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Hardware

Processor Problems w/ Toshiba s504 & s507 Laptops? 30

Posted by Cliff from the when-hardware-manufacturers-don't-own-up dept.
Diridari asks: "The are some serious overheating problems with the Toshiba 5005-S504/S507 notebooks that Toshiba will not officially confirm. Many people been sending their boxes to the Toshiba depot more then once, but nothing was fixed. Since this notebook has a GeForce4go and is advertised as a desktop replacement, it should definitely be a nice gaming/multimedia notebook, but it isn't. The problem is that the CPU is a desktop CPU and during a Direct3D gaming session, or any CPU stressing application, it gets hot (Toshiba's cost reduction strategy by using the desktop CPU; I call it design flaw). I had a temperature of 65-73 Celsius during a test gaming session of DarkAgeOfCamelot with hmonitor. At 75 the box would shut down. The BIOS update from Toshiba throttles the CPU speed from 1.1G to 500MHz as a 'solution', which is not acceptable for a box that costs $2000. If I just wanted to read emails on this box, I would have spend $800 for a notebook." Has anyone had luck either getting Toshiba to properly handle this situation to their satisfaction, or via some form of workaround?

"If you want to read more about these problems, you can check Compuserve's Toshiba Forums [C: expect long load times] and search for "Still overheating" and Google for more information and user comments.

The Toshiba customer service is not helping at all. What can be done? How can I get the box that was actually advertised by Toshiba and not a very-expensive 500Mhz-for-email-only box? Do I have rights as a customer?"
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Processor Problems w/ Toshiba s504 & s507 Laptops? More

Processor Problems w/ Toshiba s504 & s507 Laptops?

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  • reminds one of Apple (Score:3, Funny)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2002 @05:16PM (#3525924) Homepage Journal
    Puzzling how PC makers finally decide to copy Apple, and this is the feature [pbzone.com] they choose.

    If I were in their position, I would have copied the Titanium G4 (affectionately termed the "TiBook", pun on the Ti (the chemical symbol for titanium) and iBook). Instead they copied an old model that burst into flames without warning, as suddenly as Anakin turns into Vader. But, I guess I should just be thankful they are following suit in other areas, as the specs on these laptops are pretty sweet: 512MB memory and DVD out of the box, and nice crisp displays. And those 1.7GHZ P4's are really hauling ass. No wonder they lit on fire!

    Anyway, keep up the good work, Toshiba.

  • In politics, we vote with our voice. With respect to big business, we vote with our $$$. If your representative, or supplier, or whoever doesn't meet your needs, vote them out of office.

    In other words, return the damn thing, and purchase a similar laptop from their competitor!

  • Workaround (Score:2, Funny)

    by qeL3-i ( 577868 )
    Only operate your computer in a large walk-in freezer, or in Arctic areas. HTH! HAND!

  • Standard response (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    1. Talk to the retailer you bought from. They may be able to accept the return esp. if you are a corp. account
    2. A number of states and localities have trade boards or other tools if it does not perform as advertised you might have a case
    3. Talk to your state or locality's Attorney General's office (or equivalent) If Toshiba has property in your state or locality you might be able to get some help.
    4. Try a small claims court case if doable or start a class action law suit.
  • IANAL.
    Since the computer doesn't work, you should be covered under the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.
    Send it back, deny the charges for the credit card, and don't accept any return shipments.
    • I don't know what kind of consumer protection legislation you guys have in the states, but in New Zealand we have this thing called the "Fair Trading Act". I'm pretty sure in this country the situation would violate the act in several places.

      Firstly, as you say the fitness for it's purpose - if you buy a product for it's advertised purpose and it cannot fulfill that purpose then you are entitled to a refund.

      Secondly, misleading advertising, if they say in the advertising this machine is great for gaming etc, or even that it is 1.1g (and the throttle to 500mhz) then that is blatently misleading and they would have the book thrown at them.

  • Dude you shoulda got a Dell! (Score:3, Informative)

    by qurob ( 543434 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2002 @06:10PM (#3526252) Homepage
    We've got the Dell's with the insane NVIDIA chipset to do 3D presentations, and they don't skip a beat. They get warm, but they don't act like the Toshibas. A colleague sent his back (he ordered from PC Mall [pcmall.com] and they were cool about returning it for that problem. I do believe he ended up talking to Toshiba in the end.
  • Alright. First and formost, you talk to the company (as you have). And they're not going anything..

    Next step is probably to inform toshiba that you're going to take this to a consumer's rights organisation (you'll have to look for which one is best to take the issue to, I'm Canadian, so I don't know where one takes these issues to in other countries). Companies, no matter the size -hate- getting involved with these organisations, because they often actually do help the consumer. If Toshiba doesn't make any attempt to help you (and even if they do) go to the consumer rights organisation and work with them to see what can be done about it.

