Vistagami Part 3.5: Vista is 95% functional on the Q1

Wow, I'm so close to fully functional Vista-based UMPC that I can taste it! I've put in a good 8 hours over the past two days sorting out problems and doing research. A little help from great folks in the community has also helped. So, where are we at and how did we get there? Just to recap since the last update, things that weren't working or tested were:

• WiFi
• Hardware buttons / screen rotation / screen resolution changes
• Floating tip
• Application installs and usage

What was working:

• Ethernet connection
• Bluetooth connection
• AVStation on the Windows XP Embedded Partition
• Windows XP Tablet Edition on a separate partition
• Touchscreen fully calibrated or was it? Read on...

Let's talk about the screen as it appears I spoke prematurely in the last update. Yes, I did get the touchscreen calibrated as stated, but I found out the hard way that the success was short-lived. As in about a minute or two. If the touchscreen was unused for more than a minute or two, it would stop responding to touch, which is a complete showstopper. I came up with two workarounds that were abysmal:

1. If you have a mouse or keyboard attached, run the Draw Test in the Touchkit calibration tool. Then again, if you have a mouse or a keyboard, why have a touchscreen, right?

2. Less painful, but still a short-term workaround: using the power button, put the device in Sleep mode, which takes about one second. Use the power button to wake the device back up and presto! You've got touchscreen.

Luckily thanks to a jkOTR reader tip from Quentin, there's a registry key for a timeout setting on the touchscreen. I set the value of these two keys to "0" and now the touchscreen works all the time:

• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_0EEF&PID_0001\5&3b27c391&0&1\Device Parameters\IdleTimer]
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_0EEF&PID_0001\5&3b27c391&0&1\Device Parameters\IdleMode]

Quentin got this info from Egalax, which is the company that makes the touchscreen controller and driver. I should note that I did NOT get the most up to date driver from Egalax but instead used the one available from Samsung, which is 4.3.5.2722. The latest driver provided some additional functionality, but continued to give me problems during calibration; namely, it would sit at the "Reading Parameters" dialog box and then just disappear. No matter, the touchscreen is now fully functional.

WiFi is now working, which is great since there isn't always an Ethernet jack handy, right? Turns out that after I updated the drivers, the WiFi still wasn't working, which just shocked me. The error message when using the Networking Troubleshooter in Vista said that the WiFi radio wasn't enabled and that I should look for a switch to turn it on. Well, there isn't a hardware switch for the WiFi on the Q1 and I hadn't yet attempted to install the Samsung on-screen utilities for the WiFi. Then I got to thinking. There's a setting in the BIOS that controls the WiFi. The settings are Always On, Always Off, and Last State.

I've kept that BIOS setting as "Last State" because I didn't like how the Q1 would automatically turn on the WiFi radio when returning from a Sleep state if I had the radio off before the Sleep state. I know, I'm such a control freak. On a hunch, I changed the BIOS setting to "Always On", rebooted and sure enough, I can connect to WiFi networks in Vista. I'll be looking into this setting again the future, because ideally, I'd like to control the WiFi at the Operating System level and not the BIOS level.

Next up on the agenda was the floating tip. I figured this would be the easiest fix; just install floattip.exe, right? Wrong. The application "runs", but just doesn't work. Try as I might, there's no floating tip when I tap into a text entry box. Since the program isn't working properly in Vista, I did the next best thing. I made sure that the TIP shortcut shows in my Taskbar, for starters. I also have the TIP configured to hide on the edge of the screen so that I can quickly tap there to have the TIP float over. It's not the best solution, by any means, but it does allow for a relatively quick usage of the TIP.

