M4 Reviews

http://m4review.blogspot.com/

http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/12/toshiba_tecra_m.html

http://flyingshawn.blogspot.com/2005/07/toshiba-tecra-m4-in-depth-review-page.html
http://www.dotnetslackers.com/Software/re-5487_Toshiba_Tecra_M4_Review.aspx

Q: Has anyone tried the Toshiba portfolio case, did they like it?

 Aparently not.  Here are some comments about it:

http://www.ericmackonline.com/ica/blogs/emonline.nsf/dx/my-experience-with-the-m4-portfolio-case

http://superrob.blogspot.com/2005/08/some-tablet-pix.html

  

 

Q: What are the strengths & weakness of the Tecra M4 (as compared to other Tablet PCs).

Strengths:

• Large 14.1 inch Screen.

• Built-in optical drive.
• Support for secondary HDD Module.
• Support for secondary internal battery.
• Excellent 3D graphics card.
• Decent desktop replacement.
• Capable of running the current Windows Vista Aero interface.
• Good keyboard.
• TouchPad & TrackPoint pointer control.

Weakness:

• Heavy, 6+ lbs.
• Poor display viewing angles.
• Bad screen glare with factory screen protector.
• Hard to read screen outdoors.
• Noisy fan when the processor is working hard.

Q: Where's the launch" setting for the OneNote button?

Panel->Toshiba Controls->Mail button 

Q: Where are the Windows operating system installation cds?

Like most computer makers, Toshiba does not give you CDs for the Windows Operating System.  For the Tecra M4, they do not provide a  recovery CD.  They provide a Recovery Partition which you can use to make your own  Recovery CDs or DVDs.  (Note: my DVD writer didn't come with any blank DVD's so you need  to get some if you don't have any).

Q: How can I make a Windows XP Tablet Edition Install CDROM

Since I didn't like the pre-installed version of XP Tablet, I decided to try and build an XP Tablet installation CD.  It turns out to be very easy. What you need is a XP Pro Installation CD, the i386 directory from your M4 and the components directory from the M4.

• - Create a temp directory
• - Copy all directories (except the i386 dir) from the XP Pro cd to this temp directory
• - Copy the I386 dir from the M4 to the temp directory
• - Copy the CMPNENTS directory to the temp directory (in the root-dir will suffice)
• - Extract the boot image of the cd (for a how-to, check out tutorials on slip streaming XP with SP1)
• - Burn the entire image to a CD (also here, for the settings to make it bootable, refer to a tutorial on slip streaming)

The installation will startout as a normal XP Pro installation. In the graphical part, at one point, the system will ask for the location of a file (not sure what the name is). Browse in the CMPNENTS dir until you find the TABLETPC.CAB and select it. Now the tablet pc stuff will be copied (and the startup logo is replaced!)

(Note: The serial is on the back of the M4.)

I made a copy of the files to a new partition to reinstall without a bootable CD drive. (...) Works great! It is usefull to have partition magic or something similar at your disposal to be able to change the partitions.

The drivers can be found on the Toshiba site. I also found a document describing the standard installation order of drivers there (in the list of driver downloads, AL OS's)

I hope this will be usefull for someone!

Q: If I install Windows XP Tablet Edition from scratch, what utilities will I need to install and in what order?

• ALPS touchpad driver (download from web? forgot)
• WACOM driver (download from web)
• Intel Wireless LAN Driver (download from web)
• Infineon TPM Utility (if not installed, there will be unrecognized devices)
• NVidia display driver
• Toshiba Controls (to enable the buttons on the machine to work)
• Toshiba HDD protection
• Toshiba Hotkey Utility
• Toshiba Mic Effect
• Toshiba Rotation Utility
• Toshiba Software Modem
• Toshiba Common Modules
• ADI WDM Audio Driver
• Intel Chipset Software (download from web)
• Marvell internal LAN driver
• SMSC IrCC infrered driver
• J2RE v1.5
• Toshiba Tablet PC Button driver

Q: Do you have corruption of the number pad and symbol pad in the TIP?

If you have ActiveWords installed its keyboard buffer can conflict with the TIP.  Disable the ActiveWords keyboard buffer:

From the ActiveWords MonitorBar Menu, select "Options..."

1. Select the tab "Operating Mode".
2. Press the "Advanced..." button.
3. Check "Disable ActiveWord buffer".
4. Close the "Options" dialog.