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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October 2nd, 2006 at 12:35 pm
I was also wondering if it dealt with maintance cause this problem occurred previously about 8 months after i bought it and got it repaired since it was still under warranty but now 6 monhts later after the repairs its happening again. Could dust be a cause or something else?
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:32 pm
I have a P30. Problems with overheating just outside warranty, had it cleaned, (and do so every 6 months now to keep it running). The DC jack problem, yep- got it too. Now half my screen has gone, perfectly down the middle, one side black (sometimes some vertical lines) and the other side fine. So, now it is plugged into an external monitor and no longer qualifies as a laptop. And by fine on the half mpnitor I mean sort of fine… always had disappearing pixels here adn there…
Never buy any Toshiba product again. Don’t even get me started on their MP3 player… grrrrr.
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:59 am
Thomas,
Yep, I’ve seen it before many times. Most likely just a bad fan. If you want to get rid of the noise and vibration, you’ll have to replace it. Just in case if you want do it yourself, you’ll find disassembly instructions for Satellite A75 on http://www.irisvista.com. You can find a new fan for your laptop if you google by the part number: K000016310
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:49 am
I was wondering if anyone was having the same problem I was with a A75. I dont have overheating problems but there seems to be a problem with a fan. Its gotten progressively worst over the pass couple of months. its causing loud noise and vibrations that i can feel on the keyboard that didn’t exist that before. Any ideas?
September 30th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Charly,
You cannot upgrade the graphic card on Satellite A75 laptop because it’s integrated into the system board. It’s a part of the system board and cannot be removed or replaced.
September 30th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
I got problems with my A75-S231 because of the badly designed DC jack causes the power failure. I buy the Laptop 1 year ago and my warranty gone, so i made it fix with a computer shop… to expensive charge me 150 dlls and now is fine but it hurt loss that kind of money.
Anyway i am planning to upgrade this computer, (I know its a troblesome laptop but it is a good one)
I will put more Ram memory (1Gig) but i dont know about if i can upgrade the graphic card, can any body tell me if i can? the crusial memory page tell me it is integrate so they dont know if i can upgrade it, i wish i can so can play games or put the new vista windows in the future.
September 26th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
C. DeBose,
Buy a can of compressed air and blow out the heatsink and fan. It should take care of your problem. I think your laptop shuts down because it overheats.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:20 am
I truly feel everyones pain. I sent in mine for repair because it was still under warranty and thought the problem was fixed, to find out after my warranty expired 4 months later, it started acting up by shutting down again in the middle of a movie, recording music and while playing several different games of course not all at the same time. I called Toshiba tech-support and they said they could not help me because the laptop is out of warranty. I’m very unhappy with Toshiba and their poor customer service in resolving this issue.
September 18th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
My toshiba M35 has the same problem. I brought it on sale at Best Buys. First the monitor was not working. I had to send back through Best Buys. When the laptop came back, they lost my battery and they had to order again. Now the laptop cannot be used on AC. It has to be charged first before it can be used. On the other, if I use it for a little more than an hour the laptop just shutdown by itself. What a piece of junk. I will never buy Toshiba again. So much for the Japanese technology.
September 16th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
My toshiba A75-S229 would over heat and suddenly shut off, I was able to avoid this problem by cleaning it with pressurized can of air every 2-3 months. Then every once in a while the blue death screen of a serious error would appear and suddenly shut the damn laptop, I was never able to figure what caused it. ABout two weeks ago the ac pack would not charge the battery unless I would wiggle the damn connector around.. So looked online for people having problems with their Toshibas and ended reading all the information on this website. I dreaded calling Toshiba since I knew my laptops was past its manufacturer warranty. After searching for a certified Toshiba repair center in my area from the Toshiba info page I called the tech in the center. He told me that they would repair the laptop for free, but was told not to waste any time and to bring the laptop in ASAP. I guess Toshiba has OK repairing these problems with their laptop.. I took it in on Tuesday and had my laptop back and running on Friday. SO far so good im keeping my fingers crossed. In the future I will search for possible problems with laptops I might consider buying and that will be a major factor on which company I decide to purchase my next laptop from.