Wierd Toshiba 1905-S301 Laptop Behavior

P

prc1

Guest
I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

....until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

I've stripped the unit down to the system board and looked carefully
with a magnifying glass. I can see no obvious problems (burnt traces,
cracked components, et cetera). Everything else on the unit's A-OK.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
 
prc1 wrote:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

I've stripped the unit down to the system board and looked carefully
with a magnifying glass. I can see no obvious problems (burnt traces,
cracked components, et cetera). Everything else on the unit's A-OK.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Check your LAN wake Up settings.
Click to expand...

Sounds strange to me, but I do know that on laptops a event message
will be sent to all applications indicating a power status change.

It's also possible you got a damaged system file from the HD when the
event took place. Or, you have a funny program on board that is
resetting when it sees this power status change. :(

http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"
 
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1 <prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP>
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.
Click to expand...
Is it possible that your CPU is being throttled because of heat or
some other reason? You can use a utility such as RMClock to display
the CPU speed.

See this Usenet post:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt/msg/c57c79787fa37156?dmode=source

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
 
Franc Zabkar wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1 <prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

probably spyware or a system process that turns on automatically.
Click to expand...
There could be any number of reasons. But if it works fine when not
connected to the internet it probably not hardware related.
 
Thanks for the replies thus far.

The poswer supply is an exact replacemtn, sec-wise: 19V @ 4.75 A (90
watt).

The hard drive was replaced with a newer, bigger hard drive and has a
fresh install of WinXP SP3, with patches. I'm also running Pop-Up Cop
to help with spyware, but I hadn't visited any other sites than
Microsoft's Adobe's and Apple's (still installing players, et cetera).

I found a SpeedStep monitor/control program, but it will only show the
full-out speed (1.993 GHz) of the CPU. I'm guessing the machine has a
desktop processor in it--when I removed the heatsink to clean it and
re-grease the CPU with Artic Silver, it looked like a desktop CPU.

The mystery deepens...if I only had a schematic. :(
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
 
prc1 wrote:
I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

I've stripped the unit down to the system board and looked carefully
with a magnifying glass. I can see no obvious problems (burnt traces,
cracked components, et cetera). Everything else on the unit's A-OK.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?
Click to expand...

How much System RAM? Have you looked to see what programs are using
the most memory? Some web pages have so may scripts running that they
hog all the resources, and slow a computer to a crawl.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

http://www.flickr.com/photos/materrell/
 
prc1 wrote:
I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.
Click to expand...
Before you start worrying about the electronics, check your power
management settings with the Toshiba utility program. It sounds like you
might have configured AC power mode with low power settings (eg; low CPU
usage). Also, does the AC plug LED light up when you plug in the
adapter, & turn off when you remove it?


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
Franc Zabkar wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1 <prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

Is it possible that your CPU is being throttled because of heat or
some other reason?
Click to expand...
That's what it sounds like to me too. Toshibas have a special power
utility that hooks into the Windows power management system that you can
use to check/change CPU throttling, etc, in the various power modes.
Oh, & it's also worth checking the BIOS power management settings too.


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1
<prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP>wrote:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

I've stripped the unit down to the system board and looked carefully
with a magnifying glass. I can see no obvious problems (burnt traces,
cracked components, et cetera). Everything else on the unit's A-OK.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Click to expand...
Sounds like a motherboard issue. I owned one Toshiba laptop back in
1994 and the wired connection was always slow no matter what I tried.
 
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.

On Tue, 12 May 2009 17:07:04 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com>
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

Before you start worrying about the electronics, check your power
management settings with the Toshiba utility program. It sounds like you
might have configured AC power mode with low power settings (eg; low CPU
usage). Also, does the AC plug LED light up when you plug in the
adapter, & turn off when you remove it?
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Click to expand...
 
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1 <prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP>
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.
Click to expand...
Why not run some benchmarks on the CPU, memory, graphics card and hard
drive before and during the slowdown?

If it is only your Internet speed that drops, then check your modem's
diagnostics for an error count.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
 
prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Click to expand...
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 10 May 2009 18:39:45 -0400, prc1
prc1CRAP@woh.CRAPrr.comCRAP>wrote:

I have a Toshiba 1905-S301 laptop that had its power supply blown up
in a lightning strike. I've gotten a new replacement adapter, and the
unit seems to be in great working shape.

Except...

I noticed an oddity when downloading some patches off a wired ethernet
connection the other evening. When the laptop has just been turned
on, everything's great--surfing and downloading speeds are super.
Then, after a while, internet access s-l-o-w-s down. New websites are
slow to load, downloads that were flying begin to creep...

...until I unplug the AC adapter. Then the speeds pick back up, sites
load quickly, downloads are fast.

I've stripped the unit down to the system board and looked carefully
with a magnifying glass. I can see no obvious problems (burnt traces,
cracked components, et cetera). Everything else on the unit's A-OK.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this?
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **

Sounds like a motherboard issue. I owned one Toshiba laptop back in
1994 and the wired connection was always slow no matter what I tried.
Click to expand...
IME, Toshiba NICs aren't the fastest in the world, but they're not crap.


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com>
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.

Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.
Click to expand...

Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
 
prc1 wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.


Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Click to expand...
Weird. I've got to say that it doesn't look even slightly like a
hardware fault. I think it's going to turn out to be a software problem
of some kind. You could eliminate/confirm software by booting the laptop
from a Linux "Live Boot" CDROM, & seeing if the problem goes away.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
On Fri, 15 May 2009 07:23:34 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com>
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.


Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **

Weird. I've got to say that it doesn't look even slightly like a
hardware fault. I think it's going to turn out to be a software problem
of some kind. You could eliminate/confirm software by booting the laptop
from a Linux "Live Boot" CDROM, & seeing if the problem goes away.
Click to expand...
Bob--

I just tried loading an Ubuntu 8.1 live CD, then attempting the
download. D/L speed was about 14K/second over wired Ethernet (slow!)
and started bogging down at about the 30MB mark on a 140-odd MB
download. It finally locked up and stopped downloading about twenty
minutes (and a few MB) later. The machine itself, however, would still
respond to mouse clicks, opening other windows, et cetera.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
 
prc1 wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 07:23:34 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.

Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Weird. I've got to say that it doesn't look even slightly like a
hardware fault. I think it's going to turn out to be a software problem
of some kind. You could eliminate/confirm software by booting the laptop
from a Linux "Live Boot" CDROM, & seeing if the problem goes away.

Bob--
Click to expand...
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I've been too busy to
read the group until now.

I just tried loading an Ubuntu 8.1 live CD, then attempting the
download. D/L speed was about 14K/second over wired Ethernet (slow!)
and started bogging down at about the 30MB mark on a 140-odd MB
download. It finally locked up and stopped downloading about twenty
minutes (and a few MB) later. The machine itself, however, would still
respond to mouse clicks, opening other windows, et cetera.
Click to expand...
Really weird. Your Internet connection is ADSL, right? Is there any
chance of you trying another computer on your modem? I ask because I've
seen symptoms like that on ADSL/Cable modems, but never with hardware
problems on a PC. The test will tell you whether your modem (or ISP!) is
the problem, or whether you've got an unusual fault in your laptop.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
On Mon, 25 May 2009 17:17:59 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com>
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 07:23:34 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.

Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Weird. I've got to say that it doesn't look even slightly like a
hardware fault. I think it's going to turn out to be a software problem
of some kind. You could eliminate/confirm software by booting the laptop
from a Linux "Live Boot" CDROM, & seeing if the problem goes away.

Bob--

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I've been too busy to
read the group until now.

I just tried loading an Ubuntu 8.1 live CD, then attempting the
download. D/L speed was about 14K/second over wired Ethernet (slow!)
and started bogging down at about the 30MB mark on a 140-odd MB
download. It finally locked up and stopped downloading about twenty
minutes (and a few MB) later. The machine itself, however, would still
respond to mouse clicks, opening other windows, et cetera.

Really weird. Your Internet connection is ADSL, right? Is there any
chance of you trying another computer on your modem? I ask because I've
seen symptoms like that on ADSL/Cable modems, but never with hardware
problems on a PC. The test will tell you whether your modem (or ISP!) is
the problem, or whether you've got an unusual fault in your laptop.
Hi, Bob.
Click to expand...

Nope, I'm on a cable modem. My other computers on the network work
just fine with it, so it's not that interface. Wireless works A-OK
too--just the wired network connection misbehaves when the laptop's on
AC power.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
 
prc1 wrote on Sat, 30 May 2009 22:31:49 -0400:
Nope, I'm on a cable modem. My other computers on the network work
just fine with it, so it's not that interface. Wireless works A-OK
too--just the wired network connection misbehaves when the laptop's on
AC power.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a ground loop problem. Does the cable modem or the laptop
have the three prong power plug? If so, get one of those 3 prong to 2
prong adapters so you can temporary disconnect the ground prong to see
if the problem disappears.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 1GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Xandros Linux
 
prc1 wrote:
On Mon, 25 May 2009 17:17:59 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2009 07:23:34 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
On Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +1000, Bob Larter <bobbylarter@gmail.com
wrote:

prc1 wrote:
[Please don't top-post!]
Yes, the AC plug LED illuminates when AC is plugged in, and
extinguishes when disconnected. I checked my performance settings in
the utility, and for AC power, settings were for maximum performance.
Did you make sure that you checked the *Toshiba* power management
utility, rather than the Control-Panel one? Try twiddling the settings &
re-saving them, just to be sure that they haven't been scrambled.
Bob--

Yep, tried that. No change.
** To respond, remove the crap from my addy... **
Weird. I've got to say that it doesn't look even slightly like a
hardware fault. I think it's going to turn out to be a software problem
of some kind. You could eliminate/confirm software by booting the laptop
from a Linux "Live Boot" CDROM, & seeing if the problem goes away.

Bob--
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I've been too busy to
read the group until now.

I just tried loading an Ubuntu 8.1 live CD, then attempting the
download. D/L speed was about 14K/second over wired Ethernet (slow!)
and started bogging down at about the 30MB mark on a 140-odd MB
download. It finally locked up and stopped downloading about twenty
minutes (and a few MB) later. The machine itself, however, would still
respond to mouse clicks, opening other windows, et cetera.
Really weird. Your Internet connection is ADSL, right? Is there any
chance of you trying another computer on your modem? I ask because I've
seen symptoms like that on ADSL/Cable modems, but never with hardware
problems on a PC. The test will tell you whether your modem (or ISP!) is
the problem, or whether you've got an unusual fault in your laptop.
Hi, Bob.

Nope, I'm on a cable modem. My other computers on the network work
just fine with it, so it's not that interface. Wireless works A-OK
too--just the wired network connection misbehaves when the laptop's on
AC power.
Click to expand...
Have you tried updating the NIC drivers?


--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
 
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