Strange laptop behavior

[Newt]

I worked on a Toshiba Satellite L645D laptop today for a soon-to-be (this Thursday) daughter. Running Win7 SP1.

 

The complaints were

- can't use WiFi most of the time

- DVD drive sometimes works fine and sometimes not at all

- Battery life is short and uncertain

 

I did all the software checks I could think of and as far as I could tell

- there was no wireless NIC - except that taking the back off indicated the card was installed. Pressing the FN key shows a row of keys along the top of the screen as it should but F8, the WiFi key, is missing. It is physically on the keyboard but does nothing.

- the DVD player was in perfect health except that it wouldn't recognize an install CD but did fine with a random DVD

- the battery went from about 90% charge to so low the laptop powered down in a matter of a couple of minutes after running fine on battery for about 40 minutes to go from 100% to 90%

 

I "solved" the WiFi problem by buying a USB card that does fine. However, I'm a bit concerned about what might be wrong with this laptop and not sure what to recommend they do with it. I am basically a dunce with hardware issues in general and laptop hardware issues in particular.

 

The PC is clear of any critters as far as I (and MSE, Malwarebytes, Super Antispyware, and a rootkit detecting program, and the Win7 device manager) can tell. Chkdsk ran clean.

[kirisute]

I worked on a Toshiba Satellite L645D laptop today for a soon-to-be (this Thursday) daughter. Running Win7 SP1.

 

The complaints were

- can't use WiFi most of the time

- DVD drive sometimes works fine and sometimes not at all

- Battery life is short and uncertain

 

I did all the software checks I could think of and as far as I could tell

- there was no wireless NIC - except that taking the back off indicated the card was installed. Pressing the FN key shows a row of keys along the top of the screen as it should but F8, the WiFi key, is missing. It is physically on the keyboard but does nothing.

- the DVD player was in perfect health except that it wouldn't recognize an install CD but did fine with a random DVD

- the battery went from about 90% charge to so low the laptop powered down in a matter of a couple of minutes after running fine on battery for about 40 minutes to go from 100% to 90%

 

I "solved" the WiFi problem by buying a USB card that does fine. However, I'm a bit concerned about what might be wrong with this laptop and not sure what to recommend they do with it. I am basically a dunce with hardware issues in general and laptop hardware issues in particular.

 

The PC is clear of any critters as far as I (and MSE, Malwarebytes, Super Antispyware, and a rootkit detecting program, and the Win7 device manager) can tell. Chkdsk ran clean.

 

battery life is usually just a case of the battery being old and defunct...they only have a given life cycle of charges before they get worn out and don't hold a decent charge etc this usually shows itself as showing 100% charged etc and then simply turning off after 10 mins or 30 mins or some time nowhere near what a 100% battery life should be.

just buy a new battery.

 

onto wifi; there is absolutely no way that laptop would have come without a wifi card in it. there are several models in the l645d range but they all have wifi as far as I can see. sometimes the card wont activate if the correct software and hardware drivers are not installed; as well as the correct ATK drivers for the hotkeys to function.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su...mily=1073768663

that's the basic model driver page but you can tweak the models from to get the exact one your looking at.

ive known several laptops that just wont pick up wireless or even allow you to turn it on without the correct hotkey drivers and hardware drivers; Acer are known for it..without the correct ATK and hotkey drivers you can get the wireless to function at all; even with the hardware switch!!

 

is this an old laptop your refurbing? ebay purchase or what?

 

dvd drive wise- chances are it could be the lens; its often the case a drive on its way out will stop reading certain types of disk etc. they aint expensive to swap out anyway these days..maybe £30 at most.

[Newt]

Thanks. I think that is all the mysteries explained and a useful link. I had read that the BIOS had an off/on option for WiFi but I think that must have been older models since this one didn't have the option.

 

The laptop is a couple of years old I think. It belongs to a (almost & soon to be) family member.

 

I'll tell them they have WiFi but that a good tech can possibly revive the onboard one if they want and that the battery & DVD issues are probably bad hardware that they can replace if they want to. The great thing about doing free work like this is the customer really can't complain about the results. :D

[Andy_1984]

Newt. is there a small led light on the front or side of the laptop for the wifi, should be indicated by the little wifi icon/ does it change when you press F8 ?

 

other than that you might be able to keep it on constantly by changing settings in the drivers for the onboard wifi. unde rpower management or something, i cant be too certain ive never tried it for wifi cards but have for other devices that wouldnt come on, kiri might know

[Phone]

Newt,

 

You're an idiot!

 

Asking your help is simply a "xmas suggestion" com'on - break loose a little.

 

Phone

[Newt]

LOL - thanks Phone.

 

Andy - the F8 key does nothing. At all. FN F8 is missing from the display although F1-F7 & F9-F12 are all alive and well.

 

At any rate, step daughter-in-law (we have a somewhat complicated family tree ) is happy to have it back with working WiFi. It turns out they'd tried an external WiFi device with zero success.