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 21st, 2007 at 8:44 am
Bill Greene:
Did you ever figure out what the problem was with your Toshiba M40? My girlfriend is having the same problem now as well, and it’s not the fan, memory, or hard disk.
Any help would be great
March 17th, 2007 at 9:06 am
My A75-S2292 was just returned for the third time, to the Toshiba Service Depot in Louisville, KY. The unit was purchased in 12/04 and worked good for one year. Then the hard shutdown. Their on phone support said use recovery disc. Worked for about 9 months. Then the CPU started overheating and shutting down on 2/12/07. Sent unit to Depot on 2/28 and was returned on 3/6/07 with new board and new CD burner. Unit ran one day and then went to black screen telling me to reboot. No response, only the black screen with “reboot”. Returned to Depot on 3/8 and returned to me on 3/15. Opened box and front edge of unit destroyed from being dropped on the edge while lid was open at their depot in Louisville. Returned on 3/17. Note, I watched UPS pack this unit each time it was shipped as Toshiba provides free shipping on repairs. UPS is not the problem. My return shipment is by Toshiba and there is no damage on their box.
NOW FOR THE REAL ISSUE! When I returned to my UPS store in Naples, FL this morning. My A75 will be the seventh Toshiba shipped from that store THIS WEEK! They said prior to Nov. they were lucky to get one a month.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:50 am
It has been quite a shock to find this website and read through these comments! I bought my Satellite Pro M30 in 2005. I loved it from the start, with its beautiful appearance and its Centrino wireless capability. I never had a single problem with it, and so I did not bother to extend the warranty after the year was up.
TWO WEEKS after the warranty expired, so did the Tosh. My friends in the pc dept at work looked at it, and told me that the motherboard was defunct. A new motherboard in the UK would cost me about £375. So, they talked to our IT team in the USA, who eventually fixed it for me at a total cost to me of £280. It worked fine again…for ten months!
Now I have horrendous problems with the video display, which shows lots of flickering vertical lines, and the laptop does not allow me the option to put it into ‘Save’ mode; it is just ‘Logout’ or ‘Shut Down’.
Well, I never turn it off now, because restarting is always a nail-biting experience of “will it, won’t it?” boot successfully.
I am waiting to see if Toshiba will admit that the motherboard for this model is defective, and replace it for me for free. I am not holding my breath, however.
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.