P50 Review ?

Could you make a quick tutorial how to replace a screen with a few pictures? Second, you referred to sRGB as wide gamut. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I know only NTSC and AdobeRGB is a really wide gamut. At least my Dell U2410 has much greater gamut than sRGB.

Thanks

 

Yes, you're correct, I might have used the terminology loosely. It's wider in gamut than the other panels... that's a better approach to saying it. Go by the percentage numbers I quoted from the colorimeter, because those at least are decently accurate.

Since I performed this already, and it is a bit tedious, I'm afraid I won't be able to provide any pictures. However, the general idea is to follow the procedure from earlier in the thread... before you start, make sure to boot up into the BIOS with power cable connected and choose the option to disable the built in battery... very important to avoid shorting any connections while you're working disconnecting cables, etc. Once this is done, disconnect the power cable and check that you are not able to turn the computer on by pressing the power button -- this means the battery has been disabled until next power cord plug in. Next, remove the plastic screw covers, remove the screws, and separate the bottom from the top/keyboard half with a plastic pry tool. I find it helps to remove the optical drive (use a paper clip on the hole to manually eject, and once all the screws are out, you can take it out by simply pulling it out. This way you can start prying from the area next to the optical drive and it'll make it much easier to remove the cover.

Next, given that one of the heatsink screws is placed over the hinge assembly, you will have to take off the CPU/GPU heatsink. There are I believe 2 screws on the fan side, and the additional screws on the CPU and GPU side (if equipped). There is a screw near the video cable connection (near the edge of the fan) connected to a lug that acts as a ground, you'll have to remove that one. You can then carefully use a plastic pry tool again to lift the clear-ish tape that attaches the video connection to the motherboard. Once that is done, you'll again need a small plastic pry tool in order to disengage two small latches on the edges of the video cable connection. Once that is done, the cable can be removed effortlessly.

Next, you will have to remove the 2 antenna cables that connect to the WiFi card, and take the WiFi card out as well. You'll notice that there are (I believe, IIRC) 4 cables that come from the display hinge -- the video connector that was removed, the 2 antenna cables, and a separate connector smaller that you need to remove -- I believe this one controls the USB camera. That particular one is a bit hard to remove, might require tweezers and/or slowly wiggling the tabs on it side-by-side with the plastic pry tool. The idea is to have those 4 cables loose and disengaged from the rest of the wiring (battery cables) at the top of the laptop case... be careful when freeing the cables from the guides, as they are delicate.

If you haven't taken out the heatsink already, now is the time to do it. You will see that the hinges are held on both sides with I believe 3 screws. Unscrew the ones on the heatsink side -- you'll notice that they have arrows to where they belong again, so you can put them in the right spot. Next, the other side has a rectangular metal bar screwed in from the hinge to the daughterboard that holds the USB ports. The easiest thing to do here is just unscrew the metal bar off (I believe it has one screw at the top and bottom) and them replace screw on the USB port daughterboard without the bar.. that way you don't have to disconnect the daughterboard or take it out and it will remain in place for the rest of the disassembly. Finally, remove the other screws from that side of the hinge.

At this point make sure that the wires that come from the lid are completely free and untangled, very important as you're separating the screen side from the motherboard/keyboard side. Next, place the laptop on a flat non-conductive surface, and open the lid slowly. When you reach an angle of about 80 degrees or perhaps a bit less, you'll see that you're able to lift the display free from the keyboard/motherboard side.

Next, you'll see that the bottom of the display has two screw covers. take them off (but don't lose them, they fly off easily!) Next take the screws underneath off. Use plastic pry tool again to start from the bottom edge to slowly separate the two halves. You will be separating a single plastic piece that covers part of the laptop hinge.as well as all of the display bezel corners. Take care as the clips are delicate and could break if too much force is used to try to take them apart.

At this point you'll be able to see the panel is screwed in with 4 screws along the edges, two in the bottom, two at the top. Also use caution to remove the video cable from the plastic guides so that it is free... the next step will free the panel completely. Finally lift the panel carefully from the four screw points, and careful to not touch the 'DO NOT TOUCH' parts at the bottom... I believe that's where the LED array lives and is delicate. Lastly, you can remove the cable from the old panel by carefully removing the tape, and detaching the two small latches the same way that was done before for the mother board side.

