HP Slate 500 N-trig Input Control (Touch) Workaround

One of my biggest complaints with the HP Slate 500 on Windows 8 is the lack of decent touch control with N-trig.  N-trig has decided that they aren’t going to fix their drivers.  That’s fine, this will be my last device that has N-trig digitizer.  My dollars will be spent elsewhere.

So, what’s the problem you say.  My problem with the N-trig drivers is the lack of support with the input control (Digitizer Settings, see screen shot below).  This is what allows you to change how the touch and pen act (see picture).  Pen Only, Touch Only, Auto Mode, Dual Mode.

This Input Control (Digitizer Settings) do not work in Windows 8 and N-trig is not going to fix.  Shame.

So, what does this mean.  Well, for me I get the palm rejection or false touches when I write and my hand (palm) touches the screen.  The current setting is Dual mode, concurrent Touch and Pen input.  Think of it like the touchpad on your laptop.  You are typing and your palm touches the touchpad and causes the cursor to jump to a different spot on the page.  On a laptop you have the touchpad control that allows you to turn off if it senses a mouse plugged in or when you are typing.  Well, with N-trig, you don’t any longer on Windows 8.  No workie & No fixie.

I was browsing the internet the other day and happened on a blog post where the blogger found a workaround.  You will have to forgive me that I can’t find the blogger’s post or the blogger’s name.  When I do, I will definitely give him/her credit.

What is this workaround going to do?  This will temporarily disable the touch control on the Slate.  This would be similar to selecting Pen Only above.  This will allow only Pen touch only and the touch is temporarily disabled.  This isn’t going to be for everybody, but for this is golden for me.  Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way similarly to Auto mode.

Going to download a program that is a that when run connects to the Device Manager like view that allows you to enable and disable devices.  However the steps below will create a shortcut or command line that will be used to disable the touch.  You can also pin the shortcuts to the Task Bar for easy use.

STEPS:

1. Go out to www.Nirsoft.com and find a program named DevManView (direct link).  At the writing of this post the current version is v1.27.  Scroll down to the bottom and download the (x86) version (or x64 version for Samsung Series 7 or ASUS B121)

2. Create a directory on the root of your C Drive called TouchControl

3. Unzip the file you downloaded in Step 1 into the C:\TouchControl folder.  There are 4 files that are extracted.

4. Create a shortcut in that directory using the following command.

a. Open Device Manger | Devices | N-trig DuoSense(R) Digitizers

b. Locate “N-trig DuoSense MultiTouch HID Device” and double click.

c. Click on the Events Tab.  Copy the value that is highlighted in yellow.  This value will be added when you create the shortcuts.

d. Open Windows Explorer, browse to the C:\TouchControl and right click in the folder and select New | Shortcut

e. Copy and paste the Disable command below into the path, but using your value that you got above.

DISABLE
C:\TouchControl\DevManView.exe /Disable “HID\VID_1B96&PID_0001&MI_01&Col02\7&24205bb2&0&0001”

f. Click through and give the name of the Shortcut “Disable Touch”

g. Now Create another shortcut but use the ENABLE command below and name it “Enable Touch”, also using your value that you got above.

ENABLE
C:\TouchControl\DevManView.exe /Enable “HID\VID_1B96&PID_0001&MI_01&Col02\7&24205bb2&0&0001”

5. Add the shortcuts to the Task Bar just right click on the shortcut and select Pin to Task Manager.

6. To give it a little flair right click on the Shortcut | Properties | Change Icon, browse through the list and select an Icon that you like for Disable and Enable shortcuts.  I picked the Green for the Enable and Red for the Disable.

 

**Please note that the device that controls touch may not be the same on your tablet.  I was able to get this to work using the information below on my HP Slate 500, Samsung Series 7 Slate, and ASUS B121 eSlate but using the 64bit version of DevManView.  I have not found anything about the downloaded software that would cause any alarm.  It is not installing any software it is extracting several files that launch as a separate program.

EDITED (11/10/2012)
Found that the HID value is different on every computer.  Updated blog post to reflect that.

