Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite M45-S269 15.4" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 740 (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive)

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

 

 

I had my laptop for about 10 months before the hard drive inexplicably crashed on me. I would rate this a zero if I could, but the lowest is a 1. The service center Toshiba told me to have it repaired at couldn't identify any specific problems. They simply told me it was faulty and had to be replaced and none of my files were recoverable. The service center didn't even replace it with another hard drive of the same capacity. Toshiba won't take responsibility for helping me recover my files through another resource, reinstalling my software or reimbursing me for hundreds of dollars worth of music downloaded on my original hard drive... or, even worse, the countless and priceless pictures I had saved to my computer in the past year. I have yet to speak with anyone at Toshiba who has been able to help resolve any problems. No one in their customer relations is ever available to talk. I have been on hold waiting to speak with someone for hours!!! As a single mother whose livelihood depends on the use of a computer, this whole thing has left me beyond angry. Shame on Toshiba for building such undependable products and not standing behind them or taking responsibility when they break.

We bought this computer in August, and shortly after that it started acting up. We reinstalled all software, and re formatted the hard drive in an attempt to fix it, but it didn't help. Eventually we were told by Toshiba to take it to an authorized service repair shop. They changed the motherboard, system board, dvd combo drive, & battery. After we received the laptop back, the screen would go dark and dvd combo drive still doesn't work correctly. Now the laptop has been at the repair shop for 3 months and they are waiting for a small cable to fix the screen, which Toshiba has on back order indefinitely, and they refuse to find a resolution for my problem. I have talked to Toshiba customer relations over 20 times, and they will not help me. Today one of the cutomer relations agents, Alisha, hung up on me. Toshiba just tells me to wait for the part to come in, whenever that might be, even if it take 6 or 10 months. They refuse to replace my obviously defected laptop with a new one. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not buy a Toshiba product, they are horrible. Do a simple search on-line and you will find thousands of complaints including many class action suits again them.

I've had my Satellite M45 S269 for around 4 years now, and it's still ticking along. Of course a few things have gone wrong with it, but that's to be expected.

I've added an extra 512mb of RAM and that seemed to help things a lot. I'm no big gamer, but I do like to have several things on the go at once and the extra RAM really did help.

The problems I've had, have only really been minor things. The right speaker has gone, the headphone socket has busted (so you have to fiddle to get sound out of it), the power supply socket is also a bit temperamental and the battery has gone completely dead. The battery lasted about 2 years until needing replacement and only gave you the 3.5 hours they talked about in energy saving mode, and for minimal use. If you were watching a DVD, you would get around an hour.

All in all, I have got great use out of my M45 and would recommend it to people who are looking for a laptop for general use, not for gamers! It's a pretty sturdy laptop and should last you a while. I travel quite a bit and my M45 gets thrown all about the place (which is probably why those minor faults have occurred).

I gave it 4 out of 5 for being an all purpose laptop. If you're looking for longer battery life, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a gaming laptop, look elsewhere. Otherwise, this one's a good buy.

I've had my M45-S269 about 6 months now, and I'm quite satisfied with it. The build quality is above-average for the pricepoint, the full-size keyboard is well laid out and has a tight, positive feel, the display is big, crisp and bright, the Super MultiDrive is an excellent feature allowing reading from/writing to just about any optical media. Connectivity options abound, including Wireless 802.11 b/g (with excellent range and stability), BlueTooth, IrDA, 10/100 Ethernet, V.92 Modem w/hold, USB 2.0 x3, FireWire 400 x1, S-Video out, PCMCIA I/II x1, and a 6-way built-in memory card reader. Its ability to play media without booting is another real plus. Hardcore gamers should look elsewhere, but folks looking for a laptop to actually do work with likely will find the M45-S269 high on the short list.

On the negative side, nothing but standard, "what did you expect?" complaints; it runs hot in full-power mode, its a bit heavy for casual portability, the stated battery life is a bit optimistic, the speakers are typical laptop-quality (which is to say tinny and thin-sounding). All that said, however, nothing else out there with a comparable feature set is any better.

The included software bundle is on the typical bargain-notebook anemic side, but as I replaced just about everything with apps or versions of my own preference, that really wasn't a factor. The machine so far has handled everything I've thrown at it without a hiccup. Add a compact external hard drive, a portable printer, and a good set of headphones, and the M45-S269 is a fine roadwarrior tool which also does an acceptable job of playing music and movies. The reason I give only 4 stars instead of 5 is that it no more than perfectly satisfactorily met my expectations (I did quite a bit of research before buying); for 5 stars, an item has to really wow me with unexpected excellence.