Official X500 Owner's Lounge!

lol. Well I used my laptop for both (when I had it).
I took it with me to class (college), otherwise it sat on my desk when I was at home. And seeing as how I don't have a car or license and don't live where there's public transportation, I'm usually stuck at home unless a friend wants to kick it.

 

Ok one more gripe. This is a different angle to something that has been discussed in this thread before, but the reason I don't like the wifi card in this model is because it does NOT have the capability to connect to the 5ghz band on my router. The 2.4ghz connects fine don't get me wrong, but it tops out at 150mb/s while my old laptop topped out at 300mb/s. As others have said, I don't know why Toshiba went with the cheaper card. I mean how much could they really have saved? I foresee problems with this card in the future since I am surrounded by about 30 - I you not - 2.4 devices in my area. Paradoxically, I am now thinking of keeping this machine since A) as Invarr said I had to wait for the brightness to adjust after being off for so long and B) I have solved the cooling error message problem by disabling every Toshiba based diagnostic application at start up. Machine doesn't even hang upon shutdown anymore. I have a severe distrust of vendor diagnostic applications, especially those vendors who can't place the correct stickers on the right machine.
In any event, if I decide to keep this I will be clean installing Windows 7, since the crap ware on this machine, as most machines I've purchased, have turned out to be crap.

 

Are you sure that this is wifi chipset fault and not the fault of not-so-great wifi antenna design?
I am not sure that Realtek chip used can not support 5Ghz...

If you are determined, most likely it should be quite easy to replace wireless card with Intel one - on previous Toshiba X-series I've seen they were implemented as plug-and-play standard miniPCIe card directly under keyboard. Unscrew keyboard, unplug antennas, replace card, voila.

Should be easely enough to check by taking keyboard off.

 

It has been confirmed that this card does not have 5ghz. I found this out after trying for about two hours to get it to connect. If its as easy as you say to replace it, I will be replacing it asap but I have heard reports to the contrary. I will try to find more info on this. Thanks again!

 

Yes, the wifi card in this machine does not support N/A on the 5ghz range at all.

Keep in mind, if you try to replace it with another model it may NOT have the built in antenna leads for the 5Ghz antenna. I've not researched enough to know since I had a usb dongle that is dual band and can use that.

 

Lol, this just keeps getting better. I tried to clean install Windows 7 and now the PC will not recognize the GPU. When I try to install the driver from the Toshiba site, I get a message telling me I don't have the correct card for these drivers. I made a restore DVD and backups and all that, but this is stupid. I guess I'll just use the restore DVD and uninstall all the crapware - which by the way is not like your usual annoying crapware but actual harmful to your PC crapware.

 

All of the issues why i had to get rid of the machine, you can only install the drivers from toshiba and if you do the desktop drivers then your blu ray drive won't work! I don't even know why for what 30 bucks more a 5300 card could of been in there sheesh.

 

Imin the process,too of getting rid of crapware!. Which ones do you think are harmful? I thought eco utility and the conexant sound card were responsible for some early crashes I had but am not sure as Ive been using them again(for testing purposes) Its BS all the crapware stuff they add. I want a clean computah!

Also,has anyone found a good power managment seeting for keeping the fan noise to a minimum? and whats the fan that always on-cpu,gpu,HD? Mine are not too loud but my other toshiba satelite could be tweaked to have no noise at all when surfing,music,etc..

 

Basically all the Toshiba branded apps are crap. Word of warning: if you plan on doing a clean reinstall of windows, don't! The GPU will not be recognized by the PC! It will register as "Generic display adapter" and you'll be stuck at a lower resolution, among other problems. I am so done with this thing. Moving on to an Asus g73jh-A2.

 

I did a clean install on my X505-Q870. Installed all drivers including the video with no problem.

I made the recovery media and installed the drivers off that set.

I had problems with the Eco utility so I downloaded the newer version off the Toshiba site and no more problems so far for more than a week now.

