About 3 weeks ago I received a comment from a user who described his experience with Toshiba Satellite M35X. Today I got one more for Toshiba Satellite A75. Even though these are completely different models, they have very similar problems: laptop heatsink gets clogged and the laptop overheats, improperly grounded top cover causes the laptop to freeze up and reboot, badly designed DC jack causes the power failure. May be your experience is more positive?
I got the laptop as a Xmas present from my boyfriend in Dec 2004. Shortly after I got it, I got the blue screen of death. Then it began freezing up on me. Toshiba told me this was a problem with a grounding wire in the motherboard. I took it to a service center and they fixed the problem. Within about another 2 months, it started doing hard shut-downs when any load was present – was unable to burn DVDs, view DVDs, play music or even view basic graphics on the internet, as well as shutting down during use of Windows Media Player. The fan was loud! Then, the AC adapter problem. To this day, I have no green light showing at all on the front of my computer. It was fine at first, then started flickering (when I pressed down on silver plate that was replaced at the service center due to the grounding wire problem), the green light would come back on for a short time and then disappear again.
The laptop is getting power while plugged into the wall and the battery is recharging…..but, what’s up with the green light disappearing?
I have a cooling pad underneath my Toshiba that has an external power source – overheating is NOT the problem with this computer. From what I can surmise, the issue is in the CPU. The motherboard probably needs to be replaced and God only knows what’s causing the problem with the LED indicator.
At this point, my computer is now out of warranty, however, because I brought these problems to their attention during the warranty period, they have essentially issued a blank check for me to have “any hardware problems fixed” as an exception to the warranty. They were too quick to authorize this, so my feeling is that these problems are systemic with this model and Toshiba is well aware of them, though why they have never issued a recall is beyond me and does not bode well for Toshiba’s PR department.
It is going in for repairs tomorrow (had to back everything up in case the motherboard has to be replaced) and I will advise what the findings are when I get it back – estimated time for repairs is 2 weeks.
If this computer were not being fixed on Toshiba’s dime, I wouldn’t bother paying to have it fixed – I’d just buy another laptop. I am very upset that I’m unable to use this laptop for any of the features they advertise. I also strongly suspect that Toshiba knew of these problems beforehand and sold the things anyway, looking for Xmas windfall revenue – this computer was introduced in Dec. 2004, if memory serves correctly.
What a sad indictment of corporate greed – this laptop was $1,500 – we’re not talking about a pack of gum, here.
Is your experience with this model any different?
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
June 28th, 2006 at 8:44 am
Gopal,
It might happen with any computer. I’ve seen a lot of different laptops from different manufacturers and they all suffered from the same problem – overheating. Clean the heatsink and you’ll get it fixed.
June 27th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
Yet another disgruntled A75 owner here. Similiar problems…poor engineering has created an extremely dangerous environment for the processor…..I have even tried a USB extermal cooling device to help with the problem..unfortunately, it appears to make it worse
My problems started shortly after purchase… so I find it hard to believe that a cleaning would resolve the issues.
Fair warning to all those considering purchasing Toshiba.
June 25th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I nevr expected Toshiba laptop(Satellite a75 -s231) can be such a waste computer, they looted me ,i purchased it for $1200, and my laptop shuts down after every 15 min.. i cannot install or run any application on it except IE browser. Never in my life i am going to buy any TOSHIAB product.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Sounds all too familiar.
About a month after purchasing A75-S213 I changed the power settings to make the processor run at the “low” speed setting in an effort to quieten the notebook’s fans; the noise from which was alarming my classmates and scaring animals within a 3 mile radius. The drop in performance is negligible and this might have saved me from some of the more severe problems that I have read about on the net.
After 10 months of use the machine is still reasonably dependable and I love the way it functions (except for the fan noise), but once every 10 days it will drop dead and refuse to come back to life for around 10 minutes. I think part of me knew that that type of processor doesn’t belong in such a tiny box, but I was willing to put up with extra heat weight and noise to have the power of a desktop in my notebook. I wasn’t willing to have a machine that can have an episode of catalepsy at any moment.
So listen to Andrew Johnston Mr. Toshiba. Upwards of 200 bucks an hour for every lawyer working on the case, a significant portion of which is paying for the lawyers to eat, pee, poop and sign their name on something written by an intern. Is it worth it?
