Toshiba Satellite M40-JM3 - I need your opinion

Hello !
I think I was able to overcome the high pitch sound by connecting the external speakers and disabling the internal ones. After some time I have disconnected the external speakers and that sound is gone, even after re-enabling the internal speakers. I can hear this high pitch sound very rarely now. basically it is gone.
Another little problem. I have installed few programs but when I go to Add/Remove programs I do not see any programs which can be uninstalled. Where is the problem? Any idea? How can I uninstall the programs - system restore?
Do you have long loading time of mp3 cd's with subdirectories? My M40 sometimes needs minutes to read/initialize the cd. I can hear the optical drive "clicking". Do you experience the similar problem?
Anybody tested the battery? I get about 2- 2.5hrs of avarage use. I can barely watch one movie, where on my previous laptop Compaq R3320CA I could watch 2 movies. I was expecting more out of Centrino power saving features. Any comments? Do I have to get different battery than the one which came with the laptop? I have heard that bigger capacity battery for M40 is pretty big and goes beyond laptop's outline. Is this true?
It took me 1 hr to install Half life2. I was so upset with this internet bul... instalation. Is it common time to install games on laptops nowadays?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Bluemax43

 

Hello !
I cannot see any entries in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Recently I have installed few new programs like Autocad, Word etc. Why these newly installed programs are not there? Does Toshiba has come up with new way of uninstalling programs?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Bluemax43

 

Hi Bluemax43,

Actually, I have similar experiences as you, I exchanged Toshiba M40 Jm3 for twice, because there's some probblems. The first one has problem with the hard drive, there's no auto attach; the second one is working well except for the annoying high pitch sounds, and the third one that I am using now still has the annoying high pitch sounds. I thought it's coming from the fan, I am thinking of take it to Toshiba Technical support Ctr to fix. I am so contradictious, I am think if I should return the M40 and buy another model. Does anyone have any thought about this issue?

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Bluemax43

 

I realized when I turn on the Windows Media Player, the high pick annoying sound is disappear, so I just mute the sound, turn the volumn to silent. And then M40 would be very quiet, that's how I deal with this annoying sounds right now.

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

 

Minimeow, yes, we have to beat that sound issue. I was able to bring mine a little bit down by conecting external speakers and disabling on-board ones. It looks like the high pitch sound is on when the system is idling. When you start doing something than goes quiter or disappear. I will contact Toshiba and see what they say about it. Let us know if you find out anything when you contact Toshiba tech support. We have to keep bugging them so they realize there is a problem and they look at this issue more seriously.

 

Hey guys.. i'm looking for a laptop..
my first notebook..
i used to be a hardware freak.. mainly graphices card.. then i stopped playin any games or updating myself on forums

well i've been looking around.. i see tons of laptops with integrated graphices (eww )

all i know is i want a centrino.. and came across this one.. i'm in canada.. i'm planning to get the 1.6ghz version of the satilite m40

so right now i have a free questions for those who own this:
1.freezes if you unplug AC
okay, so i heard this is b/c they change the power setting automaticly, i can disable this.. i guess this is not a big issue

2.the high pitch sound from the left side
so this is sum kind of problem right? i dun like da idea of hafing to mute volume just to not here this..

so 1 problem is the sound issue.. i probally won't be annoyed but i'm just annoyed cuz its not perfect.. i know nth is..

things bad about the laptop
1. sound of the dvd rom? is this loud when operating?
2. slow harddrive.. i know its 4200 rpm or sumthing.. but how slow is this? i heard when u load a song.. it experiences a long delay? thats realli bad.. ? i asked the tech guy from futureshop he said u can just replace the HD..
3. short battery life.. i've never owned a laptop.. i'm assuming this would last only 2 hours.. i'm interested in da extended.. which probally provide me with more than 4 hours.. which is good.. but maybe i'll be okay with 2 hours..

i really don't mind sound.. and if the slow harddrive isn't really that bad.. and i mite be fine with da battery life..

this seems pretty good. awsome display, awsome graphices card, intel wireless card, good motherboard/processor, looks good.. the best specs so far

also wut is the slot that isn't avaliable?
there isn't blue tooth either right?