For re-assembly, connect video cable to new panel, and proceed with the instructions in reverse Good luck!

 

Thanks a lot. I just installed same panel following your instructions. For the price it's really great. Almost no color loss at wide angle view or when screen dimmed.

 

So I just got this laptop and decided to swap out the slow 5400 RPM with my seagate Momentus 750GB XT hybrid SSD at 7200rpm taken from the Toshiba laptop that this P50 was replacing. So the drive is a known working drive.

The drive cannot be recognized under UEFI bios. Under CSM and Compatbility it will boot up, but then if I completely shutdown the system it won't recognize the drive unless I go into BIOS and choose F10 to save the settings. Then it sees the drive again????

I have completely reinstalled Win7 on this from scratch but I keep getting this issue where the BIOS doesn't want to see the drive on startup. Once it does see it, it boots fine, can be restarted and works perfectly? What the heck am I missing?

I called Toshiba and asked for advice and they told me the motherboard is designed to ONLY work with 5400 RPM drives? Seriously????

EDIT: This laptop absolutely refuses to work with a Seagate Momentus SSHD. I even picked up a brand new Seagate Momentus XT 1TB drive to use in it. It would not recognize the completely new drive under UEFI. At one point I got it far enough along that it was able to boot the drive and I used the restoration discs to return it to factory default with Win8.1. It booted once into Win8.1 and then I couldn't get it to recognize the new drive again. Reinstalled the lousy 5400rpm drive that came with the system and it works perfectly fine. Completely regret having bought this laptop. If anyone can ever figure out why it refuses to work with my SSHD or a solution to get it to work, I'd love to hear it. 2 days completely wasted on this thing so far.

Final Edit: This P50 is just way too problematic. The keyboard design is super sensitive and it is very prone to issuing double-strikes on letters. It wasn't too much of an issue for my typing style, but it happened from time-to-time. However, the staff member this laptop was for had terrible problems with double-strikes on letters. Particularly 'o' and 'm' and 'h'. We took him into the store to try the display model of the laptop and it was the exact same issue. So not a hardware fault as much as a design issue. The keyboard is nice, but the action on it is very sensitive and definitely is prone to double-strikes. We had him type on an L50 model which has a slightly different keyboard and he had no issues whatsoever. So we returned the P50 and got an L50. When we put the same Seagate Momentus XT SSHD into the new L50 it worked perfectly. Had no problems being recognized whether in UEFI or CSM mode. I was unable to replicate the P50 issue with it being unable to see the drive after being put into full power down with built-in battery disabled mode.

 

Seems like that particular drive might have been quirky with the system BIOS. Since you returned it it's moot point. I've used a Samsung EVO ssd on mine with no issues, other than what I've mentioned on an earlier post here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/724954-p50-review-4.html#post9440940

As far as the keyboard issue, perhaps it was isolated to a specific batch, mine definitely doesn't repeat any of those letters. The only thing I noticed at first was that the keys were squeaky, but that went away over time.

Glad you were able to get it to work

 

Has anybody tried replacing the keyboard on a P50? I didn't see a way to get to it through the top of the case, so I removed the bottom cover and motherboard to see if I could access it from below. I found there's a thin panel between the motherboard and keyboard attached by fasteners that don't appear to be removable (rivets?). I'm wondering if maybe there is a way to remove the top of the case, but don't want to try prying pieces off if they weren't meant to be removed...

 

Just wanted to vent... not sure if this is the right post...
Bought a P50T-A (Haswell i7-4700MQ) last November (2013) along with the extra warranty (3yr +accidental). Got the laptop and already felt it wasn't as fast as I expected it to be. But decided to live with the decision and kept using it (I meant... boot up takes a good 5 min but wasn't SSD and at 5400rpm... was kind of expected). Two months ago, the a third of the screen on the right side started to flicker. Called support and was pretty much useless (at one point, wanted me to re-install the whole system to make sure it is not a "software" issue). Later, I noticed a screw fell out from the screen casing and was like...ok... guess have to get it fix :-/. Called and find out toshiba's warranty service is a joke. Can't go to a local authorized repair shop and have to pay for your own shipping (and box!). I have no idea why I pay 300 for the extra warranty. The kicker for me is that if I bought the cheaper warranty, I could have gotten on-site service to fix my laptop. I will probably never buy a Toshiba again...

