Toshiba Satelite notebook issue

[goraman]

Now that I am moveing into digital files getting my lap top in order has been a big project full of headachs for me but today I got everthing worked out.
I had Vista with a nastey virus so I scrapped the 200gig drive and put in a 640 gig seagate and loaded windows 7. I had issues with Norton security so I ditched it and got Kapinsky.

The Toshiba Satelite is known for the N/coaxial power jack,you plug your black brick style charger cord into breaks off internaly leaveing it very hard to plug in your lap top.

So I had to compleatly dissasemble my laptop so I could get to the broken case and modify it to accept a radio shack N dc power jack made of nickle plated brass!

This thing is built for war!

It was so hard to put it all back togather,so menny parts and little screws,wire ribbons that just slide in and oddly lock in place with clips.

I used some noncorriosive Goop in the purple tube to lock the threads,you can see a little residue but it will keep everthing from loosening ever.
I just noticed I had to snap the case togather near the CD/DVD drawer pop! now it's done... I was way outside my comfort zone the whole time.

It all works very fast and smoothly,It didn't work this well when it was new,so much junk in a new computer,simple runs faster.

[Marktdac]

The main reason why its better than new is Vista . the worst operating system ever

Bit of a cheek microsoft selling it ! to me the best of the microsoft operating systems for home use is XP

THe free linux ones are now good to especially Ubuntu microsoft will need to watch themselfs

[Welder]

Looks like a good job Jeff.
Just need to build a alloy case for the whole lot now and fit industrial strength connectors throughout :eyebrows:
Hard to work on laptops…….everything is so small and jammed in too tight :eek:

[goraman]

Looks like a good job Jeff.
Just need to build a alloy case for the whole lot now and fit industrial strength connectors throughout :eyebrows:
Hard to work on laptops…….everything is so small and jammed in too tight :eek:

Yah,and the smaller the laptop the more crowded it is my 15.6 is harder to engineer and repair than lets say a 17 inch and I don't even want to think about a 13!

THe only thing I may do is up my ram from 3 to 4 gig and go from a 32 bit to a 64 bit version of windows 7. But I'm in no hurry I mean The AMD 2X 2.0 is so fast allready how much faster could it get?

At what point dose speed become fast enough?

[MartinT]

Nice repair, Jeff. We end up writing off some laptops because the students bash them while the power jack is plugged in and it can break or crack the motherboard. Certainly power jacks are a real problem here in the school I work for and the students are not careful enough.

Regarding Vista, it's a steaming pile of poo. Windows 7 is so much better it's a shame it hardly looks any different as it fools people into thinking the differences are small. I run W7 on my 2GB netbook and it goes so well it takes people's breath away. Not only MS Office but Photoshop all work very well.

[WAD62]

I like to think that whoever in Microsoft was responsible for the joke that was Vista is still getting his arse kicked at the moment...hopefully it was Bill and he's kicking himself!!!

I've had 7 for a while now, and it seems reasonably efficient, but doesn't really offer anything more in a home environment over XP. In fact other than the 64bit capabilities, and there's not much out there to take advantage of that at the moment, it's just a slightly prettier version of XP.

Vista could make a perfectly decent computer run like a commodore pet

[MartinT]

I've had 7 for a while now, and it seems reasonably efficient, but doesn't really offer anything more in a home environment over XP. In fact other than the 64bit capabilities, and there's not much out there to take advantage of that at the moment, it's just a slightly prettier version of XP.

I don't agree with that, it offers greatly improved performance and lots of niceties that you miss if you revert to XP. Also 64-bit shouldn't be seen as optional except for very low end machines; most new computers have had 64-bit CPUs for a while now and 64-bit W7 is fast and secure. There are few driver issues for anything other than old equipment and HP who are pants at writing drivers.

[WAD62]

Hi Martin,

I was thinking more in terms of home audio reproduction and the home user, as you say 64 bit processors have been around for a while but as always it takes a while for the OS and then the apps to catch up. If I was specing out a pro DB server then absolutely 64 bit is massively better, but I wouldn't use Windows 7 for that either.

[goraman]

I have long enjoyed Toshiba products but ran into menny issues with my upper mid to lower high end laptop of 3 years now.
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba-satellite-a305d-s6848/1707-3121_7-33088925.html
Then late 08 was almost $900.00 out the door.

The first problem was with Vista 32 bit freezing up so badly I has to unplug the computer and remove the battery,resume power and restart.
Problem solved with windows 7 and a whole new hard drive 640 gig.

Next problem (even more common) is the power supply cords last 6 mounths to a year.
You can read from there own web site the dissatisfaction with them.
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/accessories.jsp?category=Power&sub%20category=AC%20Adapters

The next problem is the poor AC power socket I addressed in my first post.

After contacting Toshiba to ask them if these problems have been solved or addressed in the new i7 line of 15.6 Satelite laptops (as I am thinking of getting a new one) over $1,200 they said tech services could answer that for me for $35.00 billed to my credit card.

I told them I am done looking at any more Toshiba anything from now on.

Do you think I over reacted?
Is this normal policy from now on for most manufacturers?

[MartinT]

The problem with AC chargers is that they're all made by Chinese/Taiwanese companies down to a mass-produced price. They tend to either work or fail catastrophically. I treat them as a consumable and am forever ordering replacements for our students. They also don't take kindly to being snagged or yanked and this constitutes many of the failures that I've seen.

As for the credit card trick, Adobe tried that on me once which is why I consider them the total scumbags of the software world, and let's not even get into their bizarre licencing rules. If Toshiba are doing the same then steer clear. My favourite laptop vendor currently is Lenovo.

[goraman]

The problem with AC chargers is that they're all made by Chinese/Taiwanese companies down to a mass-produced price. They tend to either work or fail catastrophically. I treat them as a consumable and am forever ordering replacements for our students. They also don't take kindly to being snagged or yanked and this constitutes many of the failures that I've seen.

As for the credit card trick, Adobe tried that on me once which is why I consider them the total scumbags of the software world, and let's not even get into their bizarre licencing rules. If Toshiba are doing the same then steer clear. My favourite laptop vendor currently is Lenovo.

I guess next trip around will be an ASUS or Lenovo.
Thats to bad for Toshiba as I had really come to respect the brand,they made the most bullet proof VCR's and T.V.'s just a few years back.
There lack of customer service is enough to put me off for good.
After all I was asking a question in reguards to a new high end lap top so if it starts out that bad what would service be like after the sale,not good for sure.

I am almost afraid to get a new lap top as It took six mounths of constaint scewing around with this thing to get everything working seemlessly and I'm not sure I could go through that agein with out drinking my self to death...:cool:

Thanks Martin for telling me about Lenovo I hadn't even given them a thought before but they look very well put togather.