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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March 4th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
thank you for a very prompt reply..
im just confused though..if my memory serves me right, my video RAM used to be 128MB and and i changed it to 64MB…now i want to change it back to 128MB…im not just sure if i mix things up…but i do remember doing that..its just that i forgot how I did it..
hope you could enlighten me more…
thanks again
tiffany
March 4th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
actually i have a a75 model and it can share up to 128 mb for video ram
just got it repaired under the new settlement thing. they fixed everything for free which made me happy. sent it to the depot got it back in exatly 7 days including shipping to and back from toshiba.
i bought this laptop about 3 years ago after hearing so many good things about toshiba and it turned out to be a POS. at leasat now they have ackgnowleded that and are repairing it for free (for a year only tho).
they replaced the motherboard, fans, and battery. and all problems i described were fixed. on top of that, i upgraded the ram to 1.5 gb on my own and now i feel like im using a brand new laptop now.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
tiffany,
you cannot upgrade the video RAM size. 64MB is maximum.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
hi,
i find your site very interesting and helpful.. i also want to seek your help with my toshiba a60 laptop.. i have upgraded the RAM from 256 to 512 i also want to upgrade my video RAM from 64MB to 128MB how do i go about changing my video RAM from 64 to 128? hope you can help me with my dilemma…]
thanks in advance
February 28th, 2007 at 3:17 am
I live in Australia and bought an A75 during Jan 2006. It has been nothing but a nightmare! I was very happy with it for the first 3 months before it started acting very slow.
For a computer that has a 3.2 GHz processor, Toshiba don’t leave enough RAM for integrated graphics, Windows XP (which is a entirely different problem itself) and the amount of pointless software that Toshiba requires for the system to function properly.
Then the physical problems started. First, the power adapter broke which was not related to the computer. I bought a new adapter from Toshiba that had an an adapter on the plug because the adapter’s plug was too big to fit my A75. This has created a leverage problem with the power jack and now it brakes every few weeks. I have taken it in three times now and the same guy has done everything he can possibly do to stop it from happening. The computer is so badly engineered though that it just keeps braking.
Apart from this, there have been numerous other problems such as the speakers not working, randomly rebooting for no reason, fans not working…etc, etc, etc…
I am a student and paid $2000 AU for this laptop. I don’t have the money for another laptop and no one seems to care that I was sold an unreliable product.
My advise is DON’T buy a Toshiba Laptop. They are known for making good quality products but they obvious have the odd laptop that is poorly designed. When something does go wrong, you will be left out in the cold with no help what so ever.
February 26th, 2007 at 8:12 am
I hate Toshiba, I really do. I bought a 1500 € laptop, Satellite M60-176 in december 2005. It has never ever done all the things they promised it would do (the speakers don’t work for one thing) I had it six months when the battery refused to reload. I took it back to the shop, they did repair it (the battery thing, not the speakers) However now seven months later, with the warrranty expired the same bloody thing happened. The wost about it. NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. That is to say, they do have a customer service but… you have to pay (0, 34 euro a minute!) to speak to them on the phone. This in France The person who answers your call is without any knowledge and does not solve the problem. What a bunch of thieves!
February 20th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Virginia,
Check out this post, you might get a free repair from Toshiba.
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.