 

Thanks for reporting your experience. I personally got a SquareTrade warranty for mine... it seems manufacturer extended warranties are hit or miss at times. After a while of use, I noticed that the bottom plastic cover in mine got damaged -- the plastic material on the screw holes tends to be brittle and cracked on two separate holes. I suspect this might be in part because I removed and replaced the bottom cover about a half-dozen times as I was upgrading components/re-pasting/etc.

I ended up looking for the bottom spare part on eBay and already received it. I'll probably see if I can transfer the serial number labels from the old cover to the new one after applying some heat. Other than that, no other complaints so far on my P50. I haven't seen many MFR's with 15.6" laptops under 5 lbs and on the smaller side width/length wise. Perhaps this is because there aren't as many laptops with lower 15W TDP CPUs that also have discrete graphics. Under normal use, it rarely gets hot to the touch at all, and makes barely any fan noise.

 

I wished I got a SqaureTrade warranty (My Bro-in-law got one for his Samsung... it was fantastic. After 2 1/2 years, the screen started to go out, sent the laptop for repair. They couldn't fix it so they refunded the warranty AND the original cost of the laptop... I digress...)

Anyway, called in and they escalated me to a "senior" customer service. Pretty much the whole take home message from that conservation was (1) well... u have to fix it anyway; and (2) u should have asked somebody about toshiba before buying (btw, those are partial quotes from the guy). He wasn't wrong cause,(1) yes, I have to fix it cause I spent more than 1000 on the laptop and (2) I should have asked somebody, anybody about the toshiba. But since I don't know anyone that bought a toshiba recently, that didn't really help (and now I will be the "reference" for ppl around me regarding Toshiba).

Bite the bullet and send the laptop in for repair. Two weeks later and still in the shop. Have to call and ask. Was told the parts are back ordered. I mean... just replace the screen for crying out loud. Anyway again... just wanted to vent. There isn't much I can do about this anyway except to wait... and wait... and wait...

 

Greetings from New Zealand

I bought the P50T-A00E in April this year
Intel Core i7-4700MQ
8GB DDR3
Hybrid 1TB (5400rpm) + 8G SSD cache
1920x1080 touchscreen
nVIDIA GeForce GT 745M 4GB with Optimus + Intel HD 4600
Blu-ray ROM, DVD SuperMulti Double/Dual Layer Drive
Intel 802.11 ac/a/g/n (867Mbps)
Windows 8.1

Mine has been a nightmare........

Right from the start, it had an intermittent problem with it's sound volume. Some times the volume would drop by 50% and stay like that for days and restarts would not fix it. Other times, a restart would. The sound would then stay OK for weeks until the cycle started again.

Toshiba Help Desk said that it was either a windows update or a program I installed was the cause. Next time it faulted, I took it down to the retailer and showed them.

I then did a factory restore and turned off windows update and installed no programs. When it faulted, showed the retailer again. Proof that it is a fault with the laptop. Toshiba Help Desk then got me to do a Bios update (v1.70) but that did not fix it.

The retailer sent it off for repair. I had written a comprehensive note covering what I had done and how the problem happens. As it may behave itself while it is being tested and be returned as No Fault Found, I told the retailer that I refuse to accept it back like that. Luck was with me as it faulted while at the repair centre and they put a new motherboard in it. They ran a test program and it returned no errors with the sound logs, unlike the first test they did with that program, on the original motherboard, where it logged audio faults.

It was away a week and when I started it up again, I found a white blob in the screen, about the size of a thumb tack head. Phoned the repair firm who said that it most likely caused by a heavy carton being put on top of my laptop box. I had used the original box and packaging. I just said that as far as I am concerned, the screen now has a blob & I want the screen replaced under warranty, how it happened is not my concern, as I had not caused it. The technician said it would be replaced under warranty and I returned it to the retailer yesterday, for it to be sent away.

The new Motherboard came with Bios v1.0 (April 2013) whereas when I bought the laptop in April 2014, it had Bios v1.50 installed. I had been instructed by Toshiba to install the then latest Bios from their web site, which was v1.70 to see if it would fix the audio problem, which it didn’t.

