Take it easy on me, this is my first hot deal post
Product Features
* Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core processor T2370 with 533MHz frontside bus, 1MB L2 cache and 1.73GHz processor speed * 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 2GB * Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL media; also supports DVD-RAM
* 15.4" WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display with TruBrite technology and 1280 x 800 resolution; native support for 720p content * 120GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm) * Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 8-256MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory; S-video output * 5-in-1 bridge media adapter supports Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard and xD-Picture Card * i.LINK (IEEE 1394) interface and 4 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer * Built-in high-speed Atheros wireless LAN (802.11b/g); 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; 56 Kbps high-speed modem * Weighs 6.1 lbs. and measures just 1.6" thin for easy portability; lithium-ion battery and AC adapter * Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled; software package included with Toshiba DVD Player, Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5, Adobe Acrobat Reader and more
Nice heads up. We are taking the father-in-law there today to pick it up. He needs something to surf and this will be perfect.
Clk
Senior Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 8:48a
Maker sure to spend plenty of time playing with the unit in-store before pulling the trigger. The keyboard, touchpad, and port placement leave a lot to be desired.
I ordered this from frys.com about 45 days ago @ the same price for my mom. I wasn't thrilled, but for $400 what else are you gonna get.
wildbilly
Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 10:13a
Clk said: Maker sure to spend plenty of time playing with the unit in-store before pulling the trigger. The keyboard, touchpad, and port placement leave a lot to be desired.
I ordered this from frys.com about 45 days ago @ the same price for my mom. I wasn't thrilled, but for $400 what else are you gonna get.
I agree on the keyboard. Seems cheap and looks like the keys will fall off. $400 is a throwaway. Don't let them sell you an overpriced service plan.
My gf got one, salesman tried to talk about how slow it will be but considering the most modern computer we have is from 3years ago it can't be that bad (though those were my hardcore gamer days so I did spend an ungodly amount on it back then to make sure it was top of the line).
Now to find my SATA slipstreamed Windows CD so I can prove the geeksquad guy wrong about being able to install XP
grr, now I remember why I hate Vista. Took my 4years to move from 2000 to XP, I wonder how long I will hold out on moving to Vista.
Thanks Murph, that'll save me a bunch of time (and save me from having to clean the office...), now to figure out if my old old Ghost will let me repartition a SATA drive.
hmm, once I started turning off all the unneeded "enhancements" and services, Vista isn't too bad, I may have to look into converting. Though the Home Premium doesn't work with domains so that is definately a huge con for me.
Laptop itself is pretty nice, running much cooler than my Dell and having the powercord and other ports on the side is ideal since I'm usually using it in bed, I've broken a couple of ports and cords on ones with them on the back. Keyboard layout is sort of annoying, have the Home and PageDown key next to the backspace and enter means I'm hitting the wrong key a lot but that probably has more to do with the fact that I don't touchtype (plus every laptop keyboard has little quirks you need to get used to). Good buy at the price
My gf is most impressed at the size of the screen, all our previous laptops have been 12" ultraportables.
i picked 1 up for my mom. not sure if i want to open it up yet. id like to wait for 4th of july ads to see if there will be something better for similar $. i wish it had built in webcam.
n924jw
Senior Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 6:41p
I just have to add my typical customer service experience today. I wanted this deal because I checked that XP could be installed on it without any problems which would make it a really nice performing laptop.
