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Computer Reviews of Toshiba
Laptops and Desktops

This file is filled with individuals' opinions and experiences with Toshiba, which sells a wide line of computers and products. The most recent experiences are at the beginning of this file.

If you have bought a computer from them and have not yet made your contribution to this list, simply fill out this review form about your experiences with this company and your review will be added to the top of this file. Thank you and good luck!

Other Experiences with Toshiba Computers (Most recent first):

Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! vwfhfmrinmk

I have had numerous Toshiba products including TVs in the old days and several laptops over the years. My experience with the Toshiba Qosmio caused me NEVER TO BUT A TOSHIBA AGAIN. I have had nothing but problems - a new motherboard after only 13 months (one month after the warranty expired) and constantly having to reload all of Windows. But the most angering point was that when I wrote to Toshiba and sent the letter to at least 5 people there - I got NO RESPONSE. There are lots of choices - STAY AWAY FROM TOSHIBA. If you buy you'll regret it.

First I've worked for HP, Dell, and briefly Intel. Toshiba crappy design, customer service sucks, although cheap. Very loud fan after only about 2 months. Drove me nuts after a year of increasing sound despite replacing heatsink compound repeatedly. Then decide to replace fans. Immediately after replacing fans which was simple, now have the most irritating pop-up about the cooling system and return for service…..however, laptop is not heating up currently, what a pain. Already have bought next laptop (HP). highly recommend IBM (lev whatever). Experiences good with dell. Will not personally buy another Toshiba. Only advice for others about Toshiba; if the competition is comparably priced, buy it.

WOW:
after purchaseing a second hand A15-S127 at a pawn shop
I upgraded the memory and hard drive and DVD
I am a Truckdriver and have been putting this laptop thru a hard life and after two years of hard service and bouncing off the floor of my semi several time's
My thoughts are what a robust laptop
thought about upgradeing the processor to a P4 2.2
dont know if it would be worth the cost
A+ portable
John

I have had my Toshiba notebook PC for a year and half and have never, ever, had a problem with it so I have never had to have tech support. I did buy a 3 year extended service agreement and doubt that I will ever need it. Thank goodness I didn't buy Dell.

After reading the rightups bemoaning toshiba, I have to say this satellite a15-s127 that I am writing this on in one HE!! of a laptop. Granted it had a minor problem at the beginning... 2 and a half years ago, my mother-in-law, in her infinite wisdom decided to open up the chassis in order to 'see what was wrong'. The harddrive had crashed and she thought she could fix the odd noise it was making. Not so much. So after voiding the warranty by opening it up, and not having a clue as to what she was doing, she sends it to me and goes out and buys another. I buy a new hardrive from Compusa and then I'm cooking with grease!

I'm in the Navy and am a flight engineer on a P-3C. This laptop, after costing me only about 250 bucks has recieved NO special treatment and has served me well. It has been with me on flights over Iraq, 140 degree temps in north Africa, being carried around in my backpack like it was a book on a daily basis. Keep in mind I'm not talking about a padded backpack either. Its in there with flight manuals, food, movies etc. These things are TOUGH. Its been dropped, interfaced with networks, video games galore, watching movies, its been a mobile video studio taking on video from a Canon GL2, it takes care of my flight planning for long trips. I have not experienced any of the other problems people have talked about here until last week when i thought my little laptop had finally been dealt the death blow. My 3 year old projectile puked onto the the keyboard.

Now having had experience with computers since I was a wee lad, and the training the Navy has given me on emergency reclamation of avionics that have been submerged in saltwater or other corrosive materials, and not having a warranty, I took care of it. The battery had come out within 15 seconds of the event and power was removed and it sat out in the garage for a day and a half while the rest of us got over the bug. Had it been a cup of water or something, the 'puter would have been fine, but since it was a biohazard with little kid puke in it, I decided to field strip and clean it. I dont recommend it. Just get on the internet, buy another keyboard assembly and throw the other one out. I got mine back together with a little mcguyver action and now I'm back to using it.

So in short, when this bulldog finally dies, I'm buying another Toshiba.

I got a toshiba sattellite A15-S127 three years back.

Got it for $1000, which was somewhat of a good deal at the time, considering some of the specs.

It came with Windows XP home and some nice software. It fit my speed needs. Wasn't that good for gaming. Had an audio card, but no video card. Any 3D games which weren't graphics-lite, or any 3d game where I hadn't turned the graphics down to a near minimum, would be choppy at best. So it wasn't good with gaming.

Speedwise, it was relatively fast. 2.0 gHz. See? Somewhat of a good deal.