I now have noticed that the laptops Hard Drive is spinning all the time. To test, I turned on the laptop at 8am in the morning and just left it on, not using it for 4 hours. I returned to it every half hour and can hear the HDD spinning. I cannot recall hearing it spin constantly in the seven months I have used the laptop. I am under the impression that the HDD is instructed to spin down after a period of idle time, is that so?

I see that Toshiba has released a further Bios update v1.90 on this laptops web page. Before I sent it back yesterday, I asked the Help Desk if I should update the Bios from v1.0 to the v1.90 and they said no. I told that to the technician that had replaced the motherboard & he disagreed with Toshiba, saying that Bios updates are issued to fix faults. He said he would update it for me when he replaced the screen.

One glaring omission with Toshiba is they do not list the change logs for their Bios updates!

When the laptop is performing as it should, it is a pleasure to use.

Cheers

 

Laptop has returned with a new screen. The repairer tested the HDD and found "SMART table is producing UltraDMA CRC errors" They fitted a new HDD, cloning the original to it.

One could say that apart from the Optical drive, Graphics card and RAM, I've essentially got a new laptop .. lol

Question: Should a Laptop HDD spin down after being idle for some time?

 

Five weeks after the return of the laptop, the exact same fault with the audio started again. Took it back to the shop and demonstrated it to the same person, that I had shown before. It went back to the repair shop but they could not get it to fault for them. (it is an intermittent fault) I have refused to accept it back & want to choose a different model. The laptop is now to be sent to Toshiba's head office here in New Zealand. I am told it may take a week for the "paperwork" to be done.

 

Just in case someone who has this Laptop and Googles the problem, I will post what did cause the sound problem. I may be wasting my time as no one has replied to my posts.
I agreed to take the P50t back as what was available from toshiba at the same price I got this for, was a step or two backwards as they were of lesser specs.

I have figured out why the sound was being affected the second time around and what to do to prevent it happening. The BIOS has the facility to have three passwords. One for the HDD and a User password & a Supervisor password for the Laptop. I used both the HDD & User password option. After trial & error, I have come to the conclusion that having those two password options enabled together, was causing the sound problem. Both passwords were the same. I have left the HDD password in place as it still requires me to enter it when I start up the Laptop & if the Laptop is stolen and the HDD put into a caddy or another computer, the password is still needed to access the HDD.

Enabling the two passwords would result in sound drop after a day or so, which could stay like it for a week or so. During that time period, the sound would come right for a day or so and then revert to faulting. One day, I had the sound go from full to half and back to full again in the same day, with the laptop being on all the time.

It is now 26 days since I took the BIOS User password off and the sound has been rock solid. As the Laptop is about a year old & it was at it's end of build cycle when I bought it and I may be the only person who used both of those password options, the likelihood of Toshiba doing anything about it is so remote, that I am not pursuing it.

I like to post fixes when they are found

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Hello,
I have a P50-B since April (fool of me !).

I am rather happy with it as it can run all my favorite softwares without problem. High Resolution screen makes the fonts a bit small for my old eyes. But this screen looks gorgeous. I take can not to rest it on a too soft surface and even on my desk provide it an extra air path under the case too avoid overheating.
Windows 8.1 is nothing better than good old XP but I have no choice and it is not so terrible..I already secured my Winows 10 upgrade !

As far as now my only complain is about the ability to switch for a SSD.

Nothing I did (yet) was able to make my SSD boot. After several exchanges SSD/HDD nothing works!
I did re-install the whole new system from the USB disk system backup on the SSD. Restore looks fine but...wont boot.
SSD and HDD works fine when connected through the Samsung USB 2.0 converter but the PC only boot when the HDD is connected (either internal or through the USB converter). When booted (either on USB or Internal HDD) it will read / write the SSD with no problem.

I had this SSD installed (and un-installed) on my previous laptop (HP-DV5) and switching was just piece of cake.
I am not a real computer wizard and the boot stuff is a bit confusing but I guess I am still an over-average skilled user.
I tried many things (Bios manual / UEFI / UPDATE) but now I tired of the 14 rubber pads and 20 screws operation.

Toshibe people started to tell me "after long research" my SSD is not a 5400 RPM so it's not compatible
After a few more week emailing they say I have to send it so they will do the job for 70€...

I had a Toshiba T2200 (25 years ago...) and because of the "poor service" I decided to NEVER purchase a other one. It took 25 years to change my mind...and I was wrong!