I arrived at my local BB in Newnan, GA when the doors opened at 11am. 2 other customers were there for the same deal. A BB rep AND a Toshiba rep were waiting when we walked up. They started their "upsell" tactics right away. The first customer just listened, but the second customer became interested in the Toshiba rep telling him that if he purchased their "basic" laptop, he needed to let Geek Squad perform a "cleanup" for only $29.99 to remove all the trial software because it would increase the performance of the machine by 20 to 30 percent!! Then she told him he should also let them install more memory, antivirus and antispyware. Meanwhile, the BB rep went to the back and returned with only 1 unit and said that it was all they had in stock!!! I just laughed and watched. The first guy was happy because he got the deal and left but the second guy actually let the Toshiba rep upsell him to a $699 model along with the $29.99 "Cleanup" to remove the garbage and purchased the antivirus! I could not believe someone would be so stupid to fall for this typical bait-n-switch tactic with the added insult of paying them to remove the garbage Toshiba and BestBuy put on it in the first place. When she got to me, I just started laughing and asked if they really only had 1 unit in stock. She said they had sold most of the units last week at a higher price and tried to upsell me to the $699 model. I asked her about selling me the display model, which was not there the day before because it was where they had the $399 Compaq deal from the week before. The BB rep didn't have a problem in selling it to me and started removing the unit from the display holder. While he was doing that, the Toshiba rep said she would look for the original packaging along with the battery (which they remove from the display units so no one will steal them). Well what do you know!!! As much as she looked and looked and looked, she just couldn't find the original box and the battery, so they just couldn't sell it to me. I laughed, shook my head and told her she was full of @#$#$ and left the store. I don't have a problem with a business using a loss leader item to generate other sales, but this was nothing more than a scam. But I guess as long as customers are stupid enough to fall prey to this type of business conduct, there will always be someone out there to rip them off.
I walked right into the BestBuy south Seattle store and had it in my hands five minutes later. No hard sell on anything but the $399 computer. So far I like it pretty good for the price. Everyone kind of automatically piles on Vista like it really sucks - the mac commercials don't help - but in my opinion it works pretty good as long as your computer has the horsepower. It can be customized, for instance turning of aero interface, to run just about the same as XP. And it is definitely more secure than XP and doesn't have memory leakage problems of XP. I usually end up turning off UAC, which is the annoying box that pops up asking for permission.
The notebook has two memory slots, occupied with a couple of 512MB chips. I have a spare 1GB chip. I'm wondering if losing the dual channel memory and gaining 512MB extra memory would be worth it.
It does come with a Toshiba Vista disk, two actually. I didn't want to open this CD just in case I want to return the notebook, so I don't know if the second CD has drivers.
I highly recommend people try Vista before putting XP on the notebook. You would be losing a perfectly good Vista license. Like I said, turning off UAC in the Security Center got rid of the annoying popups. Supposedly these popups get less with usage, so you might try keeping it on, especially if you have multiple users, especially younger people. UAC stands for User Account Control.
Clk
Senior Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 7:37p
SimMike said: It does come with a Toshiba Vista disk, two actually. I didn't want to open this CD just in case I want to return the notebook, so I don't know if the second CD has drivers.
Both DVDs combine to form a single restore image. It's impossible to rebuild the laptop without also putting back on the crpaware that was there at the time of purchase. Actually, that's not entirely true ... many of the aftermarket installers run in a 4 or 5 reboot series after Vista is restored. Fast work with the ALT-F4 and CTRL-ALT-DELETEs and you can keep a lot of stuff from getting reinstalled. Not perfect, but oh well.
Also, note that uninstalling the preloaded burning software will disable your DVD drive and remove access entirely. Search the microsoft knowledgebase for the fix.
You are right, the CDs don't contain accessable drivers. I'm reinstalling the image right now because I somehow got my password screwed up. I must have misspelled the word and not realized it. So I'm trying the reinstall, which takes 45 minutes at least.
well i bought one in costa mesa, ca; came to $440 after tax; i have to say i'm quite pleased so far; i think this is a quite solid laptop for a budget one; everything is solid; keyboard, lcd hinge, it's reasonably thin for a 15"; i'm very pleased so far; will continue to report anything of importance
as far as shopping experience, yeah they tried to hard sell the extended warranty, but that's hardly anything new
good stuff; very happy i am; hopefully i also will be when i install XP; i'll also say the speakers are very nice
n924jw said: I just have to add my typical customer service experience today. I wanted this deal because I checked that XP could be installed on it without any problems which would make it a really nice performing laptop.
