official "X205 Owner's Thread"

That sucks..

BUt you know the price of electronics always goes down... not up... kinda the nature of the beast I suppose.

I did take advantage of the Amazon $100 rebate. That makes mine about 2250

 

Sorry, its the x9349 for $1699 at Costco.com

 

mine was x9359 for $2345 buy.com and free shipping no dvd's no rebate but then again it was listed as $2499 on toshiba and most other resailers . but then again even though i got free shipping it listed it coming in in 9 business days i got it in 2.

 

Is the hard drive on this laptop a single 240gb? This laptop sounds like a steal from costco...

 

Both versions of x205 use dual HD's mine has dua 160 GB HDD's the other version has 120's

 

The S9359 come with a box with 3 items:
1. Windows Media Remote
2. USB Tuner device
3. Remote Receiver device

Anyone know how to set these all up for use??

 

Hey - I'm doing my clean install of Vista and using the driver's from Toshiba's website... but when I check the device manager in "hidden mode" I'm coming up with one device that is showing up as hidden. I've installed all the software from Toshiba's website to make sure there isn't a driver hidden in some utility somewhere... But its still showing up. I've tried uninstalling the device thinking it might be a "ghost" but when I scan for hardware changes it reappears.

I can't really find any information on this device from the properties other than what's in the properties pane..

ACPI\CPL0001
*CPL0001

The physical device object name is

\Device\00000041


I'm really not sure what this device could be. Everything's working fine but it shows up in the Reliability report as well.

Could someone with a default factory installation check their device manager in "hidden" mode check to see if there are any unknown devices.

 

It's even better for military members. I purchased through AAFES (Army Air Force Exchange Services) and that means free shipping, tax free and I still get the 5 free HD-DVDs.

I got the "Keep it New" program (warranty and accidental damage coverage) from them for $139 for two years as well.

 

Is it possible to get that "Keep it New" program even if you did'nt buy directly from toshiba and after the purchase i bought mine from buy.com i just wanna cover my arse?

 

Not like i'll need to buy a new best laptop in the world by the time the warranty runs out anyway. maybe i'll just sell it to someone else then and buy the next best thing hopefully a DX10.1 octocore CPU at 3 Ghz with 8 GB of 1333Mhz DDR3 dual SSD's with a terabyte backup drive, and blue ray or HD-DVD however the market should go.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure who else sells the keep it new program. AAFES is the one who sells that brand of warranty. If you are wanting to buy a warranty directly from Toshiba, I know you can do that regardless of where you bought it.

Yeah, I was thinking of getting that very setup! LOL

 

Did anyone register your X205 product with standard warranty online with Toshiba?
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...BV_EngineID=cccfaddlljdijgdcgfkceghdgngdgmn.0

When they ask you to fill in your purchase date, for online purchases,
do you fill in the order date, shipped date, or the delivered date??
Is it ok/valid to use the delivered date as the entry?
My order date was almost a month from the delivered date!
Thanks.

 

@markheus

I think the extra hardware is usually Toshibas Own power management tool, they dont like you using the windows one.

just a thought
many times I have ended up with an extra bit of hardware that doesnt seem to do anything and its usually just there to accompany another bit of hardware with the vendors' driver.

When you re-installed could you use both drives virtual raid0 style?

 

Can someone measure their computer for me, please? I'm wondering if it will fit the Pakum Akara K3 I'm wanting.

 

Don't nobody got a ruler?

 

Dimensions: 11.30" h x 1.42" w x 15.70" l, 14.45 pounds

 

NUH UHH!!! 14.45 lbs!?!?! Holy heifers Batman, it's a cow!!

Thanks Kid

 

I was thinking the same thing when I read it last night. Hopefully that's a typo.

 

HAHA, I've done ruler based measurement at home... I don't have the figures with me, but at it's widest point, including the feet, it is 2.5" thick. I don't know where 1.42 came from there...

Weight is only around 10 pounds, even shipping weight wasn't 14 pounds.

 

With several owners saying the two HDDs are not in RAID, I'm wondering where this review got the info that their model they reviewed had it's HDDs in RAID 0:

http://www.bootdaily.com/

 

Sounds like they are confused. I've seen other reviews that get the display wrong too.