Also, this does require the elevated permissions when doing so.  I haven’t found a way around this.  You are actually disabling a device so I don’t think there will be a workaround.  I run my as a standard user and then another account that has Admin and just pop in the credentials when prompted.  I have run this so long that I don’t give it a second thought.

Windows 8 software update tool for Samsung Series 7 Slate

Samsung just released a new piece of software (sw update) that detects your computer model and finds Windows 8 Drivers.  It also has some new Samsung utility software on it as well.

SW Update is a program that allows you to install the latest Samsung software and updates with ease. Normally, software is installed from CDs, DVDs, or by directly downloading the software from the Samsung Electronics website. With SW Update, however, you can automatically search for and download the BIOS, drivers, and software for your Samsung computer product over the internet, without having to look them up individually. What’s more, you can choose to install all available software and updates at once or install them selectively. Certain software and updates may be required to ensure complete functionality of your Samsung computer, so it is recommended that you use the automatic notification feature to easily find the essential software for your computer and the updates for enhanced features.

I’ll blog more about content.  I’m pretty excited about this.

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/win8upgrade/index.html

Click on the Samsung Download Center link on the page.

Once installed and the first time you launch it,  you will be prompted to put in your serial number of your device (I don’t like that, but oh well).  I have the Samsung //BUILD tablet and it was able to detect drivers for it.  On the summary page it identified all sorts of drivers, some that were up to date and others that were newer.  You can click on the specific driver and install it, download it, or install them all.  On mine it detected about 13 updates.

It will also allow you to download all the drivers (they call it export) and Samsung software as well.  All in all it was about 1.5GB of stuff.

There is a piece of software that acts like the old Windows Start button for those who still can’t live without it.  It’s pretty cool.

Great job Samsung!  I only wish this would have been out there sooner for us early W8 pioneers.

How to disable the auto brightness in the Samsung Series 7 Slate

One of the things that I noticed right away with the Samsung Series 7 Slate was the auto brightness constantly changing the brightness on the Slate.  This is a real problem when I am holding it because I am left handed so my right hand holds the slate near the brightness sensor (1/3 of the way down the right side of the slate in the black/bezel area).  My right hand would always cover it or just go over the sensor causing the screen brightness to adjust.  It really got annoying, so I wanted to disable it, but I could not figure it out.  I finally found that there is a Samsung utility called Easy Settings that allows you control a bunch of settings including this auto brightness.

Well I am in Windows 8 Consumer Preview, so this is the following way to turn off.

1. Download the Samsung Easy Setting software to help you better control Touch, Power Management, Wireless, Display, Background, and Screen Saver.  Get it here.

2. Go to Manuals & Downloads, then to Software.

3. Find Easy Settings (software) (ver.1.2.0.23) and download.

4. Comes in a zip file so unzip it into a folder

5. Find the Setup.EXE and run it in Windows 7 Compatibility mode.

Note: When I say to run in Windows 7 Compatibility mode = To install these drivers you will need to right click on the file, select Properties, click on the Compatibility tab. Put a check in the Compatibility Mode (Select Windows 7), Click ok and then double click on the file to install.

You may get a pop up about it not installing correctly.  Don’t worry it installs.  This should create a shortcut on your desktop.  Go ahead and launch it.

6. Click on the Display setting.

7. Uncheck “Use the auto brightness control depending on the ambient illumination” and then you can close the window.

Now you won’t be annoyed with the constant screen brightness changing.

UPDATE: (Windows 8 RTM)

The Samsung Easy Setting application is no longer working in Windows 8 RTM.  To work around this.

Open Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | Power Options

Click on the Change Plan Settings link to the right of the Power Plan.  Click on Change advanced power settings link.

Scroll down the list and look for Display and expand.

Under Enable adaptive brightness change to No.

Installing Windows 8 CP on Samsung Series 7 Slate Part 2

In my previous post we installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the Samsung Series 7 Slate.  Now we are going to continue where we left off and install any missing drivers.

Now let’s look at is the Device Manager to see what drivers we are missing.

1. From the new Windows 8 Start Screen, click on the Desktop icon.
2. Right click on the desktop and select Personalize.
3. Click the link in the upper left named “Change desktop icons”
4. Put a check under Control Panel and click Apply and then OK.
5. Double click Control Panel
6. Click on the the Hardware and Sound link.
7. Under Devices and Printers click on Device Manager.

