***Satellite A70 users***

Hey everyone, I'm new here [ ]

I was looking at Future Shop's website today and saw that they have a Toshiba Satellite A70-KL1 Pentium 4-HT 3.06GHz Notebook on sale for $1499 (plus you get a free printer!) I've been researching the Satellite A70 for 2 or so months now, but I want to make sure it's the right one. Here are my questions for Satellite A70 owners:

1. What model do you have/how long have you owned it?
2. Do you have any dead/stuck pixels on your screen?
3. Is this laptop noisy (fan noise or hard drive noise)?
4. Can you watch a full DVD without the battery running dead?
5. If you have a 4200 rpm drive, do you find it lacking when you copy large files, etc.?
6. Do you find it durable? (Any scratches on screen, worn keyboard, etc.?)
7. What is the difference between TruBrite and non TruBrite models? Which one do you own, and how is screen quality?
8. Do you know if you can upgrade the hard drive in the A70?
9. Anything else important you might want to add.

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

Here's the link to the one I was looking at:

http://www.futureshop.ca/home.asp?logon=&langid=EN&dept=0&WLBS=FSWEB32

Do you think it's a good deal, even though the hard drive is only a 40 GB/4200 rpm?

 

1. What model do you have/how long have you owned it?
A75-S209... I think it's similar to the A70 series, without XP PRO nor FireWire, but TruBrite is standard. Same case dimensions at least.

2. Do you have any dead/stuck pixels on your screen?
Nope, thank god.

3. Is this laptop noisy (fan noise or hard drive noise)?
YES! The fan is much noisier than my old Inspiron 7000 or my previous Satellite.

4. Can you watch a full DVD without the battery running dead?
Depends on what movie... certainly not Titanic, but Toshiba has a special mobile DVD setting under their power options.

5. If you have a 4200 rpm drive, do you find it lacking when you copy large files, etc.?
Hard to tell, since when I transfer large flix off my Satellite for storage, it's constrained by the speed of the USB chipset on the external drive. 4200 rpm laptop drives are slightly slower responding to everyday Office apps (compared to desktops), but you get used to it pretty quickly.

6. Do you find it durable? (Any scratches on screen, worn keyboard, etc.?)
I've only had my notebook for 2 weeks. It's pristine

7. What is the difference between TruBrite and non TruBrite models? Which one do you own, and how is screen quality?
TruBrite is da Bomb! Ok, it's not quite up to Sony's XBrite, but it's 100% better than the muted murky colors on my old Satellite. If you're going to use your laptop indoors in a fixed location for 90% of the time, go with TruBrite. But if you're a real road warrior and have to work under varied lighting conditions, go for the regular matte screen since glare and reflections can get annoying.

8. Do you know if you can upgrade the hard drive in the A70?
Yes... based on the specs doc on the Toshiba site, it's user upgradeable. I know my A75 basically takes any 9.6mm laptop drive since I've already created a backup of XP and my installed apps on a old spare hdd.

9. Anything else important you might want to add.
Toshiba doesn't provide you with a clean version of Windows XP. If you need to restore from the CD, you've got to reinstall EVERYTHING (including Works and trial software) and delete unwanted junk afterwards. Oh, the speakers on this A75 are just atrocious: my clock radio sounds better! Just make sure you get 512MB of RAM since 256MB is basically only good for net browsing.

 

Thanks for responding

About the TruBrite screens...are they glossy or matte? Would you notice a big difference in screen quality between a TruBrite screen and a non TruBrite screen? The one I'm looking at doesn't have a TruBrite screen. Thanks again.

 

1. I have the satellite A70...the 2.8 ghz model, Ive had it since August
2. None
3. Eveyrtime i start it up it takes a HUGE "breath"...ver loud but it only lasts fo about 5-6 seconds. And yes, i would have to agree that fan noise is a tad higher than my previous notebooks.
4. i dont know, i always just use the ac thing for watching dvds. but i doubt you can watch a full one.
5. same as go ranger's reply. but its not slow...
6. Yes, very durable, my 4 month old baby thought it was ok to pound the hell out of the keyboard. and now im missig my alt key. but still works fine. no squeaks or anything
7. i wouldnt know, but i would go for trubrite. i think mine has it
8. yes
9. well this is the thing...i bought my laptop for 1300 with all taxes and everything at costco, i get 2% rebate and dont have to pay gst. so it wasnt too bad. the reason why it was so cheap is because it was the one on display. only on display for 2 days so...like new!
well anyways, it takes FOREVER for mine to load up windows and everthing. im gonna post a post asking about this.

all in all...its a very dependable notebook. i guess it all comes down to what your needs are. but this notebook just seems to do all the jobs. good luck!

 

forgot to mention 1300 canadian dollars. and i know thers an A20 in my sig...i used to own it but retured it for a70 [ ]

 

Thanks a lot [ ]

I have 3 more questions:

1. How do you know if your model has TruBrite or not? I know you can get it on the 3.20 GHZ model but haven't seen it anywhere else.

2. Do you find the hard drive noisy? or is it basically the fan that creates all the noise?

3. Do you find this laptop good for multitasking? Someone told me that you can really multitask with laptops as much as you can with desktops.

Thanks.

