Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and toshiba

Which of these 11.6" PC laptops should I get?

ishotjr — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:20:29 -0800

Looking for an ideal 11.6" laptop/netbook for under $600. I have $600 to buy a laptop and I think I've narrowed it down to two (I think). They both run Windows 7 and seem comparable in other respects.

I plan to use this laptop for taking notes, writing papers and browsing the internet, as well as maybe occasionally streaming video like on Netflix or Hulu. I own an external optical drive already for DVDs. Thing is, I know nothing about video cards.
My current full-size laptop is still functional for watching movies and I don't play games other than Snood and the games that come on the computer (Solitaire and that sort of thing).

This Acer from a previous post seems pretty great, but I'm a little hung up on the price once I pay for expedited shipping.

I'm also considering this Toshiba model that has a dual-core processor (right?). For this one, I can buy it in person (from the dreaded Best Buy), which is a plus in that I need it ASAP.

I've read up on these on CNET and other user reviews. But if anyone has strong feelings either way on these, or can tell me if one is glaringly better for the price, I'd really appreciate it. Or, if you want to suggest a different 11.6" laptop (other than Dell), I am definitely open to other suggestions. The choices were somewhat overwhelming.

How can I get my laptop to recognize that it does, in fact, have an audio output device installed?

paleography — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:28:56 -0800

How can I make my laptop (Toshiba Satellite U305-S5097, running Vista 32-bit Home Premium) and its Audio Output Device (Realtek High Definition Audio Driver) play nicely together again? My laptop has been having a persistent, recurring issue with the Realtek audio driver. Periodically, the laptop starts up and a red "x" appears over the speaker symbol, and the message "No Audio Output Device Is Installed" appears when you float the cursor over it. No driver appears in the device manager, but the Realtek Driver still shows up in "Programs and Features." And I have no sound.

In the past, a restart has generally fixed the problem; I've also downloaded the most recent Realtek driver available from Toshiba and successfully reinstalled it, which has provided at least a temporary fix. For the past two days, however, nothing is working to fix this--I've uninstalled, reinstalled, tried a system restore, and it still won't recognize the driver. I've installed a driver directly from Realtek. I've unsuccessfully searched online for answers (other users seem to be having the same problem, but I haven't found solutions beyond what I've already tried). I've called Toshiba tech support, and their opinion was that it's a hardware problem and that I should pay them $35 to help me "dig deeper."

So I've now reached a level of frustration that has me writing my first AskMe question ever, and it doesn't even get to be about whether I should DTMFA, or eat something gross, or try to self-treat an amputated limb. I'm not sure whether to be a little bit sad or a little bit proud.

Has anyone had this issue and successfully fixed it? If so, how?

Help me interpret an LED diagnostic sequence

gene_machine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:53:56 -0800

Can anyone interpret this LED diagnostic sequence? My wife's Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 (the one featured previously) was finally dropped on the floor, and now it refuses to power up. I tried it without the battery - still nothing, so I stripped it right down, reseated everything, and put it back together. Still nothing. The left-most LED (the "plug") is now blinking in a diagnostic sequence, but I am at a loss to interpret it. It was giving exactly the same sequence before I took the machine apart ;)

I suspect the motherboards's been damaged, and if that's the case then it's not worth replacing, but I'd like to know why it's complaining in case it's something relatively easy to fix.

I recorded a movie of the LED sequence; apologies for the low quality.

Help me fix my wife's laptop

gene_machine — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:06:19 -0800

What has caused a sudden failure of my wife's laptop? I bought my wife a laptop on eBay for her birthday, and I now feel responsible for managing its failure.

It's a Toshiba Satellite Pro M10. It initially failed to boot, with an "IDE #0" error, so I figured that it was having trouble finding the hard drive. Booting into Ubuntu from CD worked fine, so I opened up the HDD cover, reseated it, and then...nothing. It now refuses even to power up, either from battery alone or from mains power. The orange power LED is now blinking, which leads me to believe that it's a power/mother-board problem.

My wife assures me that the laptop has not received any harsh treatment (ie. it hasn't been dropped or subject to spillage).

Has anyone experienced this before, and, if so, what was the recommended repair route? I'm happy with opening up desktops and fiddling around, but laptops are a whole different ballgame. If it's going to be sent off for repair, how much would a reasonable charge be (I am in the UK).

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista.

cheero — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:45:18 -0800

I am looking for a signal booster that will play nicely on my laptop which has Vista. People recommended EnGenius USB Device but from what I gathered on Amazon, it does not work past XP. I basically need something that I can take with my on the go. Intel GMA 4500MHD / Intel Wi-Fi / 10/100 Eth is what came with my laptop. Is there a signal booster compatible with Vista?