Let me know if you have a "trick" to overcome my problem

best regards

Yves Legrand
In France, at least, Toshiba customer support is TERRIBLE. I wonder if I can reach Toshiba support in another part of the world and cure my problem !

 

@yves Legrand.
Thanks for your post. I have been thinking of replacing the HDD with a SSD but after reading your post, have decided against it.
"14 rubber pads and 20 screws operation." Heck, what a job to do!

I have found the battery life is horrible as I have read that it is a small battery. As the battery is not user replaceable, being built in, I will stay away from internal battery Laptops in the future. The next Laptop I get, I will be wanting both a HDD & a SSD built in.

It has now been three months since I last had any sound problem.
Apart from a few niggles, this Laptop is still real nice to use.
Like you, I have secured my upgrade to Windows 10.

Are you in my age group? I am 68 &, like you, consider myself to be an "over-average skilled user".

Trevor
New Zealand

 

Actually the 20 screws and 14 rubber caps are not a big deal. If you are careful enough this is easy to remove the rubber caps and screws. You can find a good video about this operation on Youtube.
I am a bit younger than you are (54!) .
However it was always a race to stay up to date in this field. I wonder why Toshiba is so bad as supporting in France. I heard (?) they had bad contact with some other local company and had to fight some kind of commercial war here...
Changing for a SSD is a real wonder as speed is concern, and should be real easy. I did it on my previous laptop and it was easy and well worth the pain. I wish I can eventually find a solution and make it...

Best regards!

 

Good thing this post was brought up.
I was really considering a P50-B but after reading some of the experiences on here about toshiba and this model and how it doesn't always handle ssd's well (not to mention the amount of work just to install one in the first place), i think i might skip the p50-b and go for other brand.

 

I'd say it's unfortunately becoming rather common that such disassembly is required to operate on consumer notebooks these days. Most business notebooks still retain easy upgradeability.
As you found though, upgrading to an SSD is well worth the effort. It's the only real upgrade you'll notice in almost every application and general usage.

Charles

 

As for my experience, disassembly was not a problem.
I had to disassemble much more complicated stuff and a laptop remain an easy challenge compared with a smart-phone (not to mention an i-phone!).
Its just a pain the laptop don't comes with a full "online" maintenance manual and you have to search by your self the sometime funny tricks you need to open the case...

Doing the disassembly task once or twice is not a big deal... but when you have to make it 10 time in a row for NO RESULT it get starts getting on nerves !

So my only concern is Toshiba LACK OF PROPER SUPPORT (in France) when it comes to SOFTWARE and CONFIGURATION trouble...

If your Local Toshiba support is a decent one, it should be no reason for rejecting the otherwise nice and efficient P50.
SSD is something so great it pays for the effort you put in the change process...if you are not rich enough to afford the built in SSD models plus the backup external hard disk.

I found real cheap to purchase my Samsung SSD as it provide both the SSD speed for the "upgraded" laptop AND a convenient "backup USB hard disk": SSD is provided with a USB converter in order to allow cloning the HDD to the SSD before physical exchange, so you actually get a "free" HDD to USB converter. This converter will fit the after switch useless original HDD...and now you have you external backup disk.

Yves

 

Did you find any trouble with ssd compatability and overall setup? I read some users on this thread complaint about that, that the ssd, even out of the box ones, wouldn't be recongnized. Maybe it depends on the brands of ssd.

Since you already took apart, did you happen to notice if the dvd drive is easy to remove/replace? My idea was to put the hdd that comes with the laptop on a adapter in that connection and the ssd in the "regular" port.

 

The SSD brand or type should make no difference as it is a SATA III compatible device. As a matter of fact the computer can read/write to this device with no problem. I guess the issue is related to some "safety" setup that prevent booting on a "unknown" device. This is rather stupid as the PC can boot on USB ...

As far as the DVD, its held in place by a single screw and you have to remove it during disassembling process. However the SATA port of the DVD is not a standard one and you will need the "Generic 2nd Hard Drive Ssd Hdd Caddy Bay" if you want to have both disk (SSD + HDD) inside the PC.
As DVD drive is rather useless and it will make you sure you don't have to disassemble a second time this choice makes sense !