 

Sure it will, once you install all the appropriate drivers.

In fact, my nice clean install is using the latest Nvidia driver package released today. 196.75.

I guess you should say your system will be stuck in an unknown state if you DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.....

To add to that, my TVAP package is 1.2.34 and not the .26 posted on Tosh's site, my audio drivers are the working set 4.98.16.61 not the crappy set on the site, the Realtek WIFI driver bites, get the updated one from Realtek or Microsoft. The Toshiba BT stack is 7.10.04T, not the older one on Tosh's site. But I prefer the Win 7 BT stack instead... The Nvidia HD Audio is 1.0.9.1 not the 1.0.0.55 on Tosh's site.

What I'm saying is, if you KNOW what you're doing, then a nice, clean install is the way to go. If you don't, just delete the crappy demo apps and use your machine the way it is. Don't be spreading FUD like what you posted.... (FUD=Fear Uncertainty Doubt) Because you are absolutely wrong.

 

oh Im glad your there mr smurf to steer the course! Im currently downloading the gpu driver! Audio drivers next! I guess theres always a silver lining to every dark post!!!!

 

BTW Freedom16, finally got around to trying a Bluray disk. Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

Now, keep in mind, I don't use Tosh's BD scaled down blu-ray software but I use PowerDVD 9 instead. It played just fine. I suspect you're using the limited version which is probably tied to the default crappy driver....

Nice to know it works, probably the only time I'll ever try it.

 

Nope, absolutely not wrong at all. I had no problem with installing any of the drivers EXCEPT for the Nvidia GPU drivers. Its not really even the drivers that are the problem, its the fact that the computer will NOT detect the GPU. I first tried to install the display adapter drivers straight from the Tohsiba site - no go. If I run the Nvidia scanning tool, it tells me that they have no drivers for any component installed on my machine. When I try to install the drivers from the Nvidia site manually, I get a message telling me that the installer will now exit due to the fact that the driver is wrong for the component in the pc. I then tried to install the driver for the 260m with the same result. I have done many clean installs with Vista AND Windows 7, so I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing provided that the hardware isn't somehow tied to the software in such a way that the manufacturer prohibits the end user from clean installing. I've never had this problem with a clean install. There are always some niggling problems but nothing I couldn't figure out. Wasn't trying to spread any FUD, just warning people to back off from clean installing until they have this problem sorted out, and I am sure they will. Its a good machine as long as it can recognize the GPU, and the USB ports...
You can sit there, make idle observations about my situation and tell me that I don't know what I'm doing, but you aren't seeing what I'm seeing. The reason I posted the warning is because I googled this problem and found that mine was not an isolated incident.
Compusurf tells us that the Nvidia Drivers were just released today, well I will try them now and see if they work. My problem started yesterday BEFORE these new drivers were released, but I seriously doubt this will work since-as I said before-the pc is NOT detecting the GPU.
Also, the installed Toshiba apps have been causing many people problems - not just me. For me, one of the Toshiba apps was incorrectly advising me that there was a problem with the cooling system and I needed to shut it down and return it for service. Only, when I tried to shut it down, it wouldn't. I simply went into selective start up, turned off all Toshiba apps, and the PC operated as it should, and even shut down without me having to resort to a hard shut down.
When I say, "Be careful when clean installing" it doesn't mean, "OMG this thing sucks don't buy it!" It just means, be careful when you clean install. Or, make sure to burn the recovery disks before you clean install (of course always a prerequisite if you know what you're doing).
Its still a very good priced machine for everything you get, and its gained many loyal fanboys, like our friend compusmurf!
I just had too many small problems that seemed to have added up since I first purchased the machine, beginning with when it was misrepresented on the purchasing web site as having a 1080P screen.

