Unboxing Toshiba Satellite A505 - S6965

Go to BestBuy and check it out!

 

just ordered mine at BB , Hopefully i made the right choice

 

It's a very nice computer. I'm going to get the 6969 model at newegg if I get one though.

 

Thanks to all for posting the helpful pro/con comments on the A505-S6965!

Has anyone tried installing a linux (32 or 64 bit) distro on this puppy? If so, how did it work for you? Anything not work? wifi? modem? X acceleration?

TIA

 

I just ordered it and its coming thursday or friday and what a great price for the specs im gonna miss my DV5Z when i sell it but i need a laptop with more battery life and much less heat when i go back to school soon

 

OK ... I'm probably going to sound like an idiot here because I'm not too savvy with this stuff and not up to speed on the coolest games around, but I'm thinking of buying this laptop mostly for work, some video and photo editing, and occasional RPG game playing. And my question right now is does this machine have the processor, memory, etc. to run Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2? How about the old Microsoft Links golf game?

Thanks!

 

This is the thread you need.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283291

 

I tried my copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 on the laptop, and it runs pretty good. I'd say it gets a good frame rate with the quality set between medium and high, which isn't too bad.

 

I've been running Crysis on that res with high settings and it runs just fine in terms of frames per second.

 

Hi all. I just purchased this machine at Best Buy today & I'm already loving it. Perfect for my needs, expandable, and a lot of solid features for the money.

I am having a problem, however, with installing Windows 7 RTM x64 regarding the drivers. I'm not sure which drivers are missing here, but after installing all the ones listed at Toshiba's website for this model relating to device drivers for Win 7 64, I still have these two left which I'm not sure on what they are --



I installed the chipset driver first after install, but that only seemed to handle a couple of things. Any ideas what these might be? Thanks for your help.

 

loudersoft - I can't say for sure but since your SD host adapter is installed - the two Base System Devices may be for your other two memory card formats; eg Sony MS and XD card/etc. Sorry for what sounds like a dumb question - did you try Windows Update? Update has installed every device on every WIN 7 install I have tried it on (ASUS G50, Dell XPS 1530 and H-P dv4t). I saw in another post that Toshiba has started posting WIN 7 drivers on their support site - and just confirmed that the A505 series does show up in the Beta drivers list. This URL will get you to the WIN 7 area on their site: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/navShell.jsp?cf=Windows7

 

Have you tried Windows Update?... That's the first thing to do once you've finished installing Windows 7 RC. It gets correct drivers for your PC... well, that is what it did for me

 

Really? Wow... I didn't go that high because on some medium setting it started to lagg on hardcore scenes. Maybe i was on Balance battery? Hmm, Im gonna check that out!

 

Well i received it today and its awesome so far

Even with the bloatware on this laptop its super fast i loaded COD4 and GTAIV on here COD4 ran perfectly at maxed settings with AA off and GTAIV ran good also at meduim settings with 1024x768 resloution but you can lower it a bit if you want and the laptop cool itself very well while playing COD4 and GTAIV the temp of both cores didnt even go to 70C and a another feature i like is the eco mode on battery (power saver) with that on the laptop almost reached to 3 hours. It is very good laptop for only $750 at best buy and its awesome deal with its specs I will do a clean install sometime next week if im not busy

I just ran 3DMarks 06 and got a score of 4031 3DMarks with stock ATI drivers very good for a 64-bit card

 

I've run it and it found drivers for some things; however, there are still those dangling Base System Devices.

I'm really confused.

 

Can you show a screenshot of device manager? Could be Ricoh Card Reader.

 

There is actually a picture of it on page 6..

 

Bluetooth stack?
HDD protection?
Camera?
Wireless LAN driver?

 

It could be any of these but I was under the impression that this machine doesn't have bluetooth. The camera shows up as "USB 2.0 Camera", Win7 auto-installed what (I think?) are the wireless lan drivers, and I have the Intel HDD package installed.

 

i get around 4000 3DMarks 06 with a Asus running a gs9500....
you should be getting a much better score with the ATI HD 4570...

 

There is a HDD protection driver too, I think it a shock sensor that locks down the harddrive in case it gets jarred or something so you don't lose data.

TOSHIBA Hard Drive Impact Sensor (3D sensor)

Software C1 16
• Toshiba Software and Utilities
o Electronic User’s Guide
o Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba
o TOSHIBA Resources page
o TOSHIBA Recovery Disc Creator
o TOSHIBA ConfigFree®
o TOSHIBA Disc Creator
o TOSHIBA DVD Player
o TOSHIBA Hard Drive Impact Sensor (3D sensor)
o TOSHIBA Power-Saving Eco Utility
o TOSHIBA Face Recognition
o TOSHIBA PC Health Monitor
o Hard Disc Drive (HDD) Recovery

 

So have you gone into the Official Toshiba Driver site? You can look around for something there...

 

This was precisely it. The HDD sensor did not plug n play, had to install the HDD/SSD utility and kaboom, works. Thank you!

 

Nice to Hear Good News

 

How well does it outperform dv6-1245dx http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371262&type=product&id=1218093384107. give me more info abt battery life and heat and HD viewing, does the pixel break up when watching a HD movie of say 720p resolution when the slider on the vlc lan player is moved to a particular location of the movie. it breaks up for my frndz HP dv6 laptop, and how fast will it(toshiba) be when compared to processors. how well is the graphics card in toshiba, earleir I had nvidia 9600 GMS in my laptop but that laptop is now to be replaced with a new one which will be one among this two ( Toshiba Satellite A505 - S6965 or dv6-1245dx) now going for lower graphics card coz got a ps3 recently. but the movie play back is horrible i guess because of the integrated graphics card in HP but i really like HP design n products well guys give me some suggestions and how well does toshiba outperforms hp. some of u guys might be using so let me know how u feel. thanks

if url doesnt wrk again can u visit the BB website n check for HP dv6-1245dx
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9371262&type=product&id=1218093384107

thanks

 

Your link to Bestbuy is Broken some how...

