Dilemma with laptop *sigh*

Here is my dilemma: I got this laptop last year for college as a gaming desktop replacement (dropped 3.2k on it, shouldnt have). After awhile, the fan stopped spinning on for the video card and it would overheat to 125c. It has been in repair twice locally and once at toshiba. Not even after it has been "repaired" has it worked correctly. After awhile the video card just gave up and started dying (artifacting at the desktop). I sent it in and a replacement was sent to me. Only problem is, it was supposed to have Windows XP Pro on it, but they gave me Vista Ultimate. I recently decided that since that is what it came with, that is what I should have on it. But before I just completely re-installed the OS, I backed it up incase I had troubles. I loaded XP on it (with the recovery CD) and let it sit overnight installing drivers (takes like 5-6 restarts). I open it in the morning to find that the whole left side is REALLY hot...this one has the EXACT same issue as the last one!!! WTF. I'd like to keep Vista on it but it stutters while gaming (although the video card does not overheat) to the point it is annoying and can affect me during racing games or FPS.

I originally got this laptop to game on, so I expect it to play games smoothly and without overheating.

If I leave Vista on it, it stutters while gaming but generally works very well. Does not fit the "gaming laptop" that they sold me.

If I put XP on it, it can't even sit at the desktop without overheating. Certainly does not fit the "gaming laptop" that they sold me.

If I put linux on it, I have problems with WPA wireless and I have no sound. Does not fit the "gaming laptop" that they sold me, but linux isn't made for gaming so I'm not expecting it to game.


I currently have an open ticket with Toshiba about it overheating again (since XP is what it was supposed to come with). But either they are going to send me another of their POS laptops or try to repair it. At this point, I KNOW FOR A FACT it is something with the operating system and I'm very tempted to just use my OEM XP cd and install using the key off the bottom of the laptop.

My other option is to sell the laptop, but again, the OS on it is supposed to be XP, that might turn people off. And if I put XP on it, it overheats, so I would be selling a "broken" laptop! I don't want to do that.

I am stuck in a circle people!! Can someone please take some scissors and let me out?!!?

I'm going to make a last ditch effort and install XP with the OEM disc and the key off the bottom.

Ask the company for a replacement laptop but a different model. tell them this is the last time i am being screwed by you. tell them since this has been RMAed multiple times and Has been in service for So long that you demand them for a new replacement. Say its obviously a flaw with the model number and once again tell them that you spent 3.2k on it and it is totally not as advertise.

Dont hang up, get in touch with the manager, raise hell, get to every last nerve all those reps.

imposter said:

Ask the company for a replacement laptop but a different model. tell them this is the last time i am being screwed by you. tell them since this has been RMAed multiple times and Has been in service for So long that you demand them for a new replacement. Say its obviously a flaw with the model number and once again tell them that you spent 3.2k on it and it is totally not as advertise.

Dont hang up, get in touch with the manager, raise hell, get to every last nerve all those reps.

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Yes, I have tried that many times. They keep telling me that they can't refund me (best option). If the laptop works, I'm happy, seriously. I think what I'll do is ask them for a laptop worth 3.2k today and then just sell the d*mn thing...

IDK, any other input?

I've gotta ask, are you using the graphics driver from the manufacturer or the latest drivers from your vid card maker? It could possibly be a driver that's not optimized for mobile GPUs.

I do really doubt you'll be able to get a $3200 machine out of them though. Most likely you'd get a like or better replacement depending on your current setup. But if you complain enough they may be able to upgrade a component (really depends on the manufacturer and the rep you talk to).

iD10t said:

I've gotta ask, are you using the graphics driver from the manufacturer or the latest drivers from your vid card maker? It could possibly be a driver that's not optimized for mobile GPUs.

I do really doubt you'll be able to get a $3200 machine out of them though. Most likely you'd get a like or better replacement depending on your current setup. But if you complain enough they may be able to upgrade a component (really depends on the manufacturer and the rep you talk to).

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I'm am currently using the one they host on Toshiba's site, specifically made for Vista and my video card.

