Toshiba Satellite Intermittent Freeze A75-S206 - Page 3

A75-S209 freezing up

well forget that idea. I turned on the machine when i got home and by the time i got to sit down and do anything on it....it had froze up. I called Toshiba and they are really clueless. They said to give it a couple of days and if it keeps acting up then i should load the recovery disc. I have noticed one thing though. Everytime my laptop freezes up... I have yahoo messenger running. I am beginning to wonder if that is the problem. I am going to uninstall yahoo to see if that fixes the situation. The only thing is that I have been using Yahoo Messenger for over two weeks so i don't know why that would be the problem now but at this point i will try anything.

A75-S209 freeze fix

Ok, i think i found the answer...I reloaded the recovery disc and noticed that there were some things that were never installed on the disc from Toshiba. So far i have not had any problems and I have not froze up one time. I am going to create a system restore point and monitor what happens from this point. Hopefully this will fix the problem.

A75-s209

Alright so i lied.....reloading the recovery disc did not help. I turned it on during my lunch hour and it froze up. This is really getting irritating. I had 14 days to return defective merchandise but this is day 15 so i am out of luck. I am going to contact Toshiba Corporate and tell them what i think of this laptop

Good luck! Let me know how it goes. I tried that already with my first one.
I'll hope for the best. My laptop froze twice this morning as well.

format everything

A75-S209 Freezing Problem Fixed for now

Well i fixed my freezing problem for now.....lol. I took the laptop back to Circut City and they replaced it for me. So now i have another new laptop. So far so good.

Anyone fixed yet?

I have the Toshiba A75 S206 and so does a friend of mine. I bought mine 1 month prior to him buying his. 31 days after I got mine the hard drive went bad.
I took it back to Best Buy and they gave me a new one. 7 days later the registry went bad. Opened support with Microsoft and reloaded XP and have been locking up every since. There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to when it locks up but it's getting bad.

I have an open case with Toshiba Support whereby they finally told me to take it to a service center.

Having read all of these posts I find the only bit of happiness in all of this is that I am not alone.

Anyone fixed problem yet? What I have tried was the same stuff with the Quicken.......that the tech support people insisted on. I will say that everytime I have run defrag the problem slows down. I have the most problems when in Outlook Express or Excel. Though I have experienced lockups with no programs running. I wonder when a class action lawsuit might prevail here.

There is a serious issue with the Toshiba A70 / A75 laptop

There is a serious issue with the Toshiba A70 / A75 laptop notebooks that is responsible for random freezing and/or rebooting of the system.

After reading many posts on various forums and newsgroups throughout the web in which Toshiba A70 /A75 owners search for a reason to explain this seemingly random freezing and/or rebooting of the system I have discovered what is causing this and it is reproducible so A70 /A75 owners can do this themselves and can then contact Toshiba and demand a recall or compensation.

Turn on the Toshiba Satellite A70 S256 or A70 S259 models or the Satellite A75 models as normal and let it boot up. Once windows has finished loading completely, stand up and walk around on a carpet for a minute or less. Touch either metal speaker cover but the left speaker cover is much more sensitive than the right for some reason. Now try and move your mouse or type on the keyboard. When conditions are ripe for static electricity build up you will not even have to walk around on a carpet. Just moving your hands from the touchpad to the keyboard is often sufficient to create the freeze or reboot. Sliding your finger over the case between the touchpad and the left speaker cover will also freeze and/or reboot the system.

I have several of these models at my disposal and can readily reproduce this issue on every one. In an office setting in which a forced air heating system is present (this is the most common heating system for medium to large office buildings) the problem renders the laptop un-usable. Data is often lost and when a reliable running laptop with reliable running software is the difference between working and not working or getting paid or getting fired this model Toshiba is a definite drain on your ability to get paid, not get fired and to work without constant freezing and reboots.

Those of you who live in a part of the world in which you do not experience cold temperatures and forced air heated buildings should be lucky enough to experience this design flaw very infrequently if at all. Static electricity is funny. Sometimes you can discharge it from your person my holding the desktop as you seat yourself in a chair but at other times it builds until you come in contact with something that will conduct it and the metal speaker covers on the A70 /A75 are just the sort of thing that can and will and does conduct static electricity to your laptop.

Static electricity is nothing new. There are standards manufactures should adhere to in an effort to minimize the dissipation of static electricity through a laptop frame into the motherboard and other ungrounded components.

That's why hardware technicians (the good ones) always stand on a static pad that is grounded and wear a wrist strap that is grounded to a static pad under the laptop. Static discharge will damage memory, motherboard circuits and other wiring harness components.

In MHO the average consumer should not be expected to wear or stand on static dissipation equipment to engage in normal everyday use a laptop.

If you do not believe me check the various newsgroups and laptop forums on the Internet. Look for how many messages are posted in regards to the A70 / A75 Toshiba Satellite models freezing. Some owners of this laptop have been updating the BIOS, disabling tapping on the touchpad and setting the touchpad to the lowest sensitivity possible, turning off hyperthreading and more in an effort to resolve this issue.

