Hi, Has anyone encountered this problem: Oftent

[Bernard]

Hi,
Has anyone encountered this problem: Oftentime, at boot up the EN (aka the ENglish keyboard) icon in the lower right part of the task bar starts blinking at a random rate and prevents from opening apps from the task bar.
Icone on the desktop works, but very slow, and overall the TPC becomes very slow!
After a certain time it comes back eventually.
Help anyone?

[halogen]

i am the same problem here, is it a tabletpc edition bug of MIME?

[lydhig]

I have the same problem but with Swedish keyboard layout "Sv" flashing.

[JEB]

I got the same problem with the french keyboard.
It's very ennoying when you have to wait more than 10
minutes that this phenomenon stops before starting
a presentation.
Since there was more than 100 people watching,
I believe Compaq lost a lot of potential customers
on this particuler case!
JEB

[Aerin44]

I also have the same problem. However if you are in a hurry you can use CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart the machine. It rarely occurs twice in a row. Also, it only occurs on startup,not when recovering from hibernate or standby. So if you have an important presentation you might want to leave it in standby.

[JPaul]

When is Compaq going to tackle seriously this problem of the blinking multilingual keyboard?

This is becoming embarassing to many of us, would be tablet evangelists :(.

In addition to the fragility of the TC1000, to the huge number of distributed bleeding pens, the future of this nice machine could be jeopardized by the loud silence of Compaq employees.

[JEB]

Probably Compaq is not interested in this bug because the only concerned users are the ones with a foreign language keyboard.
Theey are much more concerned in solving the "bleeding pen" defect.

JEB

[bloom]

I think they did it to (at least) the French keyboards on purpose[usa]

[Bernard]

Yeah, Yeah, Bloom!
For info this flashing issue started way BEFORE Pres. Chirac made his show...[:o)]

[JEB]

"Bleeding pens + Blincking foreign keyboards"

The same problem happens to me every week.
Compaq is doing nothing to address it.
After using it since december my opinion is now clear:

"The TC1000 is in no way a professionnal tool."

It's just a prototype for playing with promising new technologies.
COMPAQ is not serious about this device.
Maybe they have other plans to propose new solutions
at the 1 or 2 years horizon.

Bleeding pens + Blincking foreign keyboards make impossible the use of the TC1000 for serious work. It's just a nice demonstration tool.

As an unhappy owner of the Compaq TC1000 for three months now,
I now give the advice not to buy this solution
if you count on it for doing serious work.

JEB

[JEB]

Just one additional remark:

Of course my advice not to buy the TC1000
after three months experience is only
directed to this particular device and not
to all Tablet PCs.

My personal opinion is also based on the
attitude of Compaq not to see, to recognize
and to try solving the many problems we are having
with their product.

The TC1000 is a premature commercial product.

Bleeding pens + Blincking foreign keyboards
are two problems that are leading me to
abandon daily use of my Tablet. (Fortunately
I still have my old IBM notebook
and I am switching back to it)

All the problems mentioned in the PCMAG paper metioned below
are also real problems and are conforting my
strong opinion NOT TO BUY Compaq.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,924341,00.asp

[markpayton]

JEB,

I'm surprised at the lack of support you seem to be getting. I called with a problem and got pretty quick response. Actually several problems. The answers weren't what I really wanted to hear (refresh the installation of the OS, for example), but on the pen issue, they sent me a replacement, no questions asked. I even got to keep the old one, which really worked to my advantage as other steps cleared up the problem I was having with that and I now have a spare pen.

Have you installed all the updates, both for the TC1000 and for XP?

Mark

[jhok]

I've recovered from this occasional problem by pressing the Windows security button, selecting task manager, and killing Explorer. I ususally see that Explorer is taking 90% of the CPU when the system seemds to be hanging on boot. You can then use the task manager to relaunch Explorer.

[JEB]

Thanks jhok,

I will try this next time the problem happens,
which should be soon :D.

[JPaul]

:( This bleeding pen is driving me insane.

What is COMPAQ doing?

Are they aware of the bad image they are getting
from completely ignoring this problem?

I have not heard about any initiative to recall
all TC1000 or at least the non operational pens.

Is there any ongoing collective action to put
pressure on COMPAQ on this problem? Who is
aware of such an initiative?

[JPaul]

:( This bleeding pen is driving me insane.

What is COMPAQ doing?

Are they aware of the bad image they are getting
from completely ignoring this problem?

I have not heard about any initiative to recall
all TC1000 or at least the non operational pens.

Is there any ongoing collective action to put
pressure on COMPAQ on this problem? Who is
aware of such an initiative?

[JEB]

jhok,

No luck with your solution.
I got again the "Blincking keyboards" syndrom in my last presentation.
Now I am getting used to it.
During the rebootiong I tell my audience,
whoever they are,
all the bad things about Compaq
and its terrible customer service in France.

I am also constantly getting the "bleeding pen" problem,
and there is nothing they could do.

I suspect they are getting claims
from all TC1000 owners and they just
cannot deal with all these problems.

TC1000 is really poorly engineered
and is certainly not a professional tool.

[cisgrad00]

quote:Originally posted by JPaul

:( This bleeding pen is driving me insane.

What is COMPAQ doing?

Are they aware of the bad image they are getting
from completely ignoring this problem?

I have not heard about any initiative to recall
all TC1000 or at least the non operational pens.

Is there any ongoing collective action to put
pressure on COMPAQ on this problem? Who is
aware of such an initiative?



Have you worked with technical support to get a case escalated to engineering. That is the only way they'll typically be "aware" of the issue.

Computer manufacturers put their units through considerable testing (with everything that is shipped with the unit and with some(limited) industry standard options - software/hardware). But if they put it through every possible configuration (since there are as many different configurations as users) and multiple test iterations (since many of the problems are intermittent) then no hardware would ever be released!

Compaq was by far one of the best at working to resolve problems. I know of several manufacturers that more often than not would duplicate the problem and say 'yeah, it doesn't work', and simply document it.

[cgee2]

I believe the "EN" icon blinking issue is related to the Tablet's hunt for a network and then subsequently seeking to log on to MSN Messenger. JEB should try starting from hibernate before important presentations (as Aerin44 suggests), you'll find that you do not get this silly delay.

BTW, I do not have a problem with the pen. But the lack of support that a few in this discussion thread complain of could be due to the fact that non-US support for the Tablet is generally poor. Out here in Singapore, few accessories are available, and even the dealers are not particularly helpful with after-sales. I've gained more reading this forum than from any other source.

Regards,
Chris