jfreeman420 Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 I have a Toshiba Sattelite A-75 a couple years old. The battery doesn't always charge. It got to the point where it wasn't charging at all so I bought a brand new battery. Now it charges sometimes. It will charge 90% of the time when it is off and sometimes when it is running. If it is on ac power while using it after some time it will go to battery power while it is plugged in. I don't believe it is the plug because nothing happens when you jiggle it or unplug it and plug it back in. Also the light indicating that it is plugged in remains lit, but the charge light goes off and battery mode starts spontaneously. Does anyone have an idea what it could be? Can I buy a part and install it myself or do I have to take it in? Should I trash it and buy a new one? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 get a new one laptops are not ment to last a few years if used regularly, i have a few that are a few years old, they all have issues. my newest one is 2 yrs old. dell constantly has some very nice laptops for great prices. i recomend dell. i haven't had a toshiba in years, but of the few brands i have had,- dell seems to have the best "case" that lasts the longest, and the problems i have had are when the case starts bending and bowing, thats when the monitor cables get flimsey and parts inside go nuts. the dell cases i have had have stayed very sturdy and strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJGladeRaider Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 get a new one laptops are not ment to last a few years if used regularly, i have a few that are a few years old, they all have issues. my newest one is 2 yrs old. dell constantly has some very nice laptops for great prices. i recomend dell. i haven't had a toshiba in years, but of the few brands i have had,- dell seems to have the best "case" that lasts the longest, and the problems i have had are when the case starts bending and bowing, thats when the monitor cables get flimsey and parts inside go nuts. the dell cases i have had have stayed very sturdy and strong. I agree with you - I like my Dells. Recently, I got a MacBook Pro set up with the Intel processors. It is set up dual boot - start it as a Mac, or boot it as a Windows XP machine. This solid metal case is really impressive. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Usil Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Toshiba is an excellent brand selling portables long before Dell came into existance back in the 1980's. This is probably a hardware issue and as such not generally user servicable. Bad luck and probably not worth the price to fix. You could try looking for a local autohorized toshiba service center and try there to see the cost. Good luck. Usil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronus Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Usil is right - I've had a Dell employed engineer come to fix a work laptop and say there is no real difference between a Toshiba or Dell laptop... whichever one gives the best after-sales support is best, unless you can take care of problems yourself. It *does* sound like it could be the plug (I had a similar problem with a phone charger in the past) or perhaps the contacts in the case... I couldn't really tell you. Maybe call up Toshiba (or the vendor) for support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Toshiba is an excellent brand selling portables long before Dell came into existance back in the 1980's. This is probably a hardware issue and as such not generally user servicable. Bad luck and probably not worth the price to fix. You could try looking for a local autohorized toshiba service center and try there to see the cost. Good luck. Usil yeah, to bad they didn't keep up. anyway - just to ad onto the above, i have only heard great things about mac's - only issue is difficulty finding software - at least software from your friends to borrow. everyone has a opy of ms office laying around. anyway - my mac friends are mac loyalists. and - on the dell - i went through compaq hp, desknote and a few others - the reason i say i like the dells =- i got the 700m 2 yrs ago. its been a super trooper, held up really wel, good pricing = i also got a few year old ok, really old - pIII 800mhz - for like 300 bucks, i got it a few years ago to, can't remember got it for my wife to use around the house to surf the internet - that case has also held up very well this is opposed to the 3 yr old pos HP i'm typing on that practically droops around my leggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkerouac Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 Power supply/electrical system connector problems really rot and frequently seem to cripple electronics that otherwise would still have a few good years of service left in them. It's happened to me with a cell phone, mp3, and a few laptops. I recently got a Toshiba Portege with 2G of RAM. It can double as a tablet PC and I am surprised how well the handwriting recognition works (especially considering how bad my handwriting is!). Does a great job with Vista. Best laptop I've ever used. If you can expense it I would recommend something like that. If it's on your own dime, then the Dells look very nice to me as well. My wife asked for a laptop for Christmas, and although I didn't get her one, I'm hoping that the post-Christmas discounts make a month or so delay worth our while. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pugwash Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 If I had to guess, I would say the PMU is fried. This happens on the best of laptops and can mean a logic board replacement is needed, unless it has a PMU fly-board. A logic board is expensive. ps. I too have a Mac and have no trouble getting software, especially as I can run XP in a window without slowdown. I have a copy of office from work running on bootcamp, paralells and crossover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornerstone Posted December 23, 2006 Report Share Posted December 23, 2006 If you can expense it I would recommend something like that. This really tickled me - maybe it's just the holiday season! The verb 'to expense' - love it. EXPENSE verb; the act of spending your employer's money on shit you probably wouldn't pay for yourself, often as an end-of-year tax deduction or non-reportable personal fringe benefit ETYMOLOGY: 14c: from Latin expensa, from expendere: to buy those extra wireless iPod Airport Extreme accessories you probably didn't need for work. In completely unrelated news, my Mrs is extremely pleased with 'her' new laptop that I recently brought home Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfreeman420 Posted December 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Thanks for your help guys. I do think something is fried. I had a few times where the computer overheated and shut itself off. The cooling systems in these things aren't the best. I wish I could "expense it". My company does have an account with dell. Maybe I can talk them into it. Put it on lease or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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