Friday, February 26, 2010

Viliv S5 gets HID Driver for Windows 7

Viliv has definitley been on the forefront of UMPC progression over the last year. They have worked diligently to provide these devices with great care, quality and full of features. Battery life on the S5 and X70 is beyond comparison (over 6hrs) and with GPS/3G built-in it is easy to see why they have so much traction. If anyone is thinking of buying an iPad (#FAIL)  then I would sincerely recommend looking at this machine as a contender (and winner) hands-down.


With all that in mind I am extremely excited to share with you that Viliv has one of the most exciting updates a Tablet enthusiast can imagine, i.e. a HID (human Interface Device) Driver for their S5. With the driver the unit gets a dose of steroids allowing it to function properly with stylus and much more! Without the HID Driver the unit clumsily calls-up the TIP (Tablet Input Panel), stumbles through calibration and suffers as a Tablet PC when compared to post-upgrade!

Here is a summary of what works well (and below a set of instructions)!



[No HID DRiver (TOP) | HID Drive (bottom)]
At login: accessibility keybaord was slow to load,
 and often covered vital portions of login boxes for people on Domains.

[No HID DRiver (TOP) | HID Drive (bottom)]
Interesting: The "muted keypad"
(i.e. hides keystrokes when someone is entering a password on a Tablet device)
is missing on non-HID device vs. HID enabled device


TIP (Tablet Input Panel) always availble now!!



Portrait Calibration: Now works when HID installed
(previously just greyed out on non-HID Viliv S5)

For those interested here are the install instructions:
 
A. For clean install Window 7 user

  1. Extract the attached files
  2. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
  3. If there is no S5 atom touch driver then please choose the PS2 Mouse Driver and choose the Driver Update menu to update the attached new HID Driver
  4. After that, execute the calibration function in the Control Panel in Windows.
B. For Update s5 atom touch driver

  1. Extract the attached files 
  2. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
  3. If there is the S5 atom touch driver then please uninstall Atom touch driver first
  4. And Delete “i8042prt_atom.sys” file in C:\windows\system32\drivers
  5. After that, Reboot your S5 1~2 times
  6. Find the mouse controller in Device manager 
  7. If there is no S5 atom touch driver then please choose the PS2 Mouse Driver and choose the Driver Update menu to update the attached new HID Driver
  8. After that, execute the calibration function in the Control Panel in Windows.
Download HID Driver for Viliv S5 here

51 comments:

Cecil said...

Thanks! Very nice. When do you think this will be officially released by Viliv?

Unknown said...

Hugo, I tried your solution with a non 3G S5 using the latest EC. It didn't work. I guess this driver is just for the 3G version of the S5. I have EC v022 (latest for the non 3G version, posted at Viliv).

Thank you anyway for your help. I haven't noticed that you were back blogging. Nice to read your posts again.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

@Cecil: THanks for the comment. Any day now it will be up!

@RAUL:Thanks for the welcome back! Regarding your install it should work well as I've tried it on both. Can you give me a detailed set of instructions on what you did and I will tell you what you need to improve on? If you look closely there is a non-3G file up there too.

Unknown said...

Hugo, thanks for this. It did work! I just noticed though that the touchscreen has lost a significant amount of sensitivity. I don't know if it is because of EC 0.54 or the HID drivers.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hey Ryan!

Interesting! It could be becuase of the HID driver. Can you clarify "how/why" you feel this way? I will pass it onto Viliv and get you an answer for Monday.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this!

Few things I noticed, in case you are in touch directly with Viliv:

- some of the sensitivity is lost. For example when using Windows 7's onscreen keyboard, you have to press the virtual buttons much more firmly.
- some accuracy of touch screen is lost on top of the screen as well as left side of the screen (few rows of pixels) or it becomes impossible to get right on the top or left edge depending on calibration. You can calibrate deliberately little offset, but then accuracy suffers elsewhere on the screen.

- there are some strange events on Event Viewer (system log) which would indicate some problems either with EC or the driver.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Quenthal,

I am in contact almost daily with Viliv and I will make sure they get this email. Thank you so much for providing this valuable feedback. I will reply on this post once I hear anything from Viliv! Cheers.

Unknown said...

Works beautifully for me so far. Had initial calibration issues, but this went away after rebooting. My recollection is that this happened when I first installed Win7 as well.
Calibration seems spot on now, but like others I have noticed slightly less screen sensitivity. I think this can be adjusted in the TabletPC calibration settings. This is HUGE. Thanks Mr. Uber Tablet. :-)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Michael, you're very welcome mate! Stay in touch and congrats! It's a great upgrade for the Viliv S5!

Pablo Torrado said...

hi hugo , I have the s5 without 3g , is possible to by the EM770W and install it , you know were ? ,thanks

Pablo

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hey MrT! (pablo)

Shoot me an email (hugo at tegatech dot com dot au) and I will get you the information you need!

Unknown said...