June 8th, 2006 at 8:54 am
From reading the history it is plain Toshiba have known about these problems for a long time, —-03? 04?. I bought mine from Miocrocenter as a result of the glowing testimonial of a Microcenter salesman in May ‘05. when it froze microcenter eventually told me they knew`about it……….. so they too are culpable. i trust they will be joined in the lawsuits. have only lately found out about the shorting top and had assumed it was the digital interface AKA my sausage fingers. Today I cannot play my daughter’s newly recored album becausethe`sound card seems to have died. Don’t you all love the almost useless DVD/CD/RW drive???????
Come on Toshiba, give us all new computers: it will be cheaper in the long run. —- Perhaps you should give us HPs; I hear they do not break down!
June 7th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
sigh….same problem. i got my A70 on Dec 2004 as a Xmas gift and in Feb 2005 it started freezing and i had to reboot. i thought it was my software and cleaned the hell out of this with anti-spyware, Norton, etc…
then i called Toshiba since it was still under warranty and they said to bring it to there Authorized Service Dept and they supposingly added the foil for the static freezing problem. All is well until in March 2006 when my lap started to shut off with no apparant reason. after reading some posts I see that there is a cooling fan/heatsink clogging issue. so now i called again and they just told me to go and they gave me a service code (i think they know the problems) even though my warranty is over.
i’ll keep you posted as now i will not have my lap for at least 3 weeks!
toshiba sucks and i will never recommend this to anyone!
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Well
i just went thru a75 hell,
Had the overheating issue with a 16 mo old laptop
then the power jack issue
A75-211(post power short machine)
Fixed them both with a little help from a firend with better eyes.
The disaassembly instructions were key to the problem. Only lost 2 screws in taking it apart about 7 times.
there are some fragile components in there some you have to bull some you have to be dainty with (speaker connectors for example)
But i have a semi healthy (I hope ) laptop for now.
June 3rd, 2006 at 2:24 am
Hi there,
You think you have it bad. I’m currently writing this post in “safe mode’ Win XP because its the only way my Toshiba Satellite M40 will run. Otherwise in normal mode, is freezes up within 10 minutes of booting up, particularly if the laptop is moved. I’ve had the fan cleaned by authorized Toshiba repair (warranty expired) and replaced the RAM. No difference.
I’m bracing myself for the fact I’ll probably have to buy a new motherboard or CPU. Toshiba sucks.
If anyone has any suggestions, please email me. Thanks.
BG
June 1st, 2006 at 1:57 pm
I own an A70 and the recurring static/grounding problem was supposedly repaired. Unfortunately, I did not realize that part of my problem in restarts was caused by the power jack problem until AFTER my warrantly ran out. I spent over $600 to have the unit repaired and it is still NOT working. It seems that the multiple static discharges have fried somehthing else and Toshiba has told me I am on my own since the warrantly has run out.
I am telling all of my clients to AVOID purchasing a Toshiba of any sort including radios and televisions. The knowingly sold a defective product and hoped that it would not surface until after the warranty ran out….
May 30th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
I wanted to give the readers an update on my laptop, now that I’ve received it back from the repair center. Yes, it was an overheating problem that stems from a very poorly designed fan system. Not only did they replace the fans and clean the heatsink, but replaced the entire motherboard as well. The LED indicator shortage problem was thanks to the last repair I had done to the motherboard when they “fixed” a problem with the grounding wire (computer was freezing up). For those who do get their laptops serviced due to the recall for this freezing problem, if your LED lights start flickering when you get it back, know that the cable wasn’t seated properly.
Toshiba incurred the full cost of this repair, even though my laptop’s warranty had expired. That is because I complained about it non-stop for almost a year before they got the message that there are a lot of very unhappy campers with Toshibas right now. Ironically, when I walked into the repair center, another guy was sitting there with the same model laptop for the same reason……..=(
All said and done, were I to have to pay for these repairs, it would have run me $900. For bad engineering.
I have to give Toshiba some props for doing the right thing. All I ask is that any company stand behind their workmanship….from what I’ve seen out there on the internet, I am the exception to the rule when it comes to dealing with Toshiba’s customer service reps. Don’t deal with their service techs, don’t even deal with the customer service reps. Keep going up the food chain at Toshiba until you reach someone who’s in a position of authority to override their internal protocol and can get your computer fixed.
If you have an overheating problem, get your computer cleaned professionally (if you don’t know what you’re doing). Buy a cooling fan with an external power source and blow forced air in the back and side vents at least once every couple of weeks. I am resigned to having this computer professionally serviced to keep the heatsink cleared on a yearly basis from here on out. That’s an inexpensive maintenance regimen that will save me hundreds on a new motherboard.
Good luck to all and thanks for letting me share this with you!