The Toshiba A60 Satellite
My laptop bit the dust this week. 9 months after the 1yr warranty expired. Bloody hell.
It had been acting very peculiar as of recently, so I naturally assumed it was something to do with Windows (I run XP SP2). I had been toying with the idea of switching permanently to Linux (I work on desktop PC that runs Fedora Core 3), so I decided to take the plunge and throw Ubuntu on my laptop. After testing the Live CD to ensure all my devices worked (which they did) I tried to install Ubuntu.
I had an extremely hard time getting it installed... the disk partioning portion of the install kept freezing on me. After finally getting it installed, the OS then kept freezing on me. At this point my suspicions of a hardware problem with the laptop seemed to be confirmed. After googling for the symptoms I was seeing (it was also refusing to turn on sometimes) it seemed that the problem was a faulty memory module. I grabbed memtest off the web, and sure enough, the laptop failed one of the tests designed to stress test your RAM.
Sweet! I thought. RAM would be easy to replace (I had worried it was the hard-drive or system board). After opening the memory access compartment on the laptop I found a single empty slot. Puzzled, I consulted my owner's manual and discovered that the base 512MB of RAM that comes with the laptop is mounted directly on the system board.
Not panicking yet, I phoned up Toshiba and asked them if I managed to dis-assemble the laptop, would I be able to remove the memory? NO. The tech person did not offer specifics, but the memory is somehow inherently part of the system board and you can not remove it. SH#T !
So, instead of paying $100 for a new piece of RAM, I need to buy a whole new system board for $500+. Absolutely ridiculous! Who thought it would be a good idea to make the RAM non-removeable?!
I've attempted to find a way to somehow disable the faulty memory module (via the BIOS) so that I could just put a new piece in the available slot but I haven't had any luck. When our tech person gets back from holidays I'm going to see if he/she can somehow remove the faulty module. Otherwise I may have an expensive paper weight on my desk.
posted by rugged @ 2:18 p.m.
6 comments
6 Comments:
Buy a Dell laptop, or an iBook. Don't ever, ever buy a Toshiba laptop again. Seriously.
hey roy! i don't know why i didn't see the last few posts you've made... just thought i'd drop in and say hi though!
less than three weeks till my defense, i can't wait! i wish i could just do it tomorrow and get it over with, but thems are the breaks!
we're going camping near kamloops this weekend, at lac le jeune...been there? it's supposed to be 40 degrees down in kamloops, so we're hoping the park is a bit cooler!
hope everything's going well!
a.
Roy!!!
I've got a Toshiba satellite, and it was acting up last year (I was massively stressed), then I took it into some nerd shop and they fixed it up beautifully. I've had about eight glasses of wine so I cna't remember what your problem was, but I recomend taking it into a nerd and they fix it, and if you flirt with them they do it for el real cheapo. Or so I hear.
Hey ariane! Good to hear from you. Things are going well.
Good luck prepping for the defense. Lac le Jeune should provide some nice peace and quiet for you to prepare... it's a great camping area. Make sure you put your tent up in a nice shaded area or the 40 degrees will have you waking up by 6:30.
Thanks for the tip Carla... I'll go put on my most alluring shirt I have and see what happens ;-)
Ya, reading that sober, I wasn't much help. Although you got two cents! (ok, I realise that I'm not funny.)
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