 

Did you instal windows to ssd while the old drive was connected? If you did it could be that windows instalation placed filess necessary for boot up proces onto the old hdd and when it is not connected boot process can not be finished as important system files are missing.

I would try either cloning your hdd or fresh windows instal when your current hdd is not plunged to the system and only drive in the notebook is your ssd. After the instalation you can just connect your hdd back.

 

I did several trials :
Fisrt type:
-Clone HDD to SSD trough the Samsung migration software or other software (SSD connected trough the USB converter).
-Physically install the SSD
-Wont boot!
=> I did several attempts with sevral cloning software, either globally or partition after partition, modify the HDDD partition size...

Second type:
-create a recovery media (On a USB key) from the original toshiba recovery wizard.
-Physically install the SSD
-boot from the key, re-install from the recovery sofware
-Wont boot!
=> System boot from the recovery key OR from the HDD on the USB converter, can read and write the SSD, but NOT BOOT.

I eventually return the HDD in the laptop and still wait for Toshiba to help me (the SSD is sitting in on my desk)...
Note, that the SSD can also be read/write through the USB converter and all the files in it are looking very close from the HDD files...but something is wrong in the boot part ... and I can't figure what and how to fix it !

I guess the fix can be done (and tested) without physically installing the SSD INSIDE the laptop as the HDD can boot on the USB converter as well as on the SATA III internal port (except it is much slower !).

Any help ?

Yves

 

I did try the recovery from "USB recovery media" with the SSD sitting in the laptop and the HDD not connected (at all) as if I had a major HDD failure and wanted to restore a bare system on the new disk (SSD).
I fear I would have had the same behavior if i had a REAL HDD failure and tried to "recover" from this "recovery media" on ANY disk (SSD or NOT). It is no reason for a SSD to behave in a different way than any SATA III HDD (except it will be a bit faster !) so I reckon the laptop has no way to tell if I am recovering to a HDD or a SSD.
This could mean a P50-B disk failure is a "fatal" failure...

It is not making me feeling any better...

Yves

 

Can you open disk management when both drives are connected and upload it here so we can see which partitions are being made on the ssd.

I still think you need to do fresh instal or recovery with only ssd inside. Afaik when windows setup detects existing gpt or mbr partition (in your case most likely on hdd) it will write new instalation files inside it (again on hdd) and wont let you boot from ssd. So in my experience only drive onto which you want to instal new windows should be connected to the system.

Alao some cloning software dosent properly clone gpt drives.

 

That was the setup i was thinking of using. An adapter for the hdd to put in the optical drive slot and the ssd would go into the sata port to replace the stock hdd.

It is defintily strange what is going with the ssd and this laptop, at least i haven't read about many issues installing an ssd to laptop and people usually just clone the software, install and it's done.
Could it be something in the toshiba software side that isn't letting the install go correctly? Darkydark mentioned a clean install, maybe that would help it

It's a shame to read about these issues. I was looking to make this upgrade in my next computer, using a samsung ssd also, and reading about this isn't making me feel comfortable to purshace, its already bad that i have to open it completly in the first place.
I saw one in the store today and liked the build and the screen, but the difficult in upgrades again isn't making me comfortable to spend the extra money on it.
By the way, hdd/ssd aside, are you happy with the p50-b? Does yours overheat (on regular tasks, not gamming)? The ones on the store were surpringly cool but then again, they were just "sitting" there only running the windows home screen.

 

Ok, let make it plainer :
I did made a fresh install from the USB recovery media with only the SSD installed inside (on the SATA III) and nothing else (the HDD was fully disconnected).
The "fresh" install from the recovery media (I made on dedicated 16 GoUSB 3.0) ran rather normaly but, though it ended up with the SSD looking very similar to the HDD I was unable to restart (boot) with the SSD only.

Hereunder is the disk manager screen with the SSD connected as USB (through the USB converter). Disk 0 is the HDD, disk 1 is SSD.

Partiton size is almost the same and HDD has two extra partitions : " SSDBackup" and "Données" (ie DATA) where I put nothing except DATA so the "usefull partitions" are of compatible size with the SSD.

Cloning the "useful" partitions for HDD to SSD don't get it any better...
On my HP I had some trouble getting the partitions small enough to fit the SSD during cloning (it was Vista and Partition management was a bit odd to me). But when partition size was OK, cloning and switching the HDD/SSD was just a piece of cake. The last part of the job (setup tweak to optimize SDD use) took some attention but nothing hard nor complicated. When I recovered the SSD from the HP reverting to the original HDD was also real easy... But now I hav a nice SSD sitting on my desk and useless...