With this info combined with my WMDC and PDANet tinkering yesterday, I'm actually using Vista on the Q1 this very second. Really...this post just went live from a Vista-based UMPC and EV-DO. While we're on that subject, here's a shot of a speed-test with Vista recognizable in the background:

Screen rotation and resolution switching still aren't working, nor is the Samsung on-screen display. I think we're SOL unless Samsung updates their utilities. I'm not giving up on these functions just yet, but I think those are the last few items left to "fix" for pure Vistagami! Heck, I'm even listening to podcasts and watching videos in Media Center! Sounds like we need a video to show this puppy off, especially since I trained the Speech Recognition late last night.....ah....a bloggers work is never done.....

Comments

[Paul O'Brien]

Great work Kevin, i'm now using Vista on my Q1 in a very similar (very usable) state to you.

DEFINITELY better than XP on the Q1.

If I get Floating Tip and Hardware Buttons working, and i'll be a very happy camper :D

P

[frank j]

Wow, that's a really good news!

So... what is now not working? Just the floating TIP?

[Quentin Dewolf]

I found that the floating tip works if you first run the tip manually using the shortcut and then run floattip.exe. Now if you select a textbox it works.

[Paul O'Brien]

I downloaded a floattip.exe, but running it seems to do nothing, it doesn't even appear in Task Manager :(

P

[John in Norway]

I'm having a different experience to you Kevin. My wifi worked straight away. However, I couldn't get the touchscreen to work at all last night. I think I wasn't drinking enough wine! I was a bit disheartened after spending many hours trying to get it to work so I'm having a rest for awhile before I jump in again. I hope Samsung get their finger out soon and release some proper drivers.

[Paul O'Brien]

WiFi worked first time for me too, and the touchscreen I could ONLY get working by using the drivers from the Samsung site, and NOT the newer ones!

P

[Bill]

I have a question about the Q1's "Windows Vista Capable" status. Does anyone know if the new Q1 with the Pentium M has the Vista sticker?

[Jared]

I just got the Q1 Pentium edition earlier this week. It does NOT have the Windows Vista sticker on it.

[Bill]

Jared,

Thanks for that. I was hoping that if the Q1 had a Vista sticker on it, it would be eligible for the free Vista upgrade coupon program that will be starting this fall. As I understand the coupon program, the computer must be "Vista Capable" to qualify for the free upgrade.

[Erik]

i am sorry jared...but the way i understand it.....if you buy a computer before the FREE COUPONS program is started..you are not eligible for the free upgrade !!!

the coupon will come WITH THE COMPUTER !!!

[Bill]

The Vista coupon program doesn't officially start until Oct. 26. At that time, coupons will be included in new SKUs for Windows XP provided to system builders. However, the systems must meet the Vista compliant standards to qualify. This could be a big deal for purchasers of UMPCs, since it comes with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Under the coupon program, if you buy a qualifying system with XP Tablet PC Edition, you get a Vista upgrade for free. This is why I asked whether the Q1 with the Pentium M had the Vista sticker on it. If it did, then I presume that come Oct. 26, the new coupon for the Vista upgrade would be included with the UMPC.

Can anyone confirm this? If so, I'll gladly wait until Oct. 26 to buy a Q1.

[Paul O'Brien]

Here's a question... does the CF flash slot work for you under Vista? For me, it just can't find the drivers... I was interested to see if a 1GB CF would work for Vista readyboost!

P

[John]

Isnt the CF port on the Q1 very slow? I would assume that readyboost wouldnt be too useful for that then. But I think it should support a memorystick in one of the USB ports though. Get a fast one while you are at it.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Alas, I no longer own any CF media! :( I did just order a 1GB SD card that has an unfolding USB interface, so I'll give that a go.

[Ctitanic]

Question, the switch resolution program still does not work?

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Frank, I did have the resolution switcher working with the beta build (RC2), but I've blown that image away at this point.

