detlef Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 It's about 5 years old, slow and buggy as hell, and has now taken to shutting down repeatedly even when plugged in. The battery is also shight, so don't even think about using it unplugged. She now lives on my new Mac and pines for her own when she's not trying to be "more sensible" and insisting that she should just have the Toshiba repaired rather than forking over the jack for a Mac laptop. She's heading out of town this week for a few days and was thinking of buying her a new mac while she's gone. Now, as those of you who are married know, buying somewhat lavish gifts for your spouse needs to be done with care. After all, it's her money as well. I suppose what I'm looking for from you guys is assurance that her Toshiba has lived out it's life and repairing it is a waste of money. That way, if she protests, I can tell her I looked into it and it would costs hundreds of dollars and still be a POS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Double Agent Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I'm not sure there is anything to repair on the laptop. Sounds like it needs a new battery and serious cleaning...if not a complete reinstall of windows. If it does really need a repair, I'd just buy a new laptop if it were me. A 5 year old laptop is very out dated and probably not worth the repair. Can you back up your files and restore the computer to it's original condition? That might fix the restart problem. If it doesn't, then who knows what's causing it. Could be anything really. FWIW, I purchased a new Toshiba a month ago and I love it. Best Buy had it for $600 with a MSRP of $900. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazinib1 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I agree. Don't waste your money on a repairing an outdated system. Get the wife a nice, new, shiny laptop. Backup her files, do a 32 whip hard drive clean and donate it to your local grade/middle/high school. That will please her to no end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 it's 5 years old, of course it's a POS. the obvious option you're leaving out here is getting her a new dell or something for half the price of a mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyr0802 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 If she likes yours so much why not let her have it and get yourself the shiny new one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 (edited) it's 5 years old, of course it's a POS. the obvious option you're leaving out here is getting her a new dell or something for half the price of a mac. This Toshiba is the only non-Mac she/we has ever owned. I tried to talk her out of it but she worked with PCs at work and thought she'd prefer it. What she failed to realize is that she also has an IT dept. working full time to make sure they were all working well and that, at the the time, both our Mac tower and lap top were very, very outdated themselves. Thus, she was comparing top of the line PCs with a staff dedicated to making sure they ran well to 4-5 year old Macs that were cluttered and not running remotely as well as they could. She's regretted going PC ever since. Especially now that I got my new iMac a few months ago. If she likes yours so much why not let her have it and get yourself the shiny new one? 'Cause mine is pretty new as well (latest model) and I'm not as big a fan of lap tops. Edited December 8, 2008 by detlef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 On the plus side for getting her a new Mac, studies have shown a strong correlation between a person's use of a Mac and the person's proclivity to give BJ's. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 The new Coleco Adams are hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 If she likes yours so much why not let her have it and get yourself the shiny new one? is it sad that I have been considering doing this. Were at the point of replacing the desktop soon probably (got hit with spyware recently as well as having some issues with random shut downs and a monitor issue, so going to follow all the advice in that spyware thread to try clean the machine up), but, I may just go the route of setting my laptop up as the primary home machine and get myself a new laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
policyvote Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Does SHE want a Mac? My wife was desperate for one, got an iMac G5 a few years ago, and still loves it. She mostly uses her computer for photo editing and web/email, so it made a lot of sense (of course now I am getting the "where's my iPhone?"). IMO it's hard to justify the premium for a Mac unless there's a semi-compelling reason. I agree with many others here: if she's more likely to be mad that money was spent "frivolously", then instead of spending a couple hundred to spruce up a dinosaur, spend $599 and get a nice new machine. Peace policy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 It's about 5 years old, slow and buggy as hell, and has now taken to shutting down repeatedly even when plugged in. The battery is also shight, so don't even think about using it unplugged. She now lives on my new Mac and pines for her own when she's not trying to be "more sensible" and insisting that she should just have the Toshiba repaired rather than forking over the jack for a Mac laptop. She's heading out of town this week for a few days and was thinking of buying her a new mac while she's gone. Now, as