I'm out. Everyone says I'm way too picky about women, I guess the same thing goes for laptops. But like a woman, the right laptop will come along someday... 
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Lifer
- Apr 14, 2001
- 13,625
- 0
- 0
<< Lol dam it,,, I cant get the thing in NY
better off anyways. Its probally 8mb Video anyways. >>its available here but onboard 8mb video non upgradeable...no onboard nic..uhoh...what's "modular bay" ..is that propietary items only as that Toshiba CDRW (modular bay ) 4x4x24 is $224 :Q
Hi,
A couple of answers here, and one question:
1) Laptop does NOT have NIC - only built-in modem. It looks like there's an RJ45 on the back, but it's covered. I may try to pop mine off, or anyone else knows if this is really populated with a built-in NIC, speak up!
2) No S-video out, but it does have a VGA (HD DB15) output.
3) This uses an Intel 830MG chipset, and out-of-box, it shows 8MB video ram. You can download and install an updated driver (10.2.4) from Intel (search for 8230, I think) that will go up to 48MB. With 256MB RAM in the system, mine shows 32MB video ram now.
OK, now, my question:
I bought mine from CC last Thursday (2/28), for $999 (-100 CC rebate - 100 Toshiba rebate). Now that Office Depot is showing $899 (- 100 OD rebate - 100 Toshiba rebate), do you think that if I go back to the CC store, they will honor a PM against the OD $899 price? I haven't called around, but OD's website shows that this is out-of-stock locally, but I can get it online.
Any experience/suggestions on this?
Obviously, I'd really like to get that extra $100 PM!!! I'd like to use the extra $100 to upgrade the HD to maybe a 40GB drive.
Thanks in advance,
Jim
P.S. This IS a very nice laptop, IMHO, but I'm not a real power user.
A couple of answers here, and one question:
1) Laptop does NOT have NIC - only built-in modem. It looks like there's an RJ45 on the back, but it's covered. I may try to pop mine off, or anyone else knows if this is really populated with a built-in NIC, speak up!
2) No S-video out, but it does have a VGA (HD DB15) output.
3) This uses an Intel 830MG chipset, and out-of-box, it shows 8MB video ram. You can download and install an updated driver (10.2.4) from Intel (search for 8230, I think) that will go up to 48MB. With 256MB RAM in the system, mine shows 32MB video ram now.
OK, now, my question:
I bought mine from CC last Thursday (2/28), for $999 (-100 CC rebate - 100 Toshiba rebate). Now that Office Depot is showing $899 (- 100 OD rebate - 100 Toshiba rebate), do you think that if I go back to the CC store, they will honor a PM against the OD $899 price? I haven't called around, but OD's website shows that this is out-of-stock locally, but I can get it online.
Any experience/suggestions on this?
Obviously, I'd really like to get that extra $100 PM!!! I'd like to use the extra $100 to upgrade the HD to maybe a 40GB drive
.Thanks in advance,
Jim
P.S. This IS a very nice laptop, IMHO, but I'm not a real power user.
Hi,
Does anyone out there know the answer to my question re. CC and PM'ing there? I'm planning to try tomorrow, but would like to get an idea of what my chances are, and what kind of problems I might get into!
Jim
Does anyone out there know the answer to my question re. CC and PM'ing there? I'm planning to try tomorrow, but would like to get an idea of what my chances are, and what kind of problems I might get into!
Jim
if it has a lan port and no lan card, that means you go on ebay and buy a mini pci combo lan / modem card and replace it yourself
Hi,
One question that I forgot to address.
Re. the 'selectbay', this laptop comes with both a DVD drive and a floppy drive, but only one can be inserted into the system at a time, in the 'selectbay'.
BTW, again, anyone have any idea about PM'ing at CC against Office Depot's website?
Thanks,
Jim
One question that I forgot to address.
Re. the 'selectbay', this laptop comes with both a DVD drive and a floppy drive, but only one can be inserted into the system at a time, in the 'selectbay'.
BTW, again, anyone have any idea about PM'ing at CC against Office Depot's website?