 

Also, I've heard from numerous people that there is a problem with the screen blacking out/not turning on in the A70. [} ] Has anyone had this problem, and is there a way to fix it? I was told reinstalling the power manager utility fixes the problem, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

1. i dont know ecactly...perhaps its really bright???
2. most of the time its the fan, but periodically its the hardrive also, well mine does that i dont know about others
3. YES i can multitask just about anything. i can word process, play music, have messenger running, surf the web...its a desktop replcaement so it better multitask well, and it does.

ive not had my screen black out at all. i heard this too before i bought mine but chose to ignor tthem. and besides, dont be worried that much. youre buying it from futureshop...dont they have the 30 day money back guarantee for computers and notebooks? i used a pc for 30 days and returned it with no problems. use it for 30 days and if you like it keep it, otherwise return it.

 

Thanks [8D]

 

1. What model do you have/how long have you owned it?

I have a Toshiba M30X customized that i purchased only a couple weeks ago, but have used before.

2. Do you have any dead/stuck pixels on your screen?

Nope....none
3. Is this laptop noisy (fan noise or hard drive noise)?

It is very quiet due to the Centrino CPU instead of the P4 which runs much hotter.

4. Can you watch a full DVD without the battery running dead?

Yes, but the DVD would have to be shorter than 4 hours

5. If you have a 4200 rpm drive, do you find it lacking when you copy large files, etc.?

Im afraid i wont be much help on this one, i havent had much experience copying large files yet

6. Do you find it durable? (Any scratches on screen, worn keyboard, etc.?)

Well mine is new, but it has no scratches. It seems to be pretty durable. The screen is very good quality and i would be surprized if i managed to break it.

7. What is the difference between TruBrite and non TruBrite models? Which one do you own, and how is screen quality?

I own the NON-Trubrite and i like it better. The Trubrite does have a sharper image, but i cant stand the glossy covering-it reflects glare and annoys me. Toshiba has GREAT screens, even if you dont get the trubrite.

8. Do you know if you can upgrade the hard drive in the A70?

Not owning one...i have no clue. I will look into it and try to get back to you. Rely on other replies for this one.

9. Anything else important you might want to add.

I wouldnt recommend the P4 unless you need to run performance demanding software such as video editing. Toshiba has some good Centrino laptops. My M30X has Radeon 9700 graphics which i love. If the P4 is what you want go for it tho.

Hoped i helped a little.

~Zinger~

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Tech_Girl

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by zinger2127

 

I have had an A75 for 4 months now (I guess that they just had come out in August, since I paid a lot more--1500 US direct from Toshiba US). I have had the same experience as goRanger with it, except for two things:

1) there's some weird problem: when you touch around the speakers, the screen flickers. It's hard to avoid not touching this area given that the speakers are on the flat area below the keyboard, where you would normally like to rest your wrists (i know, that isn't a healthy typing habit). it doesn't always happen, except when it does, it is truly annoying.

2) after 4 months, it started to shut off automatically for no reason, at least no software problem...took it in to the shop, and they said that the two (very noisy) fans were already stuffed up with dust, and therefore the unit wasn't cooling down properly. When I asked the technician (in Israel, where i'm living right now) what I could do to avoid the problem, he said, "tell toshiba to design their laptops better." Not exactly a practical solution. I talked to tech support in USA (partially to complain about poor service in ISrael), and the guy could only tell me that it was unusual to have this problem after 4 months, and maybe I live in a dusty environment (which I don't). His only suggestion was to buy some canned oxygen to blow out the fans from time to time. (if anyone else has had this problem, I'd love to know)

Another annoying thing for those of us who travel abroad: according to the Israeli support company, these models (A70s and A60s) are only sold in the states, so if i had needed a part, i would have had to wait for it to be sent from US to Germany to Israel (since Israel tech support is a branch of the German operation). I was told about a customer who had waited already *****2.5 months****** for a part! Furthermore, Toshiba doesn't cover the shipping or "administration" (including faxes, emails, phone calls, etc) of replacement parts. I was warned that if I had needed a replacement part that the israeli company didn't have, I would have had to pay a minimum of $57 US in these "administrative" charges[:0], and as it was they charged me $12 US (I have no idea why).

These are my chief gripes so far. I'm not sure I would buy a Toshiba again, although my last laptop, a Dell Insipiron 8000, was not much better from what I can tell so far. I still miss the days of my first Toshiba Satellite about 10 years ago which I never ever had to take in for repairs for 5 years[ ]!

 

Tech_Girl,

Are you definitely suck on the brand or is that flexible? The reason I ask is because there's other brands on the market that can suit your need and fit your budget, even a Pentium M model. Since it sounds like you're going for a P4 because that's the only type of system you can afford, you do have otehr options. You may want to take a look at the Acer product line. The quality is just as good and will fit you financially better.

-Vb-

 

Hi,
I was interested in a Satellite A70 too but while I was looking for info on this model I saw some pages where owners commented about problems with static and the pc freezing or restarting. There is one post (dec 20, 2004) in the following link that explains more in detail that issue. I wonder if anybody here has a simila problem.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/23605/?o=40

 

Well I have an A70-TS1. It has been a good laptop since I purchased it in September of 2004. Unfortunately it has just packed it in today. Put it away yesterday and pulled out today an it doesn't boot. Nothing. No post up screen or anything. Worst part is I haven't backed up since the beginning of the month and I've collected a lot of marks (I'm a teacher) since then.

 

Flowrider,

If the system is not powering on with battery or AC, and you must retrieve the data on the drive, you can get an external USB drive enclosure for notebook drives and put your drive into the enclosure. Connect the enclosure to a desktop/another computer and transfer all the data over.

-Vb-