Toshiba R700 / R705 /R630 Owners Thread

Excellent write up oscar2! Really appreciate it. I agree that people pointing out small issues all the time (including myself) makes things grow on our minds in to BIG issues.

I really like my r700. Excellent build quality(my battery has a little bit of play though)

Very bright and crisp screen. I know it has narrow viewing angles but it is also why the screen is adjustable.

Performance is pretty good.(stock 5400rpm hdd is very slow though) I just ordered myself a OCZ Vertex 2 so it should get much faster.

No heat issues whatsoever.(especially when surfing, listening music etc.)

Battery life is pretty good at ~4:45 hours max brightness with balanced mode.(i did a fresh win7 install)

I just wish fan could run at a lower speed during non-demanding stuff. Even in idle it is running at 40% speed. I think it is controlled by bios so I'm not sure if we can modify/change fan speed.

Also 65watt charger nice and small but also pretty slow to charge r700's 66whr battery. My vaio tt has 59whr battery and also a 65watt charger but it charges much faster thanks to sony's fast battery charging utility. I wonder why toshiba doesn't have such thing.

 

Hey everyone,
just got my r630 today, very pleased with it so far, don't see what all the fuss is about the fan.
I have the version with the i3 processor and was wondering whether it is possbile to upgrade this to a i5 or an i7?
It seems to me from what I've read that it should be possible so long as the cpu isn't souldered in place.

thanks

 

Hi all,

I am using a R705 and am quite happy with it so far. It's been 2 months. I do however have a problem with my webcam. Or at least I think it's a problem. The picture is very grainy and of poor quality. Anyone can confirm this or is this just my machine?

Regards

 

isnt your fan running at 43% all the time ?

 

when I do skype my webcam looks terrible on my screen, however when I ask the other side, they usually find it quite good. Quite weird.

 

Are you sure you've removed the plastic cover on the lens?

 

had a few "cracking/crashing" noises. What is sounds like is, if anyone had done this, if u shake/move you cd drive when its working (or hd drive for that matter)

Fan runs @40% for a reason there. There is no real heatsink in there, so it must get fresh air all the time. You could argue its annoying, i find a fan spinning up/down every minute more annoying

Whats really annoying (yes, im repeating myself) is the high pitch.

havent encountered the flickering

PS: anyone else having trouble with some videos getting all screwed up with green colour?
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/02/16/dead-island-announcement-trailer

I have a theory it happens with latest intel drivers only (havent tested)

PS: theory confirmed
intel 8.15.10.2125: gives corrupt video playback
intel 6.14.10.5258: works fine (so far)

 

I'm on 8.15.10.2279. I downloaded it directly from Intel's website. Everything works and my windows score went from 4.4 to 4.5


Btw what do you mean by high pitch noise ? cpu or fan ?

 

Other side sees grainy picture as well.

Pretty sure I have done this as well.

Regards

 

Hi, I just starting working with an R700-184 and am happy with the portability of the thing without sacrificing performance. No real noise issues with the fan, though it does audibly speed up when dealing with graphics. I have a question of my own: has anyone experienced problems with USB recognition? I have just upgraded the BIOS to 1.80 which has not resolved the issue. The R700 sees the USB stick and then drops it. It continues like that in a cycle. Is this a Toshiba or a Windows issue?

 

There is USB recognition driver on toshibas driver supoort web site

 

see a new driver on toshiba page
8.15.10.2189 ->gonna try it

High pitch is form the power, when cpu is mostly idling. If u give cpu work it "stops"

 

Today I noticed that when I slightly pushed/touched on the window 7 sticker on the palmrest with my finger, the high pitched hum of the fan went away As soon as I removed my finger, hum came back again. Can anybody confirm this ?

 

Do you have a link to that page? I looked on the Toshiba website but couldn't find it.

 

Hi. I recently got the 705 from BB. Can anyone tell me how to get into the Bios settings? It is weird that it doesn't tell us on the startup screen.

