Windows 7 Ultimate on the Y4
Background
Decided to take the plunge and forget my dual-boot setup. I had done a couple of Windows 7 installs already so I figured that there shouldn’t be any major issues. So far my installs of Windows 7 have been smooth. Smooth enough that I figured I could take a chance with my primary machine (oldie Panasonic Y4).
Installation
I actually followed the walkthrough on my earlier post and made some notes below since some drivers are updated. Don’t get too excited – the Intel 915 chipset is still a liability. I still don’t have Aero support (tried various hacks and nothing) so I am stuck with the basic interface (no Aero Peek and can’t run DVD Maker).
For this installation – I copied the current XP drivers and the Vista Upgrade driver files to an SD card and kept in the internal bay in the Y4. Provided easy access and I was able to reformat the drive and clean up the partition table as well (of course I made a complete backup before doing any of this).
Did a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate and deliberately didn’t manually update any drivers after first boot. Ran Windows Update and it downloaded drivers for the Intel WLAN chipset, the Realtek NIC and the Intel 915 chipset. Then performed the following:
- Disable Intel Power Management in the Intel display properties section. Right-click on the Intel systray icon and go to Properties. Go to Display Settings then Power Settings and uncheck the Power Saving box. Starting seeing wonky behavior with sleep mode and this appears to rectify it.
- Install the TPM driver -Infineon chipset for TPM. I downloaded the TPM Vista driver for the Y5 (tpm_d080275 – ~93MB) from Panasonic. Expanded it into a driver folder, but then just updated the driver (i.e. I did NOT run setup).
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Install the hotkey driver (Update the driver from Device Manager – should be listed as one of the Unknown Devices). Browse for the driver. If you used the default decompression path, it should be located in C:VistaUpdrivershotkey. Update and reboot.
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Install the touchpad driver. Browse to C:VistaUpdriversmouse. Run setup.exe as Administrator. Install is straightforward, reboot when prompted.
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Installation of Sigmatel Sound driver. You need to snag the XP driver from Panasonic’s support site, or from your XP install partition. This is a weird one. You have to install the driver’s setup file. Then uninstall the driver via Control Panel. Finally, install the same driver again (Run setup.exe as Administrator). Reboot and sound should be working consistently. Otherwise – sound will work intermittently.
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Install the Hotkey Appendix. Browse to C:VistaUphkeyapp. Run setup.exe as Administrator. You do not have to reboot at this time.
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Install the Hotkey Settings. Browse to C:VistaUphkeyset. Run setup.exe as Administrator.
- Install the Misc Driver. Browse to C:VistaUpmiscinst. Run setup.exe as Administrator.
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If you want the Wireless Switch utility: Browse to C:VistaUpwswitch. Run setup.exe as Administrator. You do not have to reboot at this time.
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If you want the Optical Disc Power Off Utility: Browse to C:VistaUpopdoff. Run setup.exe as Administrator. This one did not work for me – it said that it could not get access to the “misc driver” – doesn’t appear to hurt anything – just annoying.
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Finally, install WinDVD. Browse to C:VistaUpwindvd. Run setup.exe as Administrator.
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The keyboard is recognized as a Japanese 106/109 key layout – but the default is to use the International English key mapping. This is annoying. Open the Language Bar and Add Japanese to the keyboard layout.Set Japanese as the primary keyboard layout and then remove ALL US keyboard entries. Do a final reboot and confirm that the keys are mapped correctly.
Observations
One weird thing has happened with this install – but it’s minor. Two unknown devices have suddenly appeared in my Device Manager. Have no clue what they are and have simply left them alone. Machine stability is not an issue and everything works normally. Not going to worry about it.
Biggest let down of this project was the lack of Aero support. The Intel 915 chipset was popular enough that I figured some Aero goodies would find their way in – but nope. (funny sidenote – my Windows Experience score is a whopping 1.0 because of the video chipset!)
Good luck to anyone that goes for this – performance on the laptop has been solid and performance has been on par or better than XP, so it has been a good switch. I have had to reduce the hardware acceleration to play some videos (had the same problem in XP) – but otherwise things appear to be working well.
Outsourcing and Innovation – my experience with crowdSPRING
The Backstory
So I co-founded a company earlier this year (6connect) and of course we had to tackle the usual brand/identity pieces. I was torn – as a startup, we needed to conserve cash flow, but we also wanted to put some decent effort into the design elements that would go into the website, business cards, powerpoint, etc. for the company. I put together some initial artwork (very basic) but wanted to get additional ideas and approaches. What options made sense? I needed some basic design services that fit our budget, but that we wouldn’t be sorry for 12 months later.
Narrowing the Scope
As any entrepreneur knows – the “corporate identity” packages can get pricey – so I figured by limiting the scope – we not only figure out what we truly need, but also help stay within budget. In the end, we decided that the design work we needed was really a basic business card design. Then we could use the artwork as a base for the website theme, etc. I had already put together some business card layouts that I didn’t like, so I had some data points to start from for our design project and hopefully some creative direction for our outsourced design partner.
Getting started with crowdSPRING
In doing research I was referred to crowdSPRING by a friend of mine. After checking out the site and getting a feel for some of the work – I decided to give it a shot. I think what drew me to it was the variety of talent and the sheer breadth of designs from previous projects that were on display. This helped push me to try it out.
Using crowdSPRING is very straightforward (props to their product team!) and I was able to specify a budget and timeline for my project so that the designers all knew what was up. I uploaded some prior artwork so it was obvious as to what looks we had already tried for our business card motif. In the end – I posted the project at midnight – so I immediately appreciated how I didn’t have to rely on “regular business hours” (ahhh the life of the startup).
Getting the Project Together
With the project posted (our timeline was 2 weeks) we started getting submissions within 24 hours. Even better – we were able to communicate with the designers for any edits/changes/feedback that we wanted to test. It worked out very well since we were able to get a feel for a designer’s style and communicate with them directly. The samples allowed for visibility to the other 6connect co-founders so I was able to share the progress of the designs. In the end, I ended up with 23 submissions with a wide variety of styles.
And the Winner Is…
The winning entry!
The winning submission was by crowdSPRING designer gregruben and reflected a couple rounds of minor edits. We were able to get several iterations and ideas from him that really helped define the theme of the 6connect website. The dark layout was a direction we hadn’t even considered and transferred well to our WordPress website theme and graphics. It was a simple design and really played nicely with the pieces we were working on for presentations and other materials. The designer submitted all of the artwork (original PSD) so edits were easy.
Parting Thoughts
Initially, there was hesitation to outsource a piece like this, but I think that crowdSPRING is definitely taking the right approach. 6connect was a great test-case since it helped lower the barrier to entry for our startup to get some talented design help early on and drive a consistent look and feel for the company. Having access to portfolios of the designers is nice but it was also great to get a feel for working with them during the actual design submission process. I was able to get some excellent results turned around quickly and on-time. And that’s a good thing.
I am working on a follow up post. It’s a brief interview with Mike Samson, CEO and Co-founder of crowdSPRING, but gives some insight into the motivation behind the company.
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