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Tablet PCs and Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC) are the newest generation of mobile computers. Tablet PCs and UMPCs provide all the power of a standard Microsoft Windows-based notebook plus additional features that improve mobility including pen-input, light form-factors, and handwriting and speech recognition. These enhancements increase the number of ways people can use computers for practical and creative work, including blogging in ink.
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Would someone be able to help me? I recently bought a VGA cable to connect my Toshiba Tablet M400 to a digital LCD tv. After changing around the display settings, the tv still only ever shows my desktop background. It doesn't show any animations/videos/mouse pointer. I'm sure there's just a box I'm not ticking, or some sort of setting I'm not applying on the tablet, but I can't work it out! Has anyone had any similar issues? Thanks for your help, G
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A little more than a year after he sold his company Hotmail to
Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation, 30-year old Sabeer Bhatia has said
goodbye to Gates to start yet another company. There's no firm idea for a company yet, Bhatia says. He will only reveal this much: Along with a few friends from Stanford University, where he earned a masters degree in electrical engineering, he is working on a plan for an e-commerce company. "There's a lot of potential and excitement in the e-commerce space," he says. "I've got a slew of raw ideas." The
raw idea he had for a free email company led to the foundation of
Hotmail over four years ago. But soon he would stun the industry by
selling his start-up company, one of the most visible success stories
in America, to Bill Gates. After
overseeing the merger of his company with Microsoft's online network
about a year ago, Bhatia became the new general manager of strategic
business development for MSN.com. Right now he has just a "small office in Fremont (in California) and a scratch pad." Not
that Bhatia is phoning up his friends or family for investment. At the
end of 1997, he sold his company for about $390 million in Microsoft
stock and kept more than $75 million of that. And since then Microsoft
stock more than doubled, his holdings are worth substantially more
today. Microsoft has sought to
minimise the impact of Bhatia's departure, claiming the parting was
amicable. "People go elsewhere and we hate to see that, but we try very
hard to keep people challenged and keep them here," says Tom Pilla, a
Microsoft spokesman. Read more.
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Though my beloved UMPC's been back from repair about three months, now, I finally got around to reinstalling Vista about three days ago. Since I'd noted others with R2H's didn't have the on/off/on/off wireless issue with Vista Ultimate that I did with Vista Enterprise,I decided not to install Vista Enterprise. As I got the ball rolling, the first thing I noticed was that I could choose to upgrade XPTPCE. I never had that option for my three Enterprise installs! Common sense told me not to do it -- and I did it, anyway. For the first time in a year, I have the ability to use my R2H's built in wireless card in Vista. Unlike previous installs, the WiFi doesn't run away from Device Manager the instant I ask it to do it's chores, even when CPU usage spikes to 100%. Was it the SKU? Was it the 208 BIOS Asus installed for me? Was it the upgrade option? Will I ever know? I'll tell you one thing: I seriously have issues with the idea of using my sole Vista Ultimate license on a 900 MHz Celeron unit with integrated, unGlassable graphics. I may have to go back to the Enterprise Altercation. Technorati Tags: Vista, R2H, UMPC
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So apparently, a port scan attack somehow managed to wipe out most of the posts from the previous year. What a shame. However, I managed to get my M400 woes pages back. There is an online database of the Internet. It's called the Way Back Machine . I used to be able to view my previous websites on this server, but opted instead to use their robots.txt control feature to remove my sites from the archive. There are probably other Internet archive sites that aren't so well publicized. And these ones may keep content on their servers for eternity. The web truly does live forever.
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Those following my woes of the past week may remember that I'm having all sorts of problems with my new Tablet PC. Once thought to be the ultimate answer to the Consolidator is beginning to waste my time. I'm not even sure I can blame the computer itself. I think I bought this machine right in the armpit of last year's and next year's technology. Operating systems are being patched, applications are being upgraded, everything is fighting for the same DLL headspace and I'm stuck in the middle, wasting time while trying to get this machine to just work.
First, I want to thank Sherry at Wacom for responding to my web form plea for help. She and her Tablet PC tech read my blog entries and figure that my issue with the driver version 5.03-3 and the tablet stylus going dead after resuming from hibernate or standby are probably BIOS related, and that I should speak with Toshiba. If they feel the same, Wacom is more than happy to work with Toshiba to resolve this issue once and for all. That makes me feel better.