How do I find out which battery is compatible with my laptop? (Toshiba Satellite L300-1A8)

bostonhill — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:03:14 -0800

How do I find out which battery is compatible with my laptop? (Toshiba Satellite L300-1A8) Hey all,

I got a laptop sent to me from Europe as a gift, unfortunately the battery lasts on 2 hours and 30 minutes. I am hoping to replace it with something that lasts longer.

I saw http://www.laptopbattery.net/toshiba/ but I am unable to locate L300 series on their drop-menu.

Thanks!

OMG! Stupid computers!

HauteMama — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:15:50 -0800

Memory replacement on my laptop is driving me crazy. I've got a Toshiba A215-7422. According to Toshiba it's got this memory installed "1024MB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM." So, I ordered these memory modules, 2GB PC2-5300.

And that's where the trouble begins. I inserted the two new dimms, and the computer refused to boot. No problem, I thought, it must be bad memory sticks. So, I exchanged them for new ones. Still nothing. ( I did try testing both sticks individually and in different slots, with each set.)

Now, I can see four reasons for this.
1) I've got the wrong memory
2) The software doesn't like the amount of memory.
3) I somehow got a hold of four bad memory sticks.
4) I don't know how to install RAM.

I've tried to look up whether PC2-5300 is not the same as PC5300, but the limited info that I can find indicates that it's the same exact memory with just slightly different names. Also Crucial had this to say "Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-6400,DDR2 PC2-5300 with a maximum of 2GB per slot."

I can see no reason for the bios or OS to be unhappy with the new RAM. It's only 4GB total. (I'm running Vista Home Premium).

The odds against getting four bad sticks must be astronomical.

Finally, I keep removing and re-installing the original sticks with no problems (I'm on the laptop now). So, if it's me, I'm somehow managing to install the new memory badly while installing the old memory correctly.

So, what the hell? Can anyone suggest what the problem might be? I'm not computer illiterate, but I'm no expert by any stretch. (Frankly it could be something super obvious.)

Help!

There are so many laptops out there!

majikstreet — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:24:03 -0800

Laptop recommendations for a ~600 USD budget Yep, another laptop question.

I have a ~600 USD budget. I mostly surf the web, email, type, that type of thing. No gaming, but I do occasionally edit photos/videos.

I'm planning to put some distribution of linux on it (probably Arch).

I'm not really sure about what brand even to look at, as I haven't bought a laptop for a while, and I had been looking at netbooks because I thought my budget would be a lot smaller. I'm still open to them, but I think I'd be better suited to a regular notebook. (I think I'd get a Samsung NC10, though, because it seems to be the best of the current netbooks.)

I did have an older, used IBM Thinkpad that was very good, until it broke. It did, however, survive at least three drops to the floor from at least waist height.

I'm slightly wary of Dell because I've dealt with their support before, but I may be able to be swayed..

Right now I'm looking at a Toshiba , a Lenovo, and an HP.

I definitely want a new laptop (not used!). I have seen the past few questions about laptops.

How can I reinstall Windows onto an old Toshiba Portege 7010CT with no external drives?

ajp — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:16:50 -0800

How can I reinstall Windows onto an old Toshiba Portege 7010CT with no external drives? I've inherited an old Toshiba Portege 7010CT with Windows 2000 on it. It's also chock-full of viruses. I don't have any external drives for it, and I hope I don't have to buy one. It has one USB port.

Is it even possible to reinstall Windows on the thing? I'm planning on XP, but I guess I can live with 2000 if necessary. But it's the lack of drives that's the problem. The BIOS doesn't have an option to boot from USB. I've no idea if it's possible to change that somehow...?

So, any advice much appreciated.

In case you're wondering, my plan is to use Remote Desktop from the Portege pretty much exclusively, so it can act as a reasonably lightweight and portable visual interface onto my heavier hardware. I'm hoping a wifi dongle in the USB port will achieve this.

Merry Xmas :-)

I want a laptop, not a craptop.

gnutron — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:32:46 -0800

Laptop Battel! Help me decide which manufacturer deserves my hard-earned money. I've narrowed it down to Dell vs. Toshiba vs. Lenovo. Also, RAM: 2gb or 3? So I'm shopping for a laptop. I have read the other posts on the topic.

