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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February 19th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I have an a75-s231 which already had the mother board replaced to overheating. the top of my laptop is warped from the heat, now the powersuply is shot . I need it for work and shoudl be on it right now working but it is dead. I am very disheartened to find that this is a universal problem wtih toshiba.
I want to complain to toshiba but I am going to leave my hubby to do that as he is technical and can fight a good fight for me. or we may just try to fix it outsevles.
anyone out there with any good suggestions for a replacement laptop..not toshiba???
oh ..
February 3rd, 2007 at 6:36 am
I’ve had the M35X for about two years, and the first problem (not caused by me) was the power failure. After two years of constant use, I was expecting something like that. As I’m sure you can see on this website, it is fixable, which I’m about to do.
The laptop does get hot, but not hot enough to bother you through pants. If you’re wearing shorts or your skin is bear, just put something under it.
My laptop has worked well for me. It’s done everything I asked. I did a lot of stuff, too. I played Sims, used it for school, work, and internet. I’ve abused it, and it it’s still fine. The person you’re quoting may have had a bad experience, but I haven’t.
I hope I helped a bit.
~toodles.
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:13 pm
My A70 began locking up about 2 months after I bought it 2 years ago — the static problem. I shipped it to the Toshiba repair center where it took 5 weeks to process it. Afterwards, the keyboard static sensitivity seemed reduced, but inserting a PC card was a guaranteed method of making it lock up. The sound system on it was flakey — it worked intermittently and unpredictably. I never had heat problems with it, although it did run hot and the fans were always making load noises. Finally, it just crapped out entirely one day, unable to boot. It would simply cycle endlessly through the BSOD with meaningless gibberish displayed as the error. Based on these experiences, I trashed it instead of having it repaired with the extended warranty offer that was the outcome of the class action suit. I bought an HP Pavillion, and I’m quite pleased with it — no static lockup, no overheating, no loud fan. Too bad about Toshiba — the A70 was the ninth Toshiba notebook I’d owned in 12 years. The other 8 were pretty rock solid. I’ll never buy another Toshiba, however, because their customer serivice is non-existent. I couldn’t even find a way to email them a complaint.
January 21st, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Hello. I bought my Satellite A70 SP213 in Lima Peru after a serious study of lab tops alternatives. After 15 months it has started overheating and shutting down, also (I´m not an expert lab top user) I always had the feeling that something was wrong with my lab top due to the excess noise it was making without using the DVD unit. I called the Toshiba Global Support Centre this week and I was shocked to know that these problems are caused by the low quality of the product and that Toshiba has extended the time guaranty to an additional year, they have informed me about 2 authorized repair services in Lima to do the change of mainboard. I found this blog very useful, hope that my lab top will be repaired but my fear is how it will work after being repaired?. I will be checking your information and informing other peruvian people about it.
January 18th, 2007 at 4:42 am
I had a customer with a similar problem. It turned out that the laptop was both overheating and had a bad battery; both problems independantly caused a shut down. For the heating problem, I ended up cleaning the heatsink, which wasn’t real dirty, but that was not the real problem. The computer had been serviced before, the fans were replaced by Toshiba. They had apparantly removed the heatsink and did not re-apply dielectic grease to the top of the processor. The remaining grease was dried up and mostly gone. Re-applying the grease very generously and using higher quality grease worked very well. At first, I thought the fans were broken because they almost never came on, but I used an app to monitor the cpu temp and it was consistantly very low, even if left on overnight. I would say that it is now better than new.
January 13th, 2007 at 3:22 am
I have had the same shut down trouble with my A70 which is just a year old. I noticed someone asked about the warranty covering Canada too but did not see any answer to the question. I was just about to take mine into Future Shop to have it looked at but don’t think I will do that now. Also had the charging problem and jack problem. Guess we now know why they aren’t making them anymore.
January 6th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
What about the warranty extension / credit voucher in Canada?
December 10th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Hi all,
I just heard about the lawsuit and ungrounded cover failures on the Satellite laptops for the first time. I have an A75-s231 and it does match the serial numbers listed. Unfortunately, I have misplaced my receipt and warranty paperwork from time of purchase, so I’m pretty sure I can’t get this fixed through the normal routes. (Not to mention, it’s my sole computer, so it would be a big problem for me to ship it off anyway).
Has anyone come accross any tutorials or the like with instructions on how to fix the cover oneself?
I *really* appreciate any input that you might have…
December 10th, 2006 at 11:11 am
I have a hp pavilion zx5000 that was given to me cause the last guy said the DC power jack was taken out and need a new one soldered, bought a new one for 8.99 from Ebay and i order the soldering gun kit, i been reading your post about the DC Jack issue with the toshiba laptop that tony s. posted but i like to know what else i need to make sure i do this without shocking the board. please give me a email so i can send a pic of how the board looks and you can then tell me if the board can have the new jack on it. please forgive this is my first time trying to repair a DC Jack and want it to be a smooth transaction
December 8th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
After many months of dealing with one service tech after another, I gave up/got mad/ and sent my Toshiba A75-S206 in the provided box and labels to ship my computer to City Advantage to get my computer repaired. Got it back the next day with a notice that my computer would not be repaired. Their excuse was that a “liquid” had gptten into the computer and that they had pictures of the “liquid” – which they did not share with me. Not even a chance, and I’m very protective of my computer. The last week or so I received notice of a class action suite against Toshiba. Does anyone else have input on this topic?