!!!!!Toshiba M40!!!!!

Okay there is plenty of threads on this notebook but they are all scattered and not really giving the information that i want so i thought that i would start my own thread. First of all i was wondering if someone else could make another review with lots of pictures, beause i always like more than one person's opinion. Okay now for the questions lol....
1. truthfully, what is the battery life you guys are getting, with wifi on, etc.... and do you guys know of any programs that could lower the processor speed to increase battery life?

2. I have read on another forum that the m40/45 had a quickplay feature (dont have to boot into windows to watch a dvd) and if you guys have it or figured out how to use it that would be great.

3. Okay now that SQUEALING NOISE! lol how many of you guys actually dont have it at all. (it only happenes when you are plugged into ac) and could toshiba possibly put out a bios update to fix this ?

4. okay last one..haha i have read that when you go from ac to battery when the comp is on you get this error or something and the system completely locks up and such.

Well thanks guys, i love this system but i just want some stuff cleared up, thanks. [ ]

 

YOu know what i was hopeing that toshiba will come out with an update to fix that problem but i have heard it has happened to other toshibas and they don't have a fix for it....... But anyways about the noise its coming from the upper left hand side...... its still there even if you are just running on battery. The reason why it louder when you plug in the ac adapter is because your computer is running at full power and the sound increases in volume and decreases with the processor speed....... What i am thinking is that its a signal being sent to turn on the fan but its struggling to turn it on on........ and the sound is being amplified through the speakers cause the sound dissappears when the speaker is in use....

 

Well if you can try it in a store go ahead (like Futureshop) because mine has been flawless. and no I dont work for Toshiba [ ] actually other than AA batteries i never use Toshiba.

One thing that has amazed me is that last night I played a couple hours of Planetside, with only 512mb it was cranking the system which is what I wanted to do, stress test. Anyways the fans were on full blast, so I thought ok enough of this lets check the temperature. So I quit the game, and if anyone has played it should know it takes 1-2 minutes just to shut the game off because its waaayyyy too memory intensive. Well 2 minutes later I load up Everest, the temp is....... 38C!!! thats only 3 degrees higher than idle temp. Either the new Sonoma chipset manages heat REALLY well, or the cold temp in my room makes a huge difference. Its approxx 18C in my room. Very satisfied, cant wait to LAN party with this thing.

 

I was at a shop also considering the M40 and one of biggest concerns was battery life. The sales assistant was quoting 4 - 6 hours because of centrino chip blah blah.....so when we switched the laptop on with ac power, the battery meter was reading 75% capacity and time estimate was a miserable 1hr and 35 minutes.....

 

The battery life isn't really better than my previous P4 laptop, you're right, I'd say about 2 hours of normal use, or maybe 3 if you really are careful (long life setting and not extensive work).

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

This laptop seems great and is exactly what i need just the stupid battery life!!![ !]It seems like a total waste of spending the money on the pentium M. Do you guys have another recomendation for a laptop that has similar specs to this one with centrino ect.. that has dedicated graphics?

 

I don't understand. Why is it advertised as having up to 3.2 hrs battery life when everyone is experiencing around 2 hrs?

 

Is general web surfing and Microsoft docs considered normal use on a computer, or considered heavy use for battery life purposes.

Must say when I was at the shop where the battery life showed 75% & 1.30hrs....that was when the laptop was straight out of the box and hadn't been properly charged up for the 6 - 7 hours as recommended.

 

EXACTLY!!

 

1) I take my laptop to school and I get at least 2 hours out of it, not less, using wifi, internet, etc. I don't need anymore than that so I'm happy with it. If you want more battery life you can always buy the 12 cell battery (I think there should be one for the M40) which will obviously be better than the 6 cell that comes with it, although a bit heavier too.

2) Havent found quickplay yet.

3) I had the squealing noise when I first got it but now it seems to have more or less gone away. I haven't noticed it for the past week at all. It did come back once but I turned the processor speed down for 2 minutes and then back up, and it was gone.

4) Never had any problems unplugging it while on

 

As pete_t mentionned, and as I wanted but forgot to say yesterday, there is a 12-cell battery for the M40. However, you can't see it on canadian Toshiba's web site. I saw it on their USA online site, the battery isn't cheap though, around 200$ US I think. But it'd give you an easy 4 hours or more.

Oh yeah, and I think the 3.2 hours advertised on Toshiba's website must mean the maximum time you can get and not the average time. It's exactly like LG's claim that their LS and LM line last as much as 6 hours on one charge with their standard battery.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

Yeah i think that i am probally going to end up getting the m40, eventhough the battery life sucks! Maybe toshiba will comout with a firmware/Bios up date that will make it a bit longer.. hmmm thats what im hoping!

 

It's actually a bit cheaper than $200 USD. With the instant rebate it's $153 ($170 without).

 

I Have the toshiba m40, and using the quickplay feature i get around 3 hours battery life, it comes with a media quickplay disc u must istall/use before a system full restore to use this feature. 2 and a bit hours normally. if u have questions just ask, also i havent had any problems like described above at all, its working flawless besides a single blue screen but i think it was software related.

Questions. Is this a Sonoma Notebook? If so does it support DDR2? can anyone burn faster than 2.4x to dvd, or is this the max? lastly, where can i get drivers, i want to install winxp pro but i can't find drivers anywhere, it restore cd doesn't work seperatly for drivers like my old 2400 and even the toshiba site doesn't list it.

.sith.

 

Heaveny38: <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'> Well, I thought pretty stupid of Toshiba to only supply a "Restore disc", because I can't instlal Windows as I want to. However, if you have a copy of Windows at hand, the only more things you need are drivers and, as you say, they aren't on Toshiba's web site yet, how thoughtful of them heh.

Go on US Toshiba web site (www.toshiba.com) and go to the download drivers area and search for the Satellite M45 drivers, they are essentially the same, just make sure you download the ones adapted for the M40, like the NVidia drivers and not the Intel driver for the graphic card, the SoundMax driver for sound, etc. I managed to get all but one drivers and install successfully Windows from ground up with this method.

Good luck. <hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

And yes it is a sonoma and does support ddr2

Okay this is the biggest question of all! do you guys think it would be wise to utleast wait till the summer to buy a note book so sonoma can settle in or should i go buy right noW?

 

For sith7: what exactly is the quick play function, and how does it extend your battery life?

 

#1, i just typed a ton and lost it all because of snitz, come-on get real fourm software like vbb or ipb. following is the much shortened version

"QuickPlay" what Hp calls software that u can press f10to boot to a special Dvd/movie/mp3 playing OS instead of windows. Toshiba calls it something else, i just call it like klenex.

Question 2: So all sonoma chipsets support ddr2 and are interchangable? Is the 12 cell Battery for this larger in physical size?

.sith.

 

Based on Toshiba's web site, the 12-cell battery is double the size in depth, so it would stick out quite a bit at the back of the unit, but I wouldn,t say it's such a bad thing. I prefer the battery to stick out at the back instead of under the laptop, like some other models.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD