Toshiba Laptop Problems

[Redundant]

I have a Toshiba P105-S6114 and I seem to be having two problems:

-I think it's overheating
-The optical drive won't burn DVDs

I installed speedfan a month ago and temps are staying at 55*C when web browsing. It gets up to 70*C when playing a game. I thought speedfan was making a mistake so I installed it on my mom's Sony SZ laptop and temps stayed around 41*C. This laptop is usually on a tablecloth so I thought that was the problem and, when idling, the temps stayed lower on the hardwood desk. When I opened up a game, however, they once again jumped to the high 60's. In addition, the fan is very erratic. It goes on high for 2 seconds and dies down. Upon looking this laptop up, it seems this fan behavior is the norm (although very annoying).

Are these high temps for a laptop?


The optical drive installed is a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4082N. In My computer, when empty, it lists itself as a DVD-RAM drive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd-ram). Has anyone even heard of a DVD-RAM disk?

I went to this site (http://www.bhacorp.com/download/utilities/dvdram.html) and updated the DVD-RAM driver that came pre-installed in the laptop. It is listed under the Add/Remove programs list. Under the properties for the drive is also a Windows driver; I have checked for updates for it but there are none.

Trying to open a blank disk in windows explorer:

Attempt 1:
CD-R: Error Message:"D:/ is not accessible. Incorrect Function"
DVD+R: Error Message:"D:/ is not accessible. Incorrect Function"

Went to DVD-RAM drive properties and checked the "Enable CD recording on this drive" on the Recording tab.

Attempt 2:
CD-R: Writable CD window opened: I have not tried to burn a CD yet but everything before the actual burn apparently works.
DVD+R: Unwritable window Opened, will not allow files to be added: Error Message: "Windows encountered a problem when trying to copy this file. What do you want Windows to do?" There is a Retry and Cancel button; Retry does nothing. I then manually set the write speed to 16x (the speed listed on the DVD+R) but it also does nothing different.

Any suggestions on getting this drive to burn a DVD+R?


I will say in advance that I may not open this thing up to change the heatsink compound or heatsink fan itself because I have to share it with my sibling. Also in advance, the download page for the DVD-RAM driver update said it would not work if the driver has been uninstalled from the PC so I cannot "wipe the driver off and reinstall" like most people do. And believe me, if I had gotten a choice, I would have built myself a desktop even if I had to share it...

The specs of this laptop can be seen here (http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/toshiba_satellite_p105-s6114_notebook.html), on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-P105-S6114-Processor-SuperMulti/dp/B000IXD7YA), and it's product page (http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/rdet.jsp?poid=351575&seg=HHO) but the Toshiba page was not working last time I checked.

[xRyokenx]

My guess for the heating is maybe you've got a dust problem. For the DVD drive it may be a bad drive, try it out in another laptop if you happen to have one. If worst comes to worst just get an external drive.

Sorry I couldn't have given ya more advice, but I'm not too much of an expert on laptops...

[jwtiger69]

As for the overheating problem you just to remember a couple things. First laptops are always going to be a little warmer than what you are used too compared to a desktop. Second there are passive cooled. What I mean by this is the fan only comes on when the computer detects the tempature getting over a certain point. Though I am not sure what tempature that is..... To help with that make sure you blow out any dust around the exhaust ports and intake ports. If the fan is always on even when you just turn it on then there could be a problem and I would just call the manufacturer.

As far as the DVD-RAM problem, it is a registry problem. OR there are two other fixes...

One- Right click on the drive and go into properties. There should be something there to enable DVD-burning

Second- Msconfig the the DVDram feature out of startup....

[Redundant]

My guess for the heating is maybe you've got a dust problem.

It doesn't appear dusty but I may see if I can get a hold of some compressed air.


For the DVD drive it may be a bad drive, try it out in another laptop if you happen to have one.
There is not no switch to take it out and I'm not allowed to open it up to take out the drive.

First laptops are always going to be a little warmer than what you are used too compared to a desktop.
I expected that but, 69*C?! That seems extraordinarily high to me.


One- Right click on the drive and go into properties. There should be something there to enable DVD-burning
Nope, only an "Enable CD writing" check box.


Second- Msconfig the the DVDram feature out of startup....
I did notice a program in startup called RAMASST. I'll disable it in MSConfig and see if that helps.
+rep for the tip.

[Mysteriphys]

send it back and tell them to fix it... laptop manufacturers are getting really lazy lately and it's showing with the product.

[Redundant]

Well, as far as getting it to burn DVD's, that's a no-go. I just got a 500GB external hard drive instead.

And it hasn't shut down yet because of the temps (which Intel processors do if overheating) so I thinking they're good enough.

Actually, the only thing that is top-notch is the LCD panel and the RAM.

[xRyokenx]

I think they're slacking when it comes to the cooling in laptops... and with other stuff too. I can't stand that they're selling laptops with Vista and only 1gb of RAM... I've seen 512mb ones with Vista too... Vista takes about 600-750mbs of RAM, and this thing (my grandpa's brand new Acer) barely runs... and they usually put crap for GFX cards too. I dunno...

[xRyokenx]

I know it's not to bash the manufacturers, I'm just pointing out something I've noticed and expressing an opinion.

If it is Vista that you have, I've noticed that the burning utility it came with doesn't always work, and it didn't like Nero either. I went to just straight out burn things from explorer and the program locked up and wouldn't close. I then tried the photo utility (which also needs work) and it burned just fine, took about an hour, but it worked better than the other thing, lol. It could be that.

[Redundant]

As I said in the original post...


Also in advance, the download page for the DVD-RAM driver update said it would not work if the driver has been uninstalled from the PC so I cannot "wipe the driver off and reinstall" like most people do. And believe me, if I had gotten a choice, I would have built myself a desktop even if I had to share it...
Running XP: Media Center Edition.


CD/DVD Drive: The double-layer DVD drive is compatible with a wide range of formats, including both DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, CD-RW discs, and dual-layer (DL) DVD+/-R discs, which can hold up to 8.5 GB of data--great for backing up your MP3 collection or your most important documents. It features the following speeds: 2.4x DVD+R DL, 2x DVD-R DL, 8x for both single-layer DVD+R/-R, 4x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-RW, 3x DVD-RAM, and 24x/10x for CD-R/RW. It reads DVD-ROM discs at 8x and CD-ROMs at 24x.

It's really not a problem that I can't burn DVDs. I have an external HDD (which, once again, I already said) and the only reason I wanted to burn DVD was for backups.