Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite 1805-S254 Laptop(1-GHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This computer has performed up to my expectations and, in my opinion, it's the best value on the market now. One word of caution though, it's HEAVY. It's not really something you want to carry around for a long time.

I kick myself every time I try to use this worthless piece of frustration. I hate it. It shuts down all the time. The sound card doesn't work. Half the time, when it boots up, the screen is black. Keep rebooting, and eventually, it will display and image. I hate it. I hate Toshiba products. I will never ever buy another one. And, of course, all this started immediately after it was out of warranty.

Toshiba Satellite 1805-S254 is a terrible computer. I bought from Amazon.com last December (2001),the DVD driver did not work when I received.The problem was that I could not read the contents of a CD. After being serviced by Toshiba, the problem was solved partly, but I still can not read the CD contents when I log on as a normal user. After 3 months, the system board stopped working, and the service person told me I had to wait weeks to get a new board. I am still waiting, and I do not know when I can get one. If you want to buy a laptop computer, be cautious of this model.

I have owned the Toshiba 1805-S254 for 3 years now. it has been a pretty reliable computer overall. No problems with the DVD or issues with ports of any kind. If I can fault this computer, it would be the ever persistent overheating issue everyone mentions. My laptop started to overheat 3 months or so after I purchased it. It is indeed a design flaw, and I believe it to be mainly the cause of dust. Dust gets stuck in the fan screen, and ends up overheating the laptop. While the problem is persistent, it can be helped by a) having your laptop slightly elevated so that it does not have dirrect contact with the desk, and b) blowing air into the fan opening to clear at least some of the dust out.
The only other I have had is a battery issue. Mainly, that the battery is pretty much dead and takes very little charge. (it lasted perfectly 2 years) I can't say however that this is a product fault since most batteries are expected to last 2-3 years.

It seems that toshiba manufactured these machines with a known defect in which the CPU needs to be throttled back in order to keep the laptop from shutting down due to over heating. The cause of this issue is that Toshiba used a desktop CPU (Intel Pentium III) instead of a mobile CPU in these laptops. Toshiba's solution to the problem is a BIOS update which effectively throttles back the clock speed of the CPU and causes some issues with DVD playback. This defect is also present in the satellite 5505 series laptops.

I finally understand the low price it had, it worked fine the first week, but then I tried to put a cd on, it wont let me explore the contents. Then this week it started to shut down without saying anything (I use it always plugged, so it wasnt the battery). Ive been checking the forum of the toshiba support and all I see is tons of people having the same problems as I am. My advice is: pay some more and get a better machine.

Read of the many complaints of random shutdown and wanted to share my experience with same. I contacted Toshiba Support and was given the fix within a couple of minutes. Seems that the BIOS needed to be updated from Version 1.5 to Version 1.8. I downloaded the file to a floppy disc, loaded it and haven't had a problem since. Other than that I have been pleased with the performance over the past year.

Toshiba just makes a great laptop. There are many things that make this one great. But, before I mention them, let me say that if you every need to reinstall or upgrade the operating system, make sure that you download and install the latest BIOS update. It seems that without the update, the machine's ACPI shuts the power off randomly.
Besides that, I like the application shortcut keys above the keyboard that you can program to execute your most frequently used programs. The case has a great fan slot on the left side that keeps the inside air circulating out. I like the video out jack on the back. I use it to slideshow digital pictures on my TV. I like the feel of the keyboard and that panel to the RAM slot is on the bottom of the laptop and not under the keyboard on this model. The screen is bright and easy to see from all angles with 14.1 inch active-matrix display.

The drawbacks that I've noticed in comparing it to my last Toshiba Satellite are that this one has the DVDROM drive on the right side where I use my external USB mouse. I wish it was on the left, or in the front with the floppy like my last Satellite. The modem jack is also on the right side and creates another obstruction for us who are right handed mouse users. The speakers are not as good as my last, and I haven't found a way to adjust the brightness and contrast of the screen. There may be a way but I haven't read of one yet. Lastly the Cyber Aladdin video card in this model does not have a compatible driver for Linux, even though the video card vendor says it is compatible with Linux on their web site. I've looked everywhere and cannot find one.

Despite the drawbacks, I really like this laptop all-in-all. I think it is a very fair price for such all around quality. I am another satisfied customer.

Hello fellow toshiba victims,

I have experienced the same problems, random shutting off and MASSIVE slowdown of speed over 2 years. I have the toshiba 1900.

I have solutions to both problems.

A) The random shutdown problem, I've discovered, is actually something that only happens when the cooling fan is covered underneath the computer. It will only shut down randomly when it is on your lap, on a bed, or something that block it off. If you leave your computer on your desk (flat surface) with nothing blocking the underside of your computer, it will NOT randomly shut down. DO NOT UPDATE YOUR BIOS, it will only slow your processor down. Toshiba is aware of this problem and their only solution is to slow you down. Don't do it.

B) My computer slowed down to the point where I wanted to throw it out the window. Choices, 1) Do I throw it out the window and drop $2K on a new laptop 2) Do I strategically upgrade?

What you need to do is spend $300 and buy 512MB more of DDR RAM and then go ahead and buy a new harddrive, 7200 RPM (most are 5400 standard). Over time, computers slow down mainly because your harddrive starts corrupting slowly and subtly. A new harddrive and ram, and trust me on this (luxterg at hotmail dot com if it doesn't work)your computer will run better than new.

I wish you all the best of luck, despite toshiba being a useless useless useless company, there are solutions.

Kindly
Lucky G.

I believe I bought it in 2001 at Staples. Since the, the problems with laptop include frequent shutdown due to overheat, bad hardrive, dead battery and LCD with dead pixels. This will be the last product I buy from Toshiba.