Pufferfishy wrote:.

March 2011 - bought a high-end Qosmio (18.4" screen behemoth) for nearly 2 grand with hopes of using it as a universal virtualization platform I can travel with. It runs Windows 7. Cannot find a Linux distro that will recognize the SSD drives I want to use. Has been the MOST unstable OS I have used since Windows ME. Blue screens are a weekly occurrence (video or network seem to be the top offenders). Have battled drivers and the general suckiness that is Windows 7 (seriously - how do people love this made-for-snowmans OS??)

Have you considered it's your laptop and not the OS? I run 6 Win 7 systems at home all are very stable. Looks like you just have a laptop with terribly written drivers causing constant crashes. High-end hardware doesn't always mean high-end compatibility to the OS.

But anyways I'm thinking of getting a third laptop in the house to run some VM Ware and for my kids to mess with. This fits the bill. I really don't need big drive or HDMI. I have that on my Dell XPS. The 17" screen and cheap price are a clincher for me.

puterfreaksteveo wrote:I'm going to have to disagree with that statement. The wife and I have owned many different laptops. Acers, Toshibas and even a Dell, before I realized I was throwing away perfectly good grilled cheese making money. Anyway, those Acers are typically low budget laptops, but they are built to last and are designed for the average web surfing user in mind. I have one from 2007 that has been through some cruel punishment dished out by at least 10 road trips, 2 cats and 1 toddler. In fact at this very moment I am banging away this reply on said laptop. Thanks for the good times Acer!

My fiancee and I both bought a ~$500 Aspire a few years ago. Neither of us is hard on our computers, especially me, but I'll be damned if they didn't both PHYSICALLY FALL APART within a year and a half.

The hinges fell apart, the lids fell apart, and then finally at the end, the screens both died in tune with the cases starting to crack.

I think I still have one in the closet upstairs as a "Here's why you don't buy an Acer" example, I'll go try to find it and post a picture of it later if I do.

1) Does it come with a Win 7 install disk so I can reinstall the system clean without bloatware?

2) Fast enough for video but not enough juice for video editing?

3) Toshiba's gotta be better than HP, right? Better than Acer? What other brand would I be looking for on the, um, modest end of laptops?

chuckzuck wrote:
1) Does it come with a Win 7 install disk so I can reinstall the system clean without bloatware?

Nope.

chuckzuck wrote:
2) Fast enough for video but not enough juice for video editing?

Sounds about right.

chuckzuck wrote:
3) Toshiba's gotta be better than HP, right? Better than Acer? What other brand would I be looking for on the, um, modest end of laptops?

I think people focus a bit too much on brand names. As long as it's a major brand, pretty much every company has their high end and low end models and every company has its share of laptops known to have certain problems.

Customer support quality can vary between companies but that's never been much of an issue for me as I can generally fix most issues myself. I'd pay more attention to the specs, the reviews, and the price to performance ratio, instead of shopping by brand.

That being said, with a Pentium processor and no HDMI port, I'd definitely pass on this laptop.

chuckzuck wrote:1) Does it come with a Win 7 install disk so I can reinstall the system clean without bloatware?

2) Fast enough for video but not enough juice for video editing?

3) Toshiba's gotta be better than HP, right? Better than Acer? What other brand would I be looking for on the, um, modest end of laptops?

Asus

I've purchased 2 Toshiba satellite laptops from sellout.woot, 2 plus years ago and the only problem is with IE9, but installing google chrome on it took care of that problem, but I do like to used the pinned links alot.

901Memphis wrote:People getting turned off by the word pentium must not know this....

Do not confuse these newer pentium chips with older netburst aka pentium 4 technology. These new chips are really based off core architecture aka core 2 duo or core 2 quad, they just don't have the same names or cache memory sizes. Check the benchmarks this laptop has plenty of cpu power for the price, it's the video chipset that will leave you wanting more.

what he said.

