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Never had a problem with my Toshiba Satellite, paid $900 for it at Best Buy in 2010. Did not get an extended warranty. Expect an expensive computer to last. Windows 7 etc. Love it. Started getting the blue screen a few weeks ago. Was totally amazed, never had any problems, always updated, always defragged etc. etc. Never dropped or abused. Never overheated as far as I know. (Am currently using a Dell loaner from the tech shop, and don't care for it at all. The keyboard keeps jumping just like another post on here.)
Tech shop man said hard drive was bad; put in a new one and are still getting the blue screen while trying to get everything back on it. I have Carbonite bakcup, but they haven't even gotten around to loading that on it yet. They want to try another hard drive this week and also replace the NVIDIA (?) card which they believe may be bad too.
Hard for me to imagine that an (allegedly) quality laptop bites the dust after 2 yrs. The shop is very reputable and has been in business since mid 80's; so I want to trust their work. I'm probably facing buying a new laptop darn it. Any thoughts/opinions ? Have no idea what to buy next; would rather have my Toshiba working well for another few/several years. (Maybe I should get an iPad and a very inexpensive new laptop. Can't afford a brand new Mac which is what everyone is telling me to get next. Plus the learning curve.)
$900 is a CHEAP laptop. And when my cousin's computer BSOD it was the fault of bad memory sticks.
Cheap 'eh, oh well. $900 plus was a lot for me, still is. I didn't ask to be insulted; if you don't have anything helpful to add, have a Happy New Year.
I agree that a $900 should not be considered a "cheap laptop"
Honestly it sounds like you got the "luck of the draw" I know my work laptops are low end when it comes to components (but they put a sturdy case on them) but I just got a new laptop after my 5 year old started giving me screens of death and crashing on me, and I am on year four of a personal Acer - I started seeing problems and took it in for cleaning and new heat sink compound, which helped a lot and they added a free utility called Speed Fan which I downloaded on my new computer. I did buy a Toshiba Satellite which I promptly returned after 6 hours of issues with setting it up (and being a remote telecommuter I am USED to taking a compouter and transferring over things like pst files, user folders, favorites etc)--I did find with Acer and Toshiba the support to be horrid. With the work HPs, well we have an IT department who keeps them going a couple of years after they go out of warranty.
The big difference I see in my approx $1800 Origin laptop (I paid $500 for the Acer) is faster boot time and program load time SSD) but for every day operations the difference is not that profound. I am sure for gaming this would be awesome and certainly I will do much better at multitasking which is why I got a quad core and the RAM to support it because the old one is not a great multi-tasker, but a $900 computer should last. IMO. I know folks with $300 laptops going on 4 years.
I do like the monitoring utilities that are free (there is one called speed fan and one by Acronis called drive monitor) to give some warning of impending doom and do plan on a solid backup plan (which, thankfully you have).
I paid $500 for my Dell four years ago, works great (knock on wood).
My other Dell I paid $450 for two years ago, works great.
I have a Dell from 2003 (but paid a lot for that thing, before laptops were cheap) that still runs great, but has a small amount of memory, so it serves as my DVD.YouTube player for my TV, always hooked up to it.
My next one though will be a bit pricier, because of the better graphic card I will get.
I had a Toshiba, and the screen broke after 13 months (purchased in fall of 2008); the light tube or something that light the screen broke. It cost $200 to fix it, I sold it after that. Strange thing is that I know a few people with Toshibas and they seem to last just fine, even through the bang up of traveling, I guess I just got the dud; just as I have had success with Dells, yet more than a few have had difficulties with them.
Cheap 'eh, oh well. $900 plus was a lot for me, still is. I didn't ask to be insulted; if you don't have anything helpful to add, have a Happy New Year.
LOL. my EXPENSIVE $900 HP craptop. has disappointed me from day 1.. my first ever laptop is toshiba and it has lasted since forever, even though i mangled it up pretty good from dropping it LOADS of times.
$900 laptop is NOT cheap. that poster must have a money tree or something lol.
i suggest the mem stick as suggested by 1 poster maybe just pull it out and put back in again. also the clock battery in laptop may need replacement:
LOL. my EXPENSIVE $900 HP craptop. has disappointed me from day 1.. my first ever laptop is toshiba and it has lasted since forever, even though i mangled it up pretty good from dropping it LOADS of times.
$900 laptop is NOT cheap. that poster must have a money tree or something lol.
i suggest the mem stick as suggested by 1 poster maybe just pull it out and put back in again. also the clock battery in laptop may need replacement:
fresh install may also help. im pretty positive clock battery may be the culprit. it helped me in my BSOD.
Tech guy called me on New Year's Eve morning; said they are trying a different new hard drive. But that is interesting about the clock battery. Wouldn't that be great if that's all it was. Yes $900 is a chunk of cash in my book and I don't want to repeat this purchase after only two years. I should send a msg to the poster who thinks $900 is chump change, and ask for a 4 figure donation to my personal computer charity. I had done lots of research on which computer to buy at the time, and this model kept coming up as reliable. I realize it's just a "machine", but we forget how much we rely on these gadgets that are so valuable now. I hope they can recover everything from Carbonite. Especially my photos and all my machine embroidery designs (I must have at least 15,000 designs, but most of them will also be on my external hard drive and on a couple of sticks.) Also don't know if the software for the embroidery programs will come back.
Waiting to hear from tech guys today or tomorrow. Thanks for your post Angelina.
Yes, $900 is a CHEAP LAPTOP, and I wasn't insulting you. I paid $2500 for both my 1st and 2nd laptops, spare ebay laptop for $350. My $2550 Dell E1705 is nearly 7 years old and doing good. It has a better 1920 x 1200 17" screen that's better resolution than many of today's laptops.
And your tech guy is no good. Tell them to put in brand new compatible memory sticks, because bad memory was the cause of BSOD on my cousin's computer.
I don't know - I'd call it midrange. I certainly wouldn't call it 'cheap,' much less 'CHEAP'.
I have a Toshiba laptop that I bought a few years ago and paid around $300 or $350 for. All I did upgrade-wise was upgrade the memory to 4gb. It did the trick until just recently, when I finally decided to upgrade to a true desktop replacement, and I tend to do a lot of multitasking with memory-hungry software. No gaming, though. I could certainly see how someone could call a $900 laptop "CHEAP" if their primary use was gaming. Still though, you can find decent (but not top-of-the-line) gaming rigs for a lot less if you do some research.
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I had done lots of research on which computer to buy at the time, and this model kept coming up as reliable. I realize it's just a "machine", but we forget how much we rely on these gadgets that are so valuable now. I hope they can recover everything from Carbonite. Especially my photos and all my machine embroidery designs (I must have at least 15,000 designs, but most of them will also be on my external hard drive and on a couple of sticks.) Also don't know if the software for the embroidery programs will come back. 
