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
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Glad to see I’m not the only doofus who bought one of these shit of a machines, nothing but trouble since day one,
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,
Still same old problem exists, to start A75 have to go to safe mode uninstall wireless device and restart……
Works but what a pain.
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Jaime,
You do not see the CD/RW in My Computer? Try removing Upper and Lower filters from the registry as it mentioned in this post.
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite A75-S231 and I can’t see the cd/rw. I’ve try everything possible and the dammmm computer doesn’t see the cd/rw. Even bought a bran new cd/rw and it doesn’t see the new one cd/rw..I can’t install drivers on it, because its suppose to be plug and play, right?
Help……!!!!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Leslie,
it shouldn’t harm the CPU.
I would suggest taking your laptop to a repair center because it sounds like a hardware related problem. You can try troubleshooting your laptop at home but it means you’ll have to open it up and swap some parts witch you probably don’t have.
Just take your laptop to a repair center. You can drop off the laptop at local UPS store, they will ship it to Toshiba.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Hi there,
I recently bought a toshiba satellite A210. The piece of junk runs well for a little while then just doesn’t run at all. I am sick of it already. I was using my notebook only 10 minutes ago when all of a subben the screen went black and that was it, there wasn’t a thing i could do. Then to top it off i have to wait for the battery to die so i can reboot or i have to turn it off manually, which i am told may harm the CPU, I don’t think i have a choice in the matter. Anyhow what do you think, it’s under warranty i will ring Toshiba tomorrow, hopefully i won’t get some little korean guy trying to sell me a mobile phone you know the sort huh… otherwise i will throw it out the window and send them the bill… any help from your end would be nice. Cheers, Leslie
March 14th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I purchased a Toshiba laptop and the first day the screen turned blue. I thought it was something I did so I ignored it for a while until the screen turned blue and restarting wouldn’t help it. That’s about half a year down the road. Since then it’s been going into the repair shop. I wanted Toshiba to refund me my money but they refused. As of a week ago, now a year and a half old, my lap top is simply dead. When you turn it on it restarts itself every 2-3seconds so it turns itself on and off constantly. It just simply sucks and I paid $1,500.00 for the lap top as well. I will never buy another Toshiba product again. Oh and this Dell pc I purchased 6 years ago, for 450$ still works.!!! Go figure! So I’ll be going home tonight, calling Toshiba clientele and taking my anger out on them until something happens!!!
February 13th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Brad Cagle,
Are you sure that your laptop has only 6 month warranty? Usually Toshiba laptops have one year warranty. Was it a refurbished laptop?
February 12th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I have a m55 bought from Office Depot, seemed like a good deal
at the time but turned out to be the biggest wast of money ever.
About 7 months later and the thing started crapping out on me,
not wanting to boot up, and when I would finaly get it to boot
(After 15-30 minuts mind you) It would run for a little while and
then just freeze up or give me a BSOD. And here’s the kicker
It only had a 6 month limited warranty (You timed it just right
Toshiba, Jerk’s!!!) I also was led to believe that it came with a
standard 12 month warranty by some jerk at Office Depot.
Anyhow needless to say I will never buy a Toshiba product
again, and for that matter nor will I shop at Office Depot!!!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
My A70 has produced dangerous voltages at all exposed metal points on the frame. I measured the voltage to be over 100Volts AC.
I only noticed AFTER I recieved an electric shock.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Wowzer. seems we had a wire problem on the mother board, a geek took a look at it and noticed the problem, soldered it and lo and behold it has been working fine. Totally unbelievable luck I guess. Also my son bought a new electical cord for it, I think he got a generic one from radio shack and while still expensive not near the cost what Toshiba was asking. Crossing my fingers but it has been running on a daily basis since I have had it just around
a week before Christmas!