 

Umm... I did a clean W7 x64 reinstall from stock DVD and it went just fine.
I use drivers from laptopvideo2go.com

Good luck with Asus, a nice machine. Display is smaller and speakers are utter crap though

 

Hey compusurf in many ways i am missing the design of this machine, but i was using cyberlink power dvd 9,8 sometimes archsoft, i updated to the newest patch and i experienced the same issues, nice too see you finally tried it, i guess your not into blu ray like i am, most of the time i get the films in other means lol. When i started updating the graphics card that is when i ran into issues, desktop drivers.

 

Actually the speakers on this newer model are supposed to be quite good. I am still plugging away at a solution to my vga problem. I will give laptopvideo2go.com as I haven't yet tried this, so thank you for this info. I've even tried updating the VGA adapter within device manager using the latest Nvidia inf file, but I will get a message that says, "the driver selected for this device does not support this version of Windows". Literally EVERY other driver installed without a problem. As I said before, the Qosmio is a nice machine for the price, but the Asus is even better for the price (in my opinion) and is also said to have a much nicer screen - to go along with the a fore mentioned much nicer speakers.

UPDATE: Tried the laptop2go drivers and they are a NO go. With this, I get a message saying, "Geforce GTS 360m, Windows cannot find the file specified" But as I said before, the problem is not the drivers, its the fact that the system only recognizes a "Standard VGA display adapter". Oh well...

 

okay, an update on my screen. Been onto Toshiba UK tech support they talked me through everything I had tried already to no avail. The one thing I would love someone ot check for me in the Nivida control panel - Video & Television -> Adjust Video colour settings -> With Nvidia Settings NONE of those adjustments work when I move them and my hue in default is set right over to the right (yellow). He was surprised that it didn't make any changes.

His ultimate suggestion before returning the laptop was to do a complete restore :-( Which as is it was yellow out of the box, seems to me to be a waste of time and the only reason I was resisting a return was all my data is on here now, will be wiped.

Could some one with a 360GTS card be very nice and see if the HUE on above setting makes any changes on their machine?

Not much confidence as he also took me to the Nividia website and tried to get me to download despite me telling him Toshiba do not allow this!!

 

X500-llt,

I tried this on my X505-Q870 and it worked if I changed the radio button from "With the video player settings" to "With the NVIDIA settings" on the option "2. How do you make color adjustments?".

With the player settings on I could not adjust anything in this area, with it on the NVIDIA settings all adjustments can be made.

They don't seem to have any affect on the display after playing with them for a while though so even though the sliders can be moved they have no visible affect on the display. I clicked apply after moving them but didn't exit the control panel.

In the help for this option it says you should be playing a video for "Best results" which I was not doing. I get the feeling this is only supposed to affect video play back.

 

You mentioned before that you tried to install the drivers for the 260M. Does your model have the 260M or the 360M?

 

Well, I love movies and netflix, but I usually watch them on the home entertainment system with the large screen so the whole family can enjoy them. Never been one to use it on my laptop (any I've ever owned) except once or twice a year if I wanted to watch something yet the wife or kiddo beat me to the TV.

 

Your problem still doesn't make sense. If the system doesn't see any GPU, you wouldn't be able to see anything on your screen. I'm assuming you don't have that problem, so there's NOT a gpu issue.

You can't use the Nvidia tool or drivers directly because by default, Nvidia doesn't support laptops. They provide reference drivers to OEM's who customize them for your machine.

To use the nvidia drivers you'll need the modified inf.

Did you have that as well?

 

My model has the 360m. I originally tried the 260m drivers because those were the only drivers I could find at that time. Of course this didn't work because the system only sees the GPU as "standard VGA graphics adapter".
The modded inf file did include the 360m in the drop down list when I attempted the have disk method, but the computer would not load it, saying that the driver was wrong for my version of windows.

