Toshiba Satellite P205D-S7802 Notebook 17" WXGA+ / Dual-Core Mobile TL-58 1.9GHz / 2GB DDR2 / 160GB HD / Dual Layer DVDRW / 802.11b/g Wireless / Windows Vista Home Premium / Factory Refurbished - Limited Stock!

I waited somewhat impatiently for the laptop to arrive. It was the first one that I had purchased as factory reconditioned. I hoped it would be like new or very close. The big day arrives and I am seated on the couch watching the drive for the freight truck. It rolls in and before it can come to a full stop I am out there and waiting. Sure enough, just like Buy.com said, there it was. A big box labeled Toshiba. Cool I opened the box and saw that the unit had been packaged very carefully, except the cord and power transformer were loose in the box. The unit was in a sealed plastic bag with three warning stickers on its face. I never realized how dangerous it was to open a bagged reconditioned laptop, three warning stickers. Big stickers. Lots of conditions clearly printed on them. Truthfully I have yet to read them carefully. I opened the other end of the bag so I wouldnt damage the stickers. The unit looked brand new! Very nice. It was complete intact and ready to fire up. The battery even had some small level of charge in it so it would boot. Instead I rushed into the other room and plugged it in. Poof started right up and Windows Vista booted for the first time. I had several things to enter and accept and then it was actually going. Even with all the adware stuff installed the unit was really nice. The screen is huge, for a laptop, so big in fact that my friend Larry now has "Laptop Envy". Nothing compares to a 17 laptop screen. Specs include 2 gigs of RAM, 160gb hard drive and a 1.9 dual core AMD processor. The unit has a wonderful full-size keyboard with a number pad. Excellent. I have used the WiFi several times and found the wizard to be easy to use and understand. I especially like the radar feature that shows available sources. This unit does about everything I want to do and does it very well. I am not a hard core gamer so this does what I need. In this transaction Buy.com did what they said they would and sent what they advertised when they said they would. Cant ask for anything more. Plus, the Buy.com unit was offered at a lower price than two competitors that offered the exact same product for $100 more. I have had it for a month and I have found it to be a very good system. Simply, this is an unbeatable Toshiba laptop. I am satisfied.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The Toshiba P205D is a full-sized, 17" laptop with plenty of power to run anything you can throw at it. With a dual core AMD processor, and 2 GB of RAM, this baby can fly. I love having a full sized keyboard to match my fat fingers, even a seperate number pad. The widescreen display is bright and easy to work at. OK, so I have to learn to love Vista, but that's the only negative, and at this price I can live with it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

