasonic had not issued an official tested driver set for the machine. CF19 mk6 and mk7 are identical except for a slight boost in cpu speed.

I suggest a complete backup of all personal files before any OS change.
If I had to install Win10 on an untested machine without an official driver pack, I would use a different drive and install Win7 then bump it to Win10.
Losing personal data on an OS upgrade is because the proper backup was not done. I blame that on the user not the OS. Hardware crashes could be caused by aggressive drivers.

SX2 with Win10 threads
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ghbook-sx2-to-windows-10-successfully.783780/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-tbs-black-screen-fixed.794356/#post-10303786

 

The problems you are having others are having problems with to who installed W10. Wish I could help you but I know no easy fix to this.

 

One problem I have run into several times is Win 10 does updates and wipes out part of the boot sector, all restore points and all data needed to do a refresh or reset. Files and folders are accessible from Linux or with the drive in a dock but a full reinstall is needed.

I believe I am on #7 computer that has done this, one unit did it 3 times, 2 while I was updating. Customer units, not mine.

 

The best advice I can give you is check out @Phoenix W10 clean install guide here http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nbr-windows-10-clean-installation-guide.781178/ . He knows what he's talking about when it comes to W10 and a lot more....trust me.

 

To make it simple, for a clean installation, it should be straight forward as per the guide Mr. toughasnails linked above.

But for upgrading from a previous OS or even a previous Windows 10 older build, one must ensure he has all the latest drivers otherwise it would fail. Also for upgrades it is recommended you disable your AV while the upgrade is being done and get rid of any OS tweaks you may have done.

 

Thanks for reaching out guys! Unfortunately it seems like these two problems are gonna stick with me while I've got W10 on here.. maybe if I have time I'll try a clean install.