A Powerful Laptop With a Few MAJOR Issues
Written: Aug 23 '04 (Updated Feb 06 '06)
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Pros: It has everything! This is a true desktop replacement!
Cons: Huge, Heavy, Poor battery life, Major CD drive issues.
The Bottom Line: I still love this laptop despite its problems!
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| islandalex's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 (PS192U-014R8V) PC Not... |
A Powerful Laptop With a Few MAJOR Issues
Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303
If you have a faulty Toshiba, read this!!!
While this is an old laptop by most standards, it can still keep up with today’s digital needs. I have had this computer for almost 2 years now. It has run almost perfectly, but has had one HUGE problem. I will get to that at the end of the review!
I am not a computer whiz, but I do play around on them a lot. Therefore, I might ramble on a bit, I’m sorry!
The Laptop
The most striking thing about this laptop is its size. It is very heavy, and rather bulky. At first I was turned off, but then I looked deeper into what it had to offer.
The laptop is a nice blue color, rather then boring black. It is not the usual flat rectangle, but rather a rectangle that bulges at the sides, front, and top. Yes, the back of the screen is curved.
When it is closed you can see the impressive silver speakers at the base of the screen. They fit in smoothly when the laptop is closed, and stick out when it is open.
On the front there are a few buttons, and a display that lights up. The buttons are “mode” “fast forward” “rewind” “play/pause” and “stop”. This means that you can play music while the computer is closed. (More later)
On the little display are your typical icons. There is one for the battery indicator, one for the charger, one for the power, a CPU indicator, an infrared indicator, a CD/floppy drive indicator, and music indicators for digital or CD.
In the back are the standard ports. There is a PS2 mouse port, serial ports for a printer and monitor, two USB ports, and the infrared connection.
On the right side there is a DVD/CD-RW drive and a standard floppy drive. There is also a firewire port.
On the left side is the volume control and the earphone and mic jacks.
Lets open it up shall we? A simple slider unlocks it. The first thing I noticed was the size of the keyboard. It is not the standard laptop size. It is a little bit larger. There is a large area on either side of the touch pad to rest your wrists.
There is a power button and a little knob to tell the computer if the screen is open or not.
The screen is large and sturdy. The display is excellent! But more later! A bonus with this display is that there is no warping of the screen when you change the angle. (A complaint I have with many other laptops, where I feel as if I am doing damage.)
Features
This laptop caught my eye because of all the impressive features. Most of my computing is for graphics and I use Photoshop on a daily basis.
This laptop has an Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz processor and 512MB RAM. It was (ok, still is) the fastest computer I have ever owned. No wait, make that used! Since then I have used a Sony Vaio and a Dell, both from 2004, and both with Intel Centrino Technology. Using graphics, this computer kicked but!
It has a Mobility Radeon graphics card, which I believe is what gives it its great performance.
The hard drive is a little small, at only 40 gigs , but unlike many other laptops they don’t round up the last 7 gigs. The useable space on the drive is a happy 37.2 gigs. I really wish it were larger! For a breakdown of my junk:
I have 10 gigs of just pictures from my Nikon 4300 digital camera.
I have 10 gigs of graphics from Adobe Photoshop CS .
There are about 6.5 gigs of program, files.
I thought 40 gigs was huge, but as you can see, it is really easy to use up! I also like to keep at least 5 gigs free for Photoshop scratch disks and DVD burning.
The CD player (Or digital music player.) can be used while the computer is closed. It is a very nice feature if you like to listen to music, but don’t want to leave your computer open and vulnerable. There is an exterior volume control, and ports for earphones and a mike. The buttons used to control the music work for either CD’s, or in Windows Media Player.
Operating System and Software
The computer came with WindowsXP Home Edition and Microsoft Works. The XP has worked well so far, and I have had few glitches and crashes. The Works is useless, and was quickly replaced!
It also came with Norton SystemWorks 2003.
The software pack was not impressive, but it worked for the first few weeks until I was able to get better software. Unfortunately there were no CD’s, so I am screwed if one application fails.
