Just received a laptop computer as payment for replacing a motherboard on another laptop. The laptop I received as payment is a Toshiba A75 S2112 Satellite.
CPU PSN : Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3)
CPUID : F.4.1 / Extended : F.4
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 16 KB – L2 : 1024 KB
Core : Prescott (90 nm) / Stepping : E0
MB Model : EDW10
NB : ATI RS300/RS300M rev 02
SB : ATI SB200 rev 00
DirectX Version : 9.0c
RAM : 448 MB
RAM Speed : Unknown (Unknown) @ N/A
Rundown
Goods
Very nice looking. Keys move fast. Screen is very shiny. Images look clear and crisp. The on board memory and yes I do mean “on board”, the memory is actually part of the motherboard. There is one slot for an upgrade stick. Hard drive is quite though you feel it spin up for sure. There are two fans under the motherboard and a large copper heat sink. Volume knob on the right side. A media button on the left (can assign it to any .exe). Two speakers in the front, they function well with no cracking noises. Latch lock works flawlessly. At times the computer is super fast. DVD burner. good solid housing. Battery works and charges up within just minutes. Built in WIFI is strong and has not failed once. 3 usb 2.0 ports 1 lan port and one modem connection. All lights function. Plenty of bundled software, came with Microsoft Office, tons of editing software like video and image (I’m still going to download and use GIMP it’s what I am used to)
Bads
When I got the laptop, the power button was inside the housing rattling around. Line going up the screen on the left. Some times the computer slows way down. Over heating despite the dual fan and large heatsink.If laptop is set on a table while running it will shut off in a blink in less than 20 minutes. Battery about 4 hours as long as I keep airflow unobstructed. There are many old posts on this 5 year old computer talking about solder failure due to overheating.
Fixes
Got the power button to stay on by use of a Soldering iron and a pen cap.
Worked to repair the overheating issue cleaned fan and heatsink pulled out half a wig of hair, dust and funk. (fail) Still crashes when sitting on a table.
Screen having a line up the left if I push on the screen, sometimes the line goes away. Someone showed me how but i kind of didn’t start listening until I saw it work. So I have to go back and re-ask. If I can get it to fix by Doing so, then I will locate the issue better and solve it.
For the work I did on the other computer and the fact this thing actually runs ( This post is being done on the Toshiba), is a great factor in this review. It’s like a free computer . I spent seven hours on that other computer. She spent $100 on this computer. Who got the better deal ?
Score
I give this laptop – notebook a
7/10