I've narrowed my laptops choices to two Toshiba models, both $1150.00
at Costco. The attraction is their 6 month return policy. One model is
A105-S4344 and the other model is U205-S5034. I need it for school and
also for pleasure. Which one has the better reliability/quality
factor.? Thanks.

I bought the A-105 S4334 and had to return it. 3 of them in fact.
Problem was there is no video driver on the restore disc. I called
Toshiba and they had me do the restore thing. There tech support guy
said thats strange it's not on there when doing a restore. They would
not tell me which driver to dl and Install.

After the 3rd one doing the same thing I bought another brand. Never
looked back.

When a company wont help with a problem such as a missing driver and
advised I return it, I gave up. I went to best buy which had the same
modal on sale for the same price. That to had the same problem. Missing
video drivers. That's when I bought another brand. The 1st thing I did
was do a restore and it worked great. (The one from best buy did not
have the fingerprint reader which was ok. If your looking at buying a
extended warranty you will have only one choice and thats getting it
from Toshiba if buying it from costco. Other places like Best buy carry
there own. Friend had a problem with his laptop from best buy. Time it
took to send it off and fix the problem and return it was under two weeks.


shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
> I've narrowed my laptops choices to two Toshiba models, both $1150.00
> at Costco. The attraction is their 6 month return policy. One model is
> A105-S4344 and the other model is U205-S5034. I need it for school and
> also for pleasure. Which one has the better reliability/quality
> factor.? Thanks.
>

I'm glad i read this before i headed to Costco. I don't have to buy
right now, but will need one when school starts again next month.
Kevin Weaver wrote:
> I bought the A-105 S4334 and had to return it. 3 of them in fact.
> Problem was there is no video driver on the restore disc. I called
> Toshiba and they had me do the restore thing. There tech support guy
> said thats strange it's not on there when doing a restore. They would
> not tell me which driver to dl and Install.
>
> After the 3rd one doing the same thing I bought another brand. Never
> looked back.
>
> When a company wont help with a problem such as a missing driver and
> advised I return it, I gave up. I went to best buy which had the same
> modal on sale for the same price. That to had the same problem. Missing
> video drivers. That's when I bought another brand. The 1st thing I did
> was do a restore and it worked great. (The one from best buy did not
> have the fingerprint reader which was ok. If your looking at buying a
> extended warranty you will have only one choice and thats getting it
> from Toshiba if buying it from costco. Other places like Best buy carry
> there own. Friend had a problem with his laptop from best buy. Time it
> took to send it off and fix the problem and return it was under two weeks.
>
>
> shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
> > I've narrowed my laptops choices to two Toshiba models, both $1150.00
> > at Costco. The attraction is their 6 month return policy. One model is
> > A105-S4344 and the other model is U205-S5034. I need it for school and
> > also for pleasure. Which one has the better reliability/quality
> > factor.? Thanks.
> >

if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it

5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm

waterboy

In message <1167951661.814450.300540@38g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
waterboy@financier.com writes
>if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
>like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it
>
>5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm
>
Can you give me the make/model number of the 7200? I've searched high
and low for a 2.5" slimline 7200 that will fit the (standard) laptop HD
bay.

--
Tony Morgan

i believe the 17" HP laptops have a 7200rpm 100gb [option]

waterboy

And i thought Toshiba was usually in the top three brands.
Kevin Weaver wrote:
> I bought the A-105 S4334 and had to return it. 3 of them in fact.
> Problem was there is no video driver on the restore disc. I called
> Toshiba and they had me do the restore thing. There tech support guy
> said thats strange it's not on there when doing a restore. They would
> not tell me which driver to dl and Install.
>
> After the 3rd one doing the same thing I bought another brand. Never
> looked back.
>
> When a company wont help with a problem such as a missing driver and
> advised I return it, I gave up. I went to best buy which had the same
> modal on sale for the same price. That to had the same problem. Missing
> video drivers. That's when I bought another brand. The 1st thing I did
> was do a restore and it worked great. (The one from best buy did not
> have the fingerprint reader which was ok. If your looking at buying a
> extended warranty you will have only one choice and thats getting it
> from Toshiba if buying it from costco. Other places like Best buy carry
> there own. Friend had a problem with his laptop from best buy. Time it
> took to send it off and fix the problem and return it was under two weeks.
>
>
> shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
> > I've narrowed my laptops choices to two Toshiba models, both $1150.00
> > at Costco. The attraction is their 6 month return policy. One model is
> > A105-S4344 and the other model is U205-S5034. I need it for school and
> > also for pleasure. Which one has the better reliability/quality
> > factor.? Thanks.
> >

