~Toughbooktalk~

Team,

My wife is gearing up to go back to a CF-19 as her main laptop as her crappy $300 flex Lenovo isn't good enough (DUH...). They ALWAYS come back...

Anyways,

A CF-19 MK7 will cost WAY too much money. However, I can get MK4's for dirt cheap and I'm wondering if anyone has had 100% success in getting 8.1 to work on the MK4 including brightness control, front buttons, touch and digitizer?

I do have a few CF-19RDRAX1M units in stock I'm eyeing as it has the i5 CPU and is a dual touch model. As I've said, the wife WANTS Win 8.1.

Of course I DID see the MK3 thread here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1936 but know that the MK4 is a TOTALLY different animal!

Thoughts?

My suggestion is Win7 install, then upgrade to Win8..
Make a recovery iso of Win 8 when you are done...

Shawn,

They don't make a recovery partition to do this...

I'd rather do a fresh load from the Win 8.1 disc unless you're 100% sure that that is impossible.

Well,
I figured they did not make a direct recovery for Win8 on a mk4. That's why I said start with a Win7 recovery. Then upgrade to 8. Hopefully that way all of the drivers will work. Upgrade installs are always smoother. Takes more steps, but easier in the long run.
Otherwise a mk6 is the first to have Win8 drivers offered on the Panasonic website.
How different is the hardware between a mk4 and a mk6?
You could also try the mk6 Win8 upgrade bundle of drivers and see what works..
Do have access to a mk4 to try it on before you shell out the cash for your own?

Rob, do you have access to a Mk6 to load a OS on then stick it into a Mk4? Worse case you bluescreen then just put it back into the Mk6.

Shawn wrote:Well,
I figured they did not make a direct recovery for Win8 on a mk4. That's why I said start with a Win7 recovery. Then upgrade to 8. Hopefully that way all of the drivers will work. Upgrade installs are always smoother. Takes more steps, but easier in the long run.
Otherwise a mk6 is the first to have Win8 drivers offered on the Panasonic website.
How different is the hardware between a mk4 and a mk6?
You could also try the mk6 Win8 upgrade bundle of drivers and see what works..
Do have access to a mk4 to try it on before you shell out the cash for your own?

I found one in my local inventory. I'm getting Win 7 Pro 64 loaded now. Will upgrade after that is done

Thanks!

I have utterly failed on "upgrading" this... It simply won't work...

I will attempt to do a clean install directly from 8.1 and enter driver HELL...

Stand by!

I got this to work but the screen isn't sensitive enough because it isn't capacitive.

I ended up having to do a FRESH load.

I ended up buying her a new CF-AX2 Toughbook instead

Sure Rob, take the easy way out, lol.

I did!!!