I arrived at my local BB in Newnan, GA when the doors opened at 11am. 2 other customers were there for the same deal. A BB rep AND a Toshiba rep were waiting when we walked up. They started their "upsell" tactics right away. The first customer just listened, but the second customer became interested in the Toshiba rep telling him that if he purchased their "basic" laptop, he needed to let Geek Squad perform a "cleanup" for only $29.99 to remove all the trial software because it would increase the performance of the machine by 20 to 30 percent!! Then she told him he should also let them install more memory, antivirus and antispyware. Meanwhile, the BB rep went to the back and returned with only 1 unit and said that it was all they had in stock!!! I just laughed and watched. The first guy was happy because he got the deal and left but the second guy actually let the Toshiba rep upsell him to a $699 model along with the $29.99 "Cleanup" to remove the garbage and purchased the antivirus! I could not believe someone would be so stupid to fall for this typical bait-n-switch tactic with the added insult of paying them to remove the garbage Toshiba and BestBuy put on it in the first place. When she got to me, I just started laughing and asked if they really only had 1 unit in stock. She said they had sold most of the units last week at a higher price and tried to upsell me to the $699 model. I asked her about selling me the display model, which was not there the day before because it was where they had the $399 Compaq deal from the week before. The BB rep didn't have a problem in selling it to me and started removing the unit from the display holder. While he was doing that, the Toshiba rep said she would look for the original packaging along with the battery (which they remove from the display units so no one will steal them). Well what do you know!!! As much as she looked and looked and looked, she just couldn't find the original box and the battery, so they just couldn't sell it to me. I laughed, shook my head and told her she was full of @#$#$ and left the store. I don't have a problem with a business using a loss leader item to generate other sales, but this was nothing more than a scam. But I guess as long as customers are stupid enough to fall prey to this type of business conduct, there will always be someone out there to rip them off.
There are too many examples of BB stories like the one you told here. If there is a good consumer affairs department where you live you might try sharing your story with them as well.
Got one in Phoenix, AZ today. Sales person said they have a few in stock but all were "cleanup" model. I told him that I will take one if he waives the fee and he did. Used my $40 reward ended up paying around $390.
dancergrrrl3
Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 10:03p
picked up two! one for me and the boyfriend, thanks OP!
Reinstalling the vista image does take some time, probably 1 1/2 hours, easy. Maybe more. It starts off very sluggish because it is downloading a whole ton of Windows updates and installing them. I think the battery is a little weak also. This is more like a desktop replacement computer that just stays at home. This is exactly what many people do with these notebooks.
baddude
Member
posted: Jun. 29, 2008 @ 11:09p
I wonder what kind of CPU upgrade can we do on this? T5550 or higher? Also the RAM is expandable only to 2GB but Intel says the chipset can do 4GB. Any one has gone 4GB yet without problems? Thanks.
SimMike said: Reinstalling the vista image does take some time, probably 1 1/2 hours, easy. Maybe more. It starts off very sluggish because it is downloading a whole ton of Windows updates and installing them. I think the battery is a little weak also. This is more like a desktop replacement computer that just stays at home. This is exactly what many people do with these notebooks.
you know, the battery seems better than most cheap laptops to me; yes it's 15" and 6 pounds, but wasn't that obvious going in? i think this is a better looking and feeling laptop than most of the cheap Dell's and compaq's and acer's i've used; just my $.02
i'm trying to decide whether to bother with the hassle of putting XP on this thing, and i'm wondering: do y'all think that with 2gb ram, it will make much difference in performance one way or the other?
xxx1980 said: Got one in Phoenix, AZ today. Sales person said they have a few in stock but all were "cleanup" model. I told him that I will take one if he waives the fee and he did. Used my $40 reward ended up paying around $390.