I know what I basically want: 14" screen, 2/3gb RAM, 100+gb HDD, nice screen, reasonably portable, less than $1K. I have narrowed it down to three choices: Dell Inspiron 1420 or Toshiba Satellite Pro S300M or Lenovo ThinkPad R400

These all meet my basic requirements and ballpark around the same price. Since they're all about the same price, my main concern is quality, durability and reliability - I want it to work well as a secondary/travel computer for 5+ years. I have read that Toshibas are prone to overheating problems. Any recommendations or warning on these specific brands?

And regarding RAM... I understand that Vista is hungry for it, but it doesn't really use more than 2gb anyway. I won't be doing anything particularly intensive with the machine. Still, I'd like my computer to run well and continue to run well 5 years from now. Will spending a little extra money on another gb of RAM actually make a difference?

It's So Shiny, Now If Only It Worked

Ms. Saint — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:43:58 -0800

My Toshiba Satellite laptop has this problem. But, there's a catch: I'm pretty computer illiterate and don't know how to fix it. I have a Toshiba Satellite A75-S206, which I bought about three and a half years ago. It seems to have the regular overheating problems. I've sent it in for repairs twice now. Each time, it came back and worked pretty well for about a year.. Then started overheating again. Sometimes, I can get it to stay on for a few hours, but sometimes it won't stay on for even five minutes.

External fans do not help. Propping it up so it has better air circulation does not work. Holding it over bags of ice does not work.

I've read online (particularly in the ask.me question I linked to) that changing the fan can sometimes help things out. I'm also pretty sure that the fan and heat sink (I don't even know what or where that is) could use a nice cleaning. I'd like to know how to take my laptop apart myself, so that I can clean it out whenever it needs being done. However, like I said, I'm pretty computer illiterate. So, here are my questions:

1) The best answer in the previous question alludes to "websites with walk-throughs" for various models. Can anyone link me to a good one?

2) Is dissembling my laptop and installing a new fan something I should even try to do, given that all of my computer hardware experience is installing a video card in a desktop computer?

3) If I shouldn't try doing it myself, how much can I expect it to cost me to get a fan professionally installed? If I just went someplace and said, "It overheats, known problem, fix it," would they know what to do?

4) Am I completely wrong that this might actually help my laptop? Is there anything else I could/should try? I'm so tired and frustrated with it not working -- it hasn't been reliable for about a year and a half now. It would be so nice if it could actually be even slightly reliable.

Laptop overheating

poweredbybeard — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:21:32 -0800

Please help me figure out how to access the heatsink on my laptop. My laptop is overheating regularly. I suppose I should take a look at the heatsink. Can anyone tell me where, in this picture, I should start? Is it by any chance that panel right below the fan?

Help me Geek Squad these laptops!

whiskey point — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:00:37 -0800

2 used laptops: what to do with them? One will be new to me (from my wonderful girlfriend), one will be new to my grandma (from me) Part 1:
I'll be getting a ~2 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop, a pretty basic model with probably 512 mb of RAM and a smallish hard drive (no big deal, I have a My Book and am willing to upgrade RAM). What would you do with this machine, that has been taken care of very well - no downloads, etc., and only used for typing papers and surfing the web? I'm down for anything-I just want to make sure I optimize this computer as soon as possible. I'm into web surfing (generally 10-15 Firefox tabs open at a time), watching DVDs, and typing papers on the go (I have MS office). I'm also into photography, burning DVDs, and listening to a ton of music on itunes-but I deal with all of that on my high(er) performance desktop. Would Photoshop kill this machine? What are some of the applications you can't live with out? This will basically be a backup, take to school, and travel computer for me.
Part 2:
I'm going to give my grandma my 4.5 year old Compaq 2100. It's not in the best shape (I can no longer watch movies on it, probably a software problem I haven't taken the time to fix) and it runs slow. I'm thinking I'll re-install XP and start over from scratch-but what should I do after that? Does your grandma have a computer? She's kind of wary, but she's willing to give it a try. I'd like to make this as simple for her as possible: a gmail account, something to play DVDs, maybe something to help her with recipes-either looking them up or storing them, and any other suggestions you guys can throw out for me.

I'm sure some creeping on the MeFi archives would have helped a little, but I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and get both of these computers working to the best of their abilities.

So basically this is all your fault, VISTA

Countess Elena — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:32:14 -0800

What should a bone-novice know about installing extra memory in a laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A135-S2386? The Toshiba Satellite was a nice cheap buy, but it really doesn't have enough RAM for all the crap it won't let you uninstall or take off startup, much less all the programs I want to run. I bought another 256 MB card, under the impression that it would be relatively easy to pop it in there and get going again with more RAM.

