Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
I own a Toshiba Satillite A55-S306, about five years old (I am the original owner). Specs are:
Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Centrino 1.5 Ghz
768 GB RAM (upgraded at time of purchase five years ago, from the standard 256 GB)
CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
80 GB HD (upgraded recently from original 40 GB model, see below)
Intel 852 GM integrated graphics
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG - 802.11b/g
This machine is very old, and lately has been acting like it...It will suddenly and randomly (sometimes several times a day, sometimes not for weeks) give me the "blue screen of death", flash very quickly on the screen so I don't have time to read it all, but at the end are always the words "beginning physical memory dump" or something like that (the entire screen will be filled with white text against blue screen). The machine will then reboot itself. I have checked for viruses, spyware, registry issues, etc., all to no avail, so I suspect the problem to be physical in nature.
It first started doing this last June, and thinking it was a HD issue since HD's tend to have a shorter lifespan than other components, I had the HD replaced with a brand new one. Since the machine then stopped acting up for a few months, I figured I had solved the problem and congratulated myself on having managed to save the laptop for only about 200 bucks (new HD, plus new power adapter which was also dead). However, the laptop started doing the exact same thing again by November, and I crossed my fingers and did nothing, since I couldn't afford to replace it at the time. Sure enough, within a few weeks it stopped acting up again.
Since then the machine has continued to do this on a bizarre and yet no-pattern cycle, it'll do it for awhile, then stop, then start doing it again. Since it has a brand new HD I'm now pretty certain it has nothing to do with the HD, but I'm at a loss as to what is wrong with it, whether it's worth trying to fix or just replace (I should probably replace sometime anyways given it's age), or most critically, how long a lifespan I should expect out of a machine that has been doing this on and off for nearly a year already (I have all my data backed up to an external HD just in case).
...Basically I am trying to figure out how much longer I might expect this machine to live, and whether I can reasonably expect to be able to string the thing along for another 6 months to a year, or if I should thank my lucky stars it hasn't already gone totally dead, and pony up the cash for a new laptop?
Toshiba A55-S306 On It's Last Legs?
Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by Kalysta, May 4, 2008.
