Windows 7 Driver Installation

So everything is already in the forums but scattered. This is my process for installing.

Install Win 7 of course, you should then have the hard wired ethernet enabled by default so plug the cord in. Get updates from windows update for me it was 3 on my CF 29 MK3, the newer ethernet, wireless, and audio. I then used the mouse touchscreen driver that i already had for Win XP so use that or if you dont have it go to http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/cgi-bin/itn/toughbook/dl01.cgi and use your correct model #.

Unplug and use wireless go to http://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/cgi-bin/itn/toughbook/dl01.cgi notice up top its the CF 19K/L MK3 which another user brilliantly figured out it works for most if not all other toughbooks. Get the 3 hotkey files which is for the unknown device and install them all and restart after the last file is installed.

Everything works great after following those steps, but my issue is that i installed the video driver that i used for Win XP and it works fine however there is an exclamation in device manager yet there are no issues thus far.

Does anybody have any information about removing the exclamation its kind of an OCD thing for me even though its still working fine except Aero does not work and probably wont with these specs?

 

I had the same issue with my bluetooth usb combo card. I could never get rid of the exclamation points, but I never had any problems with it functioning correctly. I was using XP driver and did not use XP compatibility mode when I installed them. Try uninstalling the drivers and reinstall them in XP compatibility mode and report back.

I turned aero off on my cf-28 and did not notice it since I have never used vista and I use a toughbook wallpaper that was made by one of our members.

 

Back when I did this, I did not use any XP drivers except the Hotkeys, which must be unzipped first to work. My CF-29N is not a touchscreen model.

You seem to be trying to use XP drivers for your chipset, which is less correct in this application. There are newer drivers available at the Intel site, or where I got mine, Windows Update. I would uninstall them and reboot and let it find all new drivers on Win-Update.

If you had Internet when it first started after the OS install it should have found them by default. Alternatively, you could go to the Intel Driver Update Utility/detect page and let it find you a newer driver.

Your hypothesis is correct, the Mobile Intel 915GMS Express graphic chipset does not support Aero, and never will. I have spent a lot of time investigating this, and I don't even want to run Aero!

EDIT: Everything I have said above is still true for the Intel 855 used in the Mk3, including the fact that it will not support Aero. The hardware in incapable of it. "Force Aero" hacks are aimed at systems that have the hardware capability, but have Aero disabled due to legal issues. The hack to is to enable Aero on Non-WDDM Compatible or Not Aero Supported graphics accelerator card or CPU, by disabling the check Windows makes to determines if your system hardware fulfills minimum requirements for Aero window frame transparency.

 

the MK3 doesnt use the 915, but the 855 chipset, which isnt supported at all in 7 nor vista and should just work using the standard VGA driver in 7.

I posted a workaround a few weeks back on how to het an XP 855 driver to register properly in 7 ill find the link.

My main Mk3 issue was the touch screen never calibrated properly... fine in the middle, but got more and more wayward as you approched the sides...

edit - heres the link - post 11 is what you want!
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5784700#post5784700

 

Thanks Matt, I missed the Mark 3 part!

See EDIT above.

 

My touch works pretty fine so far, i just used the driver from the panny site. Did you try the force aero hack for Win 7 and check if that works? I could not locate the driver from vista but its late so ill try again.

 

I tried a couple of force aero hacks, but none worked... and ive got 2GB system ram and 128mb showing as video ram

 

I'm having similar probs w/ my cf-29 mk3. Installed Win7 Pro, did the win update etc.
The only 2 things left in device manager are Video Controller and Unknown Device.
I'm assuming Unknown Device is touch screen. I have tried XP drivers but when I expand the package there is no real exe to install them. Directing device manager to the files find no suitable driver either.
I'll keep playing around w/ different model drivers and compatibility modes.

The video controller seems to be working fine. I can get 1024x768 under the default Win7 vga driver but I'd like to get the correct driver installed. I tried XP video driver for cf18 and some others and ran it in xp and vista compatibility mode but give error about not supported etc. Intel has of course no support for 855 chipset under win7.
I'll keep playing around with it.

