Toshiba A75-S229 Crash Landing

I've been told by two people with an A70 that reinstalling the drivers solves this problem. Good luck!

When you say it shorts out with a surge of electricity, are you talking about it crashing? What exactly is the flaw?

There is a serious issue with the Toshiba A70 / A75 model laptops. Poor design!

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.

I have owned my Toshiba A75 for over 3 months now. It took about a month before my computer started to crash. It started happening more frequently. I called into the Toshiba tech services and asked them what was going on? they told me to send it in because it was a hardware problem or to send it into one of the Toshiba approved repair shop. I took into the shop after coming home for a month and I was told it was dust... DUST! Fancy that it shut down the very next day, just shut down on me! I decided to investigate and found all these posts of others having problems. The fact that 1) Toshiba knows there is a problem and denies owning up to their responsibility and their product (since I've called more then once for help and NEVER did they mention this potentional problem). 2) That this problem is so apparent and there hasn't been a recall and 3) that there is a no refund policy. ALL BUNK! I'm more than happy to join ellisj2000 in a class action suit. Toshiba needs to take responsibility for their product and if it takes litigation - heck I'll be part of that.

I have a toshiba a75-s229 and have been having frequent lockups since the first week or two. I have called toshiba twice and they won't admit that there is a problem with this model(i believe their call center is mexico). The tech went as far as guarnateeing there wasn't an issue with my motherboard. I tried to get them to pay the shippng to their service depot but they won't.

The reason I believe its a flaw in the motherboard is this. After I talked to toshiba the first time, they gave me a number for an authorized service technician. I contaced the company and talked to one of their techs. As soon as I told him my model of toshiba, he groaned and said he knew what was wrong. After some prodding, he told me there was a batch of bad motherboards and that there is also a batch of bad replacement boards floating around. He said the last a75 he had in there, he replaced the board 4 times before giving it back to the customer. I am tempted to take my laptop to him since he will actually admit the problem and said he would make sure it works before i get it back. I havne't though as it is a 50+ mile drive and he said it may take 2-30 days depending on how many boards he goes through since toshiba will only ship him one at a time. He said he checks the toshiba site every day to see if they will mention the issue. He has talked to one of thier laptop depot peple and they admit the issue, but not openly.

I would be interested in a class action. I cannot remember the techs name, but the company he works for is Valcom Inicom and the number is 801-262-9277. You can find it listed on toshibas site as a 4star service center for the state of Utah. If you called there and talked to that guy, you may be able to record it on the phone with him saying it is an issue. I am not sure how willing he would be to tell you if he knew why though.

Hi, I have Toshiba A75-s209, and please tell me how can I tweak the system, because i tested it with 3d bench 2001 and only 3300!!, is this normal and is there any solution for that? drivers or what, please tell me something about it, i will appreciate it

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. In addition, the problem seems to be escalating as the days go on. I'm sure that these repeated freezes mandating forced power shutdowns and reboots are potentially damaging to the motherboard/hard drive. This is unacceptable. I don't know about you guys, but since purchasing this piece of crap, I have probably spent about 40 hours troubleshooting the problem! I don't want it fixed; I now want a full refund so that I can replace this machine and start over. This issue is ripe for a class-action lawsuit.

i seriously JUST took this computer out of the box and now i'm seeing all of this... it kinda freaks me out.. does anyone have this comp and not have any trouble?

Toshiba A70 / A75 crash issue

This law firm is investigating the possibility of a class action suit against Toshiba for two possible issues. One is a overheating issue and the other is the static freeze/crash/black screen issue.

http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm

Please pass the URL along to anyone who can use it. Sending an email or visiting the site does not create an attorney client relationship.

I am not a Toshiba engineer but I have reproduced this isue with several A70 S256, and S259 models. I have also reproduced this issue with several A75 S206 models. I do not believe it is confined to just the speakers. Have you ever moved your hand(s) from the touchpad to the keyboard and have the what appears to be a froozen mouse or a froozen screen?

I was contacted by a law firm investigating two Toshiba laptop issues. One is an overheating issue. That, IMHO, is a dead end because it occurs after a year or two of use and it is resolved by blowing out the dust from the fan grill, heat sink and repacking the temp lube. That is called standard maintenance whether most people realize it or not. The other issue is apparent crashing, freezing, rebooting and random black screens resulting from static discharge. Since this occurs on brand new A70 and A75 model Toshibas it is something they could pursue. Toshiba lost a clas action suit about 5 to 6 years ago. They ended up sending every registered owner of a specific model several hundred dollars (the cost of the fix). I don't recall the exact amount. I don't own a A70 or A75 but I have worked on dozens of them. The static issue is real.

According to what I understand sending an email or visiting this site will not create a client attorney relationship. So that means anything you tell them they can repeat and use for or against you. I wouldn't recommend getting involved with them until you verify they are who and what they say they are and are capable of handling a class action suit against a company like Toshiba.

Here is the info. Use it as you see fit and pass it on if you see fit.

http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm

I just bought my A75 S229 this last Sunday, and so far have had no problems, but after reading this, I'm kinda worried.

I see that this may be a static issue, and even though I've been wearing a new Christmas sweater (that shocks me whenever I touch a doorknob) I still haven't had any issues. Needless to say, I won't wear that sweater near this machine anymore.

If anything does happen related to the above problems, I'll be sure to add my comments.

Here's hoping I haven't jinxed myself.