My Toshiba Satellite 1805-S274 Notebook

My Toshiba Satellite 1805-S274 Notebook

December 2001, I bought the above notebook. Pictures will come soon. Here's the specs:

1.10GHz Intel Pentium III processor
256MB RAM
DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo (8X BurnProof burner)
15.0" TFT active matrix display
Integrated NIC
Windows XP Home
2 x PCMCIA slots
2 x USB ports
RCA Video out
1 x serial port
1 x ps2 port
1 x printer port
1 x vga port

I wanted to make sure I would be happy with this purchase so I did good research before the purchase. I got input from Jon Pennington (from the Suse-English mailing list) and a guy in Texas that frequents my weblog. The number one requirement for any laptop I would consider was that it had to be able to run Linux with little problem. The other requirements were: 1.0-GHz+ CPU speed, 20GB+ harddisk, at least 256MB RAM, and around $1500. This system was purchased at Circuit City at $1650 (before the combined $150 Circuit City and $100 Toshiba rebates). I also bought the 3-year service plan, which is combined with the manufacturer warranty, which means the unit is covered until 01/01/06. Grand total for the computer, service plan and accessories was $2035. Tack on $142 for tax and it came to $2177. Much more than the $1500 I had "limited" myself to, but the extra $334 is for peace-of-mind, a kind of insurance (though it ticked my wife a bit).

UPDATE (13 Nov 03): This laptop has been serviced twice regarding a LCD backlight that burns out. The first time it was "fixed", they replaced the LCD screen, the video card (I'm assuming some of the parts are modular), and the hard drive. Two weeks later, the backlight was again flashing and intermittently cutting off. I just received it back from another servicing. They replaced the vidcard and the LCD this time. I'm not seeing any problems yet [knock on wood] and I've had it back for almost a week.

I'm very happy with the notebook. It's fast, Windows XP is stable (I've had no problems with XP at all), the display is big, and the batteries carry decent power, even when the system isn't throttled back (for energy conservation purposes). I WAS thinking on dualbooting Linux but I think I'll leave XP as the sole OS, for now.

UPDATE (13 Nov 03):I've had to replace the battery with a lith-ion type. The battery the laptop came with developed a memory issue that I couldn't get rid of. Let me tell you that batteries are expensive. I bought 2 for $100 each and one is just a backup battery. These type of batteries do not develop memory issues. I've also started utilizing Linux with this laptop. I've tried Suse, Debian, Libranet, and Slackware. Knoppix, Knoppix STD and Slackware Live (different from the Slackware-sanctioned Live CD) also work, and they detect the system hardware alot better than full installs of Linux do.

If anyone is looking for a notebook that will run Linux and is considering this brand and model, something to consider: this notebook has an integrated software modem (most notebooks probably do). That's bad but the good thing is that the system has USB capability, which means a USB modem can be used. Also, the PCMCIA slot(s) should be able to run PCMCIA-type modems, which Linux should be able to handle (wifi PCMCIA cards work flawlessly). And lastly, it has an integrated network card that Linux has no problem detecting and utilizing.

About the only thing I can think that kind of irks me is that there is no contrast controls for the display and if there is, it is hidden inside the OS (Windows) and isn't a hardware adjustment.

Also, THIS IS A BIG NOTEBOOK! I think it is made as a pure desktop replacement. It definitely won't fit in just any tote-bag. I bought a backpack-style carrier (Targus) that looked like it could accomodate it, and it does, but I had to pull out a velcro cushion and cargo-net pouch before it fit.

Additionally, when I took a look at the included software, I was expecting to find an XP CD, but there's only a 3-disk set of restore/backup CDs. That was a real dis- appointment, but I was kind of expecting it. At least I didn't have to activate the OS: I would have had to do this if this were a desktop...I read in either PC Magazine or Maximum PC that the XP installs on laptops wouldn't require activation and I'm thinking that this is because notebooks usually don't change all that much, hardware-wise.

The remaining CD consists of Lotus Smartsuite, which is pretty nice and seems to be MS-Office compatible at a quick glimpse.

The most recent upgrade I've done so far is to flash the BIOS. The laptop kept either resetting, slowing down or getting hot. I went to the Toshiba support site and saw that others were having the same problem and that it was a BIOS issue. I flashed it and it is fine now. I've yet to do all the updates that the Toshiba site lists, and the list is huge. I just think my computer is running fine as it is and I'll eventually update software as time passes.

UPDATE (13 Nov 03):Flashing the BIOS in this particular notebook may or may not be the thing for you, as I've heard that all it does is underclock the CPU. This ticked off alot of people, as they bought their products with the notion that they were going to see a certain performance level, yet the fix for CPUs running hot requires dialing down the performance. There's a class action lawsuit regarding this.

It currently dualboots into either XP or Linux (Slackware 9.1 is the current favorite distribution at the moment). Prior to the Slackware install, I was using Debian Linux 3.0 and Libranet. Installation for Linux is straight-forward, although I did have to purchase a partition managing tool to make partitions for Linux. I'd recently bought Partition Magic 6.0 but the purchase was made a few weeks before XP was released...I needed a tool that partitioned NTFS partitions and PM 6.0 didn't make the cut. There was no free patch or upgrade, and I was mad, so I bought Paragon's Hard Disk Manger for $49 instead. This package is pretty darned cool, as it contains things that Partition Manager didn't (for instance, ExtFS Anywhere, which "mounts Linux partitions under Windows operating systems as normal logical drives with an appropriate drive letter."), for much less that Power Quest charges for their partition software. The best thing is that I got the whole package online: I purchased it, then got directions on where to download it from, downloaded it, and was up and and running. I burned it to disk so I could have it permanently.

Anyways, this is how I have my notebook's drive partitioned:

Linux swap - 256MB
Linux ext3 - 9.0GB
Windows XP Home - 11.0 GB

I supposed I could have used fdisk or cfdisk to manage partitions but I wanted something a bit more user-friendly...I didn't want to lose anything on my laptop (though I did backup important files).

To see more about Toshi (my notebook's name), see http://www.unixfool.com/toshiba_notes.html, as there's more data there, such as the computer's specs sheet in .pdf format.

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