'Open box' at 'new' price, sounds like BB
guitarizt
Member
posted: Jun. 30, 2008 @ 6:55a
Not buying this laptop, but I just wanted to say that I found the information in this thread on fw far more informative than in the million pages of posts in the thread on sd. I luv u guys!
ivelweyz
New Member
posted: Jun. 30, 2008 @ 1:31p
Picked one up yesterday, slipstreamed xp with the right drivers and it actually WORKED, unlike the a205-s5800 they had a couple months back. Put in 2gb and am gonna download the rest of the drivers later on...
Yesterday I was thinking this wasn't much of a computer. But now, I'm thinking it is OK for the price. The CPU is a little weak, but I think it is pretty efficient as far as battery power goes. Right now I've had mine on battery power for over an hour, with the first ten minutes running Orthos stress test, and a couple of reboots. It is at around 50%. So the battery isn't as weak as I thought. It would probably not pass the full DVD watching on battery power test, but not bad for a cheapo computer. I think the LCD screen is pretty good. Definitely remove the sluggish Norton software and put something better. I like Avast virus which is free and doesn't bog down the computer as much as others do. I removed a few programs that Toshiba installed and will probably pare it down even more. Just remember that Vista takes a few days to really break in. It spends time indexing the drives and learning which programs you like best. I say it takes a full week of lots of use to really let it optimize itself. I'm always disappointed with clean Vista installs, let alone this kind of bloated install, until the system is run for a few days. Vista does get better. Don't judge the performance in the first day. It takes a few days.
Since I had a spare 1GB DDR2 chip, I took one of the 512MB out and put this in. The computer runs better in my opinion with 1.5GB instead of 1GB. SuperPI did take the requiste 5% hit in raw computer speed because I lost dual-channel memory, I tested it both before and after, but I think having the extra ram will more than make up for a little performance hit.
For $400 out the door without rebate hassles (and tax on rebate), I think this was an OK deal. The weak part is probably the CPU, which isn't a real dual core. It is the early version, not the much more advanced Core2Duo. When running Orthos, it certainly didn't multi task very good.
I think the power usage is pretty darn good, which is a real plus in notebooks. CPU-z shows the speed fluctuating all over the place, sometims 800MHz, sometimes 1700, sometimes 1024. But when you need the horsepower, it will go max speed. When idling, Speedfan showed the core temps as around 47C, on a relatively warm day in Seattle. When stressed, they went up to 60C and even a little higher.
A DVD burner is also nice. I think it is a Samsung, TSST Corp. The hard drive is Fujitsu. The stock memory is Samsung.
guitarizt said: Not buying this laptop, but I just wanted to say that I found the information in this thread on fw far more informative than in the million pages of posts in the thread on sd. I luv u guys! That's because SD has that system of grading posts. It puts everyone on edge, trying to score points with the other users. In my opinion, it ends up hurting the forum because people are skittish about saying what is on their mind. I like FatWallet much better, but I do check both.
We got one for my father-in-law Sunday but here is our tale.
1. Went to the store in Enfield, CT. They could tell coming in the store what I was looking for and told me they were sold out (they only had one before the store opened). They looked and found 13 at the Holyoke, MA store about 10 miles away.
2. Went to Holyoke where a bunch of blue shirts were standing around. First blue shirt asked me if he could help. Asked where the Toshiba was and before he would even say anything says, "what are you going to be using this for?". I told him point blank I wasn't here for the soft or hard sell and just the laptop. Second question, "would you like us to clean this up for you to make it run faster?" Again I referred him to my first answer. Third question, "would you like a wireless mouse or any cables for this". Again I referred him to my first answer. He goes behind the desk, doesn't make eye contact with us for the next 2 mins while another person was buying the same laptop and then pulls one out and rings it up. ( I'm glad I was there because F-I-L would have paid for stuff he didn't need like "spyware software".
ajwray said: First blue shirt asked me if he could help. Asked where the Toshiba was and before he would even say anything says, "what are you going to be using this for?".The only appropriate response to an asinine question like this is to tell them FOR PORN.
jordanstorm
New Member
posted: Jul. 1, 2008 @ 11:32a
I bought it a few weeks ago, and for the price, I like it. Here's what I did to make it run better.