So how important is the RPM of the hard drive? In what application
would the faster RPMS be needed, gaming? Multi tasking?
> if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
> like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it
>
> 5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm
>
> waterboy

In message <1167958987.794029.18550@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.c om>,
waterboy@financier.com writes
>i believe the 17" HP laptops have a 7200rpm 100gb [option]
>
I somewhat doubt that HP manufacture the HDs in their machines.
What I was seeking was the manufacturer/model.
--
Tony Morgan

In message <1167962664.099498.120240@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
"shareyourknowledge********.com" <shareyourknowledge********.com> writes
>So how important is the RPM of the hard drive? In what application
>would the faster RPMS be needed, gaming? Multi tasking?

Video editing.

--
Tony Morgan

"Tony Morgan" <Tony@rhylonline.com> wrote in message
news:vbEP3dD9BhnFFwiL@axxc27.dsl.pipex.com...
> In message <1167958987.794029.18550@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.c om>,
> waterboy@financier.com writes
>>i believe the 17" HP laptops have a 7200rpm 100gb [option]
>>
> I somewhat doubt that HP manufacture the HDs in their machines.
> What I was seeking was the manufacturer/model.
> --
> Tony Morgan

HP uses Seagate hard drives (probably the best brand on the market).

Toshiba uses whatever they can get cheaply, and the brand of the hard drive
can vary even within the same model depending upon when it is built.

Toshibas are overpriced and all current Toshibas are cheaply made, which is
sad because up until about 2 years ago Toshibas were very well built
machines.

Worst offenders are the Qosmio line; cheap speakers, weak hinges, and
notorious for inverter and backlight problems.

Honu.

The video driver can be downloaded from the Toshiba web site. Most of
the A105's have Intel chipset video (mostly GMA 950 in current models,
some older models used GMA 900), and the drivers for that are in the
Intel chipset driver.


Kevin Weaver wrote:
> I bought the A-105 S4334 and had to return it. 3 of them in fact.
> Problem was there is no video driver on the restore disc. I called
> Toshiba and they had me do the restore thing. There tech support guy
> said thats strange it's not on there when doing a restore. They would
> not tell me which driver to dl and Install.
>
> After the 3rd one doing the same thing I bought another brand. Never
> looked back.
>
> When a company wont help with a problem such as a missing driver and
> advised I return it, I gave up. I went to best buy which had the same
> modal on sale for the same price. That to had the same problem. Missing
> video drivers. That's when I bought another brand. The 1st thing I did
> was do a restore and it worked great. (The one from best buy did not
> have the fingerprint reader which was ok. If your looking at buying a
> extended warranty you will have only one choice and thats getting it
> from Toshiba if buying it from costco. Other places like Best buy carry
> there own. Friend had a problem with his laptop from best buy. Time it
> took to send it off and fix the problem and return it was under two weeks.
>
>
> shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
>> I've narrowed my laptops choices to two Toshiba models, both $1150.00
>> at Costco. The attraction is their 6 month return policy. One model is
>> A105-S4344 and the other model is U205-S5034. I need it for school and
>> also for pleasure. Which one has the better reliability/quality
>> factor.? Thanks.
>>

I don't believe that any current production laptops are still using
either IDE drives or 4200 rpm drives. Everything has migrated to SATA
5400 rpm (or faster) drives.


waterboy@financier.com wrote:
> if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
> like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it
>
> 5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm
>
> waterboy
>

Go to newegg.com and you can find them. However, high capacity 7200rpm
2.5" (laptop) drives are very expensive ($200 range).

Tony Morgan wrote:
> In message <1167951661.814450.300540@38g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
> waterboy@financier.com writes
>> if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
>> like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it
>>
>> 5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm
>>
> Can you give me the make/model number of the 7200? I've searched high
> and low for a 2.5" slimline 7200 that will fit the (standard) laptop HD
> bay.
>

Drive RPM is pretty significant. It effects everything (bootup, program
loading, etc.), and unlike CPU speed, the differences between 5400 rpm
drives and 7200 rpm drives are milliseconds, not nanoseconds. But the
high capacity 7200 rpm drives are really expensive, and the highest
capacity drives are not even available in 7200 rpm.

shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
> So how important is the RPM of the hard drive? In what application
> would the faster RPMS be needed, gaming? Multi tasking?
>> if it has a 4200 RPM hard drive
>> like many Toshiba's, personally, i wouldn't buy it
>>
>> 5400 rpm should be standard, and you can get 7200 rpm
>>
>> waterboy
>