Toshiba satellite running slow [Archive]

cyberey66

03-11-04, 08:40 PM

Does anyone have a toshiba satellite. I just bought one with a 1.1GHz celeron (100MHz bus) and 320MB ram. I used to run a desktop with coppermine 1Ghz celly wiht 256mb and it ran way fast enough for me. I figured that a laptop of equal speeds with a faster bus should be better. Well, my laptop benchmarks about as fast as a celeron 600Mhz and my memory bandwidth is about 2-300mb/s. Are mobile computers really that much different? Is there something I need to do? I installed the latest chipset drivers and the same thing happened. Are all laptops like this? I'll probally have to sell this on ebay and just save up more for a dell.

ashenfang

03-11-04, 08:46 PM

well, laptop architecture is alot different than from a desktop. This was put into strong perspective when my friend bought his gaming laptop.

The ati 9600 pro video card it had performed like a desktop version 8500~9000

Memory bandwidth was alot lower
Processor speed was slower

So to answer your question. Yes, I believe that all laptops are like this. Its just how they are built, and how the components are scaled down.

cyberey66

03-11-04, 09:22 PM

Thats what I though. I might just have to save up for a dell 2.4Ghz celeron. They are pretty cheap every now and then. I don't want it for gaming, just fast using, and wireless counter strike/UT smoothly. Maybe I can still play CS on this machine above 30fps. Supposedly people where able to play quake iii on this laptop with the video drivers I found. I never played quakeiii so I dont know how it performs in comparison to UT and CS.

cack01

03-11-04, 09:30 PM

I have a 900mhz PIII Satellite, and I'm very happy with it. Sometimes its actually faster than the system in my sig. You might want to make sure you any power saving options turned off.

cyberey66

03-12-04, 02:12 AM

Originally posted by cack01
I have a 900mhz PIII Satellite, and I'm very happy with it. Sometimes its actually faster than the system in my sig. You might want to make sure you any power saving options turned off.

Is it an 1805? If so, how do I check the power saving features? With the 200Mhz rule of thumb for p3s and celerons, these laptops should be about equal. Also, if it is an 1805, I have few questions about tv out and the cd player buttons on the laptop.

lancingfury

03-12-04, 07:49 AM

i have a satellite with a 1.1 ghz celeron too, and it runs ut, half-life, and other games flawlessly, and others like ut2k3 decently, however, it overheats and shuts off after a little while. however, its very fast for me, especially compared to the sys in my sig(which is my main computer, unfortunately...)

i just finally got its tv out to work the other day, so if you need help with it i could help you...

and about the cd player buttons, ive become an expert on those and what they do, whats ur question?

JCLW

03-12-04, 08:26 AM

I have a Celeron-500 laptop - runs office stuff fine when I'm on the road. Games are pointless 'tho.

BUBBLE

03-12-04, 09:34 AM

Well if it is a celeron then you can't expect much inmprovemnet in the gaming side due to the cache mem also. BTW 1805 means usa TOSHIBA products. So far 1805 performs well and only disadvantage is sme users face a problem in the cooling fan unit and in the lcd getting dim. BTW tv out port won't be an big thig to be sort to out. If anyone need help with toshiba notebook product I'll be glad to help them out.

cack01

03-12-04, 10:23 AM

I have the 2805

Basically to get the TV port too work all I have to do is press fn+F5 a few times.

cyberey66

03-12-04, 01:57 PM

The tv out doesn't take up the whole tv though. Even at 640 or 800x600 res, I have to move the mouse around to see the whole screen. Is there a way around this, so far I can't watch movies because of this.

cack01

03-12-04, 03:15 PM

I only have that problem if I run a higher res then 640X480. Are you sure you tried 640x480?

BUBBLE

03-12-04, 07:21 PM

YOu've mentin about something that mouse cursor has to be move around the desktop to get down the whole desktop area. I assume you've enable the extended desktop area in the vga proprites so you'll have to disable that thing. Somethinges you'l find that option is dimmed and cannot be changes in that case under the monior section select the second option then that option will be highlited, after that disable the extended desktop area option. Normally fn+f5 will bring out hte options you need. If you didn't get down and result out of these let us know well be glad to help you.