Thanks,
Jim
jimcpl,
There was a thread specifically about this laptop at CC last week and I know at least one person was unable to get CC to pricematch another retailer. Something about CC's price was the same after rebate. Search on Toshiba Laptop and you can find the thread. Seems to me you should be able to pricematch, give it a shot.
I also bought this laptop at CC last week but I used my Amex Blue and pricematched ecost at 869.00
A question for you. Where do you see the amount of video memory after you loaded the new driver?
Thanks,
mookie
There was a thread specifically about this laptop at CC last week and I know at least one person was unable to get CC to pricematch another retailer. Something about CC's price was the same after rebate. Search on Toshiba Laptop and you can find the thread. Seems to me you should be able to pricematch, give it a shot.
I also bought this laptop at CC last week but I used my Amex Blue and pricematched ecost at 869.00
A question for you. Where do you see the amount of video memory after you loaded the new driver?
Thanks,
mookie
Mookie,
Re. PM, the difference between NOW and LAST WEEK, is that Office Depot has "officially" dropped the price on their website to $899 (before $200 rebates).
Just last week (when I bought mine), OD was showing $999 (before $200 rebates).
You should tell your friend to try again. I will be calling some local OD stores to check if they have stock and trying to do a PM today sometime.
Re. seeing the video memory:
Right click on desktop -> Select Properties -> click on Settings tab -> Click on Advanced button ->
Click on Adapter tab
This will show the "Memory Size", among other things.
Before installing the Intel 830MG driver update, it was showing 8MB. Now it is showing 32MB. I think if I add memory above 256MB, it will go to 48MB, but I'm planning to upgrade the hard drive first, before adding more memory.
Jim
Re. PM, the difference between NOW and LAST WEEK, is that Office Depot has "officially" dropped the price on their website to $899 (before $200 rebates).
Just last week (when I bought mine), OD was showing $999 (before $200 rebates).
You should tell your friend to try again. I will be calling some local OD stores to check if they have stock and trying to do a PM today sometime.
Re. seeing the video memory:
Right click on desktop -> Select Properties -> click on Settings tab -> Click on Advanced button ->
Click on Adapter tab
This will show the "Memory Size", among other things.
Before installing the Intel 830MG driver update, it was showing 8MB. Now it is showing 32MB. I think if I add memory above 256MB, it will go to 48MB, but I'm planning to upgrade the hard drive first, before adding more memory
.Jim
Anyone that already has this unit:
How is the scaling on the screen?
E.g. Does it auto-sync a 640x480 or 800x600 UP TO a 1024 and smooth the fonts out and stuff, or is it the older technology that just does a straight multiplier of every other pixel and you end up with very ugly blocky pixels uneven as every other one is doubled/etc..
Most all LCDs for desktops autoscale nicely.
I went to best buy and tested their 15" version of the Toshiba notebook display and it scaled beautifully (and had brightness control)
Then I tested their other (18x5?) model of the 14.1" notebooks (last year tech?) And it didn't have brightness control and even if I checked "strech" it left a black border everywhere.
I would NOT want the notebook unless it scaled nicely (only reason is playing old games like MAME or whatever that need other video resoultions). A soft display is better than a blocky one, or a tiny black bordered one.
Thanks for any info!
How is the scaling on the screen?
E.g. Does it auto-sync a 640x480 or 800x600 UP TO a 1024 and smooth the fonts out and stuff, or is it the older technology that just does a straight multiplier of every other pixel and you end up with very ugly blocky pixels uneven as every other one is doubled/etc..
Most all LCDs for desktops autoscale nicely.
I went to best buy and tested their 15" version of the Toshiba notebook display and it scaled beautifully (and had brightness control)
Then I tested their other (18x5?) model of the 14.1" notebooks (last year tech?) And it didn't have brightness control and even if I checked "strech" it left a black border everywhere.
I would NOT want the notebook unless it scaled nicely (only reason is playing old games like MAME or whatever that need other video resoultions). A soft display is better than a blocky one, or a tiny black bordered one.
Thanks for any info!
DealLurker,
I'm not quite sure on what you're asking. I have one of these laptops, and if you post exactly what you want me to try, I'll try it and post back.