And maybe it is, but then, maybe it isn't. I don't know. Not a clue what I am doing. I don't dare open it up without knowing: what damage could I do, besides static or dust? Will the memory card just pop into place, or do I delicately fit it into position? With my bare hands? Should I hear a "click"? Which side is up?

There doesn't seem to be a tailor-made Internet guide for this particular model. But is the particular model's build important or not? The user manual does not encourage self-sufficiency -- it tells you that you mustn't open the thing up yourself, which surprised me when I turned to it, since I know everyone does it anyway.

In short: HALP.

Best OS for an Older Laptop?

Otis — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:41:24 -0800

What's the best-performing OS for a Toshiba Satellite 2595 CDS with 64 MB RAM and a Celeron 400 MHz processor? Just picked up this laptop. It's in pristine shape and I'd like to get some use out of it...Internet, maybe MAME or NES emulation, watching some AVIs. Here are the specs:

Trident 9525DVD Video with 2MB RAM
TEAC CD drive
V.90 Modem
USB
Two PCMCIA slots (I have a Motorola WN825G Wireless Card)
64 MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive
Intel Celeron 400 MHz

It's currently running Windows 2000 Pro. Is this the best choice? Would 98SE be better? Can this hardware run XP? How about Linux? I'm a Linux virgin, but would love to give it a try. Is there a distro that will work with these specs and the Wireless PCMCIA card and a complete Linux NOOB?

I'm open to any suggestions. What would run the smoothest and make the most of this hardware?

Thanks!

Life is such a drain.

oddman — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:12:17 -0800

My laptop battery drains even when the computer is turned off. So, I went ahead and bought this computer. But now I seem to have some odd behavior. The battery will lose charge even when the laptop is completely shut down. (I don't have wake-on-lan enabled.)

I have read in other forums that this is typical behavior for a Toshiba. So I some questions.

1) Is this typical behavior for a Toshiba or other brand of laptop? (My dell didn't do this.)

2) Short of removing the battery is there anything I can do to stop the drain? (Will leaving the battery out help it to drain less severely?)

3) Will this seriously erode the life of the battery (or does Toshiba provide batteries that take the behavior into account)?

Help me with my Toshiba

oddman — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:32:32 -0800

I'm thinking of buying a Toshiba laptop, specifically this one. Can you help me to decide? I really have two concerns:

First, can you think of any reason I wouldn't want this computer? That is any concerns about Toshiba or this model in particular. (I already believe that the specs meet my needs, pretty much exactly.)

Second, it has 1Gb of ram and runs Vista Home Premium. I happen to have a copy of Vista Ultimate. Can you think of any reason why I wouldn't upgrade the OS (actually I'd format and load the new OS not really upgrade). Would it be difficult to get Toshiba specific software back onto the machine (e.g. wi-fi drivers)? It looks like I can go here, and get what I need. But, things are rarely as easy as they look. It's my understanding that Toshiba provides a full re-install disc with their laptops. So, worst case scenario I can just reload the OS it came with.) Is this true?

Question about Voltage and AC Adapters

zooropa — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:53:36 -0800

Am I ruining my laptop with this AC adapter? have a question about AC adapters and voltage.

For work, I use a Toshiba Satellite U305-S7467 laptop. It's a great machine, but I forgot my power plug at home this morning. I've been meaning to buy a second unit for a while now (one to have at home, one to have at work), so this more or less forced me to act today.

I went to a Radio Shack a few blocks away from where I work and ended up buying an iGo AC power adapter. Here's my question: am I hurting the laptop by using this adapter?

On the laptop itself, the specs read: DC 19V -- 3.95 A. I checked on the Toshiba site and the specs said that it included a 75 W adapter.

Here's the unit I bought this morning:
http://www.igo.com/product.asp?sku=3726890

On the back of this iGo unit, it reads: INPUT 100-230 V -- 2A, OUTPUT: 15-24 V, 65 W max.

The guys at the store said that most laptops don't draw 75 watts continuously, so it shouldn't be a problem. But I'm wondering if I'm doing damage at all to the laptop by running it on a power adapter with a lower voltage. The problem is I just don't know enough about how they work to make a decision. Normally, I would just buy a replacement dierctly from Toshiba, but I was kind of in dire straits this morning.

What do you think?

A new blue screen of death?

dpx.mfx — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:17:28 -0800

Tech help please. I've got a Toshiba Satellite laptop and sometimes the display stops working. The computer (an A105) is just over a year old. It's running Windows XP. As far as I can tell, its also running all the newest drivers.