This is 2/3 as powerful as the $370 Acer recently on woot and wootoff with slightly weaker graphics, with a 1800 benchmark vs a 2700 benchmark for the Acer Quad core. It also lacks HDMI which the Acer has, and one fewer USB2 connections, 2/3-size hard disk, slightly weaker graphics card, but about comparable otherwise, making it, at $50 less, about the same value depending on what matters to you.

My mother in-law bought a Toshiba (Satellite, I think), which my wife liked so I bought her one for Xmas in 2006. By April 2007 my mother-in-law's screen hinge had broken and the screen was loose. After a very, very, very, very, convoluted wrangle with Toshiba, they finally agreed to change it (how big of them to honor the warranty). My wife's then went the same way shortly after that. Same drawn-out wrangling. Seems Toshiba like your money but don't like to hear from you when things go wrong. Both replacement machines have gone the same way again. Toshiba were not interested in providing any customer support or solutions. Both machines are now junked in a closet somewhere. Be very wary of Toshiba stuff. We won't ever buy any again.

I don't have this exact model of Toshiba Satellite (I have a C655-S5137), but they are very similar. My previous laptop was an Acer that didn't even last 2 years and had multiple problems. My Toshiba, on the other hand, only had one problem: A bad hard drive when I first got it. After I got that fixed, this has been the most reliable laptop I've ever used. The next time we need a laptop, I'll be getting another Toshiba

so far as brand its as others have said, none of these makers manufacture components, and even if so they share them sometimes. sell to one another. a computer is kind of like a car like that, only even less so. most builders use the same components as the other and source them from the same places. quality control still comes into play, build quality, and customer service. and lemons do exist. but Dell / HP / Toshiba / Asus etc are all pretty much the same quality wise, all other things being equal. i have an HP Probook and its reliable and built tough. but so are others

so far as this computer, it is nothing special spec wise. if you want a 17in screen and that is a priority its a good deal as its a fairly nice screen to watch movies and vids on. but the processor is capable but average (its a detuned first gen core i3 330m), the ram simply adequate, and the HD small by todays standards. if a person looks around they could find a 17in laptop for $60 more with a better display, bigger hard drive, modern processor, better graphics, and long battery life thanks to its low power draw, cool running processor. which is important in a 17in laptop. and its new

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Black-17.3-g7-1219wm-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-Dual-Core-E-450-Processor-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/19477366

now if encoding video, music files, unpacking large .rar files, or doing any sort of intense computing otherwise, neither the lappy offered on w00t today or the one i linked would be your choice, and the w00t offered laptop is stronger in those areas. but for everyday use for Windows, internet, videos, light multitasking, email, and even games because of its better graphics. most any AMD Fusion cpu will be better for multimedia (mainly HD video decoding) than the intel B940 due to the B940 not having hardware decoding capability. for pure-CPU tasks though, the B940 will be faster. but thats not what many if not most users do with their laptops unless always on the go. when i want computing power i use my desktop. so imo the walmart offered laptop is a substantially better value now and in the future for the average home user. longer battery life, bigger HD, better graphics, cooler running, display just as big and at least just as well if not better

unless you want to save $60 buying a refurb. and that is fine, too

The lesson I take is never to buy a laptop -or anything where quality matters, from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart demands lower quality from those who sell product in their stores.

thatguychuck wrote:Clean OS installs have been necessary for quite a while to get rid of bloatware. I've installed Win7 on plenty of machines, even older XP ones that had the minimum hardware and it runs great. I'm sorry you are having difficulty with 7 on your one machine, but I'd stay away from blanket statements that Toshiba and Windows 7 are terrible.

I've been using Windows since the TCP/IP stack came on a separate set of floppies. I have no issue in making the blanket statements I've made. Microsoft has "stupified" this OS beyond belief. They've removed totally useful features, made Windows Explorer one of the most useless core utilities ever (I now run Q-Dir), "Network and Sharing Center" - white tundra frost??? Etc, Etc. Etc. As an OS that is 7th generation - it sucks wet dog fur.

labrocca wrote:Have you considered it's your laptop and not the OS? I run 6 Win 7 systems at home all are very stable. Looks like you just have a laptop with terribly written drivers causing constant crashes. High-end hardware doesn't always mean high-end compatibility to the OS.