Yuriman

03-12-04, 10:11 PM

One question, why a celeron? You do realize how slow the P4 celly is right? A pentium-M would be MUCH better for this, a 1.4 P-M is at least as fast as a P4 2.4(not a celly). Combine that with a mobile 9600, and youve got a gamer there. But seriously, if your into gaming, why a celeron?

cyberey66

03-12-04, 10:46 PM

I'm not really into gaming, but I play CS and UT and they can run on slow systems. I bought a celeron laptop because of the price difference, and I have had a celeron 1GHz desktop that suited me nicely. I don't have much money now, and $600-700 for a dell outlet celeron was my max. My only requirements for the laptop were to be fast for web browsing, email, and other apps, and being able to play CS/UT so I can play wireless.

Also, what video and chipset drivers are you guys using? I'm assuming you have the trident 16mb card and ali chipset if you have the 1805.

Random question, does anyone know where I can get a decently cheap screen? Ebay has been dry lately, but I might as well wait for one to pop up as I can get one for <=$200 there instead of the ridiculus $500 for a replacement from toshiba. Fedex totally fubared my laptop screen during shipping, and last time I complained to fedex about their shipping, they just basically blew me off and did nothing. The screen did have a 'small' crack before shipping, but it didn't affect its use. After it arrived, the screen was terrible with cracks from corner to corner. So idk who is to blame, fedex in my area does have a history of bad service with me though. I wouldn't doubt if the box was dropped a few times. I think after you sign for it, the insurance is no longer in effect either way. I was going to replace the screen anyways in the future, but not for a lil while.

If you are curious,
before
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~mcyberey/before.jpg
after
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~mcyberey/after.JPG

itshondo

03-12-04, 10:55 PM

my nephews 1800 athlon laptop was super slow- installed Adaware & Spybot- found over 250 spyware references.

After deleting it all, it operated normally.

I also disabled 3rd party cookies in Internet options to prevent more.

Might want to try that & let us know...

JCLW

03-13-04, 12:18 AM

Celerons also = less power draw = more battery life, which was a factor when I bought mine.

We got some new Dell D600s in the office this week, 1.6ghz P-M, 1400x1050 screens, broadcom gigabit copper, intel wireless, 5400rpm drives... absolutely gorgeous.

And wicked battery life - when people are travelling usually the CD drives get pulled and replaced with a 2nd battery, which yeilds 8~9+ hours of battery life if you're not doing anything disk or CPU intensive. The CPUs scale back to 600mhz when they are idling.

lancingfury

03-13-04, 07:45 AM

that looks like my laptop exactly!

anyway, what did you want to know about the cd player keys? ive found that while its off you can slide the little slider switch towards the cd picture and itll act as a cd player while off, and while the system is on the play/etc. keys work windows media player when there isnt a dvd in it and work windvd when there is.

cyberey66

03-13-04, 04:56 PM

Originally posted by lancingfury
that looks like my laptop exactly!

anyway, what did you want to know about the cd player keys? ive found that while its off you can slide the little slider switch towards the cd picture and itll act as a cd player while off, and while the system is on the play/etc. keys work windows media player when there isnt a dvd in it and work windvd when there is.

Oh sweet!, thats just want I wanted to happen with the keys. So I can watch movies/listen to music with my laptop and have it closed. My tv-out does work with 640x480, but since windows xp control panel only lets you choise 800x600, I just need to get powerstrip installed. Thanks for the info, so far I need all I need to know at the moment as the broken screen limits this to watching movies and playing music.

