Toshiba Satellite A75 – nothing but problems?
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?
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
132 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite A75 – nothing but problems?”
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Pages: « 14 13 12 11 [10] 9 8 7 6 5 4 … 1 » Show All
July 14th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Jason,
After you reinstall the operating system, you have to install correct device drivers. Install the video driver and it should fix your problem, right now you are using a generic driver witch comes with the operating system. You can get it from the second Dell CD or download from the Dell website.
July 14th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Well here i go with my question i hope somebody can please help. My problem is this, when i’m viewing screen and i go to scroll down my page jumps like one page at a time. I recently reformated my dell laptop, and since then its like maybe my graphic card didn’t caught. Any tips or pointers would be great.
Thanks Jason
May 27th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Well, it’s been over a week now, and my laptop’s running fine. (yeah..I left it on all day and night) and NO problems of any sort!
and Bill, I don’t know what’s going on with those reps. Because the two reps I talked to was really prompt and took under 10 minutes? Maybe an unlucky few are just jerks.
Good luck everyone :O
May 24th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Well, I just have to say that I am happy with my A75-S2112 and had no problems with it for two years. Oh, yes, it did overheat couple of days after I got it, but I use it only on flat surface since then and it never happened again when I use it that way. Couple of months ago it’s performance slowed down, but I know that this is due to a lot of programs loaded and unloaded, free software trials and other crap I had to load while going to school. I purchased my first Toshiba about 5 years ago and was happy with that one as well, although I had to get A75 since processor (Celeron) and ram (256) couldn’t handle programming compilers on the old one. Besides having good experience with my old Toshiba, the new one fit my budget as well so it was an easy choice.
The only issue both Toshibas had was that every now and then they would not come back up from hibernation. Removing and replacing the battery on the old one did the trick, the new one has to be forced-shut-down on the button. It is much more rare occurrence on the new one and rare enough that it doesn’t really bother me.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Well the Class Action is still pending a finalization of a fairness hearing. The Hearing was rescheduled for May 10th, 2007 but I have not seen anything new come out yet. To Johnny I hope they fixed your unit. I have returned mine 5 times, 4 of which have been in the last 6 months. They have replaced 3 lcd screens,2 motherboards, fans twice, speakers, top cover (they dropped it and cracked the cover), 1 battery. They also sent the laptop back to me after the motherboard- USBs fried could not back up system/speakers/case repair BUT did not ground the computer. When I got it back it shocked me, and I started having memory error problems kick up on the screen. I immediately contacted them back about the shock issue and memory issues. They said it was not an issue and that it should work fine. I said No I wanted this fixed and you did not fix any issues other than throwing in a new board along with the stuff you broke. Well when I continued to stress the need for this to be fixed the Rep. Mrs. Tux. Said she would allow for the laptop to be returned but would put in the system that the hard drive needed to be wiped and reformatted. I told her no way, let me speak to a supervisor. She said if all you are going to do is complain is I hang up. I said I want this fixed I have already lost the use of my laptop for over two months due to these issues. “Not my problem, you send back we look at and reformat make work”
I sent it back after talking to another rep three days later. I sent it in and they did a check and said my memory was bad and that was the cause of the issues. I said that was not possible since I just got the laptop back and your previous check showed it was working perfectly and is stated as such in your repair log online. She said that since it was not purchased with the laptop from Toshiba it was not their responsibility to repair and I would have to suck up the cost of repair, Oh and we are going to wipe your hard drive. I told them to cease immediately and do nothing until I speak with their corporate office. I spoke to the corporate office and it took 55 minutes to get this idiot to understand how an ungrounded system can fry memory, processors, motherboards. They finally got it. They siad well get back with you within 48 hours. NO CALL - So after 4 days I called back (during this time fielding calls from their repair center saying they were going to wipe my drive which I had to tell them to continue to hold till corporate gets this worked out).