The graphics card is an nVidia and the drivers are from nVidia. The network is Realtek and the drivers are from Realtek. Have to believe that they know a thing or two about their products. Did you see my statement about Toshiba's support of devices 3 months after they go into production? I stopped relying on Toshiba a long time ago for drivers, or support of any kind. Their website is a black hole of frustration

I have a few years old Toshiba Qosmio (Very high end) that came with Vista. After upgrading to Win 7 I had absolutely no problem with all the drives that I could find on the Toshiba's web page easily. So I have to disagree with you on this based on my experience or may be they treat their different class products differently.

I don't have this exact laptop but I do have a 17" Toshiba Satellite and I absolutely love it. I run numerous excel and word files at once, flipping between them and imaging software and it doesn't miss a beat. Don't know about gaming, etc. but for a durable workhorse it's fantastic.

Intel integrated graphics is still inferior. Stick to nVidia or AMD ATI Radeon graphics.
Not a great deal for those who need good performing graphics in a laptop.

Prime Suspect wrote:Small drive, for this day and age, only 2 USB ports (no mention if it's USB2 or USB3), one of which would have to be used to compensate for the lack of bluetooth.

The price is good, but once you replace the drive with a .5T or better, and add in the missing 4GB of memory that it should have shipped with, it's suddenly not all that great. And no Blu-ray? What's up with that?

Do you have any idea how few laptops have Blu Ray drive? Seriously? You sound shocked it doesn't have it.

Answer. About 10 percent. Maybe less. Out of 564 on BestBuy.com, 47 do. Similar numbers on Newegg, etc.

Not in time for Christmas? Mine shipped via FedEx, tracking number says it's arriving Thursday.

Thanks, Woot!

Wife just called to tell me it arrived today! Holy cow Woot! Thank YOU!!!

Unknown, though, if the driver, tossed it up over the guardrail of the stairs, then ran...

I received the Toshiba laptop today, just in time for a christmas gift. The only issue is it did not come with a power supply. So for now it is just a big paper weight. Has anyone else had the power supply missing or are they shipped seperate from the laptop ?

Says my windows 7 is not genuine. Now what???

peaceetc wrote:My mom just got the C675-S7321 (slightly different version of the one Woot is selling), and it's a great laptop so far -- bright screen and it loads fast. The sound is horrible, though... sounds like it's one of those old transistor radios. I don't know if the one Woot is selling is the same.

I agree about the speakers, so I took my old BOSE speakers and hooked them up and it's awesome. Kept them out of the landfill and saved me money, too. This is a great little laptop, for sure and a good price. I'm a shopper, too, so I'm satisfied.

I have to say that the few things I've bought from Woot including this PC were easy to buy, easy to pay for, quick shipping, easy to track and just, well...too danged easy and that tempts me every time I see a new woot item. It's just a "wootiful" thing! Snif. I just had to say it. Thank you, woot folks.

I received my Toshiba laptop on the 21st. Nice, fast shipping! Problem is after I opened it the power cord that comes with it has 3 plugs that are supposed to plug into the converter. The converter has a receptacle that allows only 2 plugs. luckily I was able to use a power cord from another laptop but this is a temporary solution as I will need that power cord for the other one. How do I get the proper power cord?

ThunderThighs wrote:Start with Toshiba as they'll have access to the parts to send you and you have a 90-day warranty through them. If you have any problems along the way, contact service@woot.com for assistance.

I contacted Toshiba about my missing power supply and they told me I had to get it through Woot, since they sold it. After I complained that, they were the ones that packed it and shipped it without the power supply and they should be the ones to replace it, they agreed to send me one as a courtesy.
What a bunch of jerks, thanks for doing me a favor

Mine arrived on Thursday. Have it up and running Gentoo. Really nice.

The one thing I really don't get, though, is the onboard NIC. It's got a Realtek 8169 chip in it...The 8169 is a gigabit chip, so it's bizarre that it only runs at 100Mb/s.

I very much like the BIOS option for turning on the laptop when the screen opens. That's going to be very convenient.