Yes, I then cleared all of my previous graphics drivers and downloaded the latest driver as well as the modded inf file from laptopvideo2go. I followed their tutorial and its still a no go. I am pretty sure I have tried everything short of modding the inf file myself - a situation where I can openly say I would not know what the hell I am doing.
Perhaps what I should have said was that the system is not detecting the GPU correctly, as opposed to not detecting it at all. I have had this problem before on a desktop (when trying out Windows 7 preview build), but figuring that out was a cakewalk. Never has this happened to me on a laptop.
In any event, thanks for all your help guys. I am giving up, restoring the system to its original state using the restore DVDs, then sending the laptop back for a full refund. Its a great machine for the price, but I guess my trepidation about the machine began even before it arrived. The web site had labeled this machine as having a 1920x1080 screen, but in the midst of this unit shipping to me, they inexplicably changed the description on the site to 1680x945. When I contacted TigerDirect about this, they told me it was the responsibility of the manufacturer to correctly label their products. So I decided to give it a chance when it arrived, turned it on, then was met with a warning that a problem with the cooling system had been detected and to turn the machine off and return it for service. Only, it wouldn't turn off save for a hard shut down. I then turned off all Toshiba branded apps and the message about the cooling system went away. Then I tried to clean install Windows 7 using the ABR method, and it all just went down hill from there.
Its a shame because I really liked the larger screen, but all these small problems lead me to assume that I will have more problems with Toshiba in the future.
Still, enjoy your Qosmios guys. The design is nice, loved the keyboard and the screen real estate is a real bonus. It was also a very quiet machine which is always a good thing.

 

I have a feeling that tho the warning message went 'away' about the cooling issue, I don't think it did. I'll bet your video card's fan was the issue and your card is flaky now. When you uninstalled the other software, it just stopped reporting your issue to you.....

 

I see. So what you're saying is I did know what I was doing when I clean installed, and that I got a lemon? Thanks smurf, you are too kind.

BTW, other people on this forum have also had this warning message appear on their machines, turned it off, and to this day have had no problems. Then again, if this was the case with my machine, maybe I didn't know what I was doing...

 

I did modify the inf drivers, actualy its been about a year now since nvidia support mobile drivers, i got drivers for my M17x. But it seems like drivers they give that actually only work for the X505 are the toshiba ones! damnation.

 

I'm looking for a way to minimise the noise as well, so far I tried RivaTuner which apparently doesn't work on Mobile cards, bad luck. Then I installed EVGA Precision, with that one the Fan Speed option is greyed out, so again no luck. The thing really is very annoying, it is the right hand fan which is controlled by the GPU temp. It will be audible (the fan under the Back Space Key is louder than the fan on the left under the F3 Key Toshiba monitor says its running at 49% it's like a mechanical sound) at least on my x500 when GPU temp goes above 50°C and only goes off again when the temp drops to 34°C, the most annoying thing is, that when I just surfing the Net than the GPU temp. is between 39°C-35°C so just above the threshold to run down again. Even when I shut down the web browser so that really nothing is running anymore and GPU load stays at a very low level 0-3% it take ages to reach 34°C. OK I admit the environment I'm running my Laptop in is quit warm I keep the roomtemp at about 23°C just to be comfortable, but the Laptop is on a flat desk surface. Does anyone know how to raise the temp threshold to start and stop the fan in either the GTS250M Bios or the Phoenix Bios?. I tried as well already nibitor but even here Fanspeed IC is greyed out.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks for reading

 

I agree - was not able to find a driver for the 360M on laptopvideo2go - one has to use Toshibas at this time.

The errors that bruin describes are typical for attempting to install an incorrect driver. laptopvideo2go is a great site, but it is difficult to find the right driver for a particular GPU, and it seems there is none supporting the 360M.

 

Im using evja precision too and have tried all the settings with no luck .Even eco-utility does little...I guess its the I7 cpu that needs constant coolng.Im in a very cold area too(live on a boat in Norway!) and its always on..Oh well,I think a bios update would do the trick but toshiba wont want to risk the cpu . My former HP HDx18(similar too x500)had a fan bios switch that worked great...no noise at all.

