For the last couple of years, I’ve had a Toshiba U205-S5034 laptop, and in general, I’ve been really happy with it. This is one small laptop. If memory serves, it has a 12.1″ screen, and is in fact pretty tiny. That can be annoying from time to time, but frankly I don’t often use a laptop – only when I’m away from home – and that’s a good thing when carrying it. I decided that I didn’t really want to lug a massive machine with me any more, and it works great.
I did have to upgrade the memory (to 2GB), which gave me a little more breathing room, but other than that, it does the job well. The hard drive is sometimes slow when you try and do things like sync up with another computer (typically involving deleting a bunch of files or copying a ton of other files), but that doesn’t happen too often, so it’s not a huge deal. The problem is that every once in a while, it keeps locking up on me in the midst of, well, something.
I can deal with a lot of things, and since I don’t use the laptop all the time, it’s not a huge problem. And when the laptop does lock up, the mouse locks up, the screen freezes, and you’re done. The fan kicks into overdrive and you might as well shut down, because that’s it. You can turn it back on immediately and come right back up, but something has decided that it needs to stop working for a minute. Nothing I have been able to figure out has worked at this point. I do have an older Toshiba laptop with fan issues, but keeping this one propped up (to get extra air underneath) doesn’t help. Neither does the extra memory, or keeping running programs to a minimum.
What’s more, I’m not the only one. I found this thread where at least one other person has the problem, and this CNET page includes one too (open user opinions, then read the one labeled abysmal). Hopefully this will draw some more attention to the problem, or at the very least find someone who has managed to fix it. It’s not a huge problem, since you can start right up again and it seems to go away.
For me, the problem happens completely at random – it may not happen at all, it may happen in five minutes, it may happen in an hour. Then it locks up, the fan kicks up and you have to shut down. That’s about it. The only way out is to shut down and restart. There just isn’t any more information. Have any ideas? Let me know.
Comments
18 responses to “Toshiba U205-S5034 Lock-Up Problem”
On vacation last week (meaning I used the laptop a great deal more than usual), and didn’t experience a single lock-up. Can’t say this means that the problem is solved, since it is such an intermittent thing, but the last time I vacationed (which prompted this writing), it happened all the time. Take that to mean what it will – which may be nothing!
I’ve peeled the Toshiba ID label off, exposed 100 + vent holes, and have commenced praying. Thanks for the suggestion.
I had previously replaced the HDD, reinstalled OS, replaced RAM, and all that worked well for about 3 months … and then today got freeze-bitten again.
Also see some signs of scorching on the Microsoft label, fwiw.
Look forward to others’ comments. I really like this laptop when its running.
My U205 S5034 has locked up intermittantly since I bought it. I put a fan pad under it which helps a little when I’m at home. It’s very irritating!
Ditto same problem with this laptop freezing.
Well hoping that removing that grey label fixes the problem.
Cheers
I have the same problem with the U205. Please keep us posted on removing the label as a fix.
Thanks!
Unbelievable indeed – mine has been running for about a day as well, including deleting a ton of files (nearly 100,000) to sync up directories. I don’t know for a fact that it would have caused a problem, but it’s very likely that it would have. Thanks for the tip!
No lockups in 2 days. It’s working well & the label came off in one piece. These Toshibas do run very hot!. Good luck. Can you believe the label was over the vent holes?
Tom –
Thanks for the note – mine is running so hot at times, that it actually burned through the middle of the Windows label! I’m not sure if that’s the only problem, but obviously it is an issue.
I’ve seen the problem both on batter power and on AC power, so I’m not sure exactly when it’s a problem and when it isn’t, I just know that it drives me absolutely bonkers.
Andy –
I decided against removing the gray label, but when you pointed out that there were vents underneath it, I decided to poke holes in it! I skipped a few in the middle, because of the part number and serial number, but I did get quite a few decent shots in.
We’ll have to see how it works out – I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the idea!
Mine does it very often on battery power & I often use the machine to tune automotive ECUs. Needless to say, it is sketchy cause a bad burn on a automotive ecu is expensive. I just bought a new laptop then ripped this one apart to see what is going on. Toshiba is nuts… someone there must have gotten the “hot leg” the damn sticker under the fan is covering all the exhaust vents on the fan… After pulling the whole thing apart & a year of headaches, I pulled the sticker off & it says VOID under it. Funny the damn thing seems to work like it’s supposed to. Don’t take yours apart just remove the gray label. Best regards- andy
The exact same thing happens to me. All random lockups and drives me insane. Since I’m in college, I have noticed that this occurs 95% of the time when I’m on AC power. When I’m running on battery, it’s rare that it freezes. The other thing I have done was I added a laptop cooling station. It lifts the computer off my desk and allows for better air flow under the machine which seems to help some but it still freezes – especially when I’m running Firefox with multiple tabs or multiple programs. Good luck on finding a fix.