In case this is what you're asking about, I have tried setting the display to 800x600, and with "Panel Fit" enabled, the 800x600 display fills the full LCD area. With Panel Fit disabled, it shrinks the display down to the middle part of the LCD, with black border all around.
Is that what you mean by "stretch"?
If so, it worked nicely, although at 800x600, letters were little 'fuzzy', but not "blocky". But, XP also has Cleartype, which might've cleaned it up a bit.
Jim
I'm not quite sure on what you're asking. I have one of these laptops, and if you post exactly what you want me to try, I'll try it and post back.
In case this is what you're asking about, I have tried setting the display to 800x600, and with "Panel Fit" enabled, the 800x600 display fills the full LCD area. With Panel Fit disabled, it shrinks the display down to the middle part of the LCD, with black border all around.
Is that what you mean by "stretch"?
If so, it worked nicely, although at 800x600, letters were little 'fuzzy', but not "blocky". But, XP also has Cleartype, which might've cleaned it up a bit.
Jim
> In case this is what you're asking about, I have tried setting the display to 800x600, and with "Panel Fit" enabled, the 800x600 display fills the full LCD area. With Panel Fit disabled, it shrinks the display down to the middle part of the LCD, with black border all around.
> Is that what you mean by "stretch"?
Okay, so "stretch to fill" is aka "Panel Fit".. That's the first part.. Whether or not it would stretch 640x480 and 800x600 to fill 1024x768 or leave black border.
> If so, it worked nicely, although at 800x600, letters were little 'fuzzy', but not "blocky". But, XP also has Cleartype, which might've cleaned it up a bit.
This is the second part...
It's important that everything (not just letters, but they are the main indicator) is SMOOTH (slightly soft/fuzzy) versus blocky.
Older notebooks (not too long ago in fact) simply took a small screen, and doubled the width of every other pixel.
This resulted in a Letter H having a double wide left bar, and a single wide right vertical bar..in other words, looked like crap!
The newer ones "dither" it to place a color between the original pixel and the next pixel to "blend" it. Thats why text looks fuzzy.
If you turn off ClearType (I actually don't like clear type for MOST things), does it still look good, or is it only cleartype (and not the chip in the panel) doing the adjusting? The easiest way to tell is go to a site that has text EMBEDDED in a bitmap (versus standalone). Cleartype can't affect it, so you'll know if it's automatic (hardware) or windows doing it.
Best place to look for that? http://mail.yahoo.com
Look at the small text to the right of the globe and the 2 girls in the air-charis... That test is in the picture.
Does it smooth it or is it really blocky and unreadable if you go to 640 or 800 setting?
Also... another clue is the softness of the bios boot text that splashes on the screen before you get the Windows xp startup logo. If soft, it's stretching the 640 to full screen nicely, if blocky, then bad.
Thanks! Please repond quickly...Trying to decide on this sucker
DealLurker,
I'll try to answer your questions, but one caveat: "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". What I mean is what's "blocky" to you may or may not be "blocky" to me. Ok?
Ok, let me try to answer one at a time. Hope I don't miss anything...
First of all, FYI, there IS NO setting, at least on my machine, for 640x480. Only resolutions available with the LCD are 800x600 and 1024xwhatever.
1) When set to 800x600, there is no black border.
2) Checked mail.yahoo.com. The girls and the letters don't look blocky at all...still look a little fuzzy though.
I'm a little puzzled about the following from your post:
"Also... another clue is the softness of the bios boot text that splashes on the screen before
you get the Windows xp startup logo. If soft, it's stretching the 640 to full screen nicely, if blocky, then
bad."
Even after I set 800x600 in XP, when I reboot, the Toshiba Logo looks EXACTLY the same size as when I had it set to 1024xwhatever in XP.
There is NO setting in the BIOS for the display. Right? Only in XP?
One other thing that you might find of interest: If I open a DOS window under Windows, then do Alt-Enter, what I get is the DOS part kind of in the middle of the windows (i.e., it's not full screen).
When it's set for 800x600 in XP and I do Alt-Enter, the letters are kind of 'squooshed' vertically, and the DOS text area is kind of in the center of the LCD.
If I set it to 1024xwhatever in XP and do Alt-Enter, the DOS text area is again in the center of the LCD, but the letters look ok.
