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
December 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Glad to see I’m not the only doofus who bought one of these machines, nothing but trouble since day one, best buy real good at body swerves till warrantee ran out.
Persistent shut downs overheating etc, Christmas day A75 finally shut down with error message PCI network conflict etc et.
Managed to get to Safe Mode before overheating shut it down,
uninstalled wireless card, booted back up and microsoft software warned of malicious software (zonebac) removed.
Still same old problem exists, to start A75 have to go to safe mode uninstall wireless device and restart……
Works but what a pain.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
My son also has one of these and it started the problem after the suit, and they never were ever notified of a suit or problems with these computers. He missed the dead line, however if there was a problem and they knew it, I personally feel they should have sent a registered letter to each purchaser as they would have the name of any that were registered. I for one would not buy one from Toshiba if this is how they treat their customers. As for me, I do the hp thing and have had no problems on mine.
December 1st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
So I am just reading this now, I bought my laptop in May 05′ for about $1200.00 from Circuit City. I have had the heating problem very bad for the last two years. Now I have the power jack problem very bad as well. My Circuit Sh%^ty contract went up in May 07′ and as I just seen the Toshiba extended “settlement to fix our F-up” warranty went up on the 6th of this month. SO, I am basically screwed on this thing? Battery has no life, shuts off when I move it sometimes, dosen’t turn on sometimes(power problem), and overheats very very easily(if I am spening over a grand on a laptop, I don’t want to have to flip it over and vaccum out the damn fans! Yet I still do).
November 13th, 2007 at 7:22 am
Well, here it is a few days after the extended warranty on my Toshiba M35X and my hard drive completely died. I had it replaced not even a month ago. I spent alot of money on this computer and now I have to find the money to purchase another computer? I have read so many postings of how bad Toshiba customer service is and I am not sure I want to aggravate myself. I sent e-mails to local consumer reporters and one to Consumer Affairs. I did not know about ANY class action lawsuit until I found the information on this website. So now the date has expired. What are all the Toshiba M35X customers supposed to do now?
November 4th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
JusMe,
You still have two days left. I believe November 6, 2007 is the last day.
November 4th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
i have the a75-s229 with dc power problems - does not charge the battery unless lid is closed, fan rattles, bsod relating to atheros wireless card - this went away after i removed it. and it sometimes resets or hibernates if i move the laptop while its on.
lets see if its not too late to take advantage of the warranty extension.
August 29th, 2007 at 4:21 am
It seems people in US are starting to see repairs, does anyone have advice for people in the UK?
August 16th, 2007 at 1:08 am
I have a Toshiba a60 for just over 2 years in Australia and over-heating has been a problem from new, the on-board sound is crap and all I can say is that if I wasn’t able to repare it myself I wouldn’t have another one as a gift.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Sean,
Sure it happens, I replaced hundreds fans like that. Most likley you have a failing fan (unless you have a loose screw inside it
). Even though it’s not loud at this time, it will be more noisy in the future.
If it doesn’t bother you, leave this fan alone. If it does, you’ll have to replace the fan.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I have an A75 and mine doesn’t overheat but the fans are noisy sometimes. They aren’t just loud, it almost sounds like a loose fan or something, does this kind of thing happen