Toshiba M400-146 Tablet
OEM Windoze XP Pro Tablet

What an outstanding piece of equipment!!. I love using the Tablet operating system on this computer.

So far, everything external to this DEVICE has caused problems.
Not the device itself.

We bought it from PCWorld... and believe me you don't want to do that, no matter how much money you appear to be saving.

They charged us twice, and then declined to acknowledge the fact for near a month.

The bank (credit card) was afraid of them, since they are really a front for a major multi-national (DSG International). The Office of Fair Trading were (as you might expect) not much help, and the DATA Protection people... it was a non-authorised customer-not-present web tansaction using data passed between two companies after all... were about as much use as a nu-labour MP. ie. none at all, but they cost a lot.

Now it's the turn of the Tablet Windows. For those of you who are wondering, as I was for quite some time... think ordinary XP Pro with mainly the addition of one single application, "Tablet PC Input Panel".

Mate that program in Windoze with a "live" screen of some type... Tosh use a magnetic field, HP use an electronic grid, and you have the basics.

The Tosh WORKS as any other laptop... bit quicker of course with a T7200 dual core.. but otherwise...
Then pop the pen, lift up the screen and turn it back over to cover the keyboard, and you're into Tablet working.
Think stylus based PDA, with a 12" screen and the added ability to right click.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

Anyway... all was cooking as it should until day b4 yesterday.

I got a Canon IP6220D printer from our local discount store (39.99 new at netto) as our second HP all-in-one in as many years had just died on us. Time for a change... and never had Canon.
Beats the HP system all the way home so far.

After working through the day at times on an article and using printer etc. I had cause, which I had not for a week or more, to visit Device Manager.

It had left me.

Gone!!

The Window pane comes up, the buttons in it are there, but the Device Manager screen is now the error page we usually see in IE browser when it gets a bum address.

I tried Toshiba... who work from a premium rate phone line for "support" in the UK, otherwise forget it... no "Contact Us" email address even.

I tried Microshaft... who (helpfully?) sent us back to Toshiba, as the Windoze is an OEM and they don't want to know.

I tried a little program called XP Repair Pro, on the advice of a friend. No joy. It said that it had fixed literally hundreds of "errors", but this is certainly one it missed.

I tried the fixes and looking for the malware listed in the first few pages of this august company. De Nada.

Still no Device Manager.

As it happens, in the tons of possibly vital?? extraware Toshiba put on their systems, there is a Device Manager-like app.

However it still leaves the original problem... and when I came to think of it, it was not one that had not happened b4 on the old tin box (PC).

In that event I was put to using Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Device Manager... which got me in at least.

We did recover it on Tin Box eventually, but I am unable to remember now how it was done. You know how it is... old age, other things...

Anyone here know how please?

BTW, when the HP was working, it frequently used to jam up and the print queue refused to clear, no matter what.
One of the places I frequent had a post which solved it and since it's such a DILLY, and it takes me back to our days in DOS, I'll leave it here for you... sort of advance payment if you like... in anticipation...

To kill a print job on a PC in Windoze...

Go to the DOS command line... in XP it's in Start/Programs/Acessories
Type: NET STOP SPOOLER
This kills the job, and kills the printer driver function too.
To restart it all...
Type: NET START SPOOLER
And wait a minute or so whilst it resurrects itself.

Please help out with the above if you can... I'm not about to get any from Toshiba any time soon.
And if you want to know any more about Tablets... pm me.

QF

Is the subject your problem Decidedly

QF

Very interesting post there.
I agree with you about PC World and related companies, but don't stand for any of their nonsense.
If any company starts trying to charge you twice, do not stand for it.
You are the customer,you have the power, not them.
Remember - they're vying for your service, not the other way around.
Same goes for Toshiba and Microsoft - don't let them push you onto each other. It's Toshiba's duty to provide support for you, I assume you have a warranty of some sort?

Anyway, back to your IMMEDIATE problem.
How about if you go to Start --> Run --> type devmgmt.msc and press enter?
Does that work any better?
I seem to recall having this problem but I can't think how I solved it.
Can you post a screenshot so we can see exactly what you see?Thanks for taking an interest.

The msc run line didn't work, but then since Dev MGR screen fails to appear in either System or Administrative, I think we can presume that something pretty fundamental about it has taken a hike.
I wish, for the purposes of warning to others, I could point to something definitive as the culprit.

When we had the previous occurence on the Tin Box, it became clear that the access from the System avenue was somehow compromised. Access from the Administrative Tools was still possible.

Here that is clearly not the case. The same screen results from either call and also from the MSC call that you suggested we try in the RUN box.

Here's a pic from the Tosh... you can see the little Tablet PC Input Panel in the bottom of the screen... this time in it's conventional keyboard guise. This is the same as working with a stylus based pda.

A pen tap on the top button on the left of that panel however gets you to handwriting input with the pen, and the recognition is pretty good too.

Can't be a Microshaft app, it works too well. ;-))



QFTake a look here.
The issue seems to be exactly the same, and the same advice has even been given first off (no, it wasn't me).
See if either of the downloads suggested works for you.
Edit: I have made the link bold so it is easier to see. They can be a little hard to see on some backgrounds, sorry for not being clearer.Downloads??
I must have missed that reply

The issue is the same as ??

QF

The blue word "here" in Calum's post is a link. Try clicking on it.
Outstanding Gentlemen... and please pardon my Myopia.

The blue highlight in the word "here" appears on my monitor as very dark blue... and then only if I get close.

Typing the line "regsvr32 dmocx.dll" into the run box elicits the typically cryptic reply... in a small grey OK box...

DllRegisterServer in dmocx.dll succeeded

Tapping OK disappears the box...

BUT going to System in Control Panel this time... and the errant Device Manager is back.

Now please... what made it happen, and is there ought I can do to prevent it doing so again?

My compliments and sincere thanks to you sirs, and especially to Tech support Guy and Ramesh's site for the solution, and take an extra bow for being more use to windoze-using humanity than Toshiba and Microshaft combined.

QF


So it's sorted now, Device Manager works fine?
Excellent.
I'm not sure what made this happen or how you could prevent it.
The cryptic answer is that the DLL was unregistered, but I don't know why it would have been - perhaps from some software installed, perhaps a virus? Or maybe just a random glitch.
But at least you have the solution now, so if it should happen again you can fix it.