Anyways, this Toshiba is Good for Movies (It has HDMI Port), I've only played American Pie movie and it looks nice. Not the best but better than many TVs out there

 

What about heat? Does this laptop generate lot of heat?

Anand

 

So what sort of thoughts does anybody have on this laptop on the portability standpoint? I have a 14" Toshiba right now which is great to take to a coffee shop, travel, etc. How heavy/bulky does this one get to carry around? I don't travel often, but like to take my laptop with me when I do.

I'm not much of a gamer, but would like something that can handle the occasional game too, as well as listening to itunes while multitasking without occasionally hesitations. Plus, it just got much more appealing now that a little bird told me BB is knocking $50 off the price tomorrow.

 

Heat is not a problem, even when you're playing. You can only feel hot just near the vent...

 

I really don't consider it as a portable laptop, I have taken this laptop on a airplane trip; need a case for 16" which is bigger than 14" and in plane taking the laptop out of case isn't that cool if you have people beside you lol

Anyways, if you do take out you laptop often, keep your 14" Toshiba. Thats my opinion...

 

Like i said in your other thread its depends what you want to do with your laptop. But very good thing about the HP that you will a very long battery life since its comes with a 12-cell battery and intergated graphics x4500 which will handle HD playback just fine but the HD4570 will do a better job of HD playback. If you want to play some of the latest games get the Toshiba and you will get more bang for your buck and its a good deal especailly with the specs and its a bit future proof. If you dont want to play latest games but you wanna have a lot of battery life get the HP

 

Pulled the trigger on Toshiba laptop hope it works well for atleast 2 years.tnx for all hep guys

 

just checked on best buy and the price has dropped to 699 so if yur return and exchange period is not over u can claim price match

 

Wow, 699. Okay now I'm seriously tempted.
Dang. I'd like the better video card of the 6969, but... I play WoW and that's about it. Maybe I should go with the bigger HD, slot load dvd and better screen. Okay I think I just convinced myself...

 

I know, it is making me wanting to return my Sony Fw480J/T, trade it for the 6965 and $500. I got friends at Best Buy, so no restocking fee. All I ever play is WoW also. However, I did download the demo of Crysis and it was real fun. Will the Toshiba 6965 run Crysis?

 

Yes it will but on meduim resolution and settings i downloaded the demo of it though i might make a gameplay vid of it soon

 

Holy Moly!
Dude, if I was back in USA, I would go claim price match! Anyways, this PC is is worth much more than that!

 

Yep... I gotta go buy that game (Maximum Edition)

 

Just got my $52 dollars back , :-D

 

I agree the PC is worth much more. I think Toshiba's MSRP for this model is something around $850. I did just claim my price match. Cash is king!

 

Yes I too got my $ 52 back, well the price should have gone down on Saturday (tax free weekend) that would have saved me more money, anywayz i guess 699 is not that bad for the specs. i traded this one for hp dv6 1245dx. and hope that took a good decision. hope Toshiba doesnt dissappoint me at least for 2 yrs, also guys can any one tell me shld i take the $149 2 yr extended warranty from BB or save that money (may be 12 cell batttery later on). is the extended warranty worth it. I mean I believe BB as they replaced my old laptop(HP dv7-1175nr) with a new one without me having purchased the extended warranty for that and my one year after purchase was ending in a month, as I could not find my receipt for that laptop and even they could not pull up my receipt frm their database, so they offered me a new laptop(and I took this Toshiba).Although nothing serious was wrong I guess with that laptop and it just needed a new battery.
So i believe that if I take extended warranty and use this laptop to its full extent and anything goes bad BB can back it up.
Suggest me guys.

 

Abt win 7 guys i dont see much difference between it n vista except for the stacking of windows i dont see any specific performance increase the start up is slower than vista for that matter.can any one throw some lite on it. how to improve the performace for this toshiba laptop. also when i installed ATI drivers, from the Toshiba website, why couldn't I find the ATI manager in the right click? and when i go to the program files i dont see any .exe which will open for me to manage different settings? I looked for specific drivers at ATI.com now owned by AMD but couldn't find proper drivers for the GPU. can anyone post the driver url for ATI.
Thanks

 

why is it always throwing hot even even when jst doing surfing n few applications on not gaming?

 

oo man... I want my 52 bucks anyways! xD

 

DANG I missed tax free weekend. And now I'm having second thoughts. LOL

I want the better video card dang it. Why couldn't they put that in this model... then it'd be perfect.

 

I wouldn't get an extended warrenty from BB. They're too expensive. Shop around. You can get a warranty from a company Other than best buy for cheaper. Also, check with your credit card company. Some of them will give an automatic +1 year warranty. I think my Bank of america card does that.

 

How hot is hot?

 

Download HWMonitor to check your temps while surfing the net and when playing games, mines dont even get hot even when gaming

 

I will chk the temperatures with that software and let u know. its not that hot! I purchased it on my BB credit card. Have u purchased any extended warranties. Can toshiba last long without problems. Have heard nasty things about its AC adapter and Battery

 

When your not gaming, the laptop is cool... But if you play Call of Duty 4 for example, you can feel heat BESIDE the vent only

thats in my case