I bought a Toshiba Satellite special edition a305 in the spring of 2009 from Best Buy. I was extremely happy with it for almost exactly one year. Then one day I went to turn the laptop on, and it simply did not respond. No flashing light telling me the battery NEEDED to be charged – nothing. I thought maybe it had gone completely dead- so I plugged it in. Usually when I would do this, a light would come on telling me that the laptop was charging. Nothing came on.

I brought my laptop in to the computer repair shop (that I actually worked at) the next day. They ran it through all of the basic tests. Hard drive, memory, battery, power supply, power brick, etc. Everything checked out in working condition. Thankfully, I had purchased the extended 3 yr. warranty from Best Buy along with the laptop when I bought it. I brought it into Best Buy and they ran all the same tests while I was there, with the same results. They told me that they needed to send it off to their office in Kentucky. I agreed- and it got sent away. 3-4 weeks later, it came back to my local Best Buy store. I was very anxious to see what the issue was. When the geek squad man was handing it over to me, he read off the notes that the KY office had made. He told me that they were “unable to duplicate the issue” and that the unit had powered on and off “100x” with no issues. He was puzzled b/c he was the agent who helped me check it in. We pushed the power button, and sure enough- it powered right up. I was very surprised- but way too happy to have my laptop back to complain or ask any further questions!

After that day, my laptop worked just fine. For approximately one month. Then, the same thing happened. There were no circumstances that would connect the first incident with the SECOND. I was using it for listening to music, surfing the internet- no gaming or any “stressful” applications or additions were made to the computer. It did not turn off in the middle of my using it. It was always after it had gone into sleep mode, or when it was shut down. The geek squad agent asked me many questions to try and figure out what had triggered the issue. We could come up with nothing, and the laptop was again sent to Kentucky.

Three weeks later, my laptop came back…with the same notes attached. “We were unable to duplicate the issue”. I couldn’t believe it! My laptop was again in perfect working condition. For approximately one month. I began to think that maybe it was an issue that had to do with monthly updates. I asked this question when I went back to the geek squad for the 3rd time. I had moved in the mean time, so I took it to my local Best Buy. I gave them the whole back story. They ran all the same tests…with- you guessed it – the same results. “Yeah- we will have to send this to our home office in Kentucky”. And so, my laptop made a 3rd trip. I bet you can guess what happened when I got it back. Yep. Same notes. They powered it on just fine- couldn’t find any problems. They even wrote down what my screen saver was so that I would know they weren’t just feeding me a line.

The new geek squad guy suggested that maybe it was the sleep mode that was causing the issue. He changed the settings so it would never sleep. I would just have to turn it off after I was done using it if I didn’t want it using electricity. This was a pain- but I gave it a try. This time, it lasted about a month and a half.
Here’s where my story gets weird. I put my laptop in my car in the morning on my way to work. - figuring I’d bring it in again after I was done for the day. It sat in the sun in the back of my car for 8 hours. When I brought it in to Best Buy at 5, it was pretty hot to the touch. When I brought it up to the counter and started filling out the paper work, the geek squad guy pushed the power button, and it turned on. I was shocked. Whenever my laptop would pull its usual not-turning-on-for-anything stunts, I would try and turn it on at least a dozen times just hoping that MAYBE it would magically work…and that had never worked. Now, here it was- working fine.

What changed? Nothing. Except for the fact that it sat in my hot car all day.

Now- I don’t know the exact number of times my laptop has shut off and not turned back on since that last time I brought it in- but trust me, its been a few. At least 4-5 times. When it happened again- I felt silly doing this- but I tried it anyway- I let it sit in my hot car for a few hours- and low and behold- it powered right on.

I’ve tried anything from letting it sit in my car- to putting it on a heat vent at home- to even putting it under my electric blanket. It makes NO SENSE. But I tell you- it works. Never fails.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LAPTOP!??!?!?

