Toshiba junk laptop and the unrepentant company - Page 3

That's funny

We have the same model as you RBM and we've replaced the hard drive a couple of times too. I just thought we used the 'puter too much. Maybe not??

3.5 years is a normal time for hardware issues to start appearing....

Fidget - do you do anything else apart from defend any or all accusations levied against your beloved Toshiba? This is a SERIOUS problem with Toshiba's machines and corporate mentality, and is a legitimate discussion to be having on a discussion board dedicated to Toshiba laptops. I will not have someone curtailing my right to express my opinions.

Toshiba came back to me with the following proposal - they want to give me an extra FOUR months warranty...

I find it hard to express how distateful this is to me. To have lost out on SIX months of productivity because of hardware faults and botched repairs, only for them to be petty enough to give me only another four months worth of warranties (WHEN I'LL GET 3 MONTHS MORE PARTS WARRANTY AFTER THEY FIX THEIR OWN MESS), is pathetic.

Overheating is plainly a serious problem with Toshiba laptops. Every review I have seen, even of the new Core Duo machines, comments on how much heat and noise they generate.

What people don't realise is that the MORE HEAT a laptop generates, the SHORTER ITS LIFE EXPECTANCY will be.

My M30X, from the very beginning, would get exceedingly hot - so hot, in fact, that if after an hour of Counter-Strike: Source they base would be far too hot to touch.

The only decent thing for Toshiba to do in my case would be to AT LEAST offer me a refund so I could buy a new machine - even half the £980 (US$1700) I spent on it would be ok with me. Barring that, at least have some bloody balls and give me another year's worth of warranty so I have some peace of mind.

But no - all they offer me is a measly 4 months more. Pathetic. And of course, now I have to waste MY time and money getting it to them to have repaired.

I don't think so.

Perhaps I should bill them for the time I have spent thus far taking my laptop in for repairs. At AU$280 (US$210)/hr I should make a tidy profit from the hours I have wasted on them.

Wrong. My brother has one of these crappy laptops (in his case the M35X). We got it in December 2004. It's been in for repair five or six times, and it's broken yet again. We have had the motherboard, screen, wireless card, and other components replaced. At the point when the warranty was about to expire, we called Toshiba and asked them if they could give us an extended warranty because the laptop was clearly defective. They said no, they wouldn't do anything because there was a class action lawsuit and they refused to make any concessions until it was settled. We had to buy the extended warranty for $150.

Oh, please. It is their fault for producing shoddy, substandard products and for being unresponsive to problems. We are lucky and have a 4-star facility located within half an hour of us (DSR, Inc. in Elkridge, MD), so we've taken the laptop there each time it's been broken. They have dealt with all the warranty crap so that we didn't have to.

As I said, there is a class action lawsuit out on the M35X, as well as the M30X, A70, and A75. Supposedly it's close to being settled; hopefully the settlement will be enough so we can buy a new laptop to replace this POS.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the number of class actions that Toshiba's had to settle recently for building shoddy products. These include the Satellite 5005, Satellite Pro 6100, and Satellite 1800, as well as the class action that covers my brother's laptop.

Meanwhile, my Dell Inspiron XPS2 had a video card problem, but was replaced by Dell; Dell was very responsive on the issue. My mom's Inspiron 700m has been flawless. My dad has had multiple flawless Latitudes. And my Thinkpad T43p has been flawless. The moral of the story for me is not to buy Toshiba. My brother's next laptop will probably be a Dell or a ThinkPad.

I actually do many other things, and as it happens I am also involved in the IT industry specifically in notebooks. I am not telling you that you have no right to an opinion nor am i actually preventing you from voicing it, however there are a number of people who feel it is their mission in life to trash talk every brand but their prefered one, as well as to try to "warn" others away from the "bad" brand based on a single bad experience. It is behaviour like this that I find bothersome and the reason that I do defend toshiba. Your posting in regards to your laptop troubles frequently are right on the edge of such behaviour. I personally have no specific issue with you saying that your laptop has had trouble and even that you dislike toshibas treatment of you in regards to your problems. Where I do have issues is you coming in and demanding that toshiba make special exceptions for you, and your complaining about how horrible they are. As well as you making these complaints without asking those of us here who are more than happy to offer advice any chance to offer our experience to you in order that maybe we can help prevent further problems. There is no official rep here from toshiba and complaining in the manner you have and demanding compensation will do no good in solving your problem. However there are a large number of people here who know alot about notebooks and are often able to offer advice.

Now onto the actual discussion at hand. You are correct in that excessive heat will shorten the lifespan of a laptop or any other electronics for that matter. I do not know in what circumstances you were playing CS:S but there are a few things that can come into play. Usually when gaming using a laptop (even $4000+ machines designed and intended specifically for gaming) in order to prevent heat buildup it is prudent to raise the back of the laptop off the surface you are resting it on to allow for better ventilation. Heat is of course a byproduct when you use your laptop, and the machine is designed by its engineers and designers with the management of heat in mind. The reason there is fan noise in these systems is that there are fans needed to dissipate that heat. As well making sure the machine is used on a hard surface (not like a bed) helps alot, as it means that the vents for your system which are on the bottom are clear of obstruction and help to ensure that heat doesnt build up

Having used several toshiba machines over the years in addition to machines by several other manufacturers as a function of my occupation. To this end I can not say that any of the toshiba machines I have used have exhibited overheating issues or becoming excessively hot during normal use while on a hard surface (because a laptop should never be used on anything but a hard surface, and especially not resting on things like a bed). I have regular experience with the M30 (as my girlfriend has an M30) and hers has had absolutely no issues in any sense other than a faulty power cord which was replaced under warranty and has worked exceptionally since then. Often it runs cooler than some of my other laptops, and those are of brands other than toshiba.

