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 12th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
I joined a class action lawsuit. Please do the same: http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm. These computers should have been recalled. I have read hundred of reviews with the same problem.
September 8th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
same exact experience here – usb ports that are loose and intermittant, power plugin port also.
THEN there are the fans that seem to suck dirt into the heatsink like black holes devouring the universe. I’ve even taped extremely fine mesh fabric over mine to “pre-filter” the dirt!
Satellite A75 – S206
it sucks, radically. And of course, any fixes that might have been covered required a minimum 5-10 days without a laptop. I’ll never buy another Toshiba again.
at least I haven’t had the shorting out. The dirt on the heatsink definitely overheats the computer. Mine’s long out of warranty, so I just took the damn thing apart myself and cleaned it. 7 hours later and with a bad case of TMJ, it has stopped over heating, but I regularly do a reverse suck of the fans with the vacuum cleaner (weekly) and then, there’s the mesh pre-filter.
Right now, the big thing tonight is the way the power cord just seems to disconnect at the actual laptop — something not noticed until the alarm goes off when battery power gets critical. Oh, yeah. and I’m down to just the two back usb ports.
No, wait… there’s the little thingie that ejects the PCMCIA card — that fell out and got lost about 3 months after buying this piece of junk!
DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE.
September 8th, 2006 at 6:58 am
All above all true statement, A75-S206 is a garbage, not only waste your time to have it repair running back and forth.
-Overheating, shut down your Laptop
-Loose ground, system lockup
-Loose ground, BSOD
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.