I need to contact Toshiba anyway: I understand that everywhere else in the world, M400 batteries made by Sony are being recalled and replaced. I ran the battery checker I downloaded from New Zealand, and it said I qualify. Sadly, there isn't an equivalent utility, nor reference to the problem, on Toshiba Canada's website. Hence I will be calling. But I digress.
I figured out that if my power saver settings are programmed to standby at XX time, and then hibernate at XY time, the following will happen. First, the machine will enter standby at XX time as planned. Second, the machine will wake up at XY time, and then enter hibernation. I've read that with more than 1GB RAM (I have 2GB), hibernation has some issues of its own under XP SP2. So the machine doesn't successfully enter hibernation. But not always.
Last night, I had my machine hooked up to my docking station and set the power profile to standby in 1 minute, and hibernate in 2 minutes. The machine entered standby with no problem. It later woke up and entered hibernate with no problem. I went to bed. This morning I turned the machine on, slid my thumb across the fingerprint reader to access the hard drive, BIOS, and XP operating system, and halfway through resuming from hibernate the screen went black and the system stopped working, only the machine was still running at full power. After shutting it down and restarting it, the system gave me the option to delete restoration data, but I was stubborn. I wanted it to resume from hibernation. Same problem. Then I gave up.
This blog doesn't seem to generate as much traffic as I remembered when I first set it up this year. Where did everybody go? Originally published 05-18-2007, 10:48 PM
Content salvaged from the Way Back Machine
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I haven't written about anything as much as I have detailed the problems I've been experiencing, mostly because I need to get some answers, and I'm hoping that somebody somewhere on the net will have them. Please read my previous blog post describing the standby and shutdown problems. It's just gotten more annoying.
Lately, I shut the M400 down and it doesn't really shut down. Rather, it sounds like it shuts down, but it stays on somehow and burns out the battery. Occasionally it does something else, and I was able to duplicate the problem today.
My Toshiba M400 was running low on battery power (about 7%) so I switched it to standby. I watched it go blank and the little power light started to blink, indicating it was sleeping. I put the computer in my backpack. When I took it out 40 minutes later, I found both the power and the wireless indicator lights on. Somehow the machine decided on its own to turn itself on. However, the screen stayed blank, I couldn't hear any fan noise, and the machine otherwise looked dead. When I shut it down, I heard the hard drive park.
I'll be doing more extensive testing later on. For now I'm asking all you experts: Is this behaviour remniscent of a virus?
Also, I found this link that may help me. I'll report back after I've tried it.
Edit (2007/05/16): It wasn't the link above, it was this link instead. And the problem still goes on. I believe it's related to the power profile being set to hibernate after a specific point in time. If the machine is running on battery power and I've entered standby mode, the machine may not have enough power to wake and enter hibernation. Instead the power and wireless light turn on and the screen stays blank, never to resume, no matter what I try. I'll run a few more tests and let y'all know for sure. It didn't do it while connected to my docking station, so battery power must be the ticket. Originally published 05-14-2007, 8:49 PM
Content salvaged from the Way Back Machine
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While using Google to search the web for solutions to my Toshiba M400 Tablet PC stylus problem ( Five Months Gone....), I eventually looked at my problem from a different angle, and found a new terms to use in the search. For the past week I'd been asking for results that included the words "Tablet PC", "stylus", "resume from", "standby" and "hibernate". After a few days with no success, The thought occurred to me that I should returning to the source: Wacom's website. While they didn't offer any knowledge of my problem, nor did they post any versions of their drivers before 5.03-3, I was hoping others who might have experienced the same problem that I did would be sure to have a copy. Google didn't fail me: when I instead used the search terms "wacom", "driver", "standby", and "Tablet PC", my results linked to forums where other people experienced standby and hibernate problems while using Wacom driver versions between 4.97-1 up to 5.01-1. According to most of the responses, the answer to the problem was to downgrade the driver version to 4.95-6. This version was reported to be the most stable, in addition to offering the desired pressure sensitivity to photoshop and other applications. Finding this version of the driver, however, posed to be more of a problem. On Tablet PC Review, the writer of one post offered to e-mail the driver file to anybody who sent him a private message through the bulletin board system. Of course, this meant I would first have to sign up for a free account at Tablet PC Review, an exercise for which I did not have the time. Fortunately, other posts led me to look at Wacom's European website, and it was there I found every version of tablet driver, for every operating system, archived for posterity. I downloaded the version of the driver I was looking for, installed it and saw an end to my resume from standby and hibernate problems. To benefit anyone else who is searching for the answer to the problem that I experienced with the most recent tablet driver, here is the link to Wacom's European website. Still, the M400 Tablet PC is not the workhorse I imagined it to be. The machine runs less than 2 hours on battery power. To reduce the risk that it's the battery, I own two different batteries. I found other posts from last year where the users experienced 4 to 4.5 hours. The answer was "more RAM". I have 2GB RAM. That's not the answer!