 

I find the S9359 is a bit sluggish in performance....
- sometimes it takes some annoying delays in starting multiple applications or windows.
- sudden refresh/redraw of the whole screen when doing normal work like browsing etc, with noticeable black screen in-between the refresh/redraw.
- windows vista start > All Programmes > Programms Folders > Application listings - is very laggy between click and showing up the listings...

How to correct/optimize these?
I don't expect these lags comparable to my 1.8GHz Pentium M

 

no no no... all u had to do is get a small pin like object (or a pin) and poke that small black hole on your drive.. all drives have them its an emergency eject, and works on hardware not software so it will open

what have u guys thought those holes have been for on cd drives for the last 20 or so years? lol

 

What driver are avaliable for the 8700gt? having fps problems in fear combat. runs fine with 150 to 200fps then BOOM drops to 30fps until i restart the game.

 

I have the x205-s9359

 

YAHOO!

I'm typing this on my new laptop. The keyboard is going to take some getting used to.

Now about reloading Vista...I have Toshiba Recovery and Applications/Drivers disks. Do these disks allow me to reload Vista w/o all the bloatware?

 

When I try to burn some CD-R / VCD via the HD DVD using Nero burning rom,
the maximum burn speed detected is 16x only (not 24x as advertised!!).
Can anyone confirm the same??

 

Nope!!! All bloatware inclucded... Try vLite with the anytime upgrade DVD (if you have it). Make sure to backup your activation using the ABR program. I was going to do a thread on how to do all this, when I found this from searching.

 

Who knows these days. I would seriously recommend doing a fresh install... you always have the Toshiba backup disks if you need to return it. There is a good how-to to do a clean install of vista over in another forum here.

I'd almost say by the sound of your problems, that you have some program eating up available resources in the background. Take a look in Task manager and make sure System Idle has the most CPU. If it doesn't, make note of other things, because there should be no reason otherwise for your issues.

 

Top processes:

System idle - CPU 70%
Firefox - CPU 17%
NT Kernel and System - CPU 9%
...

 

I don't have an anytime upgrade cd. Can I get this at Best Buy for nothing? I'm headed there today to see if they have any real good backpacks for this thing. I really want the Pakuma, but the $120 price tag is keeping me from picking it up. I got it to fit in my son's Five Star backpack (you know, the one w/speakers built in), but it was so tight and left no protection on the top or corners.

 

I have an X205-S9349 ariving at my front door tomorrow morning. I can't wait to unpack it and start having some fun.

FYI, there is a very nice and very complete two part review on the X205-S9359, including comparative game benchmarks, here:

part 1 http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3074

part 2 http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3085

 

Mine came with the anytime upgrade CD in the package... but its the lower end one...

I don't think they include the upgrade CD when it ships with Ultimate already.

 

I have a question for X205 owners. How serious is the issue of the weight and size? I find it really hard to judge from the pics. Is it portable enough or would you really not take it out of the house?

Thanks

 

I bought mine on Amazon from Tech Excess.... 5.00 for the DVD and 5 for shipping.

 

about the dimensions of the laptop i just copy pasted from like buy.com or amazon.com i did'nt bother to do it myself that could be including the packaging sorry for being lazy its honestly not that heavy unless you have it in a messenger bag on one should the weight is exceedingly and efficiently balanced uniformally through the laptop so if your using a backpack or even lifting it to move it from a table to table then its not that bad. The only back thing is if your trying to actually sit with it on your lap or stomach and use it as a laptop then it gets a bit heavy on the tummy. but i can't stand not having a mouse so unless i'm wanking i'm gaming on a desk with a mouse or at school on a desk with it. it is a big laptop as far as size figure at least 18 inches of space

 

Mine is the s9349 as well, but I didn't get an anytime upgrade CD.

 

Could you please provide a link?

 

Anytime Upgrade DVD

Just be sure that you back up your OEM ACtivation Cert and then restore it afterwards. Don't enter a product key when you install Vista. After you install everything you can restore that certificate. The Key on your laptop won't work.