I filed a claim with fedex, so I'll tell them what happed and have them inspect the laptop. If it was ups I wouldn't be as mad/probally let it go as I was buying a new screen in the future, but I just hate fedex for all the times they screwed up my shipping.

cyberey66

03-17-04, 12:26 AM

ehh... i found out that my power saving settings for the cpu were on. When I turned them off I still didnt get a great increase. I bench a little faster than a p3 500. Can someone with a toshiba satellite please post your sandra scores? I just bought a new screen for this today, so it'll be in perfect working order when it comes. I'm still debating whether or not I will get rid of this. If I cant get this to work a little faster I probally will. I'll test CS as soon as its done updating which will take me over an hour with steam and dialup. It annoying because the laptop is really choppy now while steam is updating.

Can someone please tell me what versions of drivers you are using? I'm running out of ideas. This is a fresh install of XP and I turned off visual themes, and unneeded services.

I checiked my ram, one stick is 256MB pc133 cas3 and the other is pc100 cas222, so Im assuming its running cas3 100Mhz, but it should be able to handle cas2 100. I guess I'll have to search if there is any way I can change this. That should give a little better preformance.

I still cant believe I'm complaining about speed, this is a decently fast computer, if not overkill for a laptop. I guess it's the fact that its running a lot slower than I expected.

cyberey66

03-17-04, 06:42 PM

I played CS, I get about 4-5fps, which is horrible, it actually seems like I get ok fps for a little in sprints, but every 1 or 2 secs i pause. Can't explain it, sort of like walk/stop, walk/stop. I can watch divx movies ok, but some other avis are choppy. I cannot play videos over a lan, which sucks. I'll probally search around for the best drivers, uninstall everything, and reinstall all the drivers. I hope I can get this a little faster, or off to ebay.

lancingfury, you can play halflife and some games flawlessly? Can I please have what OS, driver versions you have? If I can get the same results as you, I would be very happy.

Cyrix_2k

03-17-04, 06:49 PM

Just a word of warning:

DON'T BUY A CELLY BASED LAPTOP!!!!!!!! If you're going to spend the money, get a Centrino, M-Athlon, or a P4. The celly suck juice like crazy (at least mine does) and they're friggen SLOW!

cyberey66

03-17-04, 07:12 PM

Originally posted by Cyrix_2k
Just a word of warning:

DON'T BUY A CELLY BASED LAPTOP!!!!!!!! If you're going to spend the money, get a Centrino, M-Athlon, or a P4. The celly suck juice like crazy (at least mine does) and they're friggen SLOW!

I heard about the power issue before, the celerons dont clock down when not under load. I believe some new mobile celerons have 256k l2 cache though, so speedwise they should be ok at least. I just checked the dell outlet last night they have a few 2.4Ghz celeron\20GB\dvd\14.1\256MB for $629, and the lowest priced p4 with the same specks was $240 more. I dont know what other low budget solutions there are, here http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=280296 there's a few. Mobile athlon would probally be a good buy as well, but I don't know any companies that sell those cheap/refurbed like dell does with their outlet store.

I found a few more resources online for this laptop. Hopefully I will get it working faster and won't worry about selling this and getting a new one.

Tebore

03-17-04, 08:19 PM

Originally posted by Cyrix_2k
Just a word of warning:

DON'T BUY A CELLY BASED LAPTOP!!!!!!!! If you're going to spend the money, get a Centrino, M-Athlon, or a P4. The celly suck juice like crazy (at least mine does) and they're friggen SLOW!

Amen to that brother. Avoid the P4 based Celly chips like the plague. Battery vampires that spew a lot of heat.

At cyberey66 I bet my 1800XP laptop will mop the 2.4 celly laptop chip around. My 1800XP laptop chip performs exactly the same as the desktop chip which is just a bit slower than P4 2.0 and I get about 1200mb in membandwidth(ATI IGP320). Turn off all power saving features, plug it in and bench it and see how fast it is. If you have the early Pentium 3 you will be running at about 733 if it's the 1Ghz chip on battery. P3-Ms have Speedstep 2 which allows for more clock adjustments.

cyberey66

03-17-04, 08:46 PM

Originally posted by Tebore

Amen to that brother. Avoid the P4 based Celly chips like the plague. Battery vampires that spew a lot of heat.