I think that all in all despite how annoyed i would be in your situation having gone through as much as you have with your machine the offer made by toshiba is a pretty good one. the extra time does cover the majority of the time spent in repair. Although I do think that the amount of time spent in repair is excessive i dont really know of anything else from toshibas side that is within realistic bounds of the accepted industry practice for them to do.

I personally would like to see the policies change within the industry but I highly doubt that the industry and toshiba will change their practice and policies as it would not be economical for them to do it. Like all businesses they are in business to make money and not to lose money buying back old electronics that have been used for a value far exceeding what the market would pay. Warranty service is almost always restricted to parts replacements and it is usually up to the company policy to determine what aspects (shipping etc.) will be at the customers expense and what will be at the companies expense. I would personally love to see the industy move towards a system where all aspects of warranty service were paid for by the company as a part of the warranty, as well as things like a zero dead pixel policy. Granted though that the odds of it happening any time soon are exceedingly small, and that no matter what it wouldnt be of use to you in your current situation.

Is it an M30 or M30X? The class action covers the M30X and M35X, but not the M30 and M35.

Hers is the M30, not the M30x which I do know has had some issues. I personally have owned or worked on the Tecra S1, S2, M2, and the satellite P20 series from toshiba and never had issue with them either in terms of heat, but those models have never been reported to have issues other than the P20 getting a bit hot due to its desktop processor.


Edit: for the A70 and A75 series there was a static discharge issue which caused the vast majority of the problems, and it is my understanding that the action regarding those models was settled and toshiba has developed a repair for the problem and is carrying out the necessary repairs to repair that issue to it free of charge for all those with the issue. If you have the machine and it is still having those issues i would say that you need to call toshiba and get on to them as it should have been fixed.

Most of the threads in this discussion are about specific models of Toshiba laptops. However my Toshiba Protege gave me many similar problems that were discribed.

Overheating, leading to damaged harddisks, bad servicing, delay in recieving hard disk replacement, etc. Had my harddisk replaced 3 times, and its only 3 times because other times I was just so tired of visiting the service centre that I just allowed my laptop to sit idling (inoperable) for months intermittently. It was down so often and 'trapped' at the service centre so often, waiting diagnostics and for out of stock hard disks, I had use of it for total maximum period of 15 months out of the three years when I own the laptop.

I am from the other part of the world and the service over here is just as bad. Their most popular refrain over here is software conflicts whenever their the laptop shows any problems and do a reformatting wiping out all your data. Its ridiculous to a point where they would try to convince you that loud ticking/ clicking noises from your hardisk is normal, until the hard disk totally crashes that is.

I am really glad if anyone has nice working Toshiba Laptops that works well for them, that they don't have to go through the inconveniences and fustrations of inoperable laptops, incompetent service personnels, strange company policies and the expenses incurred from not having the use of the laptop in addition to taking time off to perform the numerous fresh software installations and visiting of the service centre.

I do wish Toshiba would work for me too, for I really do like their laptop designs, however I guess for me, I don't think I'd want to deal with Toshiba ever again.

Now that I had put up with them for over three years, I can finally put all these behind me, and treat myself to a new laptop. The solution for me now no matter how silly it may seem to others who had good experiences with Toshiba, is simply to get other brands.

Sourcing for a new laptop now... (Oh happy day... )

p/s To all others still putting up with Toshiba, tied by negative ROI of the product and warranty my sympathies are with you, and I hope it all works out in the end..

p/s/s ...and no, I do not do intensive stuff like games on that particular laptop.

Cheers

Im sorry that you had those troubles with your machine, and I wish that you hadnt have. That said, thank you for your reasonable post on the subject and I do wish you the best in your search for a new machine, if you have questions notebookforums is the place to ask for help. I would be more than happy to help you in your quest for a new system (even if it isnt from toshiba) as i do have a wide experience of notebooks.

Thanks Fidget, I may just take you up on that!

Buy an extended warranty!

I have been reading this thread with some interest having just purchased a Toshiba M70. I decided to purchase a 3 year full replacement warranty as I have been told that laptops are far more susceptible to problems arising than desktops. Perhaps if the many complainers had forked out some extra $$$$ they wouldn't be in the mess they are in. Also, I am amused by the ongoing rancour and whining - to what end? It makes me suspect that some of you are being paid to either trash or defend!!!????

im not paid in any way to trash or defend toshiba, i dont work for them at all. however i do work in the industry and seeing as many notebooks as i do i tend to not like it when people start trashing a brand in the way that is done here without even asking for assistance from those who may well be able ot help them

We did buy an extended warranty -- we had to because Toshiba refused to help us because of the class-action lawsuit. But an extended warranty doesn't make the problems we've been having go away.

I am not paid to promote or trash anyone. I am a consumer and a computer tech who will speak his honest opinion on the products he's had experience with.

Fidget -- I think my family would gladly accept assistance in getting Toshiba to do something about this problem, as would the other owners of defective M35X laptops. But I'm not sure the assistance would do anything.

seems more like a flamer the anything how the hell does it go wrong and never get fixd.. seems like proper action was not takin, thes companies always respond when u iron fist them when something goeswrong