If anyone has any more links to successful driver download for the cf-29 mk3, please post. I'll check the previous links this evening.

Thanks for all the help!
-K

 

I updated the original post concerning your unknown device

 

my link has the correct video driver for the Mk3 its a right bodge, but it worked on both my M2+Mk3

with the mous/touchscreen, just copy the C:\util2\drivers\mouse folder from a working machine, go to device manager and manually update the driver from that directory very easy!!

 

With the help of everyone here, I have everything resolved except for the display driver.

Unless I'm reading the info incorrectly I need to have a functional install of Vista with which to extract the drivers with DriverMax.
I don't have a copy of Vista and I have no other machines using Intel graphics.
I did find a rapid share link for the extracted Vista drivers on Google but the link is dead.
I'll keep scrounging around but if someone has the extracted drivrmax 855gm Vista drivers, that would be a huge help.

Thanks for all the help. Rep to everyone here.

-K

 

i did have all the guides and locations for the driver in my post!! but heres a link to the driver..

http://justendeal.com/driver/855gm_vista_driver.zip

 

I looked all over for the Vista driver link. I must have been on the wrong page/thread.
Your file did work. Thanks for all the help.

I did notice there are two entries in the inf file for 128. I changed the first entry per your previous instructions. And I see the driver reports 64MB of ram for video. I assume that's what changing from 128 to 64 does? Would there be any reason to change the 2nd entry from 128 to 64 too?

So far everything seems to be working perfectly. All splats are gone from device manager.
Now its time to take this baby into the field and do some work!

Thanks again
-K

 

Update. Graphics driver install CF-29, Win7.
After installing the graphics drivers Sunday night I found the computer had rebooted overnight and left a dump file for me on Monday morning.
The same happened Monday night. Windows told me it had experienced an unexpected shutdown and a dump file was crated.
Does not happen at the same times.
I have sleep & hibernate disabled and screen saver set for blank after 6 minutes.
I uninstalled the graphics driver last night and no reboot this morning. Everything was fine.
I downloaded the Microsoft tools to read the dump files. Will check them out this evening.
-K

 

My CF-18 has a 82852/82855 display adapter, and I listed my Windows 7 video driver installation steps in the HOWTO post on installing Windows 7 on a CF-18. There is a link to this post in the stickied "Ultimate Toughbook Resource" thread.

Prior to writing that post, I had seen of attempts to use the Justen Deal drivers and others, but I had also read of problems some folks experienced with those attempts (including blue screens in certain situations).

At any rate, might be a different approach to try...hopefully one of the methods listed here in the forum will do the trick for you.


Matthew

 

If you get an "Unknown Device" in Device Manager I figured out an easy way to determine what it is. If you download the PDF of the install instructions for W7 CF-30MK3 which is the K/L series it will explain what the Id# is. Under each item there is a path they give you that it should be, just use that. It will help if your scratching the ol head trying to figure out which device. Of course the physical device will be different using a 29 for example, but it will still be the same family, Sibling, etc.

Hope this helps!

 

On the CF29 with Win7 and full Windows Update, the only unknown device is the Hot Keys. I think I used the CF-18 Hotkeys Vista driver.

The touch screen never gives you an "Unknown Device". You just have to get the driver, again I think I used a CF-18 Vista driver, and go to the mice/pointing devices and direct to the new driver.

 

Matt,

I'll go through that resource thread again. So far the default VGA driver is working just fine with 1024x768. I would just like to get rid of the display adapter error in device manager.

Thanks,
K

 

On the CF-30's the Touch does show up as unkown if it's not installed correctly, just fyi.

 

Good to know.
Thanks for the info.

-K

 

Mine showed up as an "Unknown Device."

 

I don't know why mine did not.
Sure would have been helpful it is did.
I didn't know how to install the touch panel. Just took a wild guess and updated the mouse driver.

Always something to learn with these things.

-K