 

I don't think any management solution will help. Both quad-core i7 and 250M are won't be possible to run without fans - if you stop the fans, temperature will go out of control eventually, as they can't passively cool enough.

On X200 fans used to run in a lot more annoying mode - "stop-start, stop-start". I much more prefer constant low speed of X500.

 

Hi,

You misunderstood me I don't want to stop them I just want the temp.
threshold raised were the fan starts spinning and stops again.
But thanks for reading any help is appreciated.

best regards

 

Umm, so what will be the difference? They will still constantly spin, just operating temperature will be higher.
Or they will continuously start-stop which is much more annoying.

 

Well they shouldn't spin while I'm browsing the net were he GPU Load is pretty much idle about 0-3% so when the threshold temperature is raised from 50°C to i.e. 56°C or if that is not enough then it could be raised even higher to start spinning the fan, the temp I guess will not be reached under low GPU load here surfing only or reading a pdf document for studying. I hope you understand what I want to achieve. What would you say are your fans both the same noise level or is one louder than the other, when I put my ear to them while they are both running I would say they spinning approx at the same speed at least the air wich is pushed out feels like the same amount. But my right fan is approx 4X as loud as the left fan wich is hardly audible.

 

I think its unlikely that you will be able to achieve this.
If you stop the fan, even if you just browse the net, respective component will overheat (albeit slowly) - because X500 cooling system are not designed for passive heat dissipation, it requires an air flow...

Right (GPU) fan is louder for two reasons:
a) it's heatsink is significantly smaller, requiring more air
b) because more powerful gaming NVidia GPUs dissipate significant heat even on idle (not to mention W7 uses GPU even to composite desktop continuously even on idle). That's the main reason NVidia introduced dual-GPU solution when "weak" GPU used for light tasks, allowing "gaming" GPU to switch completely off power.

From my experience X200 and X500 were quietest gaming laptops I've ever heard. HDX 18 you've mentioned is not really gaming laptop, it's an entertainment (cinema) laptop, having a low-mid range GPU.

 

yes your right about the hp,it was media laptop that I luckily returned. And the x500 fans are pretty quiet for high end gaming.My satelite was a vacume cleaner when I was on max power. the x500 is very quiet when at full balst gaming....Its just I changed from balck metal to classical the last week! Time to get back to satyricon and screw the fans

 

Toshiba laptops haven't supported fan control in quite a few years. The last model I remember that did was the P105 or something like that. It seems, tho I'm not ripping mine apart, that the sensor is "read only" and is hardcoded to watch for certain temps to power up or down the fans. Being hardcoded like that thru circuitry, you won't find a software solution to override it. The CPU seems to be the same way. Fortunately the fans are rather quiet. I can hear my daughter's across the room but can't hear mine right in front of me.

About browsing the net and low temps. Enjoy it now. In the very near future, IE, Firefox and others will pass rendering to the GPU and leave the cpu idle completely for other tasks. Check out the alpha release of Firefox with GPU acceleration. VERY nice but buggy still. Cross loading apps is also coming in the near future. DirectCompute API is already available for Win 7 with DX10/11 nvidia cards. The cpu will offload some processing to the GPU. Not everything because the gpu isn't a general purpose processor. More apps that take advantage of that, the more you'll see your gpu not downclocking.

 

Well took mine back to the retailer. Bypassed Customer service straight to the Tech desk. Opened it up and booted and said the screens yellow and too dark, they agreed which was a relief I was starting to think it was me.

They had one in stock and one on display, I said I didn't want to take the replacement until it had been fired along side my duff one. Well it was exactly the same, took one over to the display and its the same.

