Anybody here have experience with Toshiba laptops?

[Xylob the Destroyer]

The old lady wants to buy a laptop.
Specifically, this Toshiba at CompUSA: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=343684&pfp=bonus

I know squat about laptops. I have no use for portable computing and am of the opinion that laptops are underpowered and expensive....

Regardless, I do know that Toshiba's have a good reputation, have been recommended to me by a few folks that do like laptops and are into that kind of shit, and the Toshiba's have consistently gotten high marks from Consumer Reports.
I also know that they are kinda notorious for having the most crap-ware installed at the factory.
When we asked the salesperson if the purchase included installation discs for all software currently installed in the computer, we were told that it had a "recovery disc".
That's not really the same now is it?

How hard is it to get all the crap-ware, AOL (*cough* VIRUS *cough*), Google bars/searhes (*cough* MORE VIRUSES! *cough*) etc off of the PC?
More importantly have any of you fine folks had any luck getting a plain old OS installation disc from Toshiba?

TIA!!!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Oh yeah -- one other thing.
The sales chick was really REALLY pushing the "2-year Protection Plan!".
I mean holy shit, I felt like I was in a high-pressure sales used car dealership....

Do Toshiba laptops really need 3 battery replacements and 1 screen replacements in the first 2 years????
Are laptops in general total pieces of shit or something?
Or was she just trying to get some kind of commission bonus for pushing the "Protection Plan"?

[MOVIEGEEK]

I have a A105 and was the best bang-for-the buck at the time I bought it,it came with a restore disc.
Use pcdecrapifier and CCleaner to get rid of the crapware.So far my notebook hasn't given me any problems and Toshiba has frequent software updates.
BTW:all salespersons push extended warranties because they and the store get a cut,it's not worth it IMO.

[kisrum]

Our company uses Toshibas and man do they come with crapware which I can't remove since I'm not in IT. So, other than glacial boot ups, they seem okay. Don't know anything about their price competitiveness. The flip around screen that makes a tablet for writing is useful on airplanes

[ViRaL1]

I have a Toshiba 1955-S805 and I love it. Granted, it did come with a ton of extra crap when I bought it, but I reloaded it with an OEM XP CD and have had nothing but good luck with it. It's been faithful for nearly 5 years. I have yet to find anything that makes me want to replace it, granted I've gotten a bigger faster hard drive and doubled the RAM in those 4 years. Yes, retail salespeople will push the extended warranty because management is on them to push it, but in cases like laptops and HDTVs, I recommend it if it covers things like LCD replacement. If you have to have your LCD replaced you'll likely pay more than the 2-year protection plan and possibly more than the 3 year depending on where you take it.

[classfour]

Updated one for a friend - nice screen, originally had a bad MOBO that Toshiba replaced; unlike HP: I'd buy one just for the factory service.

[trhouse]

The company I work for uses Toshibas. One was used as a company fax machine for seven years. It was on 24/7 and was only recently replaced. The only problem it had was the factory battery went dead after about four years. The battery is expensive, about $145. It was replaced by a no name battery for about half that much but which did not last two years.

[serega]

I had first one something like M45 model, never had any problems.
I have a second one A-105 and very happy with. I have done editing on it with Pinnacle studio 9.3 (DV Avi's), using external HD. The only thing is as other post said you may be better to remove all that crap it came with. A fanny thing that I got Acer Travel Mate 4060 from Sams Club and it came just with Windows installed. Nothing else....

[guns1inger]

I have a 2 and a half year-old A200 running Vista (granted, it has 1.5 GB ram) and it has never put a foot wrong. I service a school that has some 500 - 600 Toshibas between 1 - 5 years old at any give time. The most common problem we have is frayed cords on the power supplies from kids wrapping the cords tightly around the units. We have also had a few HDD failures, but given how some kids treat their machines, this is not surprising, and is still a rare occurrence. As for battery life - all laptop batteries are prone to failure if they are not treated well. Charge them up, run them flat. If you keep putting them on the charger before they are flat, you will screw the battery life eventually. Treat them well, you should get 3 - 4 years out of them.

I cannot speak to the crap on them, as we get ours with custom images installed, but if they are like most manufacturers then you can expect it to covered with google or yahoo widgets and apps, and either Norton's or McAfees. It takes about 30 minutes to strip it back to windows only.

Having used HPs, Compaqs, Dells and Toshibas over the past 10 years, I would put Toshibas at the top of the list by far. You do generally pay more, but you get a disproportionately better machine for the price.