I have tried the ones from nVidia by forcing Windows to use it and I get a decrease in performance.

thideras said:

I'm am currently using the one they host on Toshiba's site, specifically made for Vista and my video card.

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Do you mean the specific XP driver package?

Is this an issue where it is hot at idle or under load?

iD10t said:

Do you mean the specific XP driver package?

Is this an issue where it is hot at idle or under load?

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Sorry, I don't understand your first question.

Well...

Idle=125c
Load=I don't want to know

Oh, you mentioned using Toshiba Vista drivers so I was wondering if that was a typo and you meant you tried Toshiba's XP driver set.

I'm working under the impression this issue only occurs in XP but not Vista. But I guess the original fan failure could have re-occurred. Does this happen in safe mode or even in the BIOS/pre-boot environment?

iD10t said:

Oh, you mentioned using Toshiba Vista drivers so I was wondering if that was a typo and you meant you tried Toshiba's XP driver set.

I'm working under the impression this issue only occurs in XP but not Vista. But I guess the original fan failure could have re-occurred. Does this happen in safe mode or even in the BIOS/pre-boot environment?

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In the BIOS it works like it should. I'm assuming the ACPI in the supplied disc is messed up. And yes, that was a typo, I meant to say in XP I used the Toshiba nVidia drivers.

I have loaded XP through my OEM disc (NOT the one that came with the laptop, the one that I bought ) and I'm doing updates etc, but it looks like it is working. I was able to let it run 3dmark 06 run a few times and the fan was working the entire time. I just hope it stays this way, this gives me something to do on my upcoming trip since I won't have internet

It's really odd that there should be such a heat difference between XP and Vista. I can't think of any logical reason for that. Is it a 64 bit processor and XP 64-bit? (That's a complete stab in the dark, I'm just trying to come up with something...)

If you dropped 3.2k on a laptop, it should damn well work perfectly. That's a LOT of money. You can get a nice gaming laptop for half that. I would absolutely demand they replace it at this point.

It is normal for gaming laptops to get very hot, because the video cards generate heat as well as the processors, but the whole point of it being a gaming laptop is that it is also designed to be able to sufficiently dissipate that heat in any but the hottest of environments. If it's getting hot but still operating ok, I'd say this might be normal... but if it's causing instabilities, then obviously this needs to be fixed.

Also, it's normal for gaming performance to be lower in Vista. All the benchmarks show that you will get better framerates in XP than in Vista. This is for two reasons. First, Vista is just more bloated and has a much bigger resource footprint. Second, it runs dx9 through an emulation layer, and almost all your games are likely dx9. (However, if you have a dx10 game, then you'll need Vista of course, as dx10 doesn't exist for XP.)

MRD said:

It's really odd that there should be such a heat difference between XP and Vista. I can't think of any logical reason for that. Is it a 64 bit processor and XP 64-bit? (That's a complete stab in the dark, I'm just trying to come up with something...)

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32bit XP and Vista.

If you dropped 3.2k on a laptop, it should damn well work perfectly. That's a LOT of money. You can get a nice gaming laptop for half that. I would absolutely demand they replace it at this point.

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Exactly

It is normal for gaming laptops to get very hot, because the video cards generate heat as well as the processors, but the whole point of it being a gaming laptop is that it is also designed to be able to sufficiently dissipate that heat in any but the hottest of environments. If it's getting hot but still operating ok, I'd say this might be normal... but if it's causing instabilities, then obviously this needs to be fixed.

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125c is normal? lol

But seriously, like I said earlier, I think it has something to do with the ACPI. If I put Fedora on here, it doesn't spin the fan, but with Ubuntu it does...

I know at this point that the fan is controlled by the motherboard, not the video card...for some odd reason...its Toshiba, I'm not going to ask...

Also, it's normal for gaming performance to be lower in Vista. All the benchmarks show that you will get better framerates in XP than in Vista. This is for two reasons. First, Vista is just more bloated and has a much bigger resource footprint. Second, it runs dx9 through an emulation layer, and almost all your games are likely dx9. (However, if you have a dx10 game, then you'll need Vista of course, as dx10 doesn't exist for XP.)