I used a program called Activation Backup & Restore for OEM Windows Vista. It took a while to find out - and I can't remember where I got it - But it works well.

 

Thanks Mark!

 

The laptop is well balanced and very comfortable for me to use.

I can lift it with one hand quite easily.

This laptop replaced my 15" 6.4lb Sony and I frankly use it everywhere the 15" went.

The x205 is both cooler and quieter than the Sony it replaced and the weight and size are meaningless in comparison to the comfort of this laptop.

I have had no trouble at ALL on my lap in bed, on the couch, in my hand between server rooms, or anything else for that matter.

The only downside the size has ever brought is not being able to place it on surfaces that it really didn't belong. (I admit the Sony got stuck on half-on-half-off situations where it could have fallen.) Truthfully this is a blessing in disguise for me...

I realize I am not a small guy, but I am no Hercules either... honestly I can't imagine anyone would have any real trouble with the weight...

My wife didn't think it was particularly heavy either if that gives any indication.

Honestly, its all a matter of preference really... find a local retailer who carries it and check it out... Best buy, costco, etc...
Not that I recommend purchasing it there... but you can certainly heft it and play with it...

 

Thanks a lot, it's very encouraging talk! I'm pretty much convinced this is the laptop for me. Only other issue is that the one that's available to me is the european version X200-18H which doesnt have HD-DVD and has a 256mb Geforce instead of 512mb. The optical drive isn't a problem since i don't intend to watch movies on my laptop, but is the Geforce still good enough? What do you think?

Also, could someone post some pictures of the X205 next to a regular size laptop, or on your lap, in some way to better judge the size basically.

 

256MB compared to 512MB for an 8700GT is not really a big deal.

Especially because the extra RAM is most useful at the highest resolutions which truthfully are not the 8700GT's forte.

note the 8700 can use system ram as graphical RAM via hypermemory anyway.

While dedicated RAM is indeed better than using Hypermemory, the difference between a 256 and 512 model are really nothing to write home about especially at the 1280x1024 or 1440x900 resolutions or so the 8700 is best at.

 

Ok sounds good. I think i'll be closing the deal very soon.

 

I have to say...
I am a little disappointed in the volume of this. I expected it to be much louder. At least as loud as my HP DV5030us. The kids have a hard time watching it in the truck on trips. I guess I'll just leave that for the HP (as soon as the new DVD drive arrives).

 

Well, it gets pretty loud... but not enough to be used during a car on a road trip. Few laptops have speakers loud enough to handle a lot of background noise. It's a trade off for volume -vs- sound quality, and the X205 is honestly one of the best I've heard.

But mileage may vary, I guess.

 

Hello. I'm planning on purchasing the higher end x205, and i'm also planning on pre ordering crysis. As far as I know the system requirements aren't out yet, but can any of you estimate if this computer will be able to play it on the highest graphical levels?

 

It should run it between med to high graphics without anti-aliasing.

However, given that we have no benchmarks to go by for Crysis, it's impossible to say really. My 9359 can run Oblivion rather well, and it's in the same graphical league as Crysis.

 

Intel just announced price drop of T7700 and T7500 chips by 40%!!
Damn... the X205 should have come with a T7700 with the same price tags as a T7300 just week ago!

The T7300 seems sluggish when running Vista - i hope it can be improved with better optimized drivers/software...??

 

Windows® HotStart™ is advertised as a special feature in the european X200 website.
http://ce.computers.toshiba-europe....rochures/July07/EN_DS_SatX200_Jul07_final.pdf
Anyone know where to find the extra Windows® HotStart™ button in x205??
or how to get it to work to launch right into windows media center upon startup without booting into the login screen??

Also, in the X205 specs
http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/product/pdf_files/detailed_specs/satellite_X205-S9359.pdf
There are included 2 software:
o InterVideo®WinDVD® 8
o Ulead® DVD MovieFactory® 5 for TOSHIBA

I can't find these in the Start>All Programs menu,
but I manage to find Ulead and InterVideo folders in the Program Files folder.

The Movie Factory executable is working in the Ulead folder,
But the WinDVD executable cannot be found in the InterVideo folder,
Can someone check too if you have/can run WinDVD 8?

Thanks.