How do you Reformat Qosmio X505 Series?

Okay, I have the recovery discs, which I created when I first bought the laptop back in early October. It is an X505-Q893. Anyway, I am not happy with the way it is running and I think I may have some trojans or virus issues that perhaps Norton missed. Anyway, I am trying to figure out how to reinstall the OS either with the recovery discs I created or just using the built in partition I know that you can use, but I cannot figure out which "F" Key gets me into the partition creator or reformat screen.

Anyone know? Otherwise I can call Toshiba Tech support.

 

I think I figured it out. I went into a Windows Repair boot menu and chose Toshiba Recovery. Not sure if I even need the recovery discs for this, to be honest, but I guess I am about to find out.

 

Long time no see Chiro.

Sorry to hear your laptop troubles. If you need a good FREE antivirus program, get Microsoft Security Essentials. I use it and haven't had any infections on my other computer for at least a year.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Good to see you, too, Alex!

I am not even sure that I have "troubles," just that I am feeling like the lappy is running a little slow of late.

No biggie, it is still under warranty, and I have a few days off, so a fresh OS install should snap thins up a bit. I am just used to this machine being blazing fast! Oh, and right after the trial expiration date, I ended up buying Norton, so I think either something got past it or some hole I pissed off on another message forum hacked my PC and plantes some crap on it. lol

Either way, I kind of like reformatting at least once a year. It seems to do the PC good.

The biggest pain in the to be honest, is that between the time I bought the Laptop in October and Christmas. I bought and installed like 30 games. That is going to take some seriously long time and effort to reinstall lol!

 

Sorry to derail, but what's a good game to buy?

I like First Person Shooters, and am more into single player type of play.
I was thinking "Metro 2033". Steam has it for $20.

What would you recommended?

 

Try Homefront. Its short (7 chapters) but insane (read fast paced here) on hard level. Its like that good meal you enjoy-gone to fast. It seems crysis 2 has some problems. Metro 2033 of course. I'm waiting for battlefield 3 looks insane, and FEAR 3

Reformat with disks:

-Insert Disk #1
-turn off lappy
-turn on lappy
-press F12 while powering on
-select cd/dvd boot
-press enter follow prompts

 

No problem, Alexmuw.

I am not a uge FPS fan, but I have Borderlands, Metro: 2033, Red Faction: Guerilla and they are all pretty cheap now.

Also, one of my FAVORITE games of all times, and an awesome 2010 title is Just Cause 2. AMAZING and huge sandbox game.

I love Saint's Row 2 and Spidey: Web of Shadows. I could go o, but you get the point.

 

Nice to see you Chiro. I've been checking in too, since the Sandy Bridge debacle has left me waiting.

Care to give an update on the Q893? Any new thoughts after ~5 months?

I'm really kinda regretting not getting the Q893 last year. Of course, missing the $999 deals was terrible, but even at regular price I probably should've gotten it. Since then, my old Toshiba Satellite finally died, so I'm now at the point where I do need to get a laptop fairly soon.

I'm using an HP dv7 temporarily...it's not too bad TBH, the new aluminum construction is a big plus and the screen's not bad. But the speakers are crap and it's certainly no powerhouse with a HD6370.

I'm seriously considering whether to jump ship and get a Dell XPS 17, even though I haven't seen one, because I can get i5-2520m, 8GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Blu-ray, 2 USB3.0 ports, & backlit keyboard for about ~$1150. Those are all upgrades that either cost alot or in the case of USB3.0 don't exist in the Qosmio lineup. Of course, that comes at the cost of a GT 555m vs a 460m, but even there I'm finding myself wondering whether a 460m is overkill for a 900p screen.

Of course, the big downside is I haven't even seen one, so I have no idea of the keyboard, speakers, screen, etc. Ugh! What a conundrum...

 

Why don't you wait for the x505 with Sandy Bridge platform to be released and buy one of those?

 

Hey great to see you, too!

Well my update is, unbelievable machine! I am SO GLAD I bought it. I really feel like I got in on the ground floor of the latest GPU when I bought it and it is more future proof as one could ask for at that price range, even more so than I thought!

After re-formatting, which ended up being a GREAT IDEA, I am in the process of reinstalling all my games, and I have WAY too many to the point that this is a real chore!

Anyway, even Metro: 2033 runs absolutely beautifully at the highest settings, which surprises me, given that the reviewers of this card said you have to dial down the settings. The odd thing is that I installed this game on my lappy around Christmas and I did have to lower the details somewhat, but with the fresh OS re-install, it runs awesome even with everything maxed out.

Honestly, I think you guys all waiting for Sandy Bridges for a gaming lappy made a huge mistake. I honestly don't think that the jump from the regular i5/i7 from the later part of last year to this slightly better CPU is worth it or a great enough jump to have put it off.