 

Hey,
does anyone else get a buzzing sound if they move the laptop whilst it's playing audio? I have the R630 with the i3 processor. Thanks

 

thats because of the hdd protection. don't worry...

 

Hi guys!

I just bought a Toshiba Satellite R630-14T:
Processor: Intel Core i5 480M / 2.66 GHz
RAM 4 GB (DDR3 SDRAM - 1066 MHz)
HDD: 500GB Serial ATA-300 - 5400 rpm
DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
Win 7

I've been googeling around to see if there's any back lit keyboard available to replace the original one... no luck. Do you have any idea, or have you tried on your own to replace the keyboard perhaps?

 

Can't see if you got any answer for your Q. But I enter BIOS with the F2 key. Frustrating that it doesn't say anything at the startup screen indeed!

 

Actually its F12 keep hitting it till you hear the post.

 

2nd HDD via optical bay replacement? Anyone try this? Can't find concrete answer anywhere.

 

2nd HDD via optical bay replacement? Anyone try this? Can't find concrete answer anywhere.

____


Can't do it. I looked into it. Because you can't find an answer should tell you something--- would be a nice feature though eh?

 

2 Video Problems:

1) My driver crashes about once a week, usually when I am watching flash video. It crashes and then the whole system is extremely slow to respond as W7 attempts to re-enable the drivers. Its really frustrating because for some reason it can't. It just ends up being extremely slow, with the external monitor screen blanking in and out for long periods. The only way to get around it is through a hard shutdown. Anyone else have this problem?? Know how to fix it?

2) My external monitor often flickers uncontrollably only at the highest resolution of 1920X1080; also only when i connect it after I had taken my laptop out for the day and used it without the monitor just prior to connecting the monitor. So when i get back home, I connect it, the screen starts flickering wildly. The only way to get around it is to reduce the resolution or to restart the computer. I have a Dell Monitor.

 

That's odd, or perhaps not so odd I guess if we have different BIOS...?
On my R630-14T I'm running BIOS v1.80

F12 takes me to a "TOSHIBA Boot Manager" screen:

http://img233.imageshack.us/i/toshibabootmanager.jpg/
through which I can enter BIOS by "Enter Setup"

F2 takes me directly into BIOS

 

Ok, I'll try both of these and report back on which one works. Thanks for your help.

 

Hmm, I have the 705. Will have to try this when I'm later tonight.

 

It's just there has to be a way....the DVD drive isn't any slimmer than a 2.5" hdd, we just need a caddy that would fit since it is slighting thinner than a normal laptop one. Gah

 

You might want to go to the Service Station to download the 1.90 Bios update.

 

Picked up a 705-35 at BB yesterday. This is my first Toshiba, and I'm curious about the Eco mode. I made some changes to the eco profile, and then of course when I tried to go into Eco mode it wanted me to let it change everything back to default. Instead, I left Eco the way I wanted it and disabled Eco and Powersaver from starting up under msconfig and services. It's just using Windows power management now.

I'm generally using Balanced mode, but wanted a profile available for max battery. Is there anything about Toshiba's power saving implementation that makes it superior to just a windows power profile by itself? Do all of the options available even work without the powersaver and Eco services running? When I look at my desktop PC, some of the options I'm getting on the Toshiba aren't available. But that's a Vista workstation, and this is my first Win7 workstation, so I don't know if this difference is in the OS or if it's due to Eco / Powersaver.

 

Guys, need a bit of help. I purchased the R705-P35 a few days ago from Best Buy. So far, I'm fairly please with the laptop except for one significant issue. The screen appears to have very subtle vertical lines that show up when viewing large swaths of the same color (i.e. a white background in a web browser). It's almost as if the sharpness of the pixels is off and they're overlapping at the edges.

I was not expecting the best screen in the world from this thing, but I've not noticed anyone else complain about this issue. I also did not notice this effect on the display model at Best Buy. Can anyone confirm this being a problem for you?