    That's the path i'd take... I like my Toshiba... the fan died long ago, but it's only a P100 420CDT Sattilite Pro, so overheating's rare.
  • C: expect long load times

    What I'm expecting is a barrage of old jokes about their server running on one of those buggy laptops :)
  • I have no problems with it. Specs:
    1.1ghz Celeron
    256MB PC133
    15GB HDD
    14in LCD
    $850US

    It does get rather hot, but has yet to crash. I have left this thing on for days on end with no problems.

    I think I got a rather good deal for the hardware.
  • The box has a desktop processor in it. This information was widely known before you bought the box. The box performs AS ONE WOULD EXPECT, given the heat dissipation of a desktop processor. Sure, throttling back to less than half-speed is irritating. Sure, putting a desktop processor in a laptop is a dirt-stupid false economy. But all of this information was fully public before you plunked down the $2k, right?

    And you want Toshiba to do what, exactly?

    Sheesh.
    'jfb

    • The box has a desktop processor in it.

      Make that a "crappy Intel processor". My Sony has a mobile 1GHz P3 CPU, which I usually operate in "speed-step" mode (clocked at 750MHz). The case still gets so hot that it's almost unbearable when I have it sitting on my lap.

      What a piece of rubbish. Sony should be ashamed.

      • As opposed to all of those cool running high performance processors, right? Hell, even the TiBook gets too hot to hold in your lap, and that uses a low-power glorified router controller, not one of thess 80w space heating AMD or Intel jobs.

        The newest "Mobile" P3s run surprisingly cool, for what little that's worth.

        'jfb

    • Um, no. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Wakko Warner ( 324 )
      He bought a processor with a 1GHz+ chip in it. He did not pay for a 500 MHz CPU. It doesn't matter what little caveats he should or should not have dug up, buried deep in Toshiba's website.

      He bought something that was advertised as working perfectly fine at its rated speed. It does not work at that speed. Toshiba needs to rectify this problem. It's that simple.

      - A.P.
      • Sorry, can't agree. He bought a machine that is in fact working properly. If the consumer can't be expected to do even the tiniest modicum of research before plopping down two large on a computer, it's hardly Toshiba's fault.

        OF COURSE putting a desktop x86 processor in a laptop is a laughably stupid idea, no sane person would argue that. But once that bridge has been crossed, the system needs to be able to dramatically reduce power output when heat builds up in the machine -- which it does by throttling the processor, or in extreme cases shutting it down entirely.

        I repeat: THIS IS A WELL KNOWN AND PERFECTLY REASONABLE BEHAVIOR, given the way the computer has been built. If he doesn't like it (and honestly, he's right to be upset with the performance), he ought not to have blown the money on such a poorly designed machine.

        'jfb

        • Re:Um, no. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Wakko Warner ( 324 )
          I hardly think Toshiba advertised the machine thusly: "Please buy the new Toshiba Piece Of Shit XP! Now With More Crashiness!" I imagine reliability either wasn't discussed, or was played up.

          The consumer shouldn't be expected to research the reliability of the machine; if it's a piece of garbage, at the very least the warranty ought to cover it.

          I hope you never run a company. It would be a dismal failure, with the amount of disdain you would harbor for your customers.

          - A.P.
          • You are completely out of your mind, if you have one.

            When you purchase something, there is an implied warranty of merchantability. This means that the product should function correctly and within specifications. You cannot avoid liability for selling something that is broken by not stating that it should work.

            If you purchased a car and discovered that it would overheat and shutoff when driving at highway speeds, you would insist that the dealer or manufacturer address the issue and repair or replace the automobile. If the auto manufacturer upgraded the engine computer to govern the cars top speed to 40mph, you would sue them and win.

  • Acceptiblity (Score:1, Interesting)

    by CmdrTaco (editor) ( 564483 )
    Some people here seem to think it would be acceptable if they bought a system that did not work and the "solution" would be to run the computer at less than 1/2 its advertised speed. What if this applied to other parts of the computer?

    Would it be acceptible if only the first 300 MB could be read by the CD-ROM drive?
    Would it be acceptible if only the inner 6" of the LCD worked?
    Would it be acceptible if only 64 MB of RAM was functional?

    Speed is often a luxury, but in many cases it is a necessity. Sometimes increased speed can mean increased productivity, in which case the speed loss results in decreased productivity. Get Toshibas attention. Calculate the amount of time you spend waiting for processor limited activities and send Toshiba a bill for the time you would have saved had you used a faster processor. You most likely won't get the money, but you just might get an offer to return the product for a refund.

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