The only real problem I foresee is the screen hinge. It's not very stiff as it is, and I expect a few months' use will make it very loose indeed. Nothing I think I won't be able to figure out how to fix by the time it becomes a problem, though.

Bought this for Christmas... had a worm on the hard drive. Cost me $160 from Microsoft Support to take it off, and that was with Norton and AVG on the computer. Yeah, got a good price, but paid for it in the end. First time Woot gave me a lemon.

Cautionary Tale....
T
his was supposed to be a great Christmas gift and a surprise. Woot was good we got it before xmas. Our software engineer son bought this for his accountant father. It's murder to surprise a Dad, so it was great! Everyone was happy!

Pause happiness....

Anyway, after several hours on the phone with Toshiba service the day after Xmas..hours on the phone maybe a bad graphics card? then we find out we can't take it locally it's a BENCH REPAIR we need a BOX send to us for $25 prepaid shipping...here it is 1-2-2012 and we have no BOX. Way to burn up the 90 day warranty Toshiba..this isn't even started a week after Christmas.

!!! I know 3 is excessive but !!!

We will accept any possible help.

DennisWKam wrote:Oh no! Please email us at service@woot.com and we can try to help you out. Be sure to provide the order number.

Thank you!

I sent the information you requested just now.

Our son, who buys much Woot stuff, has never had to return anything at all. We didn't know what to do.

Kathleen

khateyes wrote:Thank you!

I sent the information you requested just now.

Our son, who buys much Woot stuff, has never had to return anything at all. We didn't know what to do.

Kathleen

We received a que number this same day by auto e-mail but have not heard anything more.. We have not received the prepaid $25, box from Toshiba either. We don't know what the next step is. Will we hear from Woot soon?

Thanks, K

ThunderThighs wrote:Did you email service@woot.com so they could assist you? If so, check your spam/junk folders for a reply as they often get lost there. If you don't find one, go ahead and email again and I'll send an email from this end too.

I did and got this automated reply below:

This is what I got back but nothing more after this 1-4-2012:


"Your email to Woot Member Services has been received. This is an automated reply.

Your request has been assigned Case # W-1008541-QTR7.

As you might expect, we receive a fairly large volume of emails. This reply is sent from our case assignment system to indicate your position in the queue has been reserved. Our staff works Monday through Friday during normal business hours in an effort to keep response times under 24 hours. However, on weekends, response times will be delayed until the start of the work week as our staff is not in the office. Please be confident that we will respond and resolve your issue in a timely and efficient manner."

ThunderThighs wrote:Did you email service@woot.com so they could assist you? If so, check your spam/junk folders for a reply as they often get lost there. If you don't find one, go ahead and email again and I'll send an email from this end too.

Your order for 1 Toshiba Dual-Core Satellite Laptop with 17.3” HD+ TruBrite LED Display on 12/18/2011 has been recently shipped via FEDEX.

Your tracking number is: 173524588087017.
Tracking Link: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?language=english&cntry_code=us&tracknumbers=173524588087017

* Please note that it may take up to 24 to 48 hours for tracking information to be available from the shipping company.


Your order may contain multiple packages that arrive on different days. If you don't receive your entire order at the same time, please wait a couple of days after you receive your first package before contacting us at service@woot.com.


For future reference, your order number is: 36175770.

This is the order Number 36175770. I don't think this is the same number that was on the box. My son B Collins purchased this for his father R Collins.

Please let us know what is going on?

Thanks, K Collins

---

I think I may have sent the invoice number on 1-4-2012 all I had was the label on the box to go by and the invoice # listed as reference.

This number 361757770 is the correct invoice number.

ThunderThighs wrote:Did you email service@woot.com so they could assist you? If so, check your spam/junk folders for a reply as they often get lost there. If you don't find one, go ahead and email again and I'll send an email from this end too.

Thank you for your help. K

This is a terrible laptop. I have spent more time and $$ trying to get it to work. I think I received a lemon and wanted a peach.

Has anyone tried replacing the keyboard with a back-lit one off of ebay?