 

change it!

 

Are you sure it's set to the native resolution?

 

Yes, I'm certain. The effect is subtle, and maybe I'm just expecting too much from a 700 dollar laptop screen. I mostly just want to make sure it's not a defect.

 

anyone having problem logging in after sp1/latest driver updates (dont know which ones are the cause, coz i installed em all at once)

Heres what happens:

when i cold start windows, everything is ok. Log in comes up, i use the finger reader.

After sleep however sometimes the finger reader doesnt come up and f i type pass i cant go on. "Enter" doesnt do anything, swiping finger doesnt do anything, typing and using mouse to advance doesnt work either. NOTHING happens when i try to log in, so the only solution is to restart

 

I've heard people complain about this when you wake it up by swiping your finger. But if you hit a key first, to wake it up, and then swipe your finger then it's ok.

 

For those that have opened up the R750-P35:

What interface does the Optical Drive use? With the R830 coming out "soon," the R705 may drop in price. The price difference would most certainly warrant adding an SSD to the R705, but I'd like to manufacture an optical drive caddy to accept the included 500GB drive.

If anyone is willing to take a peak, I could get started. I believe it's the Panasonic UJ892 drive, which is SATA and would make this possible.

 

my pc doesnt wake up frmo swiping finger, I always press a key (or power button)

Right now this is REALLY anoying as sometimes i have to restart (and lose whatever was unsaved) everytime i cant get it.

 

First off, I love my new r700-1312

Want to upgrade to SSD.

Just wanted to confirm with someone before spending the money that this drive will work:
Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Other Drives like the OCZ seem to be more popular but are getting bad reviews about bricking and not recieving as advertised speeds.

I would like to purchase an Intel SSD but there read/write speeds are slow.
Anyone have a better rommendation for a SSD?

 

I have the 256GB version of this drive which was listed as compatible on crucial.com for the R705-P41 which I have.

There shouldnt be any problems in using that drive with the R700. Would be better if someone with an R700 and a Crucial SSD could confirm though.

256GB, 2.5-inch Solid State Drive, upgrades for Toshiba Portege R705-P41 Laptop/Notebook, CT1567542 from Crucial.com


Here's the page on crucial.com for your model: Computer memory upgrades for Toshiba Portege R700-S1312 Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

 

F12 to get into the BIOS worked on my 705!

 

Its earlier in the thread, but it should be SATA in the latest models. I haven't been able to find a caddy to replace the optical with a hdd, please post if you find/make one.

 

Well, that would be indeed interesting!

 

Did anyone had success conecting 27" (2560x1440) to R700 via HDMI? I was not able to get native monitor resolution even with latest Intel drivers... although HDMI v1.3 should be able to provide this resolution?

 

Hello,
I've been reading through the last 30 pages of this thread and still haven't found a solution to the high-pitched sound coming from the fan area of the machine.

is this unfixable?

Thanks

 

Maybe your fan is loud and you should replace it. I don't notice any problem myself.

 

Hello,

I have an R700 and sometimes when i start it out of energy saving mode the screens is somehow bleach, what can i do against it? As far as i know i have the latest graphicchip driver...

 

I've heard it said that this is due to the Intel auto contrast/brightness (power conservation feature). You can test this by disabling it: Right click on the desktop, go to graphics properties, click power tab, choose battery from pull down menu, disable power conservation features.

 

Do you know wheter the R630 model aslo supports Intel Wireless Display? I can´t find this information anywhere.

Thx

 

i can barely hear the fan, the quiet metallic, high-pitched screech has nothing to do with regular fan behavior.

the sound comes and goes, no matter how the laptop is placed or how intense the workload is.

btw, the machine is brand new!

It's weird, but thanks for the help and quick replay Oscar

 

In that case it's likely that you are hearing what is called cpu whine. There isn't a easy fix for that but since your laptop is brand new, you should be able to return it for one that doesn't have that issue. Do a search on "cpu whine" and you will see others have done so.