This is a list of the drivers that Windows is unable to find.

I am assuming that you configured wireless to your home network.  Run Windows Updates and get the latest Windows 8 CP updates. As of 03/17/2012 these are the the specific Windows 8 CP Updates (8).

OTHER (MISSING) DEVICES:
1. Windows Update will resolve PCI Simple Communications Controller.

2. Download and Install the following Chipset driver from Samsung site here.

Click on “Manuals & Downloads” (Located 1/4 the way down the page)
Click on Driver link
Select Chipset (Driver) (ver.9.2.0.1019)
Download, unzip, and install.

NOTE: Please note that the “Unknown device” is the rotation driver which there currently is not a driver that works on the device.

UPDATE: (3/28)

On Monday (3/26) Samsung released W8 drivers for their Series 7 Slate for the Touch Screen Sensor and the Rotation Sensor drivers on their site.  Check out their great Windows 8 Customer Preview page here.

Installing Windows 8 CP on Samsung Series 7 Slate Part 1

In a continuation of installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the different Tablet/Slates this is a step by step install process of installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on Samsung Series 7 Slate.

PRE-STEPS:

1. Download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit here (3.3GB)

*Note: Be sure to grab the Product Key from the download page. Key is required for installation.

2. Create a bootable USB Stick. Download Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool here. This allows you to create a bootable USB stick with the downloaded iso file. This makes the process so easy. Click, click, walk away and boom, you have a bootable Windows 8 USB drive. I used a 8 GB USB stick that you can get for $10 at Walmart. Note: A 4 GB will work for both 32-bit and 64-bit.  See full post here.

BACKUP:

Run Windows Image Backup and take a backup of your Windows 7 system so you can restore back if you want.

INSTALL:

1. Plug USB stick into Slate and start. Click the Front Windows button and the Power Button at the same time.

Note: I am also using a USB hub so I can run USB Mouse, Keyboard, and USB Stick.

2. Go through the usual installation options. I selected fresh Install (not an upgrade).  I also left the 21 GB Recovery Partition in tact as well as the 100 MB System partition.  Is it necessary, I don’t believe so since I took a full Windows Image Backup before starting.

3. Once complete this is the lock screen. Love the blue…

This is the main screen.

In my next post I will go through getting drivers installed and configured.

Installing Norton Ghost 15.0 on Windows 8

I have been running into several issues trying to get Norton Ghost version 15.0 installed and running on my HP Slate 500 running Windows 8 Developers Preview

ISSUE 1:
I can’t seem to enter my license key.  When trying to install the license key I keep getting an error message:

Cannot activate this product using license key <license key>.  The license key is not valid.  Please enter the correct license key.

I have confirmed that it is a good key by installing on a test machine running Windows 7.

STATUS:
I have not resolved this.  I am currently running the 30 day evaluation.

ISSUE 2:
I wasn’t able to get Ghost to detect any drives.  After initially installing and running under evaluation license it wouldn’t detect any local or connected hard drives.

RESOLUTION OF ISSSUE 2:
Install using Windows 7 Compatibility Mode.

1. Create a folder on your computer called C:\GhostCD and copy the Norton Ghost contents into that directory.
2. Open C:\GhostCD\Install and right click on SETUP.EXE and select Properties. Click on the Compatibility tab. Put a check for “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and select Windows 7. Click Apply and then OK.
3. Double click on SETUP.EXE to install.

ISSUE 3:
Getting error when trying to run a One time backup.

-Error EBAB0013: A test that safeguards the integrity of the program failed unexpectedly.  CHECK failed.  SnapShotDevice::GetDeviceCharacteristics3: .\SnapShotDevice.cpp(262):mSymSnapVolume->IsSnapped().

(UMI:V-0-2987-19)

RESOUTION OF ISSUE 3:
In my case when I selected to backup the C Drive it was also wanting to backup the SYSTEM drive.  I unchecked that selection and just backed up the C Drive and it ran.

UPDATE 11/12/2012:
This is still an issue with the Windows 8 Full Release (RTM) on HP Slate 500 and Samsung Series 7 Slate.