My wife is extremely jealous, because about a year ago we bought her a Toshiba Satellite that differs very little from this one, only it cost more than twice what I paid for mine! I've just installed Ubuntu on it and it is fast, reliable and all in all a wonderful purchase!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I am very happy with the system. It has been a great work horse.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is a desktop replacement for my old Dell. The shipping was very fast, and the unit was in great shape. If I had not known that the laptop was refurbished, I would have swore it was brand new. The picture has great color - very bright and clear. Everything was easy to set up. The computer speed is good - even with leaving the memory at 2gb. (However, I will be upgrading to 4 as soon as possible) Overall, we are extremely pleased with this laptop, especially for the price. I shopped for about 4 months and never found anything near this quality for this price.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I really like the size of this notebook, but I have to send it back to toshiba for repairs. About a week after starting it, the computer screen will shut down and I will have to manually shut the whole computer down and restart. I would lose everything on the screen. It would do this randomly and it did not seem to be a matter of how long it was on or if it got warm. But Toshiba has a great customer service and got service repair set up for me.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I'm very satisfied with this purchase, the item arrived fast in a completely perfect shape. The notebok is excellent, there's no problem with anything. Not only looks awesome, it works great as well.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I was once exited to get my first laptop, I've always been a desktop fan. I chose this to be my first one and now regret purchasing it from buy.com. First they lost it in the wherehouse in the shipping and I had to file a claim, which took an extra week longer than the expected arrival date. that i can get over. When I first turned on my new laptop it worked awsome, nice big screen,I hooked up a mouse and my bose computer speakers, I loved it. Then my screen goes grey and freezes up while online. So I power down holding the power button, when I turned it back on, it worked fine. Until this morning. So I called toshiba and he told me this is not uncommon helped me through and we downloaded an update for the bios. So far (today) it hasn't froze on me so I was happy. Now the bad news. I tried my brand new Austin Powers dvd and it said it was a bad disk. (some people might agree but i like mike meyers.) later I tried installing the the disk that came with my canon sx100is and it wouldnt read. So I called toshiba back, tried a couple of tricks and got nowhere. Now I have to take it to a repair center 80 miles away and have them fix it, DAMN!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Good Price for this computer. I'm having some problems with Vista operating system, but I'm not used to it yet.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this laptop to replace the desktop machine that my wife was using. The laptop itself is great! The 17 inch screen is a BIG plus (especially for a writer.) Performance wise this laptop is awesome. There is a big difference in time needed to start up a program or surf the web when comparing dual-core systems to older ones (even a 64-bit system.) At first glance I thought it was a little cheap looking, but I remembered that all laptops are made from plastic parts. Some manufacturers just hide theirs better! A big downfall on this machine is that it comes pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium. Even with the updates and fixed glitches it is still a hard OS to get used to. The biggest complaint from wife at any given time is something that has goofed up in Vista. If this keeps up, I may load XP on it instead or even Ubuntu. I would warn potential buyers about this before purchasing. Great laptop, difficult-to-use OS!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Incredible power and features for the price!! It is a bit heavy but that's just fine when you use the Number Pad and enjoy the 17" wide screen. Recommended it to several friends.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Just bought one of these a few weeks ago. I've been pleasantly surprised. Huge screen, light weight, lots of extras...Great looking laptop. Battery life depends on what you are doing. Watching a movie or burning a disc, yes, just over an hour. Surfing, which is what I do 99.9 % of time, battery is a good two hours plus. System allows you to select power saver which causes a slight decrease in brightness, yet makes battery last longer. I thought Vista would bog down the system, like my HP desktop, but this baby boots right up and fast. Only downside was I did have to download and install latest BIOS that fixes a glitch that makes the screen go black once in awhile. When the screen went black. I just had to do hard reboot. After the second time, went to Toshiba website and, sure enough, there was the problem and fix. I like Toshiba's support website. Gives all the latest drivers and such. Thumbs up....
 
Was this review helpful?    

