Techie Help Requested rather bummed out… too tired to be angry
Toshiba Satellite laptop is simply a portable desktop as the battery won’t even hold a charge going from one room to the next – quite a quick demise on a battery that has only been used less than a year with the battery costing $150+ according to the best buy guy
I’m thinking it just might be better to buy a different laptop since I need something I can bring with me & this has proven to be a bad laptop all around shutting off on it’s own suddenly & not restarting when I try to restart it afterwards – since the gift receipt has been missing & the laptop has been doing this for many months i’m feeling this is just a lemon of a computer & we’ve not had it for even a year for it to be giving all these hardware problems
I’m quite turned off by the Toshiba Brand as it seems to cheaply made regardless of what the advertising might be – last month the delete key popped off while i was typing relaxing on the bed in the air conditioning… wth?
So Techies put your thinking caps on & make some recommendations on the Lesser Priced but Decent Quality Windows Laptops – (not able to use Mac or other OS systems)
Thanks for giving me a starting point on what will need to be a much dreaded search for a new laptop
Avon CT Style 
From googleplus@Don N.: I don’t personally own one but I have heard some good talk about the Asus brand. Again this could just be a few people, I don’t know many who have one. Just something you might look into though.
I am going share this to hopefully get you more help.
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From googleplus@Thomas Awtry: I’m pretty happy with my ASUS, had two for over four years and they’ve taken a hard beating, but still work great.
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From googleplus@Mark Richards: I too would go with Asus. And in the meantime use the warranty to keep your Toshiba going at least.
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From googleplus@PRINCETON BROOKE: Maybe provide more details. Are you interested in those netbook type systems where you don’t really need any harddrive space just access to internet (google docs, ms-office online, etc) or will you need to be productive?…also, what city do you live in?
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: Thanks for sharing, when we were at best buy last week & found out how expensive the battery was I was thinking it might be better to just get a new laptop since this has issues & no need to put good money into a faulty laptop
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From googleplus@jodie anderson dragonfly: i had a similar problem with my lappy, and i had to take the battery out and ground it, it was building up too much static charge to allow itself to charge properly
do the same thing with the laptop and see if that helps
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From googleplus@Mark Richards: Are you using the laptop for your Avon work CTAvon ? I hope I can call you that here.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + PRINCETON BROOKE i will need storage space to be able to work on it
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From googleplus@PRINCETON BROOKE: what state do u live in
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + Mark Richards can’t find the gift receipt to be able to use the warranty on it unfortunately
+ jodie anderson dragonfly at this point the battery is entirely dead, but for future reference how do i ground a laptop? It sounds like you might have found a reason as to why the laptop would pop off suddenly – I asked Hubby if he knew how to ground a laptop & he said no
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From googleplus@Wicked Shadows: Check the Toshiba website for a possible recall and a free fix.
That exact same thing happened to me a few years with a Satellite laptop.
Outside of that, this is a GREAT price for a new laptop – http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Inspiron+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+/+15.6%26%2334%3B+Display+-+Mars+Black/3048064.p?id=1218374275183&skuId=3048064
BTW, to anyone, NEVER buy a Toshiba Satellite. They have been bad forever!
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + PRINCETON BROOKE I’m located in hartford county ct
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From googleplus@PRINCETON BROOKE: The thing with Toshiba is unless your store stocked version doesn’t go bad soon then they won’t have to send you a top of the line model from their warehouse. This has happened to a close friend about 3 times already.
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From googleplus@Bob Jewels: Throw it in the garbage. Toshibas have a history of defective motherboards that run the batteries down. There are 1 or 2 HP units at Best Buy that cost around $350 and come with Win 7 and have a 350 gig HD.
your money will be better spent on a new unit than throwing good money after bad.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + Mark Richards lol I don’t think G+ will bounce us if you call me that they just won’t allow me to use my pseudonym lol
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: ok weird it randomly changed my pic to another one in the album?
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From googleplus@PRINCETON BROOKE: I tried to get closest to you but they only have about 10 stores across US….MicroCenter
Dell Inspiron 14R Laptop Computer – Peacock Blue
With 4GB DDR3-1333 SDRAM (Expandable to 8GB)
SKU: 578138
10+ new in stock $399.99
Intel® Core™ i3-380M
4GB DDR3-1333 RAM
500GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0367472
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From googleplus@Nathaniel Fries: Toshiba is a terrible brand to use in my experience. It almost seems as if they design their hardware to just barely outlast the warranty. I would recommend the Sony Viao if you’re going to get a laptop. If you’re on a budget, an Acer could work too. I can help you to find a cheap laptop that should work better if you want.