At cyberey66 I bet my 1800XP laptop will mop the 2.4 celly laptop chip around. My 1800XP laptop chip performs exactly the same as the desktop chip which is just a bit slower than P4 2.0 and I get about 1200mb in membandwidth(ATI IGP320). Turn off all power saving features, plug it in and bench it and see how fast it is. If you have the early Pentium 3 you will be running at about 733 if it's the 1Ghz chip on battery. P3-Ms have Speedstep 2 which allows for more clock adjustments.

I guess I'll put my idea of getting a 2.4 celly away. Looks like no other options in a $600-700 range.

cyberey66

03-18-04, 01:45 AM

There an annoying rhythmic lag. Now CS goes from 8fps to 30fps and then back to 8 then 30 and so on. It's really annoying, and there would be a chance of being able to play games if it did not do that. Also now when I play videos full screen, it plays for a sec, stops, plays, stops and so on. Really really annoying.

My memory scores are now >400MB/s and my cpu scores are what they should be according to this, http://www.benchmark.pl/notebooki/Toshiba_1800_654/toshiba_1800_654.html. I just need to find video drivers that work well, and cross my fingers hoping I can actually play DVDs. This still might go on ebay, but I don't know how much it's actually worth now.

lancingfury

03-18-04, 01:50 PM

hmm... i get more fps than that in ut2003... im running windows xp home, standard out-of-box drivers, and ut plays without ny lag whatsoever, hl:opfor does too, and ut2k3 plays with a little lag... if you need me to ill install fraps to tell you the frame rates i get... and i dont get any of that start/stop, however, im playing single player, not online play, so maybe its because your using the built-in 56k(or are you...?)

i can watch the lotr:fotr dvd with no skippy-ness or anything... im gonna upgrade the bios soon to see if that helps a little with the heat, while im waiting for a chance to get a replacement at best buy so it wont overheat anymore...

cyberey66

03-18-04, 03:25 PM

can you find out the driver version. I'm using 6.4 and tried a bunch of the 5.8 flavors. I got this computer 2nd hand so there were no out of the box drivers, just a fresh install of xp.

lancingfury

03-18-04, 03:49 PM

hmm... how would i check it? i cant seem to find where it tells the driver versions.

cyberey66

03-18-04, 06:51 PM

You go to display properties, (right click desktop), then go to advanced, and then go to the adapter tab, there should be info on the driver there. Whats the name of the device, I have used both drivers for a blade XP and cyberblade Ai1, dont know if there is a difference?

Also, if it isn't to much, could you find out the agp driver you are using as well. Um right click my computer, select manage, and click on the device manager. Under system devices there should be something called cpu to agp device. If you go to its properties and go to the driver tab, there should be a version listed. I would appreciate this a lot.

Thanks in advance I appreciate it. I'm probally going to wait until I get back to my college and just download everything from the toshiba site. I have heard alot about getting a bios update, but I can't find one for a 1805-s207. The only ones I see are for a 1805-s**4, and thats after selecting s207 as my model.

lancingfury

03-18-04, 07:01 PM

ok, it says trident video accelerator cyberblade xp ai1 v6.4020.22ICD.

couldnty find "cpu to agp device", but found "ALi PCI to AGP Controller", and that says its version 5.1.2600.0.

if, when you tell it your model, it displays drivers for s dif. model it normally means that those drivers are for that model and yours.

cyberey66

03-22-04, 01:35 PM

I got my screen, so I'm playing with drivers. I believe my sound maybe a problem. I updated the sound driver to the one on toshiba's site, and now when I play videos they chop and are unplayable. It worked before the driver, but I cannot roll it back. I also uninstalled the driver, but the same problem. If I uninstall the sound card, the video plays full speed without sound, but I cant get it to work with sound. No matter what though, CS still has lag issues. Maybe I should just find the same versions of the drivers that someone has and reinstall.

lancingfury

03-22-04, 02:26 PM

wierd.

cyberey66

03-22-04, 02:33 PM

Does anyone have the restore cd and would be willing to copy it/upload it for me if I paid or sent postage and a cd?

cyberey66

03-25-04, 07:35 PM

After searching around I found out toshiba has a lot of cooling issues with their laptops. The bios updates, which I downloaded, stops the problem by slowing down the processor. The only thing I can think of now is to replace the thermal grease and pray.