Back then, they sold 30 GB laptops, so that's what I have. Soon I'll get a new laptop, hopefully with double the storage, (hooray! Then I can store my audio in lossless!)

So things were alright, until it started having hardware problems.

Ugh.

The first time it started to overheat, about 7-9 months in (I knew it was overheating when the cooling fan started making much more noise than a normal laptop would, the bottom got really hot at times, and then at one point I got the warning message to the nature of: "A problem with your computer's cooling system has been detected. Please shut down, and have your computer repaired."), I tried to get it sent in for repairs with their technical repairs place (they say it's situated in America, everyone I talk to has an indian accident. Cheap, underpaid labor and bad corporate ethics.) They sent me a box to mail my laptop in. I mailed it in, and three weeks or so later, the heat sink and cooling fan had been cleaned. For free, as I was still covered under my warranty. Was a small hassle, but not too much trouble.

With the heat sink cleaned, the noise was much less. But about 8 months later, the problem started again. I was no longer covered under the year-long warranty, so I had to go to a local computer repair shop (CBE Valcom) and get it diagnosed for $80 and fixed for another $40. Turns out the fan was unbalanced, and not just that it needed to be screwed in more, it was actually at the wrong angle. They got a new one, cleaned the heat sink, put in the new fan, and made sure it was balanced. I just hope that the problem only occurred during manufacturing, and it's not a problem which continually manifests itself through the very design of the hardware. I have a sinking suspicion that part of the reason why most of the laptop computers they sell these days are 1.73 gHz or less is to guarantee that the cooling problems don't flare up, even if the hardware is faulty. Rather then eliminate the problem, they're instead covering it up by making the computers slower. Either way though, the overheating wasn't that bad of a problem. It's bearable.

But the overheating wasn't the end of my problems. Oh no. About two and a half years in, the monitor started to give out. The screen had no problems at first, but the computer screen started to lose its forced inertia. If you stood the screen up straight, it would fall backwards or forwards. It wasn't that loose immediately, it was a gradual thing, becoming more and more loose until I had to prop it up against some books to get it to stand up straight. I sent it in for repairs again. Turns out the monitor problem is a result of loosening wires, and can't be repaired, the only option would be to buy another screen for $250. gah! Nevermind, that's fine. I'm okay with propping it up against a few books. But a few weeks after I sent it in for repair, the problems started happening. Now, you should know that I'm very careful with my laptop, I don't carry it with me to school, or toss it around, or whack it when I get frustrated, or anything. But I got problems from the screen nonetheless. Occasionally, the entire screen would shake or flicker a little, no matter what Operating System I was using, it got worse, and began to shake severely, and flicker often, sometimes having problems, sometimes not. About a week after the shaking started, after progressively getting worse, the computer screen just blacked out entirely. I'm writing this from an externel monitor. And now, if I want to have a *portable* laptop, I have to buy a new one. So no more of this computer's problems.


Anyway, summary: as a whole, the Toshiba laptop I had (a satellite) worked fine, and got the job done. But it had some major hardware problems. It had a horrible cooling system which acted up in less than a year, and it has a weakly connected monitor which stops functioning after a few years. It's a good computer and does the job, you just have to be willing to send it in for some repairs every now and then. And you have to face that this computer doesn't fulfill the average computer lifespan (3-4 years in an average household, I've heard), because of it's faulty hardware.

i want to buy a lot of laptops sales off. please send email offers for me. thank you

Now I am in Calgary and wold like to but a laptop.
Please, tell me how I can buy a laptop computer and where in Calgary. I need something cheap, but with DVD.
I am eager to buy a comp by cash payment, not via internet. So. if you know any store locations and their website, please let me know
Thanks a lot

Unfortunately, my experience with Toshiba has been somewhat bittersweet. On one hand, they've got fairly excellent customer service and very decent warranty, but their actual hardware is the biggest steaming pile of crap I have ever had the misfortune of using. For upwards of 6 months my ventilation fan would rattle, and then, I would get blue screens of death until the final time when my entire hardware just failed.

Twice I've had to send my laptop back to them because of some corroded motherboards and twice they've had to replace my entire hardrive within the span of 2 months. Toshiba hardware tends to overheat easily and burn out wires and I lost all my files and programs with these two system meltdowns.

Oddly enough, my laptop had been a gift from my father who also got a Toshiba laptop for himself and he, too, had had severe problems with the Toshiba hardware that he's had to send his laptop back twice as well. I wish he had had enough common sense to learn from these experiences and not have inflicted them upon me. Thanks Dad.

Bottom line: Toshiba hardware is awful. Though, admittedly, I haven't had any hardware problems since this latest incident. I'm holding my breath.

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