Thoughts (and memories) on older models

Just wondering what peoples thoughts and memories are on the older models of toshiba laptops.

Before i owned my current model (Satellite A10) I owned a Satellite 4080XCDT (Pentium 2 266MHz, 6Gb HDD, 192Mb RAM, etc) which was as solid as a brick, until i dropped it and smashed a wireless card back into the pcmcia slot, destroying it and its motherboard connector. The machine still operates as solidly as before, but will never have a working pcmcia slot again.

So far, i've found all toshibas to have incredibly durable lids and have never fractured a screen...

Anyone else got any stories?

 

My current Toshiba is a Satellite M60. I love it, it's got a huuuuuuuuge screen and it built pretty solid, while still being relatively light (7.5 lbs). My old Satellite 5005-S504, would be about 4 years old if I still had it, had a PIII 1.1GHz 512MB of RAM 16MB Nvidia video card, and an 8X CD-RW/DVD and 30GB hard drive. It was a well built machine, but it began overheating about 6 months after I got it, and shut down with no warning. Long story short, there was a lawsuit, and settlement, so I sent in my notebook, and they tested it, and gave me $1500 for a new Toshiba, thus I got the M60.

The end

Matt

 

Sounds similar to my Gateway 5300 (P3 800) disaster story... There was a design flaw in the lid that caused the lcd to bruise at the slightest pressure on the back.. even when opening it... after carrying it home one day, i had a cracked LCD which took two months to replace... After that i got it back with a new screen, but it would shut down with no warning, probably due to a loose link inside. Two weeks later, the screen fractured again and they refused to cover it under warranty. Eventually after legal threats, i got my money back and got the 4080XCDT

 

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have gone with Toshiba again, but I could only get $1000 in cash if I didn't get a Toshiba, so for the extra $500, I decided what the heck, I'll just get an Asus or Sager next time, after the quad-core, 10GHz laptops are out

 

I've had my Satellite (5105 - see specs in my sig.) for about 4.5 years now and it's run great up until about 6 months ago. The video card started going out of wack, so we had to get it replaced - ever since its been replaced it's been running great though. In addition, I really like the screen (15" UXGA) and the harmon/kardon speakers + the built in subwoofer are incredible. We also have a Qosmio G25 in our family and that's just as excellent. I also love the screen on the Qosmio, as it is in fact the brightest screen on the market, and also has great multimedia and enough gaming power to please most people.

 

My tecra 8100 is the only computer I have. I cart it around everywhere and it still takes everything I dish it out.

It's about to be retired though as I just picked up an M2v that should be getting delivered tomorrow.

I sold an old tecra 520cdt (166MHz Pentium 1 "with MMX technology") to a workmate about a year and a half ago before he left to do a PhD in Germany. He came by to visit a few months back and still uses it (mostly as a typewriter).

 

Well i owned second hand Toshiba 4600 Pro Satellite and it kept on developing problems so i sold that as spares and bought a Pro Satellite 6100. That was a pretty good machine but the keyboard was prone to develop problems with the mouse point accupoint becoming non opervative which was a pain but not a major thing as i could still use my mouse. I did however though had to buy more than two keyboards to fix this problem. Thankfully though i didn't have the huge problems that some people seem to to have had this with this model.

My sister bought a Toshiba 3000 Satellite about three years ago and she has only really used it for 18months out of that time so it has not been heavily used. The jack point in her laptop broke which meant that she could not use an adapter to power up her laptop. I believe this is a common problem in these models. Clearly they were not built well enough. I spent a lot of money and time getting the jack replaced for her and this replacement of the jack maybe only just a temporary fix as I have heard stories of the jack breaking again after being soldiered. She also developed a battery charging problem which meant that her battery refused to charge. The laptop had to go in for service for this.
I also suspect her laptop to have problems with the graphics card now as when she boots up you get distortion of the graphics on the screen but when you log on things appear to be ok. I am though however looking to get a replacement graphics card for her.

All these really do not give me much confidence in Toshiba and although our collective experiences haven't been awful i don't think that i could recommend them to anybody.

 

My experiences with Toshiba aren't that good.
Had a problem with the keyboard within a couple of weeks after I purchased it, took the notebook in for a fix, but I still have the problem . It came back right ater my warranty ended ...

Oh, I forgot this: Besides improvement in technology and weight, this is one of the reasons to look after a new notebook.

 

Repair problems seem to be very common... Its hardly surprising given that if they did a perfect job they would get less business ... That was why I became interested in doing the repairs myself, when the notebook fell outside of warranty... If I sent it in for servicing, I would give it a checkover when I got it back to make sure they had done the job properly.

I once found a ribbon cable held in only by stickytape, needless to say I never went back to that repairer, except to demand a new ribbon cable and power control module...

 

Actually, on a lot of low-end/mid-range notebooks, you'll find sticktape almost common place for holding down cables and cords in a notebook.

 

Yeah, but this was cello tape, and it was also holding the faceplate of my floppy disk drive on (this was before they were obsolete)
Most unsurprisingly, the drive was dead when I got it both due to mechanical problems, and the dodgy ribbon cable. What exactly they did to my power control module I still dont know.

On the topic of the stickytape in laptops that holds down ribbons and cable bundles, does anyone know where to get it from? I've found on the machines that I've repaired, it tends to lose its stick when undone, and really needs to be replaced

 

I'm no specialist when it comes to internal notebook tape, but I think the sticky tape is basically electrical wire. I would check around at computer repair stores and see what they use. Red_Wolf: I'm sorry to hear about that! I was under the impression the repair shop used regular electrical wire-like tape.

 

I know exactly what you mean there and i am the same way myself. If a model is out of warranty there is no way that i would pay to have it done if i can do it myself. There was a time when i couldn't even couldn't fit a keyboard or dismantle a notebook but in the period of less than six months things have changed. I just fitted a new chasis to my sisters notebook yesterday and saved a lot of money by sourcing the casing and fitting it myself. I will also do the same with the graphics card for her.

 

The best thing about my Toshiba A25-S307 is the battery life. It's 2.5 years old and I still get a solid 3-3.5 hours of battery every day. I've had to replace a number of other things, but that battery just keeps on truckin... I love it.