[psybertech]

I just posted about my recent success on getting the resolution switching working on my Q1P running Vista Ultimate (retail upgrade version) but I wanted to add that I also just had success getting the U1 - U4 shortcut keys working as well.
I, like everyone else, was unable to get the Magic Keyboard app to allow all 4 buttons to work, but I could get the U1 to do what I want in a new group.
So, knowing I could add a new group, I made a new group and made sure no keys were assigned and set that as my default.
I then installed a freeware program called KeyTweak from http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick that I stumbled across on another UMPC related site (sorry, forgot where now).
I installed that and did its 'Half Teach Mode' and successfully edited all four buttons.
The only downside - no multiple keys (i.e. ALT + TAB) or sending a mouse click.
Both issues I worked around.
For Alt Tab, I made a shortcut key for the new Vista ALT+TAB for us touchscreeners and set it to F10 (low usage key).
For a right click, there is an option for 'Context Menu'. Using that, you have to select the file/item first, but once selected, it is a quick right click.
For now, that is what I wanted and it is working very, very well for me.

Until DialKeys gets a Vista upgrade, I created a DialKeys like layout for Inscribe (half qwerty on left and other half on the right with blank columns in the middle). Not as cool as DK, but it works better than the built in OSK or Tablet input KB for me for long text inputs.

So, so far, not too shabby.
I thikn for now I am done with XP on the Q1P and fully running with Vista, minus Aero and the real DialKeys.

Anyway, thought you all might wanna know.

[xoxide]

OK... well after hours and hours and hours.. of work with vista ultimate signature edition.. i have updated my q1

everything seems to be working except for a few minor issues..

sound will not work as of yet.. any help would be greatful

network (lan) and wireless seem to be slow and sluggish.. any help would be appreciated..

jeff

[psybertech]

I just finshed a clean install on my Q1P as well.

Did you use the latest sound drivers from the Samsung site?

Uninstall the vista generic drivers and try those drivers from the site.

I can't recall if there was anthing odd to it, but I may have pointed the vista drivers to the saved ones fom the site using the update driver function or I just mmay have ran the installer.

As for the NICs, it may just be Vista chuggin along its stuff in the background (indexing for one or maybe WMP pulling together its library, or something else).

Wait till you get everything working and then see if the network stuff improves or not.

I know there is an updated Wireless driver that Vista pulled after I ran the Windows Update. Maybe you need to get all the updates installed too.

Either way, just wait a while (leave it running) and check back.

Also, check your Network activity to see if it is staling or simply it is busy gathering other stuff over the Net or your home network.

[Ken MacDonald]

Vista is working good on my Q1 SSD thanks to your tip about Tweak Key. That was the last major hurdle. But I still have a lesser problem: I can't sync my WM 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition Device. Can't make a connection through Mobile Device Center. Any suggestions?

By the way, I found that you can map the U buttons to multiple keystrokes in Tweak Key by pulling up the TIP and entering them there instead of on the Tweak Key keyboard.

[jk]

Hey Ken, how's Flash doing, or did you rename him? I too am having far too many problems syncing my WM5 phone. I haven't found a reliable process to follow yet.

[Ken MacDonald]

Flash is doin good. I think he likes Vista. Screen rotation (which I never use) isn't working and I didn't put much effort into the WM5 sync problem yet. But everything else works fine and it still runs fast.

[Ken MacDonald]

Just an update: rotation works after simply installing the latest Intel graphics driver (6.14.10.4764).

My HTC 818 Pro Pocket PC Phone Edition device running Windows Mobile 5 is not supported by Windows Live OneCare. I uninstalled OneCare and bingo: I was able to connect.

[Justin Orton]

Thanks to all who posted here - painless - yes TOTALLY painless - upgrade of Q1 to Vista and it runs great. My only regret? The loss of the brilliant black media player skin. It's only available for download with the Tablet XP Experience pack from microsoft and that won't run under vista. Any ideas where I can get a similar skin - ie. one ideal for finger driven navigation? Thanks again!

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Justin, why not download and install the Origami Experience now that you have Vista loaded? It might have some skins that you like and it's made for a touchscreen. http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2007/01/get_the_origami.html