Another standby problem has come about as well: The machine appears to choose not to enter standby or hibernate when I ask it to. This happened on 2 rather serious occasions today. While I was out and about town, I repeatedly entered and resumed from standby when necessary. However, twice when I pulled the machine from my backpack, I realized it was hot to the touch. Once the fan was still blowing hot air out. This was not safe for the machine to be left on while in my backpack. I was sure it entered standby beforehand. So there must be a driver conflict somewhere in my system. Let's hope the latest Windows XP update fixes that.
Originally published 05-09-2007, 11:25 PM
Content salvaged from the Way Back Machine
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I was hoping to make my next entry the most glorious, pumped up, praiseworthy review of the Toshiba M400. I mean, what's there not to like? Intel Core Duo T2400 processor, 512MB DDR2 667MHz RAM, built in sound, video, bluetooth, and fingerprint scanner... all in the tablet platform. My spare stylus for my M200 (the Consolidator) works with it, as do the batteries. Plus, where the Consolidator lacked IEE1394 (firewire) and optical drive, the M400 has a built-in 4-pin firewire and a DVD Super Multi drive. The firewire port is better than on Lapzilla (my old 17" P30). Where Lapzilla would lose connection on the side ports (something I noticed too late after my warranty expired), the side ports on my new sword, "Excalibur", hold the cables securely so I can move my audio interface wthout losing connection.
And the fingerprint sensor does more than I expected. On top of simplifying my computer login to a quick thumb swipe, I can use the protector software to store information for password protected pages and applications, like GTalk and Skype. Let's forget for an moment that I set a hard disk password, which I didn't realize I can't remove. Ever. Fingerprint reader to the rescue! Not only will my thumb swipe open the hard drive, but it also scoots me past the BIOS, and even into the default login account for Windows, no questions asked. THAT is a skookum piece of hardware.
With that we hit the end of the positives. My model #M400-TD10TE has been wrought with problems ever since I bought it, but the problems have been inconsistent, which makes me believe they're more due to system software rather than hardware. At any rate, I thought I should at least post these out here on net-land, as I haven't heard these problems nor resolutions in the past number of weeks.
I spent the first three weeks trying to unload built-in software I was never going to use, and setting up software I was. I was really annoyed that my computer was running really slowly. I mean, the machine has two processors and a shared 2MB level 2 cache, and it was operating less efficiently than the Consolidator, which is a Centrino-based system. Even after upgrading the RAM to 2GB (using Toshiba-certified 667MHz chips) there was a slight delay when opening applications applications. And let's not talk about battery life for even a moment, because if I were writing this review using the battery power alone, I wouldn't get through all of it. Fortunately my special came with a docking station, which has been the most consistent piece of hardware related to this Tablet PC purchase.
My first web search revealed a system recovery was in order. Armed with my notes, I said "bye bye" to all my work and ran the recovery DVDs, selecting the opton to also free up the hidden recovery partition on the hard drive — I needed the extra 3 gigs. I ran all the updates to Windows XP and had my IT guy at work install our corporate licenses for my software, and they worked well. Well enough, anyway.
That was when the problems started. Being a bluetooth geek, I worked hard to get the built-in bluetooth card working. I bought a Rocketfish bluetooth keyboard and mouse and after an hour got it communicating properly. Why did I need a keyboard if I have a keyboard? Well, when I'm using applicaions like Photoshop, Illustrator and CorelDraw, I find some features aren't accessible with menus. And besides, keyboard shortuts are the tools of the master. I still wanted to draw in tablet mode, so the only option was an external keyboard. Rocketfish works great. The mouse has issues with it's battery compartment, but it's a mnor inconvenience for the lifespan of those batteries once the mouse gets working.
