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Satellite M30 Special Edition Questions....

post #1 of 12
1/1/06 at 11:25pm
Thread Starter 
hey guys, great forum you have here


ive purchased a Satellite M30 Special Edition (PSM33A-00D00F) from an auction and was wondering if this model was sold in australia (the reason i'm asking is because it was owned by an embassy). the toshiba australia website isnt very helpful. anyway, i'd like to re-format it with xp pro and was wondering which site i should get the drivers from? and which drivers should i use? it only came with a power cable....no manual, or recovery cd's etc. at the moment it keeps freezing up and i cant really do anything with it...

would i be better off downloading drivers for each hardware component from the actual manufacturers websites instead of toshiba? if so, how can i find out the specs of my machine (sorry guys, i'm a total newb)?

i would greatly appreciate it if someone could give me some advice/assistance, and what steps i should take to format this machine to get it into tip top shape

thanx in advance
D69.
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post #2 of 12
1/2/06 at 12:15am
use the US site...drivers are the same.

You can download the manual from the US site.

You are also missing a cable that allows you to use the screen as a video monitor. The cable has a "phono" style end with 3 rings...and the other end has your standard Yellow, Red, White RCA style end.

Download the drivers from Toshiba....don't even think you could find the right drivers from the component manufacturers.

Specs...you can get some of them by pressing F2 and getting into the BIOS as the unit boots up.
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post #3 of 12
1/2/06 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by YP5 Toronto
use the US site...drivers are the same.

You can download the manual from the US site.

You are also missing a cable that allows you to use the screen as a video monitor. The cable has a "phono" style end with 3 rings...and the other end has your standard Yellow, Red, White RCA style end.

Download the drivers from Toshiba....don't even think you could find the right drivers from the component manufacturers.

Specs...you can get some of them by pressing F2 and getting into the BIOS as the unit boots up.
HERE is the link to the US site where you will be able to find everything for tosh lappies. JUst select your model and follow the links. If there are more than one driver for some piece of hardware (for example the wireless card) just use the latest one, and check the documentation that is there in the DL page to see if there are any dependancies on other programs. Good luck.
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post #4 of 12
1/2/06 at 3:26pm
Thread Starter 
thanx for your input guys, i really appreciate it

which model should i choose on that page? i have the PSM33A-00D00F....

- S3501
- SS350
- S3091

does it make a difference?
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post #5 of 12
8/15/06 at 4:32pm
Thread Starter 
still struggling with this guys.... anyone know where i can get recovery cd's for it?
another problem im having is getting the drivers (if any) to make widescreen look normal.... it looks stretched, havent been able to get it looking normal, is there a modded nvidia driver i could use or something?

last but not least, the dvd super multi drive will play cd-r's, but has problems playing and burning dvd's, ive deleted and reinstalled the drivers for it with no luck....

any help would be greatly appreciated, otherwisei'll run over it as its driving me nuts
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post #6 of 12
8/15/06 at 5:56pm
This has also been mentioned on a couple of threads recently:
Before installing any Toshiba Utilities(power saver,power managament,hot key..) make sure you install Toshiba ACPI common modules first

Try to uninstall Toshiba Power Saver from Control Panel before installing new version..

(thanks Peppermintpaddy)
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post #7 of 12
8/15/06 at 6:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by doggystyle69
still struggling with this guys.... anyone know where i can get recovery cd's for it?
another problem im having is getting the drivers (if any) to make widescreen look normal.... it looks stretched, havent been able to get it looking normal, is there a modded nvidia driver i could use or something?

last but not least, the dvd super multi drive will play cd-r's, but has problems playing and burning dvd's, ive deleted and reinstalled the drivers for it with no luck....

any help would be greatly appreciated, otherwisei'll run over it as its driving me nuts
What are you setting the screen resolution to? Being a widescreen it should be 1280x768.
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post #8 of 12
8/15/06 at 8:56pm
for the screen g00nter has it for the resolution, but for the multi drive, thats likely a sign of it dying...
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post #9 of 12
9/1/06 at 2:14am
Thread Starter 
thanx for the advice guys, the dvd super multidrive has died i think.... it thinks any burned or original dvd, dvd+-r or cd-r is blank.....
anyway, i have managed to get hold of a set of recovery disks off of ebay!
my dilemma is that i cant load them up because of the dead supermultidrive! ive borrowed a friends external dvd burner and an external cdrom which both connect by usband they both work. but when i try to use the recovery disks, it starts off ok, but when the recovery process starts NO CD/NET appears in big letters on the screen and then a command prompt appears after it. i dont know what to do.... any ideas guys????
ive tried changing the boot sequence to boot from cdrom or boot from external devices but no luck.... is there any other way i can use these recovery discs to reload my system?
i really need to finish a couple of assignments and need my notebook running normally. any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated guys.

please help.

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post #10 of 12
9/4/06 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
anyone??
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post #11 of 12
9/6/06 at 12:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by doggystyle69
thanx for the advice guys, the dvd super multidrive has died i think.... it thinks any burned or original dvd, dvd+-r or cd-r is blank.....
anyway, i have managed to get hold of a set of recovery disks off of ebay!
my dilemma is that i cant load them up because of the dead supermultidrive! ive borrowed a friends external dvd burner and an external cdrom which both connect by usband they both work. but when i try to use the recovery disks, it starts off ok, but when the recovery process starts NO CD/NET appears in big letters on the screen and then a command prompt appears after it. i dont know what to do.... any ideas guys????
ive tried changing the boot sequence to boot from cdrom or boot from external devices but no luck.... is there any other way i can use these recovery discs to reload my system?
i really need to finish a couple of assignments and need my notebook running normally. any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated guys.

please help.
you need to replace the internal drive... from what i know some laptops have issues with booting from a usb device and will not run a recovery disk off a usb connection. so in other words the only way to run them is to get your dvd multi drive replaced as soon as possible.
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post #12 of 12
9/6/06 at 4:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fidget
you need to replace the internal drive... from what i know some laptops have issues with booting from a usb device and will not run a recovery disk off a usb connection. so in other words the only way to run them is to get your dvd multi drive replaced as soon as possible.
As I understand it, only certain 16bit USB devices (like certain floppy drives) can be booted. There is also a way to prepare a USB key tfor booting on some laptops (I don't knwo about yours), but it's slow and setting it up can be painstaking at best if you are already in windows and setting the key up and can be a major challenge if not.

You're best bet would be getting a new optical drive in there. Check out some of the posts by Richk on installing aftermarket drives into toshiba laptop. There are issues relating to the firmware with most off the shelf drives requiring them to be jumpered.
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