If you own a Toshiba Satellite A70 or a Toshiba Satellite A75 laptop and you are experiencing random freezing and/or rebooting, please contact Toshiba and tell Toshiba you have discovered the source of your problem. These laptops have been designed in such a way that normal everyday static electricity levels in the user will cause the system to freeze and/or reboot when the left speak is touched and sometimes when the right speaker is touched and sometimes when you move your hands from the touchpad to the keyboard and sometimes when you slide your finger over the frame between the touchpad and the speaker covers.

This is a serious and potentially damaging situation for the laptop. Do not delay. Try it yourself and then contact Toshiba if you can reproduce the issue.

A75-S209 Freezing

Does anyone have the number to Toshiba other than the Customer Support number? I tried to call them and complain but it didn't do me any good. I think we would be better off calling a corporate number or something.

Hello folks: I'm new to this forum but a long time toshiba laptop user....

I'm having similar lockup/auto shutdown freezing problems with my Satellite P10.

Which I notice is now "discontinued" up here in CanuckisStan.

It is quite a problem when running on my battery.......note pops up that I have "the wrong battery" etc and then just shutsdown.

I also have the mouse freeze issue but most times (not always) if I touch the touchpad, it "unfreezes" and I can proceed.......

So I think, back it goes for a replacement.......but perhaps not a Toshiba.

Which I guess means over to IBM.

I recentely purchased a Toshiba A75 S209 and have experienced repeated freezes, reboots, and black screens. What Madmaxster has said about static electricity causing freezing, random auto rebooting and just black screen is absolutely true and is the cause of the problem. This is a major problem and Toshiba needs to take responsiblity for the problem by offering exhanges, refunds, or any other remedies for the problem.

Just had the HD replaced and all was going well for a few hours then it froze three times in 30 minutes! Was without it for a week and now the damn thing will have to go back in! This is so frustrating! I was told over the phone from an authorized Tosh local repair shop about the speaker thing too but I can't see that being the culprit as it freezes when not even near it. Got to be in the Ram or main board?

I am 100% convinced the static problem is the main source of the problems for the freezing issue in these laptops. I have replicated it several times. I contacted the toshiba technical support on the phone several times and they have "no knowledge" of this subject. My ass! they are ignoring it. I really think something needs to be done. I think the more people to call in the better! If you can get through to an engineer it will be better. Here is the tech support number for computers800) 457-7777. Good luck to all!

Static electricity is definitely the problem and I have tested this myself at least 2 dozen times. Just walk around the room and touch one of the speakers and it's guaranteed that the machine will either freeze up, reboot, or just give you a black screen (with a power button still lit--but of no help). I too called Customer Tech Support and said: This can't be the first time you guys are hearing about this problem. Of course, he replied: actually sir it is -- just a boldfaced lie. I then emailed tech support about the problem and received a response that reads: "Certain Satellite A75 models have exhibited the symptoms you describe. The solution is to take your unit to any Toshiba Authorized Service Center and they will replace the speaker cover assembly." Then I called an authorized Toshiba repair center and he argued that it wasn't the speakers and told me that even if it was a speaker-related problem, the speaker cover assembly wouldn't be covered under my warranty and it would take a week to repair. This is unacceptable; the computer was only purchased 2 months ago. I don't know about you guys, but since purchasing this piece of crap, I have probably spent about 40 hours troubleshooting the problem! This issue is ripe for a class-action lawsuit.

A75-S226 Freezing - Bizarrre story - Note Troopdog

I bought my satellite (A75-s226) from Best Buy in WestLA. I worked on it for a week or so and it worked great. Abit stalling of the mouse at times but nothing which I thought was a defect. I then flew to Malta, an island in the mediterranean where the power output is 240v. Normally there is no problem because the laptop adapter accepts 110-240v. But the laptop starting crashing. I wont begin to explain how much time I wasted (not hours but days!) on this matter, but the bottom line is this: When my laptop is connected to a step down transformer, which drops my walled power from 240 to 110v and which then obviously enters the power adapter, then laptop works fine. Never a crash or freeze. BUT EVERYTIME the laptop, obviously through its power adapter, is connected to the walled socket at 240v it freezes or crashes at very unpredictable moments. But it always crashes. Having used the laptop now EVERY day for six months, there is no doubt that this is NOT a coincidence. I called Best Buy (West Hollywood since I could get through to West LA) and the geek squad member there actually said that the power adapter is meant to charge the battery only and I should be using the laptop on batteries! unbelievable.. he must have thought I was some moron! Anyway, I reported this problem to Toshiba support who have no clue whats is happening and recommended I take the computer to the service centre in Malta. To avoid losing my laptop for the whole day, I gave them the power adapter. They said it works fine. I checked it myself after buying my own voltmeter. I then gave the local agents the laptop for half a day. They returned it saying that it worked well and never froze on them. When I got back home I realised that I had not given my password to enter windows so they must have checked the computer in safemode and not using any real applications. The logical conclusion to them was that the hardware is fine. That kind of makes sense for me, and one would think its therefore a software problem. I formated /reinstalled twice using the factory cd-rom, but the problem persists. To this day, it persists. If I connected the laptop's power adapter to the walled 240v say 250 times, then it crashed at least 250 times. Whenever I connect it using a step down transformer, it NEVER crashes/freezes. I tested the laptop in a different house and in a different village, twice, and the problem persists. And no, the power is stablised in my house so there cant be a problem with that. No the Malta service centre said they need my laptop before replacing the adapter, if thats the problem. My feeling is that the freezing/crashing is so unpredictable (it can happen within 10 mins or within 1 hour) that unless they dedicate a technician properly to it they will not really establish what the real problem is. From what I read on this forum, it seems Toshiba international doesnt even offer a real solution, so what should I expect from a small service centre on this little rock? I am happy to join any pressures or court cases if my problem is common to others, which it seems. Oh by the way, the static electricity is there too. I feel it on my hands through the speakers particularly when I am connected to the 240v directly. Earthing myself is not really helping. I can't carry a step down transformer on my travels abroad, well mine is very heavy and in any case why should this be the solution? Surely I should be getting a laptop which does not cause me so much inconvenience! Anybody who can help, please write in as I would be most gratefull.