I finally talked again with this CSR and they got the OK to replace the memory and told threpair center to hold the unit till the memory is installed to do a recheck. Well the repair facility decided they were done with me and just sent the laptop back non-repaired but at least the hard drive was not wiped. I got the laptop opened it up and it had a BOX cutter in the box banging around inside the box and on my laptop, and they did not use cushion this time they used a plastic wrap card board piece to hold they laptop down. They taped the 1 gig memory I had installed to the top of the laptop cover. I did take pictures of the whole thing. Two weeks later I just received the 1gb memory stick to replace the one they trashed but my system is still not functioning right and needs to be sent back AGAIN. I have tried to back everything up but the usbs are still not fully functional. I HATE TOSHIBA! So Now I have so much more to do. I have already left messages for corporate to contact me back. I hope this fairness hearing makes Toshiba repurchase these laptops so I can end my dealings with these A-Holes. I will literally have lost use of my laptop for over 3 months due to these problems. Good luck to all of you that own these P.O.S. !!!!
May 11th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Ok I recieved the laptop from their repair center last week. GOOD NEWS. Toshiba replaced my motherboard and fixed all the issues. As of now, the fan is completely quiet. The laptop runs MUCH cooler, and I’m impressed with their prompt repair.
So a tip to everyone with A75 problems, call toshiba’s repair center (heres the # 800-457-7777) and tell them your problems. They’ll ask for a serial # and check it up. Now all you have to do after that is take it to a “participating UPS Store” (they’ll give you the info) and you take your laptop there. I’m glad they paid for shipping (2nd day air) and fixed my laptop faster than I expected! A lady from Toshiba even gave me a call telling me that my laptop was on its way back to my home. Amazing…
May 4th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I recognized the problems after 2-3 months of use (which was too late to return to the store for a refund). Luckily I bought a 2 Year warranty on the laptop and sent it in for repair (this was early 2006). They replaced the Motherboard, fans, and hard disk, and grounded the speakers. Nonetheless, the unit still had overheating problems and audio on/off issues.
I found out that toshiba extended their warranty so I called them up. I told them all the issues and told the customer rep that these problems are COMMON and Toshiba knows that theses issues exist. The guy was pretty friendly and told me to take it to my local UPS Store. So, Toshiba paid for the shipping and repair. Four days later, I get a call from a Customer Service rep saying that my laptop was fix and already on its way back (UPS 2nd day air).
I hope they resolved everything
April 24th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Nate,
I’ve repaired many Toshiba Satellite A60/A65 laptops and here are most common failures I can recall.
1. Overheating. If you use your Satellite A60/A65 laptop a lot and never blow off the heatsink and fans, probably you’ll experience this problem. The heatsink collects a lot of dust and has to be cleaned. You can lift up the keyboard and blow off the heatsink with compressed air.
2. Bad onboard memory (memory integrated into the motherboard). If the onboard memory fails, the laptop either will not boot at all or will boot with defective video on the LCD screen (because it’s using a part of the onoboard memory for video purposes). You can get video with vertical lines, weird characters, etc… something like shown on the example 3 in this post. In this case you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.
3. The pin inside the power jack breaks off, but it’s not a very common problem. In this case you’ll have to remove the motherboard and resolder the power jack.
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I have the exact problem you just described Nate with my circuitry charging…and for some reason or another noone including Toshiba has been able to know how to fix it? Would the whole motherboard have to be replaced or can it be fixed or does anyone even know?
April 20th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Nate, This is truly awful. I have had many problems with my A75 and through the help of this site, I have been able to permanently fix my broken power jack by attaching a completely separate device to the case instead of the motherboard.
Hearing what Toshiba has done with the A60/A65 however makes my blood boil. What right does Toshiba have to treat their customers like this? why should we have to put up with it?
I am a student and have lost $2000 in buying this laptop. Because I am a student, I can’t afford to buy another laptop which i need for my study. The court settlement doesn’t even help me because I bought my laptop in Australia.
Isn’t there anything that we can do? It’s not fair that we have to put up with this.