Unboxing Toshiba Satellite A505 - S6965

I picked mine up last week, According to 1-800-Best Buy, not one in my district. And at best buy, it is becoming discontinued, because according to the salesman, Toshiba has already replaced it with a improvement model.

But I found one location that had the E105-S1602.. so I went to check it out, and ironically found S6965 sitting on the display. After reading so many good reviews, I decided to pick it up even though it was the display, looked in really good condition, was in the back away from most of the other lap tops so didnt get much exposure I guess. So you might want to call some stores and see who might have it on display still, because the display laptops dont show up on the best buy inventory I guess.
But I wanted the E105-S1602, because I think it was the improvement, but read so many bad reviews about it,(speakers, keyboard, no video card)

 

Several different model laptops on BestBuy's site are currently unavailable. I don't know if this is typical or not, but I'm wondering if some of these systems will be available again after October 22 with Windows 7 preloaded. Maybe they tried to plan their inventory around just having enough to get through that date and then have new units preloaded and ready to sell as soon as they can officially can sell Windows 7.

I also wonder if the stores will have units with Windows 7 preloaded in advance of October 22 so that they can start selling them right on that Thursday or very soon thereafter.

Currently nothing else really compares in this price range. If this laptop has only been out since July, two months seems like a pretty short run. Just speculating ...

 

I noticed that about some of the other laptops too, and even the stores look like they have removed a lot of the displays. However, I agree that two months was a very short run for the 6965, when they have laptops both more and less expensive that have been around for much longer.

At this point, I have one waiting for me, in St. Louis. I'm just debating whether I REALLY want to make the four hour drive, each way, for it.

 

It looks like Best Buy did some web site house cleaning ... comparing yesterday's Google cache of their main laptop page against the current page shows 13 fewer systems (12 fewer Windows and one less Mac). The 6965 got the ax. Most (but not all) of the other systems that were showing unavailable are now gone also.

I'm still wondering if they are reducing inventory in preparation of the release of Windows 7 October 22 and may bring back the 6965 or something very comparable to it.

 

I do not need mine for a month or 2. My local best buy still has this model in stock. they said they are waiting for their new models which will be in by october 22 so they are not getting anymore of the old models in. I need it for high def video editing and basic home use. for this price should I buy this now or should I wait and see what comes out? This seems like such a good price for the product so I am thinking maybe I could purchase it, wait to open it, and see what they get in a month. If the newer models are same price but better computer I can always return my other one, correct? Any advice?

thank you

 

This information helps confirm my suspicians and hopes.

The biggest concern I have in getting a new model right after October 22 is that you don't have user reviews to help identify issues and problems. If it's the same model hardware simply with Windows 7 preloaded, then this won't be an issue. But if it's new hardware, then the potential of getting a poorly designed system exists. Best you can do is choose a manufacturer that has a good track record overall, and maybe a model that appears to have simliar specs to previous model that had good reviews in hopes that its only a slightly reworked system.

 

I wouldn't buy it and sit on it for a month, I believe BB's return policy for computers is 14 days. So if something better did come out, you'd be stuck with what you have.

 

You will find with something new each day ... So it really depends on what you're looking for now.

 

IMO i think you should get it now the updated models probably gonna have Windows 7 preloaded and btw if you buy this model now you will get a free windows 7 upgrade for free. Also most likely the new models probably wont have the same specs but its up to you

 

Yesterday (Sun Oct 18) Best Buy released dozens of new laptops on their site with Windows 7 preloaded. In scanning the new offerings, a model like this with a GPU doesn’t appear to be available now. Nothing comparable stands out to me from any manufacturer.

I was hoping to see a few more choices with higher resolution displays at least, but many are still 1366x768 panels. The biggest change I can see with the new systems is that more may be coming with Blu-ray drives.

This Toshiba model comes in at $880 and offers 1680x945 on a huge 18.4” display and Blu-ray. It also comes with 6G RAM, but no GPU. Any thoughts on if this is a good system? I’m sure it’s a monster to pick up and lug around.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9553949&type=product&id=1218123210151

I keep coming back to this Dell XPS also, but it’s $1,100. It has a 512M GPU, 7200 RPM drive, Blu-ray, 1066MHz bus, and 3M cache. The specs on the Best Buy web site don’t list resolution for the 15.6” panel, but the other specs seem to be a better than most in this price range.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9567916&type=product&id=1218125778405

Best Buy is claiming if you get your order in early enough October 21, you can have the new machine on October 22. I’m sure that they will have a lot of these new systems in the store Thursday.