I also found a little piece of info here, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toshiba5005/message/2750 . Supposedly you can put in a tualatin cpu :-D. Thats a <$40 upgrade to a cooler cpu with 256k cache. If that works and I can fix the cooling issue, I will be very happy.

For those not registered with yahoo, Ok - following in the footsteps of some on this list, I opened up my 1805
and installed the tuatalin cpu. Its quite easy to get to the cpu. Its quite
easy to get the old cpu out.

It was *extemely* diffcult to get the new cpu in.

I kept thinking I'd done it but the machine would refuse to boot, and I
fianlly figured it was becase the CPU was not locked properly in place
(correct deduction) - after thinking I'd shorted the board, blown the cpus
etc etc

The amount of force required to get the ZIF socket with cpu back into place
was quite excessive, and some of the plastic around the socket was getting
damaged by the screwdriver. Nonetheless, finally, almost out of desperation,
I press very hard against the sliding socket, and the locking-clip could be
slip back into place.
It now boots, benchmarks slighty better than a generic P3 1gig, and runs
cool. Great!

I swear I was close to breaking the socket though, and as I screwed on the
heat sink I felt like I'd been making some peculiar toshiba-club-sandwich
for the past hour and a half. All it needed was a pickle and ketchup to go
with the arctic silver. Yes, it was that lo-fi ;-)
Perhaps toshiba didn;t just cut costs with the CPU itself, but the very
socket it sits in!

So, I don;t know if the sockets on the 5005 are the same or not, but you
have been warned.

Still, the machine, if its stable in the long term, has been transformed for
50 bucks.

Note: to get at the CPU on this model, pull off the plastic strip where the
power button is and go in from there, its quick and tidy.

yours,

JA

lancingfury

03-26-04, 08:16 AM

yes, ive known they had cooling issues for quite awhile, ive been suffering with them... it restarts when it gets hot, and thats what mine does quite a bit... worst disadvantage of my laptop...

cyberey66

03-27-04, 11:38 PM

yea, I took out the cpu, its a regular desktop cpu. I was a pain to get out, nearly impossible, I broke the ends off both ends on the socket thing. I did get it back in, the only way actually is with the ends broken off. The design for the socket is obvious to not let the person change cpus. It's basically a socket without the lever, so you have to slide it into place by hand. I got everything working, but I haven't tried it with a tualatin yet. A lot of people have switched them and they work. I guess this chipset does allow the different pinouts, and I know it's voltages go that low. People with the satellites with the p3 1.1GHz have switched to a tualatin celeron and said temps have dropped. The cooling is horrible, its a small heatsink with fins about 5mm high covering 4/5 of the top, spaced far apart. That will no way handle a 1.1GHz desktop cpu, my temps were always 70 degrees. So my laptop is slow because the cpu is throttling down from the bios update. If I can fix the temp issue this laptop will be awesome as it should preform good with a full speed desktop cpu. Maybe AS5 replacing the thermal goop might help. I don't know what they were thinking with this cooling. And releasing a bios update that just slows down the cpu is really shady. They did get sued in a class action lawsuit because of this, and they deserve it.

Still debating on keeping this. I can help the temp issue by applying AS5 and sell it on ebay. I can replace the CPU with a tualatin and sell it on ebay or keep it. Now I just wish I spent the money for a low end P4 dell laptop.

*edit *hmmm.... Just cleaning the heatsink and resetting the cpu with some of the hard goop removed helped a little. After first turning it on, it benchs at full speed, and plays a divx movie full screen fine. Not bad, it was just a heat issue.