Hi Hugo,

quenthal practically summed up everything I'm experiencing with the new HID drivers. The loss of sensitivity is very obvious, before I would just do very light touches and these would register. Now, if I try to do a press and hold right click, most of the time it doesn't register. As for the top and left portions of the screen being a 'deadzone', it seems to me the way this driver was setup is like this: It has declared a screen resolution that is smaller than the S5's (1024x600), and when you use Win7's calibration setup, hitting the crosshairs accurately will result to this top and left side deadzones. I tried hitting the crosshairs a little bit off, and the deadzone disappeared. BUT, a big but, when I tested using a stylus and hitting the areas near the previous deadzone, the registered point is off a bit too (get nearer to the edges). Whereas tapping the center of the touchscreen yields an accurate point. Seems to me since its 'native' declared size is smaller than 1024x600, it tries to compensate by law of proportions, 'stretching' its declared size to fill up the whole S5 screen. It is pinpoint accurate around the center, and then increases the offset error as you go towards the edges. I really hope I didn't confuse you with my explanation, quite hard to explain this through writing!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

That's a great explanation Ryan! I will again forward this to Viliv immediately and hope to get you a response. Interestingly this appears to be an issue for the minority as I have received many emails today stating how well it works, and I have read on Engadget comments the same.

Like I said, I will follow it up with Viliv and get you a response!


Thank you for your awesome respsone. No confusion! Loved it!

Unknown said...

I posted a glowing comment on Engadget and a couple other places under my shinratdr handle.

While I am extremely pleased with the driver, I have noticed a little of what people are mentioning.

It's only a slight dead zone on the left and top when calibrated perfectly, but it's there, no doubt.

There is also a loss of sensitivity. It's not as dramatic as people are making it out to be (proper HID touch just responds differently and takes some getting used to) but it too is there.

Those would be nice to fix. However my biggest gripe now is that 2 hardwired buttons are basically made useless using this driver and need to have the ability to be remapped.

First, the "C" button that is supposed to be user set according to the manual but is locked to right click as far as I am able to discern. It's now useless because it shifts 5 or so pixels off of the item you have tapped. "tap and hold to right click" works perfectly now, but is now your only option because of how off the hardwired right click is.

Second, the SoftKeyboard has always been buggy and crash prone for me, so I would really like the ability to remap the Keyboard button to launch the Windows 7 built in touch keyboard.

Once again I am really happy they worked this out, as I always thought it was impossible to do HID touch over PS2. But allowing a little customization of the hardwired buttons has always been wanted, but now is sort of necessary.

Perhaps a VilivManager update that nixes the old calibration tool and adds in some button customization options.

I would just like to also point out that I would never go back to the old driver at this point, even considering my gripes. It's not perfect, but it's miles ahead of the old fake PS/2 mouse driver.

Thanks.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Ross,

Like you I am all HID!!!

Thanks for your great comment. Like the others, I have passed this onto Viliv and am waiting their response. Once I hear more I will let you know and I will make and report back findings!

Interesting how it is getting different results for different users; however like you I think a lot of the issues are related to user’s expectations, i.e. the HID driver just functions differently.

I have passed on your email and look forward to reporting back soon!

Thanks Ross for this report, and the others you dotted around the globe.

H

N said...

what about x70? :')

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Nader,

That one was released a while back.

See: X70 EX Driver & S/W for Windows 7

Unknown said...

Hugo-
Interesting that users experience different results. I've loaded Windows 7 on two of my S5's, and the first has no 'touch offset issue', while the second does... They were both wiped and configured in exactly the same way. In addition, the Viliv Update Manager works perfectly on the first machine, but error-out on the second. Examination of the TEMP folder of the applicaton shows the directory structure is written, but not the actual .exe. Very odd... Also, I've had to disable CTRL-ALT-DELETE to login to my domain, as I can't find a combination of key presses which work. If none exist, perhaps Viliv might 'nominate' some in a bios or EC update?

D Chan said...

First, thanks a lot for releasing the driver, great functionality boost. However there seems to be a bug, the built in mouse pointer on the left now goes upside down when moving the cursor..... anyone has the same issue?

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

@sysmgr2: leads me to think that there may be hardware idiosyncrasies in the two models you are testing, i.e. some physical chipset or wiring differences inside. We upgraded 10 units (which were built this month) with the driver and had no issues! I am forwarding your email and will let you know! THANKS!

@D Chan: Haven't heard it yet but again I will forward it Viliv and see their response. THANKS!

N said...

Thanks for the link :)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Thanks Nader! :-)

Unknown said...

Do you think that those suffering from offset issues can expect sw fix, or is replacement/hw fix required? There seemed to be similar issues with previous gen drivers/EC, but viliv was able to fix it

Unknown said...

Ryan clarified also well my issues with offset (drifting/stretching). Common difficulty I've with inaccuracy are maximized utilities with extra small menu bar (for example Spotify) and also when trying to get hold of bottom right corner of window to change its size. But that is not the main problem -
loss of sensitivity esp. with oSK is noticeable.
Has anyone else noticed those events I mentioned earlier in their Windows' logs?

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Iam pretty certain it's sftware mate! Keep posting here everyone. I can report that Viliv is reading this post!

Unknown said...