 

I have had the M40-yp3 model now for several weeks. After upgrading to XP pro I had a problem with a missing dll. It turns out the toshiba power management software included is the problem. After uninstalling that things have been fine. In fact, now I don't have the BSOD when I unplug my AC adaptor when the computer is running. Regarding the high pitched noise, I don't find it bothersome at all. It is really infrequent and I believe it is from the processor or the memory or something like that. You will only hear it if the room is completely silent and the processor is doing something. For example the whole time I wrote this reply, I did not hear the sound at all. But if I was to scroll down the page, I would hear it for a second while I was scrolling down. It totally doesn't bother me. I can't say that the DVD is noisey when it is going. I've watched a couple of DVD's and not found it to be loud. The battery life is short, I've been able to get 2hour and 15 mins more or less while surfing the net using the wireless card. I've heard the bigger battery about doubles the time but I don't have it myself. Overall I'm really happy with the laptop and everyone who has tried it out at my office is impressed too.

 

Hi,

I am thinking of getting this laptop. But when I was at Future shop I saw the VGN FS550 CNT. Its pretty much an identical laptop except it has the shared video RAM. But the screen is an xbrite. I really don't know the difference in the names, but at the store I could definately see the difference and see that the screen is much brighter and crisper.

Has anyone seen this laptop? I was pretty much finalized on the M40, but now that I have seen this Sony I am very interested in it.

 

I also hesitated to buy the FS instead of the M40. However, a couple of things made me choose the Toshiba anyway:

- First, I read here and there that the FS's build was pretty cheap by Sony's standard, so it couldn't justify paying for the name Sony.

- Second, it was at least 200$ more expensive than the M40 and didn't even have the dedicated gfx card to make up for it.

- Third, it's a little heavier I think, and that's about it.

Personally, that was enough for me to choose the M40, its screen brightness is already high enough. If you compare, maybe you can see a difference, but for daily usage, it's a damn nice screen. Oh , and the FS's battery life isn't that better either from what I've read.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

heavenly38,

Thank you for your comments. ITs just that Future shop has the FS 550 on sale now and it is just 100 bucks more than the M40.

Also, according to Sony and other people are saying that the battery lasts about 4 hours. That is about twice as much as I am hearing people talking about the M40.

The only bummer is that it has two 256 MB chips so that I will need to buy two 512MB chips to go up to a gig.

I checked the weight for both and they seem the same to me.

I really don't know what to do. Does anyone know if the video graphics card is supposed to make a difference? I have an ATI 128 MB all-in-wonder video card in my current desktop. I don't know what I will be feeling as a difference.

I am really tempted to go for the Sony because fo the increased batter life and the laptip itself, because it is white and looks nice!

Any help?

 

the video just makes any 3d rendering/games MUCH faster..
if the SONY FS550 doesn't even haf a dedicated video card.. it will not run any 3d application well at all..
it will be fine for all ur office applications tho, and the 2d will be fine..

it doesn't seem like ur into games.. the toshiba m40 is made more for very good performance in applications + games..

there are other centrino's out there.. with about the same specs as the m40 but with a slower video card.. 64mb dedicated ATI x600.. that will run 3d applications well.. you should really look into a laptop with a graphices card..

i recommend, Asus, Acer, Gateway... i think there is an Asus review on this site.. that thing looks pretty amazing..
but sony/toshiba/IBM's got better quality usually..

 

I guess I am not "into" the games. I do have some games, but they are 2d I think. Like Civilizations (can't find any others installed)

I use the computer mainly for office applications, streets and trips, looking at some digital phots (don't edit any), and surfing the web. I am assuming I will be able to watch regular mpg's and DVD's with laptops that don't have dedicated video cards.

So really for my scenario I don't need a dedicated video card? Is that right?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by john100

 

Quick question,

I have not bought a laptop from Future Shop in a while now. What can you still expect them to "throw in." Before I used to get them to give me $50-$75 worth of extra accessories for free.

Any ideas?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by john100

 

Anybody have any other recomendations on the FS 550 vs M40 selection and decision process?

Thanks.

