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Toshiba Satellite Intermittent Freeze A75-S206

post #1 of 184
8/30/04 at 9:31pm
Thread Starter 
Hi All!
I just got a new Toshiba Laptop (A75-S206). I’ve been getting intermittent freezing on my machine lately. The entire computer locks up and ctrl-alt-delete doesn’t do anything. The mouse is stuck and the only thing that I can do is to power off the machine and restart it. There’s really no determining factor as to when the freeze occurs. Sometimes when I’m not doing anything and sometimes when I’m working on a memory intensive application. I don’t have any idea what’s causing it. I’ve tried to write down the applications running during the time of my computer freezing. It doesn’t seem to be any specific program that is causing the problem.

Here are my specs:

Model: A75-S206
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (518) 2.8GHz
Ram: 768 MB (Original RAM + Samsung 256 MB PC2700)
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 (Upgraded)
Video: ATI Radeon 9000 64MB Shared
Wireless: Atheros 802.11G
Antivirus: (NAV) Norton Autoprotect

Applications I generally use (of course, not all together concurrently): Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Visual Studio .NET 2003, Photoshop 7, MSIE, Mozilla Firefox, SQL Server 2000, MS IIS 5.1

I don’t believe it is any of these applications as the “freezing” happens when I have various programs open.

I’m not sure if it has something to do with the power configuration. I don’t think so as sometimes it just locks up even when I’m working and using the computer. Usually, this happens when I’m using Dreamweaver MX or Photoshop. But it locks up too even when I’m not using those programs.

My suspicion is that it maybe overheating. My computer doesn’t get as hot as like I can’t put my hands on it. I’m not 100% sure about this and I haven’t found any evidence yet to support that will 100% support that conclusion.

I have thought maybe it is possible that it is my wireless, but I’m not sure. It is turned on all the time as I do have a wireless network at home. I also bring my laptop to work.

If you’ve read this far, thanks! I’m hoping one might have some ideas as to what I should look into or what someone may think the problem is. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
dfageko
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post #2 of 184
9/9/04 at 2:29pm

A75-S206 Freezes

Hi,
Unfortunately I can not offer solutions, however I can say that I have exactly the same problem. I've noticed it happening especially often when using a program called EditPlus (3 freezes in about 15 min).
If I find any solutions I'll be sure to post them here. Please do likewise.

-P. Billock

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post #3 of 184
9/17/04 at 7:27am
Hi Guys,

I've had a couple of these come in the last couple of days, i have been replacing the mainboards on these machines i think it's a RAM issue since the ram is built onto the boards of these machines.

It isn't a software issue, it's defenately a hardwrae issue
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post #4 of 184
9/25/04 at 9:56am
I have the same setup except no additional ram. I've had my laptop approx. 2 months and haven't experienced any of there problems. I also purchased mine from Best Buy. How long have the two of you had yours and where did you by them from?
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post #5 of 184
10/4/04 at 7:54pm

No more Toshiba for me.

I had a toshiba, a bit over a year and started having video problems, called support and nothing but "have you scanned for viruses and run adaware".
Finally it died completely and they were satisfied enough to give me a replacement ( this was actually through Comp USA).
So I got this POS a75, new in the box from Comp USA. I had it a week I think before it started doing this crap. And I did various versions of testing OS's and software configurations before knowing for sure it was hardware. so it was nearly a month before they gave me an RMA. Now, after the week they quoted me on turn around time, they 'can't find the system board they need' so want to wait another two weeks to give me some frankenstein POS that will hold me over another few weeks. So, I'm actually on hold right now with some department (customer relations) who is so backed up with people calling in about their crap computers that I've been on hold for about 40 min.
Ha ha.. they just came on and told me that they wouldn't let me stay on hold anymore, they may be experiencing technical dificulties. Maybe they are working on toshiba computers. .. anyway.. goodluck with all yer POS Toshiba computers.. I feel your pain. I'm about to toss mine over the overpass.
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post #6 of 184
10/29/04 at 5:55pm
hi there. i bought my son an a75-s206 in mid august, to use in college. he is currently running xp sp2. the problem he has( and hopefully this might help someone who is smarter than me when it comes to pc power mgmt. ) is that the pc powers down for no reason, intermittently, whether he is in an active program( which would probably be Word, etc. ) or he is just sitting on instant messenger, waiting for some messages from his pals. ctrl-alt-del doesn't work when this happens, he gets no error messages, just a power down and he must power up to get running again. and also, intermittently, he experiences the volume turned off and clicking on the volume icon just brings up a hazy( non-clickable ) image.

i called toshiba support and after the 3rd call, was told to install the latest bios version and the latest version of toshiba power mgmt. utilities. the problem this involves is that the bios upgrade comes as an ISO filetype and must be 'copied' to floppy or cd-r in order to use. since his pc doesn't have a floppy, i further looked into any freeware that could take an ISO image and cut it to CD and found an 'ISO recorder power toy', but it won't work on SP2.
now, is this the way to run a business, Toshiba ??

am i better off having my son try to take it to a toshiba repair shop ?? or continue trying to talk him through the bios/power updates ?? plus, will this upgrade tell me if it is a software problem or a hardware problem( which i would think toshiba would be aware of and make public ). as an added bit of info, a friend of his has the same pc and is experiencing the same power off problems.

