Help me with my Toshiba

December 20, 2007 8:32 AM

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?

posted by oddman to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

I regret buying my Toshiba Portege m400. The design is substandard, for lots little reasons--- the case feels cheap, the keyboard action isn't very good, there's too much black space around the screen, it overheats very easily when docked (e.g., while playing movies), the BIOS sucks, and the trackpad sometimes goes nuts when the screen is closed. Before I bought another Toshiba, I would definitely want to check it out in person first.

So if there's a Best Buy in your area, by all means go and use the machine for a few minutes before you buy. It may be that this laptop is the best in the $500 range, but also have a look at Newegg and Overstock if you haven't already.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:47 AM on December 20, 2007

My Toshiba Satellite bit the dust after less than two years (see: here). I agree with qxntpqbbbqxl on the design. It was flimsy and cheaply constructed.

I'm not getting another Toshiba. Nope.
posted by cdmwebs at 9:12 AM on December 20, 2007

I had a Toshiba Satellite M35x that I picked up on the cheap for about $350 brand new. I only use it to surf the internet on my couch. I haven't been overly impressed with the computer but it's done what I need it to do.

It did develop an issue after two years where the power jack would only work if I had pressure on the plug (apparently a widespread issue with these computers). In Toshiba's defense, they did extend the warranty and fix it for free - I mailed out the computer and it was back within a week. So they get points for that.

If I found a killer deal on a Toshiba laptop, I'd buy it, but only if I found a killer deal.
posted by PFL at 9:26 AM on December 20, 2007

That model seems to be generally well reviewed, except for battery-life, which may or may not be an issue for you. It also seems to run a bit warmer than average. Both can be minor depending on how you use it.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:46 AM on December 20, 2007

About two or maybe three years ago, everyone I knew wanted a new computer and at the time, Toshiba had the best bang to buck ratio; So thats what everyone got. All of them have since bit the dust in one way or another. They ALL over heated, had fan problems, weight about as much as a small child and the batteries would die after a year (meaning they get about 5 minutes of life without being plugged into the wall). I don't think I would ever recommend or buy a Toshiba again. Having said that I haven't been keeping up with their current market status to see if they have made considerable changes to improve their product.

I Just recently bought a new laptop but because of my sever allergic reaction to everything Vista I went with a sweet little macbook and have never been happier.

If the price you are aiming for is about 500 then I would recommend possibly something from Dell or HP, I know a few people who have recently bought from them and have been pretty happy. Previous to my macbook I had a Compaq V5000 that was in perfect working condition. I was able to sell it to one of the people that had a Toshiba die on them.
posted by jlweber at 9:46 AM on December 20, 2007

I bought my wife the same model about six months ago. Aside from the fact it comes pre-loaded with the the typical Toshiba crap, it's been pretty damn awesome. We fired it up when we got home and it found our wireless network right away. A tweak here and there and its been rock solid ever since. YMMV.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:01 AM on December 20, 2007

I had a Toshiba laptop that I loved back about 5 years ago. It was solid, it was reliable, it had water poured on it, and it no longer functioned :(

I replaced it with a Toshiba laptop, and it's crap because it overheats all the time. After taking it in for it's second motherboard replacement (under the 1 year warranty) I decided that I wouldn't buy another Toshiba laptop again.

Apparently in the time between my first purchase and the second one, Toshiba stopped manufacturing their own laptops, choosing instead the route of contracting it out to one of the many Chinese manufacturers that are all to eager to fill the void. The quality dropped with the prices (laptop #1 was $2K, laptop #2 was $1K - both near the bottom end of laptop pricing at the time)

The screens are gorgeous though.
posted by Nodecam at 10:32 AM on December 20, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, for the comments so far y'all. I'm no longer quite so gung-ho about the machine. But, then again, it's only $500 (nothing on Dell, even with a student discount, comes within $200).

By all means keep the anecdotes coming.

Anyone have any input on the Vista questions?
posted by oddman at 10:52 AM on December 20, 2007

I bought a customized P205 a few months ago. I don't do much with it beyond surfing the web at this point, but I haven't any performance or heat problems to speak of. Overall, I really like it, and the few things I don't like (speaker quality, mostly) aren't terrible.

Toshiba machines do come with a full re-install disc, I believe, though it'll have the same bloatware for you to get rid of. Not as much as HP, however.

I've heard, anecdotally, that AMD chips don't play as well with Vista as do Intel's. I don't know the whole story, and I'm sure it's something that will work itself out in time, but I was warned against going with AMD as my laptop came with Home Premium.
posted by metabrilliant at 11:21 AM on December 20, 2007

IIRC, my friend had a Toshiba with theoretically super-fast RAM but as it turns out what they did was take desktop RAM and rammed it into the laptop. Overheating etc. When he took it in for authorized repair, they simply reduced the clocking speed per Toshiba's instructions and handed it back to him. Two levels of deception. He joined the class-action lawsuit but I don't think he was fairly compensated.
posted by user92371 at 12:34 PM on December 20, 2007

I have a Toshiba laptop (Satellite A200) that I bought about six months ago and have never been happier with a new computer. Is my first laptop (not first computer) but still, it's well made, nice to use (I particularly like the keyboard), weighs less than 2kg (fairly light for this size), great screen, and overall runs exceedingly fast and well. Everything worked straight out of the box (Vista Home Premium). It does run kind of hot and I don't konw if this is standard, but I don't use it on my actual lap anyway. I've used other people's laptops here and there in the past year and much prefer mine, and a friend is buying a Toshiba right now after seeing this beast in action.

Mine is a different model in, likely, a different country so is not directly relevant, but I wanted to balance out the negative comments by adding my happy experience with Toshiba.
posted by shelleycat at 1:51 PM on December 20, 2007

i've had problems with my Toshiba's battery, and three people i know have Toshibas and have said the same thing. the battery life is mediocre at best.

just something else to consider.
posted by gursky at 3:03 PM on December 20, 2007

I got one Satellite A200 2 months ago, a bit under the specs of the one you posted the link for but not that much, and similar price (though I'm in Australia, so that may explain the difference in price per features). I'm happy about it, but I'm not a user with heavy requirements so no real crash and burn tests the thing goes through with me: web, e-books, strategy games, text processing and work (which involves mainly programming and the use of symbolic/textual manipulation things for comp sci). Battery life seems ok but unremarkable (2-3 hours), I'm most of the time plugged in so the pack hasn't really had a chance to fizzle or give me any ideas about its lifetime. I do am buying a second one with more cells, anyways. No heating issues for me until now. It did come loaded with bloatware, and I think the recovery disk will put it back in if you need to use it. The HD had some stupid factory installed partitioning (including the recovery disk image) which wasted many GB and will also probably be inflicted back on you after using said recovery disk. Luckily we get provided with Vista Business legal copies at work so I just formatted the HD and installed it from scratch. I had to hunt down a few Toshiba pieces of software from the site that was mentioned before (and it's Australian version), I think it was the SD card reader driver, the DVD disk silencer, and the utilities/addons. Everything works fine with me, and Vista performance is ok, but again as I said, I'm mostly the web/symbolic processing kind of user, so... It uses Intel so I can't say anything to help you with potential AMD-Vista clashes. And yes, the screen is gorgeous for this price.
posted by Iosephus at 2:07 AM on December 21, 2007