Vista - Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 freezes up

I purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A215 system this weekend. From hour one,
it freezes up irrational (goes to a blank ((black)) screen) and you have to
do a hardboot or take the battery out to get a response. It did it on the
first system I purchased and I took it back and exchanged it only to have the
other one do it within 30 mins of using it!
Using Windows Vista.

Any suggestions?

Scott wrote:
> I purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A215 system this weekend. From hour one,
> it freezes up irrational (goes to a blank ((black)) screen) and you have to
> do a hardboot or take the battery out to get a response. It did it on the
> first system I purchased and I took it back and exchanged it only to have the
> other one do it within 30 mins of using it!
> Using Windows Vista.
>
> Any suggestions?

Return it and don't buy another Toshiba. Unless you immediately
installed something incompatible on both machines, this behavior should
not happen out of the box.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

In message <ED2948BE-A7BA-4EEF-BF75-336FE8F06EC1@microsoft.com> Scott
<Scott@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A215 system this weekend. From hour one,
>it freezes up irrational (goes to a blank ((black)) screen) and you have to
>do a hardboot or take the battery out to get a response. It did it on the
>first system I purchased and I took it back and exchanged it only to have the
>other one do it within 30 mins of using it!
>Using Windows Vista.
>
>Any suggestions?

Check out the fan, see if it spins. I have an A205, these units have
fantastic airflow, but rely on a single fan to push the air.
Unfortunately Toshiba has a bit of a reputation for DOA fans.

Once you get a working one, they reportedly stay working.

If the system over-heats, it will react first by throttling the CPU
substantially, to the point that the system becomes shaky, difficult to
use, then with a black/black screen (since the heat problem is generated
by the chipset, video card and hard drive(s) as well as the CPU)

I purchased my system on a business trip after my Gateway's capacitors
blew shortly after arriving in a hotel, I was able to recover my data
from the Toshiba by standing it on it's side and blowing a powerful
external fan against the fan port with the CPU capped at 25%, exchanged
the laptop for another and couldn't be happier.

--
Americans couldn't be any more self-absorbed if they were made from equal
parts water and papertowel.
-- Dennis Miller

>
> Return it and don't buy another Toshiba. Unless you immediately
> installed something incompatible on both machines, this behavior
> should not happen out of the box.
>
>
> Malke
that's a silly comment! Toshiba laptops are sold around the world by
the zillions and they generally work superbly. OP: are you placing the
laptop of a cushioned surface, blocking the cooling fan underneath?
Call Toshiba for assistance.

DevilsPGD wrote:
> In message <ED2948BE-A7BA-4EEF-BF75-336FE8F06EC1@microsoft.com> Scott
> <Scott@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>
>> I purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A215 system this weekend. From hour one,
>> it freezes up irrational (goes to a blank ((black)) screen) and you have to
>> do a hardboot or take the battery out to get a response. It did it on the
>> first system I purchased and I took it back and exchanged it only to have the
>> other one do it within 30 mins of using it!
>> Using Windows Vista.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>
> Check out the fan, see if it spins. I have an A205, these units have
> fantastic airflow, but rely on a single fan to push the air.
> Unfortunately Toshiba has a bit of a reputation for DOA fans.
>
> Once you get a working one, they reportedly stay working.
>
> If the system over-heats, it will react first by throttling the CPU
> substantially, to the point that the system becomes shaky, difficult to
> use, then with a black/black screen (since the heat problem is generated
> by the chipset, video card and hard drive(s) as well as the CPU)
>
> I purchased my system on a business trip after my Gateway's capacitors
> blew shortly after arriving in a hotel, I was able to recover my data
> from the Toshiba by standing it on it's side and blowing a powerful
> external fan against the fan port with the CPU capped at 25%, exchanged
> the laptop for another and couldn't be happier.
>
>
my A205-S4617 runs quite warm--i just picked up a laptop cooler from
costco for $20. After outfitting it with gel cushions so that the
laptop doesnt slide around, I'm a happy camper. Now I no longer feel
heat radiating from the case, especially under my left palm. The air
exiting the laptop no longer is hot, as the cooler reduces internal
heating to a barely discernible gentle warmth.

Dave

Go get the latest drivers and utilities which made a big difference on my
new toshiba laptop.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...su_sc_home.jsp

Click Tech Support Center and find your model

"Scott" <Scott@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:ED2948BE-A7BA-4EEF-BF75-336FE8F06EC1@microsoft.com...
>I purchased a new Toshiba Satellite A215 system this weekend. From hour one,
> it freezes up irrational (goes to a blank ((black)) screen) and you have to
> do a hardboot or take the battery out to get a response. It did it on the
> first system I purchased and I took it back and exchanged it only to have the
> other one do it within 30 mins of using it!
> Using Windows Vista.
>
> Any suggestions?

In message <usWdnUVHHIa27F_bnZ2dnUVZ_uCinZ2d@comcast.com> David
<david@invalid.com> wrote:

>my A205-S4617 runs quite warm--i just picked up a laptop cooler from
>costco for $20. After outfitting it with gel cushions so that the
>laptop doesnt slide around, I'm a happy camper. Now I no longer feel
>heat radiating from the case, especially under my left palm. The air
>exiting the laptop no longer is hot, as the cooler reduces internal
>heating to a barely discernible gentle warmth.

I have an S4639 myself -- I used an active cooler with my Gateway
desktop replacement (7200rpm drive, with a real P4 chip. Not one of the
lower power mobile ones, a genuine P4. Ick. Gets about 5 minutes of
battery life on a 5lb battery)

My Toshiba is far better, even just sitting on my lap I can get along
just fine without any cooling, active or passive, it's warm but not hot,
and the fan spins down when he machine isn't active.

A feat of engineering, given that I have two drives in there, right now
I'm just waiting for a solid state SATA-mobile drive to reach my local
market and get the OS and apps over to that drive, from reading reviews
of Dell's M1330 with a $500 32GB solid state drive *drool*

On that topic, have you ever opened the laptop up at all? A lot of
laptops have a spare internal USB port where their Bluetooth adapter
would go, if the laptop is so equipped, I'd love to add my own since I
didn't get a factory bluetooth adapter.

Alternatively, if you happen to have bluetooth, can you tell if it's
mounted on the USB bus, or PCI-E bus directly (in which case it's part
of a mini-PCI-E card, probably the wifi card)

--
You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than just a kind word.