DealLurker, I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.
My apologies in advance for any mis-interpretations or observations on my part.
Jim
I'll try to answer your questions, but one caveat: "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". What I mean is what's "blocky" to you may or may not be "blocky" to me. Ok?
Ok, let me try to answer one at a time. Hope I don't miss anything...
First of all, FYI, there IS NO setting, at least on my machine, for 640x480. Only resolutions available with the LCD are 800x600 and 1024xwhatever.
1) When set to 800x600, there is no black border.
2) Checked mail.yahoo.com. The girls and the letters don't look blocky at all...still look a little fuzzy though
.I'm a little puzzled about the following from your post:
"Also... another clue is the softness of the bios boot text that splashes on the screen before
you get the Windows xp startup logo. If soft, it's stretching the 640 to full screen nicely, if blocky, then
bad."
Even after I set 800x600 in XP, when I reboot, the Toshiba Logo looks EXACTLY the same size as when I had it set to 1024xwhatever in XP.
There is NO setting in the BIOS for the display. Right? Only in XP?
One other thing that you might find of interest: If I open a DOS window under Windows, then do Alt-Enter, what I get is the DOS part kind of in the middle of the windows (i.e., it's not full screen).
When it's set for 800x600 in XP and I do Alt-Enter, the letters are kind of 'squooshed' vertically, and the DOS text area is kind of in the center of the LCD.
If I set it to 1024xwhatever in XP and do Alt-Enter, the DOS text area is again in the center of the LCD, but the letters look ok.
DealLurker, I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.
My apologies in advance for any mis-interpretations or observations on my part.
Jim
I just called my local staples BM. they said they will match the online price but not there OD 100$ rebate. Ohhh well.
I wonder if OD will order me one.
I wonder if OD will order me one.
ScrapSilicon
Lifer
- Apr 14, 2001
- 13,625
- 0
- 0
<< will staples PM this? >>
the one at Staples
<< Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition >>
not XP Home and you will not get the $100 OD specific rebate ..just the Toshiba one.<edit> I see you checked but XPPro is a little more feature-rich than XPHome.
JimCPL --
Thanks for your reply. You just helped me make my decision...NOT to get the unit.
I was noticing some of the same things on the display 18x5 series at BestBuy today, but didn't want to compare it as it used a different video chipset.
To answer your questions and to help others understand this issue, I'll reply to your comments below:
> First of all, FYI, there IS NO setting, at least on my machine, for 640x480. Only resolutions available with the LCD are 800x600 and 1024xwhatever.
That is in WINDOWS... However, most laptops will still allow you to go to tons of different modes, settable by BIOS or other things.
> 1) When set to 800x600, there is no black border.
That means it streched to fill
> 2) Checked mail.yahoo.com. The girls and the letters don't look blocky at all...still look a little fuzzy though .
Streched and anti-aliased ALL vertical lines
> I'm a little puzzled about the following from your post:
> "Also... another clue is the softness of the bios boot text that splashes on the screen before
>you get the Windows xp startup logo. If soft, it's stretching the 640 to full screen nicely, if blocky, then bad."
>
>Even after I set 800x600 in XP, when I reboot, the Toshiba Logo looks EXACTLY the same size as when I had it set to 1024xwhatever in XP.
Your WINDOWS setting doesn't affect the mode the computer is in when it boots... That's determined in BIOS
> There is NO setting in the BIOS for the display. Right? Only in XP?
Some computers have a setting to say "expand" versus "frame". Each bios is different.
Now we're getting to what swayed my decision:
> One other thing that you might find of interest: If I open a DOS window under Windows, then do Alt-Enter, what I get is the DOS part kind of in the middle of the windows (i.e., it's not full screen).
AIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
That means that the scaling is done via SOFTWARE using DIRECTX in windows.
When you use ALT-ENTER to enter full screen mode, the command prompt defaults to your best low-screen resolution (e.g. 640x480!!!) and then displays.
Since you're getting it as a tiny framed window, that means there is no hardware support for the auto-scaling...it's entirely based in the driver in XP.
> When it's set for 800x600 in XP and I do Alt-Enter, the letters are kind of 'squooshed' vertically, and the DOS text area is kind of in the center of the LCD.