I you have any bright idea I will go and try... as soon as I get my small screw driver back...and a few hours to spend!

 

Thank you for clearing it up.
It really is odd how the computer can recognize it but then when it comes to boot it won't let it boot on the ssd. Could be a limitation on the bios? Could toshiba done it on purpose to avoid users to change the hdd or even to push the models they have with ssd?! Its just a strange limitation.
The recovery media, was that made with built in toshiba software? It might not do much and i don't have much experience, but i was going to suggest that if you used the toshiba software to create the usb with a windows image (microsoft even had them on their website before) and then use the serial key that your computer came with to activate. Maybe there is something on toshiba software that gets installed during the fresh install and prevents this. I don't know,it might not make sense but that's what i was thinking. But if that doesn't work, its most likely some kind of limitation on the bios since i read some more complaints on this issue from other users.

Aside from this odd problem, are you happy with the laptop and its performance? Does it overheat, even on small tasks?

 

To Alex31,

Otherwize, the P50-B is a good enough machine. I make some 3D CAD on it and it is fine. However the fan becomes a bit noisy when the load is high.
I think this is normal behavior for a laptop : it can push enough power to compute but it has little way to get rid of the thermal load except the little fan... and a little fan needs to run fast...and is thus noisy.
In case you want to use your laptop for significant work (99.9% of people don't...) just take care not to place it directly on a flat surface (a carpet is the worse case !).
On my desk the laptop is just sitting on a ...paper pen! It provide enough extra air path to reduce significantly the fan buzz on 3D-CAD
Again, most of us don't need sustained computing power but rather short response time when hitting the enter button. In this field this laptop is real nice...and I would be even better with an SSD !

Yves

 

It really is odd how the computer can recognize it but then when it comes to boot it won't let it boot on the ssd.
=> the SSD connection to the SATA III internal port is working perfectly and it can be read / write with no problem. However making a disk "bootable" is something more complicated and I don't master this aspect in the new versions of windows (8.1 !)

Could be a limitation on the bios? Could toshiba done it on purpose to avoid users to change the hdd or even to push the models they have with ssd?! Its just a strange limitation.
=> I can see not clever reason for programming such a limitation...

The recovery media, was that made with built in toshiba software? YES
It might not do much and i don't have much experience, but i was going to suggest that if you used the toshiba software to create the usb with a windows image (microsoft even had them on their website before) and then use the serial key that your computer came with to activate.
=> I don't have any "key" or licence number. The new version of Windows use an on-line activation. However in case this activation fails you should have a clear warning or error message. The windows "licence protection" is not preventing computer boot...

Whatever the reason behind the problem, my main concern is that Tochiba is not of any help ...

 

Thank you for the feedback on it!
Good to know that it's not a bad laptop aside from this whole problem with the ssd. I didn't thought it would heat up much since the ones i tried out at the store were cooler compared to other brands and models.

I forgot that with win8 and up, the key is saved on the motherboard/bios for activation and no need to put the serial number like before.
Toshiba limiting the installation of an ssd doesn't make much sense indeed and i don't even know if thats possible on their part or not, but they don't want us upgrading or changing anything other than the ram without going to them since they didn't made an opening for the hdd (which they could and should have), so i don't know. All this difficulty on upgrades im seeing doesn't give a good image and it's making me consider maybe not buying it (it's already a bit more expensive in the first place than the others)

 

I just remembered reading something about a toshiba laptop and ssd install and bios, not sure if its this one, where the most recent version of the bios didn't work but the user downgraded it to a previous version and it worked. Im not sure where or what model it was, i have been doing so much research that everything is starting to mix. Have you tried to update the bios(if there is updates available)? If not, have you tried downgrade it to a previous version? However, although some users do this from what i know, it can be a bit more risky and its not just like a regular update and there are risks and if flashing the new bios update goes wrong it can lead to some other problems.