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It was about 25% of its normal speed compared to XP(75% slower ). It was WAY too much of a performance drop...plus stuttering every couple seconds...

That's a pretty big performance drop. I wouldn't be surprised to see Vista even as much as 40-50% slower, I've seen that in a FEW games, but most show drops only in the 15-25% range. 75% slower... that's obviously something wrong, especially if it's in every game.

I wonder if there is something you can configure in XP to control how the power management works or how the fans operate. I just don't know enough about Windows to know the answer to that.

I hate to say it man, because i usually don't say these things. But it is what you get for spending $3.2k on a laptop. ESPECIALLY a toshiba. Even if you got a working model out of them, i don't think your going to be able to get your money back out out of your "investment"

You might just have to cut your losses, sell it and get what you can. Then start over.

MRD said:

I wonder if there is something you can configure in XP to control how the power management works or how the fans operate. I just don't know enough about Windows to know the answer to that.

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I've done too much research on these laptops. I've found out they are made different than Dell's (where you can control the fans). They made everything so complicated, like motherboard controlled fans (because you can put it in "Silent" or "Performance" mode for the cooling). Which is really stupid when it messes up because the hardware dies >.<

Xenocide said:

I hate to say it man, because i usually don't say these things. But it is what you get for spending $3.2k on a laptop. ESPECIALLY a toshiba. Even if you got a working model out of them, i don't think your going to be able to get your money back out out of your "investment"

You might just have to cut your losses, sell it and get what you can. Then start over.

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I'll have to agree with you . First, I should not have bought it. Second, still should not have bought it. And third, should have got a dell . I'll see how it does on a trip and I'll report back.

This might sound incredibly stupid, but I think this idea has some merit...

I bet you never ripped apart your laptop. I'm not asking you to. However, on a laptop I did rip apart, there was two cooling systems in use. One was a heatsync and fan combination (which you can do little about). Next, some heat was absorbed by a heatsync that also served as the laptop casing! So, you have fans doing some stuff and the case doing other stuff.

Here is the idea. Does your laptop feel hot on the bottom? If so, then there are those cheapie "clip on the bottom of your laptop" cooling solutions that are powered by USB. Get one of those (maybe a more expensive and quality rated one) and try to use that. At the very least, it won't harm anything. At best, it might somewhat solve your problem.

One last thing (not sure if this will work)... if you have a Toshiba 2140-xxx (?) then you can at least turn your fans on and off with Speedfan...

http://www.almico.com/foruminfo.php?id=419498

However, as you guessed, fan control is a lot more spotty than temperature detection.

Best of luck with your laptop. I'm glad I got my laptops at discount pricing... then again, they can't play many games...

Well, I'm on the trip until today.

I was playing games the way there and back and after about 3 hours of gaming, the card started artifacting, this card died too!!

I'm going to go through with the replacement and just sell the damn thing. I am so frustrated with this laptop and their crappy customer support.

Here is seriously what I'm going to do. I'm going to sell the laptop, finish my HTPC and when I go back to school, I'm going to buy a mac...not even kidding.

gt24 said:

Here is the idea. Does your laptop feel hot on the bottom? If so, then there are those cheapie "clip on the bottom of your laptop" cooling solutions that are powered by USB. Get one of those (maybe a more expensive and quality rated one) and try to use that. At the very least, it won't harm anything. At best, it might somewhat solve your problem.

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Ya those things actually work. I picked up a Targus cooling pad for my T40 (RIP) and was able to get an extra ~40mhz out of the GPU (it would artifact after 10 minutes at 280mhz, was able to get it steady at 320), not bad concidering it was a Radeon 7500m. Might help.

freakdiablo said:

Ya those things actually work.

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Yes, while that may help a laptop if it has poor cooling, I had the air conditioning of a car directly in front of the intake of the laptop and it was artifacting like crazy. Bottom line is, laptop video card is dying and there is nothing I can do to fix it.