That "squoshed" is what I was trying to describe with the thicker vertical bar of one side of a letter H and a thin on the other side... Its not even trying to anti-alias them.
It sounds like what's happening is it's entering an OVERLAY mode where it leaves the old picture around the edge then syncs the window into an appropriate sized frame and only refreshes that portion of the screen... Talk about TACKY!
> If I set it to 1024xwhatever in XP and do Alt-Enter, the DOS text area is again in the center of the LCD, but the letters look ok.
What this all means is this:
1) This screen and/or video chip does not support multiple VESA video modes.
2) It appears to be LOCKED into 1024x768, but WILL draw the windows screen at 800x600 and anti-alias the edges correctly (thru software)
3) Any application that trys to go full-screen into a mode that is NOT 1024x768 will simply be allocated an appropriate portion of the screen and the surrounding border is not redrawn to even black (YUCK!)
4) This means if I was to load up a program like MAME and attempt to play a game in say 320x240 mode, it would appear as a tiny bit of pixels in the middle of the screen and not even be blacked out.
5) Therefore I would need to force it into 1024x768 full screen and then use software to manage the smoothing of the frames, and therefore reduce the overall performance of it *significantly*
I honestly am very very surprised it can't handle a full screen 640x480 dos box, drawn as it would on a CRT.. That's pretty lame. Even my old P233 Micron XKE, and P120 Dell Latitude Xpi will do that!!!!!!
> DealLurker, I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.
> My apologies in advance for any mis-interpretations or observations on my part.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I had basically talked myself out of getting it for other reasons, but you just sinched it for me. I'd rather wait another month for another HP deal or something and pay $100 more and get a network card, LIIon battery, a 32 meg real video memory, and better video display management.
If this one was $575-$625 instead of $732 for me I'd have a much harder time not upgrading (even considering the display) but I can't get it any lower than $732 after tax so it's not worth it given these problems, and knowing another deal for $825 will appear sometime in the future.
THANKS AGAIN
Sorry for the long post, but hope this helps others make the right decision. This verified what I saw on a similar (not identical) Toshiba model today at BestBuy, so I tend to believe the assements!
Thanks for your reply. You just helped me make my decision...NOT to get the unit.
I was noticing some of the same things on the display 18x5 series at BestBuy today, but didn't want to compare it as it used a different video chipset.
To answer your questions and to help others understand this issue, I'll reply to your comments below:
> First of all, FYI, there IS NO setting, at least on my machine, for 640x480. Only resolutions available with the LCD are 800x600 and 1024xwhatever.
That is in WINDOWS... However, most laptops will still allow you to go to tons of different modes, settable by BIOS or other things.
> 1) When set to 800x600, there is no black border.
That means it streched to fill
> 2) Checked mail.yahoo.com. The girls and the letters don't look blocky at all...still look a little fuzzy though .
Streched and anti-aliased ALL vertical lines
> I'm a little puzzled about the following from your post:
> "Also... another clue is the softness of the bios boot text that splashes on the screen before
>you get the Windows xp startup logo. If soft, it's stretching the 640 to full screen nicely, if blocky, then bad."
>
>Even after I set 800x600 in XP, when I reboot, the Toshiba Logo looks EXACTLY the same size as when I had it set to 1024xwhatever in XP.
Your WINDOWS setting doesn't affect the mode the computer is in when it boots... That's determined in BIOS
> There is NO setting in the BIOS for the display. Right? Only in XP?
Some computers have a setting to say "expand" versus "frame". Each bios is different.
Now we're getting to what swayed my decision:
> One other thing that you might find of interest: If I open a DOS window under Windows, then do Alt-Enter, what I get is the DOS part kind of in the middle of the windows (i.e., it's not full screen).
AIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
That means that the scaling is done via SOFTWARE using DIRECTX in windows.
When you use ALT-ENTER to enter full screen mode, the command prompt defaults to your best low-screen resolution (e.g. 640x480!!!) and then displays.
Since you're getting it as a tiny framed window, that means there is no hardware support for the auto-scaling...it's entirely based in the driver in XP.