I had gotten one of the M35X models and unfortunately the one I got had motherboard issues unique to that model. However, I decided to give Toshiba another chance because they have an excellent reputation). Glad I did because the laptop I got for $500 was infinitely well worth the price. The 17" display is very good. The laptop has a full-sized keyboard (very nice feature). I have some Secure Digital cards that had some data I couldn't get because I didn't have an adapter on prior machines, which isn't a problem with this laptop because there's a Secure Digital card slot built right in! The Dual-Core processor is a godsend, and the 2GB of memory does pretty well, even with Windows Vista, although I think I'm going to get 2GB more just for the fun of it. The internal video card isn't bad either :D. With great affordable laptops like this, almost anyone now can afford to have the advantages that portable computing offers, making the world a smaller place and closing the digital divide for so many others who wouldn't have the opportunity. Only time will ultimately tell, but so far, very good!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I ordered this laptop and an additional 2 gigs of RAM due to reviews of performance issues with only 2 gb. Beware that the 2 gb on board is probably taking up all 2 of the slots, so to upgrade you need to buy two 2 gb sticks and throw away what comes on board. I'm hoping buy.com will take back the 2 gb I bought.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I ordered this laptop and an additional 2 gigs of RAM due to reviews of performance issues with only 2 gb. Beware that the 2 gb on board is probably taking up all 2 of the slots, so to upgrade you need to buy two 2 gb sticks and throw away what comes on board. I'm hoping buy.com will take back the 2 gb I bought.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I ordered the laptop on a Thursday afternoon, and got it on the follow Saturday with free shipping. The laptop is awesome, I have no complain at all. The condition is like completely new. I can't even understand why it is refurbished at all. Everything works out of the box. It is the best deal you can get with the price I paid for. And it is extremely like considering it is a big laptop. Highly recommended to everyone who is looking for a laptop.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I am totally satisfied with the product and price. That is also true with the other items that I have purchased.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Advantage: good price, 17" screen is sharp, 6 USBs port are plenty for all those devices, 2GB RAM are good for Window Vista, 160HD is sufficient for normal stuff, dual core 1.9GHz is fast enough, wireless card is good, sound/speakers are nice. Disadvantage: blank screen if not log in right away or on occasion when I left unattended for a long time, the heat output is high but I rather it blows away than burning my lap like the old Dell laptop. Location of the 6 USBs could be better if they are near the rear or screen so that I don't tangle in the USBs wire. Conclusion: Very good buy. I hope it lasts 5 years!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I am a little disappointed in the speed of this system. It could be Windows Vista or the CPU, but something is not right. I have an old Winbook running XP that runs close to the same speed. The speakers are pretty crappy but ear plugs work very well. The speed is supposed to be 1.9 ghz but I measured it at .8 on a CPU tester. The system I received is indistinguishable from a new system, so I am quite satisfied with the purchase.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is an awesome laptop for the money. We love the big beautiful screen. A friend of mine had one with him on a trip to the keys. Then we got the email from buy.com offering this one for $499.00 refurb. Read all the reviews and bought two of them. The Gateway 17 was a good deal also at $20 more and a camera built in to the lid, but the reviews were better on the toshiba. We are not disapointed in our decision. Besides the camera is no big deal to us as we are not into video conferencing. My wife uses hers to play simple internet games surf the web and write emails. Yesteday I had my two grand daughters sitting next to me as we played some childrens games on mine. That was worth the purchase price alone. Its also great for wathching video's either dvd's or youtube, or the God channel streaming live the Great Florida Outpouring revival being broadcast to 200+ nations around the world.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Goods: Awesome display, twin-CPU, fast, 2GB RAM and 160GB+ hard disk, and I have had great experience with Toshiba (this is my 3rd). Came in less than a week. Immediately uninstalled the trial versions of MS Office and installed my own copy. Registered immediately. Love the 6 USB slots. And fullsize keyboard with keypad. Bads: Did not come with backup/restore CD (you can order for a minimal cost). Had to upgrade the Vista O/S to SP1 - this was not done automatically and happened on day 2. Also has strange volume control: non-intuitive; but sound is good.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Preforms well. Speedy. I like the 17" much better than my 15. a great value with the exception of a bad pixel in the display.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The laptop is a large one. But, the 17" screen is a worthy justification for its size. It's large but not heavy. Performs well for normal web surfer use. Games from the past two years onward will perform sluggishly on included graphics card. Everything else works great and fast. Cheap!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Very good value for the price. It has a nice 17 inch wide screen, and full keyboard which is very usefull. This laptop is good option to replace a desktop system.
 
Was this review helpful?    

And that's it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I received the unit and was very happy at first. However, after firing it up, I noticed the cd rom did not work and it didn't even show up when you clicked on "my computer". I called Toshiba for service and was told that this was a known problem with Vista and this unit. Then then pointed me to microsofts website to download and install a fix. Are you kidding me? Toshiba knew this and still shipped these units out knowing the cd roms wouldn't work without a fix. Why would they not install that at the factory before shipping them to customers. I have to say that's pretty dumb by Toshiba. Just a heads up to everyone!
 
Was this review helpful?    

This laptop is great. The 17" screen has terrific definition and vivid color and is as good as any high quality monitor I've worked on. Given it's size it has a full number keypad as well which is a nice feature. It comes preload with lots of great software. Windows Vista takes some getting used to. Researched several websites for this laptop and Buy.com has the best price by far! Good buy!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Toshiba 17' laptop is a really nice computer so far, I've had it a couple of weeks nice sized HD works real good with wireless mouse was shipped fast
 
Was this review helpful?    

Toshiba 17' laptop is a really nice computer so far, I've had it a couple of weeks nice si------------------------------------------ze HD works real good with wireless mouse
 
Was this review helpful?    

