Before buying this Toshiba M4, I read all posts

losemind · 09-09-2005, 07:41 AM

Before buying this Toshiba M4, I read all posts on TabletBuzzForum, ... I have done research for as long as 4 months... then I happily bought a M4. Online reviews all gave it high ratings.

Now I got stuck. I don't know if other people also heavily rely on the standby/hibernation funcationality as much as I do.

I purchase a Tablet PC simply because I need a productivity tool with a) pen input, b) standby/hibernation...

I frequently take down notes and then put it into sleep and when I have more thoughts, I open the lid and then write down a few lines, and then put it back into sleep again.

Now this standby/hibernation becomes a nightmare for me:

1. Sometimes I just could not let it sleep: after you send it to sleep, the screen is off, the harddisk is off, the wirelss is off, the system becomes non-responsive, but the fan is still on, the unit is still working, it just hangs.

2. A lot of times i just cannot bring it back from sleep. It just does not wake up. I have to press power button for more than 6 seconds and let it down. I lost my data all the time.

3. It mysteriously shutdown after waking-up: even if I successfully put it to sleep, and successfuly wake it up, it mysteriously shutdown right after being waking up. Again my data was gone.

These three recurring problems make this unit completely fail in terms hibernation/standby.

These problems are not unique on M4, I had a R15S822, it has the same problems.

I am really very very disspointed. If I send it back, I waste my precious time and I have to research the market again and look for another good model.

If I don't send it back, my improvement of productivity relies on being able to standby fast and resume fast so I can write down my thoughts.

What can I do now?

Subah · 09-09-2005, 09:03 AM

Maybe this is major problem in the windows tablet edtion and its need an update from microsoft !!!

spybyscript · 09-09-2005, 11:06 AM

I'm sorry to hear you having these problems. This sounds more like a Windows issue rather than anything else, unfortunately, but it could be related to Toshiba utilities like the power saver. For some reason the power saver quit out on me and just doesn't work, but I never liked using it to begin with.

I don't have the problem going in and out of standby or hibernation. It's just always worked for me, and I do let it go into standby quite often when it is running on batteries. I don't use hibernation really, but the few times I had used it it woke up fine.

If you do decide to return the unit, it looks like Gateways new 14" widescreen tablet is a winner, or at least a close match specwise... and personally if it were available at the same time as the Toshiba I would have considered it, although I would want to see how it is in portrait mode due to the widescreen.

Try uninstalling the power saver and see if that fixes the problem. At first I liked Toshiba's utilities, than I just got annoyed with them and most of them have been booted off my system. That's my only guess; the problem seems like it is software related.

newst · 09-09-2005, 11:29 AM

Could this be the same problem you are having?

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...TOPIC_ID=27815

sidx001 · 09-09-2005, 01:15 PM

I had exactly the same problems with my M200. I ended up performing an un-install of the Toshiba Power Saver utility and then re-installing it. I have also changed my habits as well in that I no longer use hibernation, I use standby instead and that has worked really well for me.

Jim

krypticide · 09-09-2005, 01:28 PM

I've had problems like this before, but it just disappeared. I have a feeling it is probably program related: some program of yours installed itself into memory and doesn't play nicely with standby and such. I'd probably suggest a painful rebuild first to see what's up.

Paladin · 09-09-2005, 02:06 PM

The only problem I've had with standby and hibernation is that my wireless networking will not work after the system wakes... I can disconnect it and get it to reconnect, but the internet won't work, and it can't be fixed except by rebooting the machine.

losemind · 09-09-2005, 03:31 PM

Here is the update after calling Toshiba technical support twice today.
It seems that they had a lot of reports of such problems. The two guys I conversed with unanimously requested me to uninstall the Toshiba Power Saver.

I uninstalled the Toshiba power saver.

Advised by them, I also began getting rid of those small utilities/background processes.

I am a little conservative: maybe later I will be in need of those small Toshiba utilites. So I didnot uninstall them. I just use "msconfig" to prevent them from loading at system startup.

Here is the list of utilities/processes I got rid off the startup list:

1. Toshiba ConfigFree;
2. BlueTooth Manager;
3. Toshiba Zooming Utility;
4. Toshiba Modem on Hold;
5. Toshiba Mobile Extension;
6. Toshiba Acceleration Manager;

I hope the system look a little better; I am continuing trying. The headache with problems with standby/hibernation is that they are not recreatable. They occur at completely random times. So I have to continue trying and see if it does improves.

I also want to ask what does the following do:
(In msconfig startup tab list:)

TFNF5
thpsrv /logon
tfswctrl
TskrMain
AGRSMMSG
pinger
toscdspd
ramasst

Some of them look very suspicious...

----------------------------------

One more thing, I noticed that if there is motion combined with "wake-up" from standby, the system will always mysteriously shutdown right after waking-up.

For example, if I hastely open the lid, it will always shutdown after waking-up; but if I carefully and slowly open the lid, with out any motion, the chance of shuting down will be lower.

I guessed this was due to the HDD protection. I turned the HDD protection off; but it did not improve. Mysterious shuting down still occurs. So I'd better put HDD protection back to on.

So now I still don't have clue why such abnormality occurs. I will continue trying..

I will keep you updated...

losemind · 09-09-2005, 03:43 PM

quote:Originally posted by newst

Could this be the same problem you are having?

http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/to...TOPIC_ID=27815

This problem is similar to 1 out of the 3 problems that are annoying me. But shuting down index service is definitely good. I have already shut it down for performance concerns. That's a nice double-check though.

Thanks a lot