Any helpful input would be much appreciated. Any questions – just email me.email address deleted by Allan

Thanks for taking time to read my plea.

Sincerely,

One Frustrated Toshiba Owner.There is nothing wrong with your laptop.

They are designed to work that way!I do not think that Geek-9pm is being serious - (it's hard to tell sometimes) - but he is definitely wrong. Such a post seems to me quite unhelpful. Lindsey, do you live in a cold place? By the way, posting your email address is not encouraged here.

Laptops that are not specially designed for cold conditions ("ruggedized" models are usually better in low temperatures) are going to be OK in normal temperatures - around 50 to 95 degrees F (10 - 35 degrees C). Is it getting below this range? Maybe you could keep it in a wooly jacket when it is not switched on or on standby. The batteries don't like very low temperatures, so are you having the problem on AC power? I believe Kentucky is in "Dixie", and quite warm? You have a 3 year warranty and in my opinion you should be thinking of preparing a detailed description of the problem for a claim.


1) Never post your email address on a public forum unless you're anxious to be inundated by spam
2) Forums don't work by responding to email addresses. All responses remain on the forum for the benefit of allWhat  Salmon Trout sez is true. Including his remarks about my style.

There are some commercial interests that do not want your laptop to last much more than a year or two. There is a statistical study that shows consumer devices MAY fail a rate of about N%* per year. What they want is for that to not be a linear relationship.
I do not mean to say it is directly the manufactures. Others benefit by rapid failure rates. Some of this comes from the makers of small  critical parts. The capacitors. The  chips. The metal contacts. They deliberately use materials that will have an accelerated rate of failure after several months of use. This keeps the discrete component  market in a state of flux. This is not to the best interests of the consumer.

The remedy?   
Either learn to do your now repair work or buy with a good warranty.

* Where n is between 1 to 8. The actual numbers are kept secrect.
I agree with Salmon that you should seriously consider getting a warranty replacement.  I think you got a lemon. 

It's not as common as it used to be but during the manufacturing process if a solder joint is just slightly off it
can expand and contract, and cause intermittent problems kind of like you are describing.

And if you work at a computer shop, you know that's there's nothing harder to trouble shoot than an intermittent problem. Thanks for your reply Salmon Trout- I don't live in an extremely cold climate. The laptop has never been exposed to extremely cold temps. At Best Buy- and at the place I used to work- they tested the battery...and it checked out fine. Maybe something wouldn't show up even if it was wrong? I am wondering what I could do for a claim...I would like a replacement- but I have no way of proving whats happening to my laptop- since it decides to behave once it gets to KY. 

Geek-9PM
"The remedy?   
Either learn to do your now repair work or buy with a good warranty".

I did buy it with a good warranty. I know laptops aren't "designed" to last more than a year on average. This still doesn't help me. Your style reminds me of Nick Burns, your company's computer guy. "YOU'RE WELCOME".

One thing I didn't mention- maybe this could be related? I had to get a replacement power brick a while back- I probably had the laptop for a few months when the part of the power cord that plugs into the laptop became bent and no longer would charge the computer. I got a replacement straight from the factory- so I don't think they would have made a mistake...but I guess I don't want to rule anything out. It should also be noted that I didn't see any problems until after I had been using the replacement power brick for several months.

I just found this online...
"Cons: Toshiba Satellite A305 Motherboard problems stats after one year. The problem is not able to RESOLVE. we have to replace with new mother board which will cost around $100.

Summary: Toshiba Satellite A305 Motherboard crash in 1year 3 months. I was using only 2 to 3 hrs per day. I have to spend $400 to buy the motherboard. Instead i can spend $100 more and i will get a new laptop".

Anyone hear of anything like this?
Should I just save everything on my computer and drop it off a cliff? Send it in for a warranty claim? I'm ready.  Quote from: lindseykaye on November 02, 2010, 03:15:35 PM

I know laptops aren't "designed" to last more than a year on average.