I have a Sony Ericsson Z520 cell phone, which had no problems synching with Outlook using a bluetooth dongle on the Consolidator. Unfortunately, the SE sync station doesn't recognize my internal bluetooth card, and so I can't synchronize my contacts with my cell phone. However, Toshiba's most recent update to the bluetooth stack (version 5.10.06) increased the functionality so I can open the phone like a hard drive and copy files between my computer and the phone again. The only function the original bluetooth stack provided was to use my cell phone as a wireless remote control, for use in triggering powerpoint presentations or windows media player. Useful functions I lost on the Consolidator. Now I see that it's because the SE driver took over in order to be able to synch my cell phone contacts. At any rate, I hope that SE will update their program to use built-in bluetooth cards. (Note to all: I've also tried IVT Bluesoleil version 3.2.2.8, and spoke with the customer service people, and they confirm that the drivers aren't compatible with Toshiba's internal card.)
Just last week I managed to get the official release of ActiveSync 4.5 to snchronize my Toshiba E830 Pocket PC, and it works great! It's a bit of a challenge to load applications, as the bluetooth driver always disconnects the serial port after synchronizing. I've looked everywhere, and even when the "leave connected" setting is selected, the two devices stop talking at the end of the data transfer. But if I time it just right, applications load and content synchs at the same time. So that's bearable. This makes me believe that I need to ditch my Z520a and get a Pocket PC cell phone. Any suggestions? (no Moto Q, please!)
On the success of my bluetooth update, I went ahead and updated the BIOS, first to version 3.30, then later to version 3.40. I also updated the Wacom Tablet PC driver, to add pressure-sensitivity to applications that didn't respond to it, strangely enough, including Photoshop CS2. At work I use Photoshop extensively, and it recognized the pressure levels of my old Wacom Graphire 2 USB tablet. But out of the box, Photoshop wasn't initially sensitive to the Excalibur's pressure. The Wacom driver fixed all that. Come to think of it, before I installed the Graphire on my work machine I downloaded the latest driver, so that's probably why it worked.
Somewhere in this update cocktail, with a few Windows XP updates thrown in to balance things out, my system is worse off than ever. My tablet works like a tablet only part of the time. Occasionally, after the screen blanks out when I enter standby, hibernation, or simply close the lid, The stylus stops working. The computer works fine, otherwise, but what's the point of a Tablet PC without a stylus?
I first noticed the problem after the BIOS update version 3.30. So I went ahead and upgraded to the Vista-ready BIOS version 3.40. The problem with this upgrade is that Toshiba's website said once I switched to a Vista-ready variant, I can no longer downgrade.
As I searched the web for problems related to the M400, I found a knowledge base article which cleared up a problem with IE and other applications opening slowly. My favourite application, the fingerprint reader software, was due for a build update. So I downloaded it and installed it, and all my problems were over. I could now enter standby and hibernate my system, and when it woke up the tablet pen worked. Such joy and jubiliation were short-lived, however. After lunch on Friday, I returned to my desk only to find that my computer resumed from standby, and the stylus didn't work. I was robbed! There went the neighbourhood.
So I'm still searching for the ideal fix for this problem. I'm thinking that I might have changed some settings related to the video display in the BIOS, but since upgrading to version 3.30 I haven't been able to use F1 to enter the BIOS. How stupid. I keep on trying though, and I know I will get in. Oh yes. I will get in.
While I had already planned to write a review today, in the hopes that some kind netizen will read my post and offer a solution to my woes, I now have a completely bizarre, new problem. Fortunately, I recall reading about it somewhere else. I'll have to find it again. Essentially, when I left the house this morning, I merely closed the laptop without powering it down, hibernating, nor entering standby. I've set my power options to do nothing when I close the laptop. I figure the hard drive shock protector will keep the machine safe if I transport it while it's still on. As I unsheathed Excalibur to engage in this review my stylus chose instead to track my scribbles in primary landscape mode, regardless of the screen orientation.
Will these problems never cease? I was planning to return Excalibur last month but then it started living up to its name. Now it's almost five months one and I haven't a clue where to begin solving these problems.
HELP! Originally published 05-06-2007, 9:25 PM
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