Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804 Notebook - PSAF3U-0NR00V - While Supplies Last!
Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804 15.4" Notebook Computer Intel Dual-Core T2330 1.60GHz / 1GB RAM / 120GB Hard Drive / Intel GMA X3100 / DVD±R/RW Drive / 802.11B/G / Vista Home Premium

I got this laptop for graphics/music production just at the point ''HD/''VISUAL/AUDIO WAS FLOPPING and ''BLU=RAY''was preferred....1. you cant record a decent ANALOG /AUDIO ''IN'' without the BOOST feature on the laptop is disabled...you hear NO sound!!!So you have your music and this clear SUPER POWERFUL audio ''in;''signal that you cant control..or adjust to the tracks of music!I tried the internal sound card the external..nothing wont do! 2.After dancing around with Vista it just got worse1''cant open any files unless on line b cant use ''outlook express''etc etc...dont buy this lap top looks good but the cust service. cant speak english well and knows nothing about the products.TOSHIBA SAID I SHOULD GO SPEND MORE$$$$$ AND INSTALL XP MYSELF..and the laptop is still on warranty!..even though the lap topLUCKLY is XP comparable?????DONT BUY
 
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I recieved my Toshiba Sattelite a little over a month ago. I had an IBM Thinkpad T23 before this. The speed of my new laptop, and the ease of Vista is great. Guides you through everything, without hard to answer questions! Lets you know when there's problems and fixes them for you, and tells you!!!!! How awsome is that. By By windows 2000 say hello to Vista. Finalley an operating system that helps you, instead of confuse you! I love this new laptop so does my wife and kids. Thank you Toshiba for coming up with a great laptop.
 
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I have this laptop, and I'm very happy with it. The only thing that needs doing is an upgrade to 2gb of ram and then it runs beautifully.
 
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It isn't unique to this computer, but the loaded software is not only unwanted but annoying. It was loaded with at least 20 to 25 desktop icons leading to unwanted and un-needed websites trying to sell something. They were more than just links to the internet; they were installed programs on the hard drive. It took much effort to clean it all up the correct way. There were also installed features for Google that I could not find a way to turn off, delete or otherwise stop from running. A call to technical support finally found a way. All in all, it took the better part of a week to get the computer to perform the way I wanted it to perform. I would like to appeal to all manufacturers to give the buyer an option of what they want or need. I'm glad I don't buy a new computer very often as this is an exasparating experience. The hardware is fine; the software leaves a lot to be desired, including the wayward Vista. Give me that old fashioned, tried and true, XP.
 
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This is actually a pretty good laptop hardware wise for what you pay. A friend of mine purchased the current model (1.7ghz) this at Bestbuy and this is my opinion of it: Good: Display, harddrive size, processor, bootable from usb (both gos linux and xp using nlite), can use single 2gb ram sticks (worked using Adata brand, which means it can be pushed to 4GB), and quiet. Bad: Vista (major resource hog, even 2.5 GB wasn't enough), keypad layout (kept mistyping), VGA out when using extended display (would not allow enough for correction on a letterbox,kept over scanning hard left, would not allow itself to be corrected by a simple driver correction under Vista), wifi mediocre (compared to Asus EEE), memory (two 512 mb sticks, wtf?), Toshiba's techsupport (sent an email for some ? and have not received response), and gets warm when used with power adapter. If you don't mind a 15" laptop this is quite a bargin, keep in mind like the previous poster if you want to use XP you will have to do your homework.
 
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If you like Windows Vista this is a good beginner laptop. You will not be able to install XP without searching for hours for drivers and using slipstream with nlite. I was able to get things working the way I like with PCLinuxOS.
 
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I have always regarded Toshiba as a good brand of electronics, and this laptop is not an exception. No complaints about the computer itself or the service at buy.com, where it was purchased. It comes with Windows Vista, and, unless you want to be Microsoft's guinea pig until they improve their new baby, you definitely want to change to something more mature like Xp, Linux, etc (there maybe issues with Vista that will never get better, but that is a separate story). I changed to Xp, and it required a bit of work. For one thing, the hard-drive is not detected when you try to install Xp (you need to change the BIOS and that is not accessible through the usual keys when you boot). The problem can be solved with some digging in the internet. If you get stuck with this, drop me a line (oul1@psu.edu) and I may be able to tell you what worked for me. I am not a computer wizard, though. Even after you install Xp, you will have to dig around for drivers. The hardware that comes with this computer, or the drivers this hardware requires to work with Xp, do not seem to be readily available. They are there, but you have to search and go through some trial and error; I even recall editing the files of some drivers by hand (following detailed instructions that ended up not working for my model), and downloading drivers from sites with no verified reputation. It all worked at the end (except that the Fn key combinations to adjust screen brightness, etc do not work yet). To sum up, if you do not want to suffer through Vista and prefer not to struggle to install Xp, then this is not what you want. It is a very good deal in terms of amount of money for the computer you are getting, but it will require a few days of work (perhaps a few hours if you are an expert). One last thing. They say it can take a maximum of 2 GB (of RAM) and it comes with 1 GB installed. So, the obvious conclusion would be that you have to purchase one more GB if you want to upgrade to the maximum, right? Wrong! They have used both available slots to give you one GB (they have two modules of 512 MB each). So, if you want to upgrade to your maximum of 2 GB, then you have to buy two modules of 1 GB and pretty much through away the ones that came with the computer (and you paid for!). I consider this to be a "punch below the waist line."
 
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