PS: Most laptop batteries are expensive, although $150 seems a bit steep. I think it might be a case of Best Buy jacking the price up to pay for their excellent customer support.
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From googleplus@Nathaniel Fries: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=631873&CatId=4938
That’s probably the best deal for power you’re going to find. I’m not sure of the power demands of an AMD Phenom II quad-core; since I’ve only ever owned desktops powered by Phenoms. 1 or 2 hour battery life should be a sane guess anyway.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: I’m so kicking myself in the butt for trading the iPad for this but I needed a laptop with keyboard & didn’t know they were going to give us the gift receipts when HubbyMan won it as a prize for his good work
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From googleplus@Nick Uva: Believe it or not, I have a fantastic Gateway. It’s considered by many a name from the past but I am a heavy user and have no issues with it. It is rugged and powerful. Makes a great Netflix TV, too!
If budget is an issue, I suggest HSN. If your credit is even halfway decent you can probably pay via 4, 5, or 6 monthly payments. Ordered a new Windows 7 laptop for my daughter today and it was only $529 or so plus s/h. I’m paying it over 5 months.
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From googleplus@Nathaniel Fries: My first computer was a refurbished gateway. It was good for the price and fit my general-purpose needs.
If I knew what you used your laptop for, I could probably find you a better fit for your dollar.
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From googleplus@PRINCETON BROOKE: I had a Compaq that lasted 7 years without needing to change the battery or go for in-store maintenance.
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From googleplus@Nathaniel Fries: I go through laptops like mad, but the Viao I currently use has lasted me the longest (>1yr).
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From googleplus@Mark Richards: Funny, I automatically typed in @CT out of habit and look how many are out there..real names my ass. Try it yourself. Anyway, are you looking to use it purely for business ? It really does matter.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + Nick Uva thanks for that suggestion for the budgeting payment plan never even thought of HSN my mother-in-law orders all sorts of stuff from the tv shopping channels
+ Nathaniel Fries I’m using the laptop for combination of work (Avon Products Sales & Recruiting) & social – I’m trying to learn how to make decent videos for youtube demos & will be doing some Live Streaming to help train / video conference with new reps as well as the occasional live streaming for fun
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From googleplus@Nick Uva: Yes, they sell legitimate items.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: + Mark Richards I will be accessing the corp web site but most of my “work related” material is self made as I learn how to use video & presentations I’m keeping the laptop separate from the downloading HubbyMan does for computer games & movies
I agree with you about the real names issue & do not understand what the G+ issue is when people aren’t creating problems being reported for spam or trolling but when the service is “free” you have to play by their rules… I have noticed an increase in spam since joining G+ to the email account unlike the early days of Buzz & the Google Buzz people seemed to be much more responsive to questions than the G+ people but that’s a whole nother long thread )0:}
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From googleplus@Nathaniel Fries: If you’re doing video editing, Mac might actually be right for you. Mac is very popular with some people in that field for some reason. I own a Mac for software porting and testing purposes only, so I’m not really sure why.
Video editing isn’t very demanding, but you probably want plenty of hard drive space so an old refurbished laptop’s probably not a right choice for you unless you’re willing to lug around an external HDD or constantly FTP things to your desktop or an online server somewhere, so my previous suggestion is probably a fairly good one. I could look for more, but it likely won’t be easy to find a cheap laptop with a huge HDD on the sites I normally use.
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From googleplus@Te TTillett: Unfortunately the corporate world isn’t Mac Friendly & using Windows based programs which do not play nice with non-windows stuff so it’s best for me to continue to plod along on windows so as to not have problems with conflicts on their systems
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From googleplus@Lori Anne Brown: I had a lemon Toshiba Satellite about 3 years ago. Did the same random shutoff thing you mention, continually froze, etc. Called Toshiba about it as I had barely had it a month. They have the WORST technical support EVER.
I told them it was my main business computer and I have an internet business so naturally would need it fixed fast. Can they just swap it out for me under warranty? No. I could ship it back to them and wait 2-3 weeks + until they diagnose it and let me know what’s wrong or repair it. Then would send it back to me standard ground – didn’t even ship overnight! No rush service, no guarantee when it would be back.
Fortunately, Office Depot where I bought it has better customer service. Though I was beyond their normal 30 day return policy, they swapped it out for me for an HP Pavilion laptop and I’ve had HPs ever since. When my sister’s HP had an issue, they sent her a box overnight to return it in (again overnight), and they swapped it out for a new unit – overnighting it back to her!
I avoid anything Toshiba.
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