I picked up this laptop for my roommate and I would have to say that it was better than expected. You really do get a good bargain for the price. After the initial scrubbing of all the bloatware they throw on there the computer runs reasonably fast for the type of processor. The display was nice and bright as well. Although I work for microsoft I have always been impressed by the performance of AMD chips. A couple of things that I'd like to point out though: 1) This laptop is huge. I mean huge. It's a 17" display and it's not something that you'd want to lug around all the time. If you are using it for a replacement desktop then it is sufficient but if you are a road warrior i'd say look into something smaller. 2) We had some issues with black screens and the computer locking up initially. We found out that we needed to get a BIOS update from Toshiba. Flashed the BIOS and now it is a okay.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The laptop arrived promptly and complete with everything that was supposed to be in the box. Installation went smoothly and without incident. I love the 17" screen although it has a pixel or two showing up always red. That's the only flaw I've seen in this reconditioned laptop. I love Vista on this laptop as no problems have showed up. The laptop is large but lightweight. The keyboard is standard size which is unusual for a laptop but it's perfect! Because the video memory is shared, there's enough memory to run Aero, the high end Vista graphics module. All in all, this seems like a fantastic deskop replacement computer.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I am extremely happy with my purchase. My Toshiba looked perfect coming out of the box. I could not tell that it had been refurbished as it looked brand new. I had absolutely no problem with it at all for about a day and then the infamous black screen showed up. I already knew what the fix was, so I went to the Toshiba site and downloaded the update and no more black screen. It took about 30 seconds to fix the problem. The price for this much computer is outstanding and I have found that it is fast and has way more bells and whistles than I will be able to use. I have a Compaq laptop, but now this is my main laptop as I will give the old one a much needed rest! In addition, the shipping from Buy.com was great. I recieved my laptop in 3 days after I ordered it with the FREE shipping.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is a wonderful buy. At first I was a little unsure about purchasing this computer but after I received it, all I could say is WOW! This is no light weight computer. The memory, speed and monitor was well worth the money. Upon receipt, I had no problem setting Windows Vista Premium. I uninstalled all the junk programs that come with the system and added some programs of my own. If I had to purchase this computer I would. I suggest you buy this computer before buy.com runs out.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I ordered this Toshiba 17" notebook last week and received it in 6 days. Not bad for free s/h. It is a beautiful notebook. It looks just like brand new. The 17" LCD monitor is very nice and sharp. The sound is amazing through the headphones or the built-in speakers. The Built-in WiFi 802.11b/g wireless card picks up the signal without a problem. There are a lot of third party softwares loaded in the HD which I don't really like. I guess it happens on any brand you purchase these days. Just take some time to take them away, no big deal. Oh, I love the large full size keyboard. All in all it is a great buy. Highly recommend!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I upgraded my celeron laptop to this dual core 1.9 ghz + 2 gb laptop. 17" screen @ 1400 x 900 resolution glossy screen is great for spreadsheets, surfing the web, and for the side bar that shows weather & time. Hard drive is plentiful, though only 129 gb is free, since windows take up 18.5 gb and 13 gb is lost due to NTFS formatting. Of the 2 GB memory, 0.12 GB is shared w/ the integrated graphics card. The number pad is good for spreadsheet as well. The downside is that this laptop is kind of big and thick. It's not that heavy, and may not fit the laptop bag well. This laptop cannot handle 3d intensive games. More for spreadsheet than graphics. You can play simple games well though. Also, you have to pay tax if you're in NY. I guess this is not a downside, but you should factor this into the total price. Overall, a fast and smooth laptop for $550.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I purchased mine new from Best Buy when I bought my TV so I could get the special financing but I'd buy on here no problem. Sent two e-mails to friends looking for laptops about this refurb deal and price, it has been an awesome computer. The first thing I did though was put a clean install of XP Pro on it. Took a little work finding all the drivers and some of the "Functions" like the brightness don't work but other than that its Awesome! The only drawback I didn;t think about when I looking for a new laptop was the wieght and battery life of a 17" screen, I wanted a full keyboard with a 10 key so in the end its worth it and the only time I really notice the wieght is when I'm riding my motorcycle.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The first thing that impressed me about this laptop was the beautiful, vibrant display. I was coming from a 4 yr old Dell 15" laptop and it was like night and day! (Displays do fade over time, but technology has come a long way in 4 yrs, too.) This is a handsome looking machine. Things are laid out well and it seems well built. The LCD hinge covers about 70% of the width of the screen so it should be fairly robust. This is good because this is no lightweight computer! It's best suited for a desk. I carry it around quite a bit and it is definitely awkward due to it's size and weight. But the beautiful 17" display more than makes up for this inconvenience. (It's not like I didn't expect this when I ordered it.) The only drawback to this system in my opinion is Windows Vista! This isn't Toshiba's fault. I am amazed that everything takes at least as long to do on this system as it did on my 4 yr old Dell running XP. I expected some advantage from the dual core of the AMD Turion 64 processor. Vista sucked all that advantage up. I'm still debating whether I should go back to XP on this machine. I paid less than $500 for this refurbished unit. That is about 1/2 of what a comparable unit from any manufacturer is going for at Best Buy or Circuit City. I love Buy.com! Oh, and the unit was indistinguishable from new. Not a mark or scratch anywhere on it. Probably the only complaint I have about this being refurbished is the box it came in is very flimsy. But the laptop arrived in perfect condition even though the box was beat up a bit. You will want to get a screen protector immediately for this laptop. The LCD is very high gloss and I guarantee it will get scratched up no matter how carefully you clean it. I haven't touched mine yet even though it's pretty dusty. I will clean it once and apply the protective film. A nice pristine LCD makes it a lot easier to sell down the road, too. Oh, and because I'm a moron I already have a virus on my new laptop. I downloaded some bootlegged software off of a Bittorrent site and it contained a virus. My own fault for being cheap! Anyway, I needed the recovery CD's which do not ship with this unit. (I can't get rid of the virus so I am going to do a fresh install.) I called Toshiba on a Sunday evening around 8PM and was on hold for about 20 minutes. When I got through I was connected with a gentleman who spoke English very well and was very understandable. I requested the recovery disks and told him about my virus. He offered to help me troubleshoot the problem first. I think they avoid sending out the disks if they can solve the problem for you. He worked with me very patiently for about 35 minutes. Ultimately we couldn't restore the software without the disks so he is sending them to me free of charge. Usually they charge a "nominal fee" for these. I think nominal is $20 - 50 from what I have read online. I was very happy with the support I received. I always do my own troubleshooting from info I find on the net because I can't stand being on hold forever or being charged for a service call which is what happens when your laptop goes out of warranty.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is a desktop replacement for me. It came in a timely manner and in good shape, but pretty dirty and grimy. Once cleaned and polished, it set up easily. However, don't un-install any of the TOSHIBA software because if you do, things start to NOT WORK. Once I put a fresh load of Vista Home Premium into the computer, it ran like a banshee. Screen is great, unit is fast (I put in 4 GIG of PC6400 ram), drives are smooth, WiFi is quick, and overall a great computer. I really love it now that I have it reloaded the way I want it. It takes a proud spot on my desk now. I recommend this computer, especially for the price. You cannot go wrong. Just have a cleaning cloth ready!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Very happy with the service and the product. Arrived in a timely manner. Thanks
 