those of you who are married know, buying somewhat lavish gifts for your spouse needs to be done with care. After all, it's her money as well. I suppose what I'm looking for from you guys is assurance that her Toshiba has lived out it's life and repairing it is a waste of money. That way, if she protests, I can tell her I looked into it and it would costs hundreds of dollars and still be a POS. It is funny you started this topic. My Toshiba laptop would not charge starting yesterday. It is about 3-4 years old and now I am down to almost no battery and it will not run when plugged in and the battery will not charge. I am kinda screwed if it powers down because there is no way to power it up again??? I did some Googling yesterday and it seems that Toshiba has some serious power/battery issues. I did read on one of them that they sent it back to Toshiba and got it back in about a week and it came back working as good as new. I am thinking of calling and checking it out and will let you know what I find out. My laptop is a Toshiba Sateliite M115 if that makes any difference to anyone??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted December 8, 2008 Author Share Posted December 8, 2008 Does SHE want a Mac? My wife was desperate for one, got an iMac G5 a few years ago, and still loves it. She mostly uses her computer for photo editing and web/email, so it made a lot of sense (of course now I am getting the "where's my iPhone?"). IMO it's hard to justify the premium for a Mac unless there's a semi-compelling reason. I agree with many others here: if she's more likely to be mad that money was spent "frivolously", then instead of spending a couple hundred to spruce up a dinosaur, spend $599 and get a nice new machine. Peace policy I can assure you that, as far as she's concerned, there's two options. One option is to fix her computer, one is to buy a new mac. Buying something else is not in play here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 It is about 3-4 years old and now I am down to almost no battery and it will not run when plugged in and the battery will not charge. Does the battery in your car last forever? Does the battery in your watch last forever? Does the battery in your cell phone last forever? Why do you expect your laptop battery to last forever? Best Buy has a nice deal on a dual core Compaq w/15.4" screen and all the goodies for $399. Cq50-215NR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Best Buy has a nice deal on a dual core Compaq w/15.4" screen and all the goodies for $399. Cq50-215NR Best Buy site shows this as $599.99 Do you have another link showing it as $399.99 or is it an in-store only price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I bought 7 here in store in Tulsa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Does the battery in your car last forever? Does the battery in your watch last forever? Does the battery in your cell phone last forever? Why do you expect your laptop battery to last forever? Best Buy has a nice deal on a dual core Compaq w/15.4" screen and all the goodies for $399. Cq50-215NR Should the laptop still run with the AC Adapter plugged in? Mine does not so I am nto sure it is the battery and not the cord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Should the laptop still run with the AC Adapter plugged in? Mine does not so I am nto sure it is the battery and not the cord. you know, I had a toshiba do the exact same thing. just one day it stopped getting power from the cord....still worked as long as the battery had a charge, now it's just dead. figured it was probably the cord/adapter, but might be some internal power stuff. it was 5 years old anyway so I just bought a new laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Should the laptop still run with the AC Adapter plugged in? Mine does not so I am nto sure it is the battery and not the cord. Yes, you should be able to remove the battery, and still run off the AC adapter. If it does not boot, are you getting any lights? If you are, then you are getting juice, could be something else major, like a dead mobo. (But it could also just be the AC joint where the cord plugs into the unit, see below. If you do not get lights, and if the AC plug is loose where it goes into the laptop, those joints are very common to come loose, break. Especially on Toshiba, HP/compaq laptops. This can be fixed, for about $100-$150. This place will do a very good job: http://www.computekinc.us/ It could also be the cord, but that is very unlikely, unless you notice torn/damaged wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Yes, you should be able to remove the battery, and still run off the AC adapter. If it does not boot, are you getting any lights? If you are, then you are getting juice, could be something else major, like a dead mobo. (But it could also just be the AC joint where the cord plugs into the unit, see below. If you do not get lights, and if the AC plug is loose where it goes into the laptop, those joints are very common to come loose, break. Especially on Toshiba, HP/compaq laptops. This can be fixed, for about $100-$150. This place will do a very good job: http://www.computekinc.us/ It could also be the cord, but that is very unlikely, unless you notice torn/damaged wires. Just brought it in to a local service place and they tested the cord and it was dead and sold me a new cord and it is now working fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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