 

Well Best Buy lowered the price to 692.00 earlier this month so I bit. Now that I see the new laptops coming out I am glad I did.

 

Costco has one that is fairly similar now, the only differences I see are the processor (T6500), no slot loading DVD or backlit keyboard. Price is $749.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11482385&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&cm_mmc=BCEmail_458-_-FOCUS-_-24-_-ToshibaLaptops&eCat=BC|84|56670|29722&N=4017753&Mo=12&pos=4&No=8&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=29722&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10590-Cat56670&topnav=

 

So can we upgrade our graphics cards in our laptops? say from 4570 to the 4650 i think??? i just want to know if its possible and or easy.

 

no you cant upgrade a laptop's graphic card since its soldered to the motherboard

 

Do you know that it's soldered to the mobo, you have looked at it?

 

yeah, im no expert, but i thought that if it had a dedicated card. then you could replace it, like ram, or a hhd. now, on a desktop you can replace the cards right? because people build desktops all the time. but yeah, are you 100% sure that the 4570 is soldered to the mother board????

 

I was thinking that since the A500/A505's were customizeable with the 4650's that it could be possible to swap one in. Not sure how much of a boost and how cost effective it would be. The x300/x305's have been verified to change gpu's as long as you get one of the proprietary cards that were used in one of the configurations. There was a 9800m gtx on Ebay for $150 while Toshiba parts suppliers were asking $1,000. X305-701 users have reported successfully upgrading their 9700m gts to 9800m gtx.

 

Ummm, very interesting. definitely something i want to research. So i did the wind. 7 upgrade, this means i lost my HDD protection???? is there anything else we discussed that was lost? LOTS OF THANKS.

 

Squier,

You shouldn't lose your HDD protection. I have the HDD protection feature/driver installed and I started with windows 7 RTM. If you don't see the download on Toshiba's site under the windows 7 section, just download the vista driver. That'll work under Windows 7, even when those were considered "beta" under RTM version of win7. To top it, I've been running x64. My only complaint was vmware's client not working, which they eventually patched.

Anyway, it has been a GREAT laptop. I've been loving how great my experience has been. My wife got a somewhat similar model (minus the GPU and backlit keyboard) and she's been loving it too. I doubt I would willingly ever go to HP/Compaq, Sony, or Dell.

 

When I looked at the schematics, it looked like it was fully integrated. Nevertheless, it was a great power/price performance ratio at the time it debuted. Not sure about now, but it should be more than sufficient for most things including casual gaming.

 

Pretty much. Until they overcome that. Although it wouldn't be in their financial interest to do so (turnover ratio).

 

my toshiba a505 doesn't have the lit up keyboard..is their something wrong with my laptop or is their a setting to use it?

 

As far as i know all a505's are supposed to light up... yes their is a way to disable it. when booting up, it will say at bottom of screen, F12 for boot manager,and f2 for something else. im sure its f2 you want, all kinds of settings in there. but if you dont know too much of what you are doing, dont play with it too much, you could mess something up...but its basic stuff in there. self explanatory too.

 

hi, how many hard drive bays are there in this machine, can i put a SSD and a regular HDD in it if it has two bays

 

Its only one HD bay

 

hi everyone,

It was all good until few days with my A505-S6965.
Here is my problem:

I have the same problem of my laptop getting shut down on its own and this is totally random, along with this random shut downs, I have also seen another problem where I randomly get denial of service when using my wireless connection and this problem too is random, I formatted my OS and reinstalled windows 7 till now I did not get any denial of service message but my laptop did got shut down once and this was like 2 hours after I re installed new OS. I am unable to understand the problem.

I still have the warranty but I will have to send the laptop for days for the technicians to find out and fix the problem, can anyone suggest any suitable solution or sending in the laptop to the customer service is the only option.

By the way I never keep my laptop in direct contact to any surface that will block the airflow in and out and still I am encountering this problem.

other forums where people have discussed about this problem are

1. a505-s6965 randomly shutting down after upgrade - Toshiba Laptop Forums
2. Satellite A505 S6965 Random Shut Down? - Toshiba Laptop Forums

but no one suggested a possible solution to this, can any one help me out please thank you.

 

Hi guyz,

can the optical drive slot be replaced with any other 2.5" HDD, as I was planning to put a SSD in the primary HDD case and if the optical drive can be switched with any HDD then put the old HDD in it. Tnx