M50 Help Please (urgent!)

Hey guys. I'm new to these forums. I just recently bought a Toshiba Satellite M50-MX5 from Staples Canada.
The specs:
-Centrino 750 1.86GHz
-512 DDR2 RAM
-100GB HDD
-video memory is shared, but I couldn't care less because I'm not planning to play games on my laptop or anything (in fact, I don't play games period)

It was on sale for $1199 CDN, which was a sweet deal considering they also threw in an HP photo printer.

Anyway, here's my problem. There is a problem with booting up. When I turn the power on, you get the usual "Toshiba, In Touch with Tomorrow" screen, then you get the Windows XP start up screen with the moving progress bar. For about once in every 10 startups, I get a blank screen after the Toshiba screen, and the Windows XP screen fails to load, and my computer basically freezes. The power remains on during the whole time, but the computer won't respond to anything. The only recourse I can take is to take the battery out and start over again.

I called Toshiba Canada and the support rep. blamed Windows XP for being an unreliable OS, and that there shouldn't be any hardware problems. I bought the laptop only 6 days ago, so I went back to Staples to exchange for a new one. But here's the problem: The same thing happens!!! I called Toshiba again and they told me to reformat and see what happens.
What do you think is causing this problem? Do you think it's a HW or SW problem? Should I give up and buy another laptop (which I'd hate to do)? I really don't want to send in a 6-day old laptop for major repairs when I can get a refund or exchange within the Staple's 14-day return period.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks guys

 

I have no experience with Toshiba, but might be able to help you a bit. Several of my own machines have come from the factory loaded with junk apps, ads, and miscellaneous bloatware. If Toshiba's machines come "equipped" in the same way, you should be able to delete quite a lot of it simply by using the Add/Remove Programs function in the Control Panel.

If you're lucky, as I've been, simply removing junkware will allow your machine to function properly. If not, one of the Toshiba guys will have to lead you through a clean install of Windows. There is a great guide here at NBR for Dell, but am not aware of another for other builders.

Frankly, I would return the machine and look elsewhere.

 

You can use msconfig to turn off any unwanted programs that turn on with Windows. A clean install will tell you if it is a Windows or a hardware issue.

 

thanks guys. I formatted and reinstalled windows XP, so I should be finding out if the problem occurs again. Oh yeah btw, I found a BIOS update for my laptop model on Toshiba Canada's website so I downloaded and installed it. Don't know whether that would solve the problem???

 

backup , format and clean install using a windows cd not the restore cd to factory install .

 

Hello all,

I am new to all this and would really appreciate some insight.
I have a Satellite M50 (the special model with the orange cover) and have had it for 8 months. It worked fine until this weekend.
Now, it is constantly using the battery, even when the AC adaptor is plugged in. The light on the computer recognizes it's in, but uses up the battery anyway. What can I do? How come this happened all of a sudden?

Thanks so much.

 

You might try changing the Toshiba Power Settings and see if it somehow got messed up - make sure it's on AC power when plugged in. You could also try removing the battery and seeing if the notebook still runs - it would be forced to use AC power.