 

Hi,
I bought my M40 while on vacations in Alberta so I had to make a quick decision (loan money came in and I wanted to take advantage of low taxes over there) so I shop around and took the M40. I'm glad I took that decision. It has a kick ass video card and quite frankly I do look good even next to a nice desktop (without raid or ultrafast ram). I wanted good gaming and I have it. I was very pleased running Half-Life2 full details, highest res. widescreen very nicely. I personnaly think the LCD is awesome (very nice on DVDs) although I had to change it since it had a stain on it (almost invisible) but toshiba replaced it within couple days free of charge. Nice weight, but it seem to be a little fragile if carrying in a back pack (before changing LCD I noticed the shape of the keys printing on the screen, so now I keep the foam in when I carry it). Never had any of the problems noted above (buzzing noise, freezing when unplugging AC, etc.) Battery is a little deceiving, although it says up to 3.5hours I've only been able to bring it close to 2.5 hours on min power using word (which sucks since my classes are 3hrs long and some don't have AC available). DVD-Ram works good for me, I've copied many DVDs already. Also has Irda which is cool (I have irda cell) which is not on all notebooks. The only thing I was upset about is that the drivers were not available on toshiba's website. But they fixed that problem and now you can wipe out the original config (lot's of annoying stuff). Even built-in mic is very good.

Overall I really enjoy my purchase.

 

Theres a built in mic???? Where is it located, and how od i use it?

 

the mic is always on... (must be a switch in bios or something) it seems to be located near the front but I couldn't figure out where exactly

 

Hi,

Anyone know if this laptop is to be replaced by Toshiba anytime soon?

 

shameless 100th post [:I]

 

rofl the manual is so piss-poor. Had no idea it has one, i needed one for TeamSpeak, fortunately im lazy and didnt go out and buy one.

 

Here's how I've found to get around the high-pitched sound and whine:

1) http://grid.org -- Program for helping to cure diseases by using idle CPU time, makes it so the CPU is never idle and automatically turns off when the laptop is on battery. Win-win for everybody. =D
Doesn't affect the computer's performance.

2) Go into standby and come back out -- turns off that sound till the next time the laptop boots.

3) Open Windows Media Player, start playing a song and pause it.

4) Turn the CPU speed down (ugh).


Hope this helps! I've been thinking I should just write a little program that runs in the background and just uses 1% of the CPU so that it's never idle.

 

Well if your going to write a program, be sure to include a button that turns it on/off, because when im not using the laptop, i would much rather it go idle or HRT i think thats what the state is called, CPU hibernation (not system hibernation), it dramatically cools down.

That reminds me... I have a program in the taskbar right now called CPU Eat n Cool, what it does is exactly that... enable CPU hibernation even when you're doing stuff. There are some settings that determine how much hibernation you want, and it takes CPU power to activate the HRT feature. I have had no high pitched whining at all recently. The drawback is that when your playing games you might see a very slight impact on performance, like a 5 fps drop, but the good thing is that during the summer like right now, where temps in your room can hit 30C, your laptop wont overheat (i've already had mine restart once).

http://www.kiki-koko.com/cpueatncool/

 

yay my first post ^^

I just got my M40-JM3 today, and after reading the forums and recommendations I do not regret buying this laptop. However, other than the high pitch noise, which I don't think is noticeable by the way, I have found a little something that is weird. I tried adjusting my screen brightness using the fn+f6/f7 buttons, and I noticed as it gets dimmer, the computer gets louder, the noise is quite unbearable and it doesn't matter if the computer is idling or working. Does this happen to anyone else as well or do i have a defective unit?

 

havent noticed that b4

 

Me neither :S

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

well, turns out it was a defective machine so i returned it to Futureshop immediately and they exchanged it for a new one and this one is dandy so far ^_^

 

Personally i would have kept it to scare away the housecat [|)]

 

Anyone have any idea when Toshiba is coming out with laptops to replace this series?

I can wait a few months before getting a new machine.

I am hoping that with the new series I will get pci-express and maybe a better battery life. Dreaming of an xbrite screen with a Toshiba is not possible, but if that is available, that would make it the best machine.

 

Hello I am reading about this Laptop a lot last time and i want to ask you if many of you have a problem with the high pitch noise by M45.
I read lot of reports about this problem in another topic of this forum.
Thanks a lot.Bye

 

It's not about whether or not some of us are having problem, julox, all the M4X have that high pitch noise, it's just about how you can live with it. It's a design issue and seems to affect most if not all units. It's not solely related to the M40, other brands/models have this problem too.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

Anyone try to copy a audio cd using m40-jm3?.. I have tried and and it didn't work... I was using nero6. Then I uninstall and try to copy the cd , it didn't either. After I reduce the time to less than 60 mintus of audio file then it copy the cd. Is this limited for this cd/dvd drive?

 

hey i was looking at this laptop in taiwan and hereit comes with a radeon x600 mobility. is that better or worse?

 

by the way its x600 128mb vram