thanks to you all, at least i know i am not the only person having problems. any help you can give me( and if i find out anything, i will definitely let you all know ) would be greatly appreciated. thanks, bill
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post #7 of 184
11/10/04 at 7:50pm
Same problem here and ran into the same problem with the bios flash upgrade. I was able to get it burned to a CD and completed the flash but it made no difference, the thing still does all the same things you mention. I deleted Toshiba's power management altogether and that didn't help. This has to be a hardware issue! Sure wish I could run across someone who fixed the problem so I knew which direction to proceed. Wife really needs the laptop and doesn't want to be without it but it is failing so often, she will have no choice.
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post #8 of 184
11/11/04 at 6:16pm

Toshiba A75 S206 Freeze

I also have an A75-S206. Installed win2k on it and all the toshiba driver updates
(TBIOS, ir driver, powermanagement utility, ati display driver, modem driver)

I was having the hang problem also. Since then I have removed the TBIOS driver, ir driver, powermanagement utility and modem driver. I also disabled Hyperthreading. Have not seen the problem since then. It's only been a few days, but I used to get the hang at least once a day.


I'll post if another hang occurs.
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post #9 of 184
11/12/04 at 11:21am
Please do report back and can you elaborate how you disabled and removed all the items you mention?

Thanks! I hope you hit on the problem. One day I swear it is software, the next I lean towards hardware!
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post #10 of 184
11/16/04 at 12:33pm
I removed all the components through the windows add/remove utility in the Control Panel. I disabled HyperThreading through the BIOS at startup.

I installed win2k on the machine manually, and then installed the toshiba drivers downloaded from toshibas site. I don't know if these are available for removal from the control panel in a pre-installed setup.

Anyways, I haven't seen a freeze since then.

cheers,

-- Anant
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post #11 of 184
11/17/04 at 12:51pm
Thanks, I'll give your suggestions a try. The thing was acting up on the wife yesterday so badly there was no way you could work on it. There are numerous posts on the web about this exact problem with this machine and all Toshiba tells you is to flash the bios and install drivers but that does nothing to cure the problem.
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post #12 of 184
11/18/04 at 1:22pm

A75-s206

I am Having the Same Problem . I have sent the machine to be fixed to Toshiba a total of three times. They Replaced the Main Board and Hard Drive. They will not swap it out for a new one.. I should have bought a Dell.
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post #13 of 184
11/18/04 at 4:47pm

Cooling fans

I only have one problem with this heavy sucker and that is the fans run all the time. Is there some power function that I can change other than the power schemes to change the temp., timer, or whatever it is that makes them run so long? Very irratating in a quiet room.

Didn't see anything in the BIOS but maybe didn't look in the right place
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post #14 of 184
11/18/04 at 5:28pm

Suggestion on A70 Freezing

Check your BIOS version. If you are still using v1.10 this is the production version of the BIOS. Toshiba offers BIOS v1.30, it corrects several problems with microprocessor codes which was the original cause of the lockups.
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post #15 of 184
11/18/04 at 7:30pm

Is the 1.3 bios upgrade indeed for the A75 also?

It says on site for A70, same thing?
Thanks



Quote:
Originally Posted by T-repairman
Check your BIOS version. If you are still using v1.10 this is the production version of the BIOS. Toshiba offers BIOS v1.30, it corrects several problems with microprocessor codes which was the original cause of the lockups.
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post #16 of 184
11/20/04 at 7:46am
Yes it will work for the A70/75
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post #17 of 184
11/20/04 at 5:22pm
Well i tried, guess I don't know what I'm doing. I picked the image out of the downloaded upgrade, attemted to burn that image to my cdrw, changed the boot order in the bios (I think). I changed the order in the list, saved changes and windows started as always, nothing diff.
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post #18 of 184
11/20/04 at 6:24pm
You have to download the file from Toshiba's website, then run that file from your desktop. Usually the BIOS program will prompt you for a diskette installation or something else. You want to chose diskette installation and have a blank floppy disk on hand. Insert the floppy disk and the utility should format the disk and install the BIOS update. Then boot the computer from the floppy drive and the utility should start running. It will show you what the current BIOS is and what version it is loading. **DO NOT TURN THE PC OFF UNTIL THE UTILITY INSTRUCTS YOU TOO** Otherwise your mainboard will be toast. I recommend doing this download and utility install to the diskette. Then enter the BIOS on boot (F2) and change the boot order to FDD. You can also repeatedly press 'F' key on boot and that should force boot to the floppy drive. On this model you will need an external USB floppy drive.

One thing as well to look for, when you run the downloaded file. See if it gives you an option to update the BIOS through windows. If it gives you that option, you won't have to create the floppy disk portion.
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post #19 of 184
11/22/04 at 12:02pm

No floppy on this model the A75-206

It says to use the CD if you don't have floppy and that's where my problem is. I can't figure out which file to burn and exactly how to do it. I'm going to call Toshiba today. Now I know why everyone should still have a floppy drive.
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post #20 of 184
12/1/04 at 8:41pm

Same problem on A75-S229

My A75-S229 is freezing at apparently random times. It has even frozen as I was trying to reconfigure the bios. I have bios version 1.3 that came with it. I suspect an overheating issue. I'm using mobmeter on another notebook but it doesn't read the temp on a toshiba. Any other ways to check my temp? Any other ideas? I need to determine if I should return it or not.
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