> When it's set for 800x600 in XP and I do Alt-Enter, the letters are kind of 'squooshed' vertically, and the DOS text area is kind of in the center of the LCD.
That "squoshed" is what I was trying to describe with the thicker vertical bar of one side of a letter H and a thin on the other side... Its not even trying to anti-alias them.
It sounds like what's happening is it's entering an OVERLAY mode where it leaves the old picture around the edge then syncs the window into an appropriate sized frame and only refreshes that portion of the screen... Talk about TACKY!
> If I set it to 1024xwhatever in XP and do Alt-Enter, the DOS text area is again in the center of the LCD, but the letters look ok.
What this all means is this:
1) This screen and/or video chip does not support multiple VESA video modes.
2) It appears to be LOCKED into 1024x768, but WILL draw the windows screen at 800x600 and anti-alias the edges correctly (thru software)
3) Any application that trys to go full-screen into a mode that is NOT 1024x768 will simply be allocated an appropriate portion of the screen and the surrounding border is not redrawn to even black (YUCK!)
4) This means if I was to load up a program like MAME and attempt to play a game in say 320x240 mode, it would appear as a tiny bit of pixels in the middle of the screen and not even be blacked out.
5) Therefore I would need to force it into 1024x768 full screen and then use software to manage the smoothing of the frames, and therefore reduce the overall performance of it *significantly*
I honestly am very very surprised it can't handle a full screen 640x480 dos box, drawn as it would on a CRT.. That's pretty lame. Even my old P233 Micron XKE, and P120 Dell Latitude Xpi will do that!!!!!!
> DealLurker, I don't know if the above helps, but I hope that it does.
> My apologies in advance for any mis-interpretations or observations on my part.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I had basically talked myself out of getting it for other reasons, but you just sinched it for me. I'd rather wait another month for another HP deal or something and pay $100 more and get a network card, LIIon battery, a 32 meg real video memory, and better video display management.
If this one was $575-$625 instead of $732 for me I'd have a much harder time not upgrading (even considering the display) but I can't get it any lower than $732 after tax so it's not worth it given these problems, and knowing another deal for $825 will appear sometime in the future.
THANKS AGAIN
Sorry for the long post, but hope this helps others make the right decision. This verified what I saw on a similar (not identical) Toshiba model today at BestBuy, so I tend to believe the assements!
This is a white hot supernova deal for me!!! Just ordered one online. It was in stock for me. Here's the breakdown of frugality:
$900 - $200 MIRs - $20 off $75 coupon - $9 (1%) cashback using Discover card + free shipping+ $0 sales tax in NH =
$671!!!
What makes this deal even better for me is that I own a Toshiba Satellite 1755 (700MHz Celeron, 192MB RAM, 10GB HDD, 13.3" TFT, DVD - basically last years version of the 1005-S157) that I'm going to sell on ebay. The similarly featured 1735 model (has a schitty DSTN screen instead of a TFT) has sold between $600 & $750 in recent weeks on ebay. I could possibly get paid to buy the newer 1005-S157!!! DAYUMN!!!
My wife has been so proud of me lately for finding these deals. I used to be the spender & she used to be the frugal one. It seems like I'm still buying as much stuff as I used to, but now I either get things for free or I get paid to buy. Thanks to all the folks here at AnandTech Hot Deals!!!
Steve
$900 - $200 MIRs - $20 off $75 coupon - $9 (1%) cashback using Discover card + free shipping
+ $0 sales tax in NH = $671!!!
What makes this deal even better for me is that I own a Toshiba Satellite 1755 (700MHz Celeron, 192MB RAM, 10GB HDD, 13.3" TFT, DVD - basically last years version of the 1005-S157) that I'm going to sell on ebay. The similarly featured 1735 model (has a schitty DSTN screen instead of a TFT) has sold between $600 & $750 in recent weeks on ebay. I could possibly get paid to buy the newer 1005-S157!!! DAYUMN!!!
My wife has been so proud of me lately for finding these deals. I used to be the spender & she used to be the frugal one. It seems like I'm still buying as much stuff as I used to, but now I either get things for free or I get paid to buy. Thanks to all the folks here at AnandTech Hot Deals!!!
Steve
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