Peformance
Startup
The computer starts-up faster then the Dell and the Vaio. It takes long enough for me to get everything else setup. (Power cable, Internet, Wacom Tablet)
Loading Applications
After each update for Windows, Photoshop is painfully slow to load. However, it loads in about a minute normally. It has no problem handling large Photoshop files, although it is noticeably slower on filed over 130MB.
Networking
Networking is easy and quick. I always connect via a cable, and I have never tried wireless on this machine. I plan to buy a wireless card to fit into one of the two PCMCIA slots. It sometimes has problems finding other computers, but I believe that is a network issue and not my laptop.
Battery
Battery live is dismal, to say the least. However, for the power this machine has, I am not surprised! I can’t use Photoshop at full power for more than an hour, and it barely lasts a DVD on medium power.
Speakers
The speakers are the loudest I have heard on any laptop. They are also very good quality. I wouldn’t even thing of buying external ones!
Issues
Overheating
It is very important to keep the area around this laptop clear. It overheats quite easily. When it does, it just shuts down, so I loose all my work. It also gets too hot to use as a true “lap-top” for too long.
The charger provided also gets very hot, so I always keep it far away! (It has a nice long cord!)
Always remember the standard advice… Keep the area around the laptop clear! Stacks of papers are, unfortunately, very good insulators.
USB Ports
Two might be enough for some, but not for me. I had to buy a powered USB hub so I could use all of my peripherals at once. It is actually nicer, because now I only have one USB cable to unplug before I go to work. The down side is, because it is such an old computer, it still uses USB1.1. USB2 devices still work, just slower than the promised speed.
Durability
The computer seems strong, but over 3 years later cracks have started to develop in the sides of the case holding the screen. It still works, but has made me start to take much better care of it! (No more stuffing it into a bag with some books!)
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The BIG Problem!
About three months after I bought the laptop the CD drive started acting up. By nine months it would not work at all. The computer could recognize the drive, but it could not spin and read the disk.
I went to a few forums to see if there were any similar problems, and the answers were all the same, you need a new drive! Toshiba told me the same thing, and that I needed to take it into a service center to take a look.
As I live on an island, I was only able to send it up to the US a few months later. Unfortunately, this meant that my warranty was over. Service centers will not mail computers internationally without first wiping them clean, so I had to wait until I knew someone traveling to the states.
My friend took it into a service center (CompUSA in Ft Lauderdale) for me, and asked them to take a look. They also said I needed a new drive. Darn!!! I got a quote and almost wanted to throw up! For a new DVD/CD-RW I was going to have to pay $600!!! (That was the cheapest one!) They also said it would take $170 to fix it. They didn’t offer any refurbished drives, nor any reason why it broke.
I decided that was WAY too much money and decided to purchase an external Sony DVD+/-RW combo drive that was the best they had to offer. This was under $300!!!
I got my computer back 6 months later, very depressed that I no longer had a portable fully functional computer. It was acting up even more than I had remembered so I decided to run a few diagnostic tests with some pro help. (Hijack This, etc.) Well, there was plenty of spyware apps on my computer. After I removed all the “bad stuff” the computer worked perfectly. What is more, the CD drive has had no problems since then.
It is odd that the spyware only effected this particular drive! I have had two other laptops with the same drive issues “fixed” the same way!
I hope no one else has had this type of problem, but if you do, remember to argue with the service center who just wants to overcharge you!
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Overall
Overall, I am very happy with this laptop, I just hope it doesn’t start giving me problems again!
I still live this laptop despite its problems!
The rest of my setup:
Home:
17” Gateway Monitor
HP DeskJet 5550
HP DeskJet 1280 A3 Printer
ZiO! USB Card Reader
External Sony DVD +/- RW
Freecom Classic SL 250 GB External Hard Drive
Zonet 4 Port USB2 Hub
D-Link AirPlus Wireless PCMCIA Adaptor
ASUS 802.11g Wireless Router
Work:
HP DeskJet 1220c
6 in 1 Card Reader
Always:
Wacom 4x5 USB Tablet
SimpleTech 128 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1800
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
islandalex
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Location: Neth. Antilles
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
I'm an island girl. I love traveling, gadgets,and splurging on beauty products!
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