Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite L645-S4026 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black)

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

 

 

I currently own 5 Toshiba laptops and one Gateway laptop. This L 645 is the absolute loudest laptop fan I own. The other Toshibas have outstanding quality and are utmost perfect build. This L645 is loud, and Toshiba knows it. I do not have a "bad laptop", they are all loud secondary to a software glitch that has the fan on high even when the CPU is not overheating. Most laptop fans rarely run on actual high, and it has nothing to do with Win & and AMD CPU (both known to run hot) as you can run the Toshiba PCHealth freeware on the new laptop and see low CPU temps and high (90+%) fan speeds.

Although it does not affect function, it is too loud to use in most quiet settings: classroom, office, bedroom, airplanes, etc. This thing sounds like it's trying to lift off from the desk!

I did more research than just the Best Buy comments after I bought the computer, and find that this is a known issue with all L645 computers. It is well delineated on the official Toshiba Forums, and I urge you to check there as I should have done (I had faith in Toshiba from all my past purchases). You will see dozens of owners all lamenting the high fan noise. They are, en mass, pleading with Toshiba for a software fix.

And the fan doesn't stop. Boot up, and within 10 minutes it starts and it will not shut down. Some suggest upgrade to latest BIOS, which I did (v 1.7), no difference. Forum members are begging Toshiba to please have a software patch--none are planned. I called Toshiba Tech support, and they have no solution, but one of them did admit that this is a common complaint of the L645 models. Again, not a fan issue, not a CPU issue, but a software issue with overrunning the fan. I even tried online software fan controls like Speedfan.com. No benefit. Mine, which I have tried to fix or tolerate for one week, is now being returned. I know Toshibas are quieter than this as I own many for work and home (the quietest is the L505, by the way). This laptop is poor, and the fan noise is a dealbreaker. I suggest not buying it.

I bought this Toshiba Satelite L645 last fall and so far it has worked great. The speakers are a little bit low and you will need headphones or external speakers for better performance. Also, even though mine has 4 GB ram memory, it is a bit slow and does not handle well the face recognition and other Toshiba management software that comes installed with it. Before I got rid of all that junk, the computer froze on me several times. Other than that, it is a good value for the money. They keyboard feels sturdy and the internal mouse works well.

I purchased the laptop for my work on some grad-school material. From day one, the computer keyboard and mouse pad felt unbearable to use and extremely uncomfortable. The keyboard buttons are almost flat on the surface and you need to 'extend' your fingers to reach them. The touch pad is very small and adds to the discomfort. With time, I was able to start typing and the computer became a little more usable. However, after moderate daily use, my right hand has started hurting very much. I had to stop using the computer, and now I have attached a wired keyboard to the computer instead. It really is terrible and I'm shocked that Toshiba has such trouble producing an ergonomically functional product. (I have had laptops for several years now, and have never experienced a problem to this extent)

Other than this issue, which is really preventing me from using the computer, everything works fine. The speakers are poorer quality than my previous laptop, but this computer is not designed with multimedia in mind. My edition came with Windows 7 and it is working flawlessly, and for most of the time, I had not experienced any significant crashes. Windows loads up very quickly compared to my previous laptop, which was running on Vista.

Overall, do not buy this computer until you try it out for at least several days to see if you can actually use it comfortably and without injuring your hands

great laptop. the speakers are not good ,very low volume and sound but at the end you always end up buying external speakers if you dont already own.. its normal for laptops.
the only negative are the speakers. but 99.9% this laptop is GREAT. great monitor, operating system, processor, ram, speed, start up speed, price, fan noise (very very low), heat (very low), webcam+ mic, N wireless protocol (speed!). i am very happy i got this Toshiba. great brand. Upgraded my disposable HP (it died, hp pavillion sucks) for a real laptop like this one. 14 inch is a great size. I totally recommend this laptop for all of the above, the price and brand. i use it for work.

Got this as a gift for my son...........he loves it and it seems to be easy learning for a newby. We are using the Skype feature to keep in contact....great!!!!! I would recommend this to anyone.

This is a really good laptop for the price! I am satisfied with this purchase! Its fast and has a lot of room for anything you need! The only bad thing about this is the battery life, unless you put it in eco mode, which I do most of the time!