----
Okay, so i think i found the links to what i mentioned before about bios version. Its on the toshiba forum and its about a different model, but im assuming by the looks of it that the case is similar (although bios firmware is not):
https://forum.toshiba.eu/showthread.php?77911-Satellite-L50-and-SSD-performance-issue/page2
https://forum.toshiba.eu/showthread.php?77972

They mention us firmware and if your laptop is not from the us i wouldn't use any us bios file also. Try searching on your country or continent toshiba site if they have the files.
Some users reported they were able to make the ssd boot when switching the settings of sata to battery saving or something like that, but that takes away ssd performance. It really seems to be something in the bios firmware, strangely with the more recent updates (at least on the model on that thread).
Toshiba should have fixed this by now honestly, the laptop and problem has been around for a while.

 

Alex31,

I gave a look at the link you provided. Thank you for your help!
However, I have no problem to get my SSD working (Read / Write) so the SATA III interface works a treat ...

The problem is I can't get the computer to BOOT on the disk.

I believe this is not related to the problems of BIOS or Microcode as the SSD successfully do all the data transfers it needs, but rather some data are missing in the BOOT record or the Bios Setup so the computer accept the "new" disk as a boot disk.
It may be related to a security issue (license protection) as old fashion license gave a warning (and sometime asked for license renewal) but this one (Windows 8.1) use some other system to prevent copyright infringement.
It may actually be a problem between Microsoft and Toshiba (as I know it was the case between ASUS and Microsoft leading to big problems for the users ...).
I will also push some requests to Samsung, as it is a Samsung SSD and they should help customers installing the product they sell whatever the computer other hardware...

 

Got it.
I found this thread also, is old and about a different model, but the problem seems to be somewhat similar as yours if i understand it correctly (the ssd is detected but it won't boot from it) : https://forum.toshiba.eu/showthread...on-t-detect-SSD-but-windows-7-will-for-OS-use
The user in there said he restored the bios and the computer recognized it to boot. Don't know if it would fix it but if there is an option on the bios to reset/restore it's settings, maybe it wouldn't hurt to try as i don't think that would do any harm. But again, its an old post about other toshiba laptop

 

Are there any new devolopments on this? I want to know if i should discart the toshiba as choice for a new laptop if i can't put an ssd on it with the hdd replacing the dvd drive

 

Hello... just thought I would report that the internal battery has failed after 17 months of use. I have had it off the AC power about 10 times in it's life and noticed that over those 10 times, that the battery lasted less and less each time. Now, the Laptop will shut down straight away if I pull out the AC power. The Toshiba Health Monitor shows the battery health as poor and that no charge remains. Checked on a replacement battery and the Authorized Toshiba agent quoted me NZ$184 including taxes, excluding fitment. An Internet battery supplier of the official Toshiba battery was NZ$135 including taxes, excluding fitment. Both prices too much for me as I hardly use it off the AC. As I said in a previous post, I will never buy another Laptop with an internal battery.

 

P50-C-12Z Here

Core i7-5500u, NVidia 930m, 16gb, FullHD IPS panel

The panel is very nice. Exceptional viewing angles, amazing clarity and depth of colours. I stuck my colorimeter on it and aside from a 3 point increase in brightness in the Intel control panel, it was basically spot on out of the box.

Before I even turned it on, I installed a 240gb Samsung EVO 850 SSD and repasted the heatsinks (Toshiba did a terrible factory paste job). No problems doing a fresh Win10 install and booting from the SSD whatsoever.

The battery on the model is more traditional, at the back under the screen, but it is screwed in with 2 screws. If you want to replace it, undo those two screws and it slides right out.

Battery life seems good, but not amazing - I am averaging about 5.5 hours with general use per charge.

It is well made, very little chassis and keyboard flex, but the bottom cover is a little "plasticky". Internals are well laid out, the circuit boards are all very well made and use high quality regulators, SMD components and interconnects.

There are some cut corners, like no keyboard backlighting, but for its price and the amazing display I can forgive that. Audio is good, it is VERY LOUD indeed and with a little bit of EQ the sound is more than acceptable.

Plays all my MMO games with great framerates on max detail, the fan is pretty quiet and unobtrusive and temps stay on a very reasonable range. CPU hasn't gone above 74 degrees C and GPU hovers around 60 while playing.

I cannot state enough how nice the display is - coming from a HP Envy 2015 model with an awful TN it is simply night and day. The panel my P50-C came with is an LGD0470

 

Thanks for your post glewarne.