In addition, the GeForce 460m is now 6 months old, so buying now, instead of putting you on the cutting edge of gaming laptop only puts you on the cutting edge of CPU and we are now sort of mid-generation in the GPU, which is more important, in my opinion, for this kind of a lappy.

I think you guys are putting way too much emphasis on Sandy Bridges, to be quite honest, and I just don't think that the overall performance, particularly for gaming, is even close to worth it.

Again, this is just my opinion, but I think the jump from the 360m to the 460m was huge! The jump from the last set of processors to Sandy Bridges? Not so much.

Bottom line is I am amazed that NOTHING out right now is even challenging my laptop. Then again I haven't bought any PC games in a month or two. I should probably pick up Crysys and Crysis 2 but I already have too many FPS's.

 

I agree Chiro, waiting for Sandy Bridge was a big mistake! My thought at the time was I was just exchanging my q894 for a q8102, but had no idea I would have to wait 2 months for a laptop. If I had to do it today, I would have just kept my q894.

However, now that I do have a SB Qosmio, I can confirm the CPU is a lot faster than the i7-740. It's a lot snappier, and when this thing turbo boosts 4 FOUR CORES AT ONCE, there is no slow down no matter how many programs I have open.

I am glad to hear your Qosmio is still running like a beast. I think the Qosmios are great laptops, and wish more people would look at them as a serious contender to ASUS and the such.


Great to see you again Chiro, I hope you become a regular again!

 

Thanks, Alex, that means a lot!

I honestly believe that a lot of this has to do with the purpose of the laptop. For me, as a gamer, novelist, web surfer, and someone who does a hundred other "everyday" computer functions, the CPU takes a backseat in importance to the GPU by a wide margin. Let's factor out Internet, writing my books, and all the other normal, everyday things we all take for granted in computer use. The reason is that you can buy a ten year old computer that may not look pretty, but will run virtually any of the "everyday" needs software that 99% of the people will use.

So for my purposes, gaming was the determining factor. So the CPU (within reason of course) was irrelevant. Whether I got the i5, i7, a better i5, or SB makes little difference. If you are doing Auto CAD, photo or video editing, or a huge amount of CPU intensive multi-tasking, then the CPU should weight heavier in your mind, in my opinion.

For me, though, waiting 6 months for SB would have meant 6 months LESS LIFE (ie. future proof) of the GPU, more money, and, of course having to wait for the new machine.

Again, it all comes down to how much you are willing to pay, how early in the lifespan of the technology you want to get in on, and what uses you are buying it for.

 

In my case, I wasn't really waiting for SB, per se. As I still had a working laptop at the time, I thought that when SB dropped, it would force all the old Qosmios to drop in price, so I was willing to wait. Little did I know that SB would be delayed by 2 months, and in that time all the old Qosmios would either sell out or become rare enough that the prices stayed level.

All thing's considered, I'm glad you're happy with the Qosmio Chiro. I just wish Amazon would do another exclusive model with the backlit keyboard...

 

Yeah, I think that they discontinued all the Q89x models so I guess that was a calculated risk that didn't pay off. On the bright side, however, you can always wait for the new Qosmios with SB processors to come down the same way that the Q89x models did.

 

In my case, I was forced to wait for SB, considering that Toshiba didn't import the x505 with the gt460 in Italy.
I hope they will import the SB version with the gt460 in Italy, so I'll finally be able to buy a new laptop.

 

There's another member on here from England that got word from Toshiba Europe that the SB Qosmios will be available late April to Mid-May.
Not too far away.

 

Can't wait!

 

Okay, follow up question:

I reformatted my machine and spent a ton of hours re-installing all my MANY games and other programs I use. WHEW! That was a nightmare! It is awesome. The machine is back to being lightning-fast and blasting through everything I throw at it.


Anyway, I notice something that is still happening on my machine that I would like to know if there is a fix for. I have my screen saver set to randomly cycle through my photos. Now whenever the screen saver comes on and has been going for more than a couple of minutes, I seem to have difficulty getting out of the screen saver. Normally, hitting any button or the mouse should bang it right out of the screen saver, but when I hit a key or the mouse, my PC hangs on the current picture it is on for a while before finally going back to Windows. I can get right out of the screen saver if I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and then click on cancel, but I don't think that this is supposed to be happening, should it?

 

No idea on your Screen Saver problem. Does it hang with all the screen savers? or just when cycling through the photos? Is it the Windows photo screen saver? or the Picasa photo screen saver?

I'm guessing it's a software/driver problem.

Keep us updated.

 

Please, try also disabling the screensaver and see if you have problems coming back from other energy saving states (as the power-down of the monitor).
It seems some desktop SB setups have this problem, and it's possible that the mobile boards could have this problem too.