I'm not sure that static is the sole reason for the hangs/freezes. I purchased my A75-S206 about three weeks ago and I would say I am averaging about 4 freezes per day. I came across this discussion in my search for an answer!

Since reading about the static theory I have taped over the speakers so that they are insulated from any static I might be carrying but I am still consistently freezing. Typically these happen towards the end of the day, so my theory is/was related to the temperature of the processor. I am thinking that perhaps the fans are not keeping the system temperature low enough and so the system starts behaving unpredictable.

Any other theories gratefully accepted!

Well, add me to the list...

I have an A75-S209 which is two months old and started doing this last week. At first I thought it was a problem with my third party video drivers since I installed those shortly before the problem started, but I uninstalled them and restored the original drivers, then went into another room and sat down and plugged in my computer--boom, lockup.

I too am convinced the static explanation is bang on. My dad just wandered in here to see if I'd figured anything out, I told him about this static idea and how supposedly the left speaker was the worst part, poked the left speaker to demonstrate--and the screen flickered followed promptly by another lockup. I had thought it must be something I had installed because I had it for two months with no problems--but at this point, I am sure that the reason I hadn't had problems was because it hadn't yet gotten really cold. Also, the problem is MUCH worse at my parents' house than at my apartment, I'm pretty sure because my apartment is not carpeted.

I am so pissed off I can't see straight. If I could, I'd just take the damn thing back and pay the restocking fee and get a totally different model. But it worked just fine for two months. I have Best Buy's service plan, but how can they fix something that seems to be a fundamental design flaw? The absolute LAST thing I want to do is send it back to Toshiba, I *cannot* be without a computer for weeks at a time, and I highly doubt they'd fix the problem anyway. What I want is a new computer of a different model that does not have this design flaw. Too bad I do not have another $1500 to accomplish that. I haven't even come close to paying off this POS yet!

I want to cry. My dad suggests I wrap my computer in foil.

...fantastic.

A75-S209 freezing

I have had my A75-S209 for about three weeks now. I am on my third one. I was also having a freeze issue. I think I figured something out that will help with this problem. So far it seems to be working. Since we are in the winter months the air is really dry and thus causes alot of static electricty. Either get a humidifier or put a pan of water over your heater vents to get some moisture into the air. I have pretty much put enough moisture into the air and now I am not shocking everything that i touch. Also, make your you touch something metal to make sure you are grounded before you start doing anything to your laptop. If anyone else tries this, let me know what kind of results you get.

problem 'might' be totally static..

Hi all, I read your comments and wrote my story yesterday afternoon. Since then, for the past 20 hrs, I have done the following: I have made it a habit of wearing slippers instead of being barefoot. Note the floors to my apartment are ceramic. If I dont wear shoes I put my feet onto a chair. PLUS I tapes the speakers with electricity tape. So far it did not hang. Fingers crossed. I dont think its the barefeet that are the real problem since yesterday I took my laptop to my parents house and I was wearing shoes all the time, and still it hanged. I am beginning to think it is the speakers and some static problem connected to them. However I am still baffled about something. Why does the laptop hang only when my power adapter is connected to 240v? When connected to a step down transformer it does not hang and speakers dont need to be taped. Can anyone do some creative thinking about this? It doesnt seem to make sense!

My A75 209 locks up when speaker is touched when running on battery as well ... so it's not necessarily a problem with AC voltage. I'm just concerned about the cumulative damage all these forced power downs and reboots is doing to the motherboard/hard drive. I taped up the speaker using electrical (insulated tape) over a piece of rubber and it still locks up. Imagine how truly ungrounded the speakers are that they can delect static electricity through all that. It may have mitigated the problem but it's clearly not a solution. This is my only computer and it's used for business, so at least taping up the speakers might prove helpful to get through a document. Like you guys, I'm at my wit's end.