Was this review helpful?    

I'm used to using a 14" or 15.4" laptop, but for the price I couldn't pass up this 17" monster. I say monster because this is a big laptop for sure. The size takes some getting used to. It's light for the size however. I'm very impressed by the AMD Turion processor. The performance exceeds my expectations. It truly performs like a desktop. The ATI x1200 is a decent video card, but to be clear it's not a gaming rig. It will play games like Morrowind smoothly, but don't expect to be playing Oblivion without using the Oldblivion mod. The wireless is fantastic, and connects very quickly to the network. The DVD drive is fast, but loud. It sounds like an inkjet printer when copying large amounts of data from DVD to the hard drive. The screen is absolutely gorgeous. There's just nothing else to say about it. The keyboard is my biggest issue, but I'm getting used to it. It's larger than a typical laptop. The keys are physically larger, and spaced further apart. Aside from the DVD drive the laptop is very quiet. The hard drive barely makes any noise. Battery life is what I expected, a little over an hour. I will be doing software development on this machine, so I installed XP Pro instead of Vista Home. Here is the one BIG problem I had when I first got the laptop: Not being used to the keyboard, I apparently typed in my password incorrectly to set up Vista... I was unable to log into Vista! I attempted to restore from the hard drive backup, but Vista had disabled the administrator account. There was NO way to restore the machine, and Toshiba does NOT include a restore DVD!! Toshiba wanted $40 for a restore DVD and it would take 1-2 weeks to get here! I located a Vista Home OEM cd and reinstalled Vista, using the COA key on the bottom of the laptop. I had to reload the drivers myself, but at least I could poke around to see if the laptop worked properly prior to wiping for XP Pro. I recommend acquiring a Vista Home Premium OEM cd from somewhere other than Toshiba, and downloading all necessary drivers and burn to another CD. If you're not that computer savvy, then eat the $40 and call Toshiba. You'll have to register your laptop with Toshiba prior to purchasing the restore DVD.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The Toshiba Satellite is a good size. The 17 in screen is very nice and the keyboard is one of the best. Vista is slow and you don't get a recovery disk with the laptop, but you can order one. Was easy to setup wireless networking and now I use it all over the house.
 
Was this review helpful?