@Hugo:
Thanks again for your activity on this matter.

Don't know if it is connected to left&top drifting/can't reach issue, but I noticed that S5's joystick's mouse mode acts strangely on top and left side of screen. I.e. if you got over the top or over the left side with cursor, mouse appears opposite side of the screen. This doesn't happen with right side or bottom of the screen. It doesn't happen with usb or bluetooth mouse, and could be very well be there by design.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

I'll keep pushing your comments along mate! Cheers quenthal!

Unknown said...

I just installed the drivers and for some reason my device has a weird deadzone on the left edge of the screen, it will either click all the way to the left of the screen or a about 5 or 6 millimeters to the right of it, everywhere in between that seems to be a dead zone, anyone else notice a problem like this? Tried calibrating it a couple of times moving where I used for calibration point and the deadzone only got worse.

Unknown said...

@Andrew:

This is in fact the same offset/drifting/"can't reach" issue what other (myself included) are reporting - the symptoms depend on how to do you calibrate.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

@EVERYONE: GOOD NEWS!!! I WILL POST A WORKAROUND/SOLUTION I WANT YOU ALL TO TEST! KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR NEW POST TODAY!!!

Unknown said...

I will wait for your update! I hope this will solve the glitches.

Unknown said...

@Hugo:

Excellent news! Hopefully this affects expecially the sensitivity issue, as with offset is somewhat manageable (not to say that I didn't want permanent fix and accuracy there too - but you can get only so far with deliberately calibrating slightly offset or doing the whole 16 point re-calibration instead of 4 point to do that "fake" calibration)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

@Ryan, @Eero:

Almost there guys! Just finalising the process and we'll get you a solution! It may still need tweaking but from all accounts it will be way better! I'll have it posted this weekend!

Unknown said...

Tks for the great release. This is certainly the most welcome feature on the S5. At least with it, usability gone up one notch. But the screen sensitivity issue remains after installing the HID drivers. Was wondering if the workaround solution is ready?

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Twinkerz! I published an update to the sensitivity issue. Have a go and let me know aht you think!

Unknown said...

hum i cant seem to get the keyboard to show up calibration and all is present running s5 3g with new ec but no joy :(

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi David,

Thanks for your comment, and your feedback. Did you follow all the installs? Sounds like the HID Driver is not there. Maybe go into Device Manager and find the PS/2 mouse and "update the driver" manually. Search for the HID Driver we issued and see what happens! :-)

Hugo!

Unknown said...

yes i checked and driver is present fyi i am running win7 starter edition if that matters

Unknown said...

yes i checked and driver is present fyi i am running win7 starter
edition if that matters

Unknown said...

no joy

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hey David! That's your problme...Starter! By default, thanks to lack of "Group Policy" settings, with Starter you cannot force a driver into Windows, or override an existing "known good" driver. If you upgrade to Professional (clean install is best) and run the same steps it will work 100%. Glad I could help. :-)

Hugo

Claudia said...

Are there any plans for Viliv to release an HID driver for Windows XP? Any info would be much appreciated!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

No plans yet mate, so sorry!

Claudia said...

That's too bad, but thanks for getting back to me. I hope Viliv does end up proving HID support for the Windows XP users because there are a lot of us!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

I'm with you Claudia. I am pushing them for it and if I get them across the line I'll make sure I let you/everyone know.

H

Claudia said...

Thanks, Hugo, much appreciated!

Unknown said...

Hugo I ve got problem...
I do clean install with win7 tinny than directly freh instal with your driver but touchscreen doesnt do..no touch sensor.. Give up than go with intel driver atom and touch work just fine.. tried the replacement method as on your and again the screen doesnt work...
so ..what did I do wrong?

thanks Hugo

Nerval said...

I installed Windows 8 onto my Viliv S5 but I couldn't get the drivers to install. Any idea how I should do this? Behind the Metro interface, I can access the original Device Manager, but in the process I also inadvertantly uninstalled the original PS-2 mouse. Any idea what I should do with all this? Most urgent needs are the wifi and touchscreen adapters. Please email gdenerval@gmail.com

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Thanks for the comment and feedback mate! Personally I have no update for you but if it comes about I'll be sure to post! :-)

Nerval said...

I now got the Wifi and touchscreen working fine basically by installing Vilivmanager and using it to access the Wifi and Bluetooth radios, and installing the Atom I/O then the regular Atom touchscreen driver. Windows 8 runs very sweetly. But I can't activate or access the Text Input Panel or the onscreen keyboard. Those are now my priorities - making do with Ritepen for now. Any hints on how to do it, please email gdenerval@gmail.com.

Nerval said...

I finally managed to install the HID driver under Windows 8, but the results were disappointing to say the least. The onscreen keyboard and TIP panel did show up, but the screen calibration was totally blown - taps registered on the wrong side of the screen, etc. I tried the Viliv sensitivity fix - no good. No ink trace on the TIP panel. And the cursor marker turns into a bizarre radar-type mini-ripple. So I'm back to Ritepen and no Input Panel, at least until someone comes up with a simple on/off fix.