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?
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September 1st, 2006 at 7:42 am
Recently we bought a Toshiba Satelite laptop from the Computer Fair in Singapore, after 1 week, the monitor could not be turned on. It took Toshiba 4 weeks to repair due to motherboard problem. One week after the laptop was brought to USA the same problem appeared. Can you imagine how devastating it was to experience such unbelievably problem a consumer has to bear with?
August 14th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Hey Vince,
You’ll find more info and tips on laptop overheating here.
August 14th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
I don’t want to write a long blog, but I just want to extend upon everyone’s grief with this laptop. I just got off the phone about a half hour ago to experience that Toshiba didn’t want to help with my over-heating problem because the warranty is expired. If this laptop has a design problem, they should recall this model and find a solution. Looks like I’ll follow the advice from above and airblow the heat sinks and fans….. fun!
August 5th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
see #11 and #12 below for parts 1 and 2.
My laptop is fixed. Paid for under an extended warranty by Toshiba. I still think the real reason for taking care of me was that I was courteous, I had my research done (much in part to previous posters on this site, and I did what they asked.
1) I contacted the Toshiba approved Support center. 2) Had the Toshiba approved Support center fax the information back to them and contact them myself again. (The support center told me that Toshiba wants all requests to come from the customer.) 3) Respectfully request an extended warranty to fix the loose AC adapter contact.
I jumped through their hoops in a respectful manner and they fixed the known problems.
Will I buy another laptop without an extended warranty from Beast Buy, Circuit Bitty, or CostCrow? Nope. Will I buy another laptop? Nope.
August 4th, 2006 at 11:42 am
i wish i stumble upon this website before i had my laptop.
i have toshiba A70 and im having the same problem with the ac jack. it flickers and wont charge the battery.
im so afraid to do fix it myself but not stupid enough to pay 200$ to pay for a repair.
i wish toshiba would bother a little to make their products better than selling a laptop worth 1,500$ with a bunch of garbage in them.
July 29th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Seems a lot of people experience overheating problems with Toshiba Satellite A75. Me too. Or at least I did. I have big dogs, hair and dust everywhere. My A75 started overheating and shutting down at random times. I finally looked underneath and saw the fans were full of dog hair and dust. Used a vacuum cleaner and thought it would be ok….but no, it still overheated. Got out my air compressor and set it at 80 psi. A few blasts through the fans and through the heat sink fins and all kinds of crap came flying out. Cured the overheating problem. Now I routinely blast it with high-pressure air every couple of months and never have a heat problem, even with the 95 degree temperatures we have been having lately.
July 20th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I find it amazing reading all this that Toshiba isn’t fixing the KNOWN non-warrANTY issues.. I too have an a75 that had the case issue, overheating issue AND the power plug issue.. I had the case rplaced under warranty but was told they wouldn’t fix the adapter jack because the piece of crap usb ports are intermittent. (this was a vendor in Orlando). Now why the usb ports (of questionable quality) determine why they can’t replace the motherboard is beyond me. I just sent it in to Toshiba and they sent the unit back not fixed saying the motherboard was bad. With all of these known bad laptops I would think a class action lawsuit would teach toshiba a lesson.. Any lawyers out there that would be interested? I am so pissed. I am no longer a toshiba fan.
July 17th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
A class action lawsuit is long overdue. Most of the problems with the A75 arise from an engineering SNAFU that does not take rocket science to figure out: a 3.33 desktop processor crammed into a laptop chassis!… duhhh!
Ohh, it overheated… duhhh!
Oh, it shut down… duhhh!
Oh, the blue screen of death… duhhhh!
Unfortunately, I was one of the first few who bought into this bleeding-edge technology, without realizing the incompatibility earlier on… double duhhhh!!!
- TJ
June 29th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Good News Update.
Kudos to the Customer Care Dept. at Toshiba for doing the right thing. I called the 800 number for customer service.
They insisted that I call the nearest Authorized Toshiba Dealer (70 miles from my home) who could deal with the two problems that I described – the past overheating problem for which I had had my computer fixed under warranty last summer, and the DC-In power jack problem that I’ve been struggling with the last 4-5 months. By doing so, I proved that I was willing to make the effort to get things fixed under their terms.
Important note: Whenever dealing with customer support. BE VERY KIND AN PATIENT – never insist it be done your way and never get angry, abusive, or threatening. Be as kind as you can and jump through whatever hoops they give you. They are making sure you aren’t some krank who just wants to take them for a ride. Many fakes have spoiled it for those of us with real problems.
In my call to NW Computer Support of Tukwilla, WA, I found out that the authorized dealers can not access the reference number given to me by Toshiba. The reason seems to be that Toshiba wants to deal directly with the customer and have everything customer initiated. I was also given a direct fax line for the service rep at the NW Computer Support dealer in order for the Toshiba people to contact with any necessary paperwork. The suggestion was to ask for an extended warranty for this problem common to Toshiba laptops.
I once again called Toshiba and explained how I had jumped through their hoops. I was even more patient and thankful for any help they could render.
It was good having a renewed game plan thanks to the NW Comp. service rep. Forwarned is indeed forearmed.
I was asked to hang on for a conference call with a Customer Care rep. I would have to wait about three minutes, I was told. “That’s fine, thank you,” I said.
After a while I was indeed transferred to the Care rep. who listened to my problem and also how I had researched the issue on the Internet and wished to not be involved in the pending class action suits. I mentioned that all I wanted was to get my computer fixed.
She immediately told me that they would issue an approval for fixing my computer at NW Comp. Support, if that was where I wanted to take the computer. I gave the special fax number and the name of the rep. there. She said she would fax it within ten minutes.
I got a return call from the NW Comp. rep about fifteen minutes. He was astounded at how fast I was taken care of. He asked how I did it. I told him that I just followed his fine advice as to how to proceed.
The fax gave instructions that the required parts must be ordered by them within 7 days. This would the show Toshiba that I was serious about getting it fixed and that I had once again gone through the right channels.
A comment on the pending class action suits – the only winners are the lawyers.
June 28th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Yep, both problems occured to my A75 206. I am encouraged by the above comment about carte blanche fixing. My heat issue occured under warranty. Was without my laptop for two weeks. The tech said that it needed to be cleaned regularly but gave no indication on how to.
I’m very glad to have found this site as the A/C D/C problem has been a depressing part of my computing life. The tech mentioned replacing the motherboard as the only alternative and never again purchasing a laptop. There is just NO $$ for this type of repair right now. Especially on a 1 1/2 yr old machine.
I wish to send an email to Toshiba rather than waste time talking to someone over in SE Asia without any authority to do anything about these known issues, but I’m afraid that’s all I’ll be able to do.