Take the display one off of the nice colour picture, fire up IE and its the same. EVERY laptop on display from £200 to the £1299 HP DV8T sitting next door was 50% brighter and clearer with whites shown as bluesih white (what you would expect from a laptop display) and not yellow

Even the manager who was trying to get out of refunding or giving me £100 and the DV8T couldn't beleive how poor, sorry in his word different the screen was. Not one person was able to deny the mist and yellow and everyone involved all tried to find the corner of the plastic screen protection cover that looks like it is on the screen I was a bit nervous that they would find it.

I think most of you do not notice it because you are using it as a media and or gaming machine, if you are trying t work with pictures or in office all day it would drive you mad.



Really poor show for a £1400 machine

 

You mad if you would work with pictures on laptop (non-IPS or RGB LED) screen

Personally I dont like cool white, it's deficiency of blueish white LED backlights, not a plus.

 

team qosmio wins again !

 

Well at least HP give you the choice. If I went to nividia control panel on the x500 and tried to use nvidia to control the card the HUE was locked to yellow, even moving it made no differnce, similar less powerful card on the HP and when I move it I can see a change. This was not a fault on my machine as others tried it here. Even their so called tech support assumed it was a fault.

I thinks it is crazy that Toshiba lock the driver and some adjustments on a video card, after all its your laptop. Also the Tosh bloatware was awful, why should a user have to clean install??

 

*shrugs* I guess I was completely unaware of problems like that, because I always clean reformat/reinstall my fresh laptops. No trouble for me, and the only way to be sure that manufacturer haven't tweaked something that would create problems on the long run...

 

Try going into the NVidia Contro Panel >Display >Adjust desktop color settings and see what you can do.

You will have to select "Use NVIDIA settings" and click on "Apply" before you can change anything.

 

so is the new display driver on toshiba webpage the same as the latest upgrade on nvidia web page? It wouldnt work, the nvidia drivers, when i tried to install. Supposed to be a big upgrade

 

Has anyone upgraded the Wi-Fi card in a Qosmio X500 series? If so, what did you upgrade to and what were the results compared to the original (Realtek I assume) card?

I'm pretty happy with my X505-Q879 overall; It seems like the Wi-Fi card performance/reliability is the weak link for me.

I started looking at other Laptop options to replace the X505. I don't think I'd want to go to a screen smaller than 18.4" with a 1920x1080 resolution. I just picked up an Alienware M17x with 1440x900 display to compare. The display is nothing special and I like the touchpad, especially button operation on the X505 much better. The M17x has the Broadcom (DW1520 I think) Wi-Fi card which seems to maintain a connection but is only connecting at 54Mbps now. I read that it needs a change in the router security settings to work at a higher rate.

Lee

 

I agree that the card is lame. I happened to have a dual band USB linksys and just use it. I plan to someday try to swap it out tho....

 

If you did 196.75 with modified INF's, remove it immediately. Driver has serious issues.

 

Following up on the Wi-Fi card performance: I downloaded and installed the 2010.0.119.2010 driver software from Realtek today and found that the n actual performance seemed to be MUCH WORSE with images taking a very long time to download, even though it showed connection rate to be 150Mbps vs. about 120Mbps before. However, I switched the adapter properties to use b/g only (excluding n) and initial performance seems to be VERY GOOD now. I'll monitor the situation for a while to see how stable it is.

I have been using a Belkin N+ Wireless router which has the latest firmware installed, getting ready to switch to a NetGear WNDR3700. I'm going to wait for a while before I make this change to see how the current Realtek Wi-Fi driver and settings work over time.

Lee

 

what kind of temps do you see on idle with the 360M models? I keep getting high 50's but from time to time I see it jump to ~70 web browsing/playing music

 

I never got that far thankd god! So what exactly then is the huge update display driver on the toshiba website? Is it just the factory installe done? Would be nice to get those 15% performance increases

 

thats too high. a friend of mine bought a qosmio with the gts 360m and i can tell you. that gpu idles in 45C and a furmark stress test never go above of 73C.

what driver are you using?