Sometimes the screen turns completely blue. It's still getting power. The computer is still running - for instance, I can still hear the music from Itunes or the sound from a tv show running in Firefox. It doesn't seem to matter what programs are open, but generally I'm running firefox, Itunes, and gotomypc. Sometimes Word. This happens maybe once a week. Any ideas?

Help my Toshiba laptop recognize DVD-Rs.

ootsocsid — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:15:19 -0800

Help my Toshiba laptop recognize DVD-Rs. Posting for a friend: I recently reinstalled Windows on my Toshiba Satellite laptop, restoring the factory settings, including Sonic RecordNow and Sonic DLA. This has resulted in the computer no longer reading or recognizing DVD-Rs (though it still recognizes DVD-RWs). It also won't burn to DVD-R, acting as if the disc is either not in the drive or already full. How can I get the computer to start reading DVD-Rs again? Uninstalling Sonic hasn't helped, nor has installing additional CD burning programs.

Does this laptop seem cheap?

TurkishGolds — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:37:59 -0800

Why is this laptop so inexpensive? If I customize this one to have the same specs it's a lot more money, but as far as I can tell it's the exact same machine. So, the first link seems like a powerhouse of a machine at a very good value. Am I correct in thinking this or am I missing something huge? I'm a little bit suspicious becuase I feel like it should be more expensive.

Bonus question: Can you point me to similar laptops in the same price rance that I should consider? Also, pros and cons of laptops that you link to versus Toshiba?

Not technology savvy... Help!

slim — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:21:42 -0800

Anyone have experience with Toshiba vs. Dell laptops? I am looking at purchasing a Toshiba laptop and am a little nervous. I'm a Dell girl, but am tired of what I view as overpaying for essentially the same product that I can get elsewhere... Any advice? I was looking and the Toshiba laptop was about $1,100 compared to the comparable Dell at $2,000.

My laptop screen wants to escape -- What do I do?

SuperNova — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 21:19:34 -0800

My laptop screen is separating from the rest of the computer! It looks like one of the two hinges is hanging on for dear life, and I'm concerned -- if it gets much worse, it will be detached on that side. Is there anything I can do? I'd planned to add some photos so you could see what I mean, but it's hard to get a good picture at close enough range to be useful. If it would help, I can always upload some kinda-blurry ones. Otherwise, just imagine a laptop monitor, slightly tilted, with one hinge popped out and just sort of sitting there.

I'm on a Toshiba Satellite A45, purchased almost exactly two years ago. I'm not a gentle person, but I've never had any problems and the laptop hasn't had any recent trauma I know about. I always close the cover when I go to bed, and usually during the day while I'm at work, if it matters.

Any idea what caused this or if it can be fixed? My laptop is my only computer and I really can't afford to replace it right now. Any thoughts on my next move would be greatly appreciated.

Alas, poor Laptop!

vernondalhart — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:15:24 -0800

My laptop has suddenly run into problems... That is, it seems to like turning itself off with no warning whatsoever. I have a Toshiba laptop (running Windows XP), about a year old (and thus past the warranty, for sure) and beginning yesterday it seems to want to just... shut off some times.

For the most part, my laptop is a desktop computer, but I brought it to school yesterday and after about 20 minutes or so, it spontaneously shut off. I turned it back on, it booted up, then the same thing.

It seems that if I leave it for a while it'll run... and I had it going for several hours later on where it was fine... but then late last night, the same problem cropped up. It's been plugged in most of the time, but I've tried it on battery (in case it was simply a power surge of some kind) and that didn't seem to help.

I can't really think of any common thread between any of the times that it's shut off (it didn't seem like it was overheating, no one was slapping it, there wasn't any particular processor intensive thing going on), and so I'm concerned that there's maybe something quite serious here. When it shuts off it makes the sound of a monitor shutting off (which is presumably the screen, I guess), and the whole thing just goes at once, no warning.

Any ideas? Is my laptop toast?

Qosmio: worth the cash?

ClanvidHorse — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 07:19:54 -0800

Is a Toshiba Qosmio Laptop F20-136 worth the money? I am seriously considering purchasing one as the chance to have Freeview digital tv is a big plus for me. I just want to know if there is anything to be wary of with these machines and whether I should go for something else a little less flashy but better under the bonnet.

I have seriously thought about an Ibook but have given up as it doesnt link with either my mobile phone or my mp3 player Creative zen.

Any ideas? its a lot of cash for me so dont want to end up with a duffer.