Toshiba Repairs

[mickmac]

I have a Toshiba Notebook, 3yrs old, but still very good. Until today everything worked fine, but now it would appear that the hard drive has thrown its hand in.

I have tried to reload the factiory settings from the oribinal CD's but to no avail.

So I am thinking of taking it in to the Toshiba building in Bkk. I have a few questions.

A) Has anyone used this facility for repairs?

If so how was the service?

C) How expensive are they?

I am located in Chiang Mai, so if there is anyone that can be recommended in CM to do a decent job please let me know.

Thanking you in anticipation.

[waldwolf]

mickmac - Sorry, I can't help with any service shop recommendations, however, I would personally place a higher level of trust in Toshiba's factory run service department, than any independent shop. This simply from the fact the Toshiba shop would have all service bulletins, specialized tools & test equipment and are more likely to stock properitory replacement parts.

In a factory shop, it is also more likely the techs see/work on 1 or 2 of the same models every month vs. a local shop tech who may only see the same model, once a year, if he's lucky. In other words, your paying the factory shop to fix the machine, not paying for someone's "learning experience".

One question. What led you to the conclusion that the hard drive (HDD) has "thrown its hand in"? Perhaps you could give us more details on what you see & hear, when the unit is first turned on.

Mechanically, HDD replacement is a relatively easy task. Akin to changing a flat tire on your car. (The hardware may be expensive, but the labor cost should be quite low.)

cheers

[slimdog]

I had a similar problem with a Toshiba laptop a few weeks ago, only mine was closer to 4 years old. Took it to Panthip where I found a really helpful shop which specialised in older Toshiba's (Ground floor). Prefered it there to the main Toshiba shop as he did everything in front of me rather than someone taking it away. I kept the original hard-disk (Fujitsu, Made in Thailand..) and confirmed it was badly corrupted, with multiple bad sectors.

[mickmac]

Hi Waldwolf/Slimdog, thank you both for you answers.

WW: I had a noisy hard drive for about 12-18 months, 2 nights ago there was quite a noticable change to the noise it was generating. I managed to copy some data I need for work to a CD rom. The noise stoped and the screen came up blue with an error message. Stating that an error had been caused possibly by the addition of new hardware, so I was to remove the hardware and its software. The thing was I have not added anything new for quite a while,(several months). I then tried to use the restore cd disks I recieved with the computer. I started the machine and got the Toshiba screen displayed. I then followed the directions on the jacket, to start restoring the system. It looked as if the system went into DOS. Eventually the screen came up and asked did I want to re-format the hard drive,(drastic I know), to which I said Yes. Was I sure? Yes The screen then reverted back to the Toshiba screen, and just kept on repeating the routine, did I want to restore factory settings etc.

So it appears that the factory issued restore CD could not write to the hard disk.

That in addition to the grating noise and the change in the noise it was making immediately prior to the "crash" has led me to make the assumption that the problem was hard disk related.

Any further thoughts gentlemen?

[slimdog]

From what you described, I would have to agree that the harddisk is probably damaged, whether this is the only problem will only be known if a new hard disk is installed and you are able to load an o/s.

Replacing a harddisk is fairly simple and shouldn't cost too much (B4000+ depending on size) and if you take it to panthip they will format and load the o/s of your choice probably free of charge at the same time. In all honesty I don't think the Toshiba service centre will be able to do much that can't be done in panthip, but they probably will keep your computer for a while, which could be inconvenient, and they will probably cost more.

[waldwolf]

Yes......it does sound as if your HDD has had a "heart attack".

If there is valuable data on the HDD, critical to your work or personal life, some or all that data may be recoverable. There are companies and software programs that specialize in HDD crash data recovery. Not cheap, but sometimes cost effective where irreplaceable data is involved. (A Google search will give you more details.)

Another "temp fix" solution for data recovery used by both professional as well as amateurs is "cooling the HDD". This involves removing the HDD, placing it in the fridge or freezer, and waiting a couple of hours. Many times the reinstalled HDD will work again, long enough to backup data onto a CD or DVD.

A final thought. While your laptop is about 3 years old, some HDD's carry a 5 year warrenty. I'd suggest you look into this possible remedy. (May save you considerable money, as laptop HDD's are generally 2 or 3 times more expensive than desktop HDD's.)

good luck

[richsilver]

I agree with the advice of slimdog, however, I HAVE had personal experience with the Toshiba folks in Bangkok.

I brought my laptop in a few months ago for repair. They put in a new hard drive (among other things). It was under warranty, so there was no charge. They were quite helpful and actually delivered the repaired computer to me here in Pattaya for no charge. It did take a month, however.

My contact there was Theerawit Vatunyusakul, the service manager who speaks quite good English. His number: 02-512-0270-81 ext. 199.