same Toshiba problem recurring; defective model?
Submitted by mattsoy on Fri, 03/07/2008 - 17:58.
I also have never had this problem with my small-screen Toshiba Satellite U205, Marty, even though it runs exactly the same software and same design features as the large-screen Satellite A215 version.
Yet the same shutdown happened again last night while I was in the midst of dictating something on an Internet page. I remember that my final commands was "move down 20" though that doesn't sound like a magical shutdown command -- and the same command has no deleterious effects on my small-screen model. In any case, to assure the computer wasn't misrecognizing my Dragon commands, I took the laborious precaution of retraining a new user, with all the dictation that entails.
I've checked the power settings, which are simply the default "balanced" options. This screensaver and sleep directions are standard and work the same on both computers. Only one thing struck me. When you visit a new site, the trend micro/spy sweeper ware that comes with both these computers flashes up a caution screen which prompts you to allow or disallow the connection. This annoying feature freezes Dragon so the choice must be made by hand. Shortly afterwards, the shutdown occurred. But this again is something that's built into both computers, so I doubt it's the cause of my problem.
As I said, this is the second Satellite A215 from Best Buy that performs in this strange way. Is it possible they have a defective batch?
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Is your hypothesis that the
Is your hypothesis that the machine is defective? If so, you need to think of a way to test it. If its purely hardware, then it shouldn't matter what software is running -- it will spontaneously and randomly shut down.
OTOH, if it ONLY shuts down when certain software is running, then its likely to be a software problem.
To test that the trend micro/spy sweeper stuff is causing the shut down, you should be able to more or less reliably cause the problem by running this software and visiting new sites.
Try running it for a few days without going online to see if you can reproduce the problem, or if it never shows up.
To me defective hardware seems like the most likely problem, and even that should be testable. The most likely suspects would be defective memory or hard drive. You can get software that exercises each system.
MS used to have a memory tester, but docmemory is very good too: http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/docinfo.asp
For the hard drive, the drive's manufacturer will have diagnostic software you can download. The drive's name should show up in Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager | Disk Drives -- at least that's where it is in WXP. If you're in Vista, I' don't know the route/location.
Good luck!
Bruce
Having slept a bit, my
Having slept a bit, my second take is just to take the machine back and complain that it spontaneously and randomly shuts down. Ask for a replacement. It makes no sense for you to waste your time diagnosing the problem for them.
Bruce
Hmm... This is odd. I have a
Hmm... This is odd. I have a friend that also has a Toshiba laptop and has had something similar happening. He doesn't use S/R at all and it is about 4 years old or so. Don't know the model yet.
He was using it and something came up and said "Spyware {something}" then it said it was hibernating.
He can no longer get it to boot up. Power on it starts to spin up then spins back down and goes off.
Wonder if it's a correlation with your problem? Don't recall him ever mentioning a problem before though.