1. Keytweak will solve the irritating button placement (run it an an administrator). I disabled the Home and Insert buttons.
2. It's slow with 1gb, so A) I bumped it up to 2gb ram, B) used the suggestions at tweakhound to remove all the unneeded services that waste ram, C) used msconfig turn turn off startup crap, C) repartitioned to keep C drive running well, and D) followed the suggestions to use readyboost and a paging file, despite my inclinations to turn both OFF.
Of the above, D was hard to do. From my reading, VISTA runs programs and memory differently than XP, so even if you have enough ram, using the disk caches (paging file and readyboost) will help. So far, I found it about the same with both on vs. both off. The only different is that with the paging file I never get a low memory warning.
In sum, for the price, it *way* exceeds my expectations. I generally use Thinkpads, and I thought I was in for a tough transition from top quality to bottom.
i just gotta say; i'm totally in agreement; this is by far the best cheap laptop i've used; i too am going from a thinkpad, a lovely old pentium-3 ibm x30 12". as much as i love it, it's just way to damn slow.
btw: i tried to play counterstrike source on this laptop and it doesn't go; that bums me out, i was expecting to be able to make it run at least on low settings, but i get 20fps at best, and single digits often even on lowest rez; time to reinstall warcraft 3
i do wish it was a 14" and 5lbs, especially at this screen rez, but one perk here is an extra hdd compartment if i should ever want to increase my storage space; that could be very useful down the line and hdd prices continue to fall
here's my overall feelings on the laptop
very nice screen hinge solid body design good keyboard well put together quite decent battery, i think it might get 3hrs fantastic speakers solid hinge close pretty thin
i really have zero complaints other than the fact that the size/weight is a big difference between my 3lb thinkpad, and that it comes with shitloads of bloatware. i'm very very pleased; this was a solid deal, a much better constructed lappy than my previous dells, compaqs, acers and several other cheap-o's. those saying it's a "throw away" laptop are just plain stupid; i am dissapointed with the gpu, but i guess it's par for the course these days, alas
gb5393
Broke Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2008 @ 4:17a
Sold out at BestBuy in El Cajon, California, I got the display for 10% off, they told me its been discontinued.
I can not tell which is a better deal. But I know that OD is selling A205-S5855 for $499 after $135 rebate.(And I am using it) The main specs are: core 2 dual, 3gb 160gb hd 15.4 screen wireless, dvd r/w
Besides, OD has a 14 day return policy which is better than BB's
Hope this is helpful to you guys.
wildbilly
Member
posted: Jul. 2, 2008 @ 10:01p
gottosave said:
Besides, OD has a 14 day return policy which is better than BB's
Hope this is helpful to you guys. WTF? BB has a 14 day return on lappys. Hell, my account allows me a 45 day return policy, even on lappys. I once thought BB was a scuz joint. And then I walked into a Circuit City store
Bought this for my brother who lives in a remote area overseas, triple booting XP Pro and Vista and Ubuntu 8.04 before shipping it off to him. He has to have XP Pro for some specialized hard disk encryption.
Bumped it up to 2 GB RAM, even with 1 GB this thing runs Vista SP1 very well much to my surprise. On the Vista side, I have startup time down to 35 seconds (from 55 orig.) and shutdown time to just 10 seconds (from 18 orig.)
To install any XP version just get a USB floppy drive and use instructions at this place. You can also of course make a slipstreamed CD of your XP installation CD to include the SATA drivers, etc. This particular Toshiba laptop was easier to dual boot Vista and XP than other Toshiba laptops I've done it on in the last year, perhaps SP1 contributes to that.
I have Vista installed on a 20 GB partition only, OS occupies 10.1 of the 20 GB volume. I'm at net . graffiti @ firefighter spelled backwards.
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
Members of our community may attach files to a post in accordance with the User Agreement. FatWallet is not responsible for the content, accuracy, completeness or validity of any information contained in any attached file. Files have *not* been scanned for viruses. Be especially wary of Excel files which may contain malicious content.
