Satellite XP install, soft-key issue?

Hey everybody,

Sorry if this has been beatin into the ground, but has anybody gotten the function keys that control brightness to work with XP? I have everything running well on my X205-SLi1, including the play, fast forward buttons, etc up top, volume knob, HD DVD player, all other drivers and updates I know of, game running well, but for the life of me can't find a way to control brightness of the lcd? The FN-f6 and f7 do nothing, tried installing the Toshiba XP Hotkey utility from the European site, but can't figure out what it even does. The Nvidia mobile tab in the control panel where you can adjust brightness does nothing... any ideas?

Using the new 171.16 drivers, if that matters.... thanks!

 

I use the nvidia control panel to control brightness, in the Smartdimmer section. Takes a few steps, but it works fine.

I'd love to know how you got your HD DVD player to work. Not that my 5 free discs will be worth anything, I'd love to get it working. I got a UDF driver, but the Toshiba HD-DVD player just goes wacko when I try and play a disc.

 

y2khardtop - Thanks now I see the settings and mine was already set to max 255, I did notice my screen was very bright and thus never worried about it, but if I need to lower the brightness this helps to do that, as far as the function keys I never used them so even in vista I never install the app to enable that, but I have yet to see a XP version to enable that. For HDDVD I just use PowerDVD Ultra and just use the 171.16 drivers from www.laptopvideo2go.com and I have been able to watch all my HD movies with no problems at all on both my son's x205-9349 and my sli1 laptops.

 

Yep, Jesse's right on, I'm using PowerDVD Ultra, and HD DVD's work great, in XP i didn't even have to update the driver .inf like i did in Vista. Haven't tried the Toshiba software player, as I got tired of it in Vista and upgraded to PowerDVD.

I had found the dimmer section in the control panel, but for some reason when I change the setting, it doesn't do anything at all? It is set at +255, but even when pulled back to +20 on battery and plugged in, makes no differences, doesn't change brightness at all.... I'm using 171.16 drivers, but even with the 169.28, it behaved the same.... any ideas there?

Also, last question.... are the 171.16's overclokcable? It appears i can overclock using the Nvidia control panel, but as soon as I restart windows, it defaults back to stock.... any ideas there? I haven't tried Rivatuner since i went back to XP, is that normal for the nvdia control panel or a driver issue? Thanks again!

 

be77solo - I had the same problem with the nvidia control panel so I am using rivatuner with the 171.16 drivers and it allows me to overclock both cards, so it works great in XP, after rebooting a few times the oveclock speeds remain were I set them. I am not sure if I want to leave them oveclocked with the temps we already get at stock speeds.

 

I like a little overclock, as it just annoys me that the stock speed from Toshiba doesn't even match the Nvidia specs for memory... From all I can find, the GPU's should be good on up towards 100C, some sources saying on up towards 110-120, but I sure wouldn't want mine that high ha! Even with a decent overclock that puts my 3DMark06 scores near 8000, it's not dramatically hotter than the stock temps, so not as worried about it as i once was, plus during normal use they aren't that hot anyway.

Will have to check back into Rivatuner though, as I liked it back with my Vista install, but haven't reinstalled it since I got XP installed....

As a side note, the performance problems I was having that I messaged you about seems to have been fixed when I installed 171.16 drivers, all seems to be running well now, do miss a lot of the Vista features and appearance, but got my older games running I was having problems with....

 

OK, I just refuse to spend the money to buy DVD software only to play the 5 free discs I got with my PC. I'm hoping Blu-ray will go ahead and become the standard, but was hoping I could at least watch the 5 discs I got (free) before they become coasters. Guess it just isn't going to happen.

btw, I have nothing against HD-DVD, just refuse to support either format until the smoke clears, and Blu-Ray has so many advantages now it is their war to lose.

 

I bought it because it is a great software player, uses minimal cpu usage and takes great advantage of the nvidia features that improve playback. I feel a bit the same way on the format war, very frustrating, but I go ahead and buy a few HD DVD's here and there, as this laptop plays them and my Xbox360 plays em.... of course, got a few Blurays as well, as my PS3 takes care of those... guess I ultimately hope that the dual format drives and players solve the format war problems for us in the future, as I often stand there scratching my head trying to decide which format to buy when it's available on both... my problem is though that I LOVE the 1080P resolution on my FlatscreenTV, so I'm a sucker for these ha.... Do find myself buying more HD DVD's here lately, so guess my allegiance lies there at the moment, but I do have both.... oh well, what can ya do.... roll on combo drives!

 

I had to install Toshiba Common modual before I could install and use the Toshiba Hotkes with special functions.

 

Is that under XP Lappie? So you got the brightness controls working under XP?

 

yes, both XP SP2 and 3. I will be testing on XP x64 SP2 this weekend on my 2nd unit. I extracted the items from the Toshiba DVD (maybe available online too), then ran the Common Modula and followed by HotKeys and Zooming Utilit (if needed).

 

really? that's great to hear... All I'm really after is to be able to adjust my screen brightness, both for battery life and the simple fact when it's dark I don't need or want it lighting up the entire conference room! I had found the hotkeys program on Toshiba's European site, but that didn't work, so I'll have to hunt down this Common Modula.... thanks

 

OK, was playing around with the European Toshiba site again, and installed the powersaver driver and utility for XP, and can finally control screen brightness and all the power settings that Vista (CPU speed, etc) had from the start.... so, happy about that! The Function keys F6 and F7 don't change it yet, but atleast now I can change it in the taskbar... As mentioned before, I couldn't get the Nvidia panel to actually change the brightness, so atleast a step in the right direction... playing with a few of the other utilities there, they have a ton of stuff for XP compared to our site that is 90%Vista only.

 

Which power saver utility did you use? I have a customers A205 S5804 and the one for the latest in the 200 series didn't work. No big deal, but would like to include it if I could.
Thanks.

 

Here's the link I got everything from, i loaded the power saver driver and then the utility, and it works great.... there's a bunch of XP stuff here

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe....earch&macId=&country=all&action=search&page=1