New Toshiba laptop (junk?)

[Art]

I have a new Toshiba Satellite purchased by my company. I use it at work and home. Works fine at work when hooked up to the network. At home, I have dial-up internet. Was connecting low, like 12-19.2, and web pages would not load. I tried different phone cords of different lengths. It connected faster and worked in my kitchen. Back in the living room, nothing. I finally figured it out. When it is plugged into electric, it connects slow, and wont work. On battery, all works fine. When I connect on battery, it connects fast and works. Then I plug it in and it slows and usually wont load. Any ideas as to why????

[Sunday Rider]

It seems to me that the Toshiba Satellite has power savings features, but that applies mostly to battery (conservation) settings and not direct AC power.

You may have to check the settings for you modem (my older notebook had a combo card for the network and dial up). There was a setting on it for battery conservation as well.

Do you have the Toshiba utilities loaded on your system,and can you run the diagnostics?

I only have my old Toshiba at home, but can check the new one on Monday, or if I go to the office before that.

I couldn't tell for sure from your post, but when you connect by battery mode, and you get the web page you want, if you connect to AC power it drops the speed, and the connection?

[tim.s]

That's weird. Most of the laptops have modems built into the main board (instead of a modem car). Maybe the modem is designed in too close to AC power and modem gets interference when you are charging.

If that's the case, there probably not much you can do. If you have a service plan, have it looked at. Or buy a second battery. I run two batteries in my Dell and I can usually run all evening without problems.

[shutrbug]

I got one of the Satellite A15-S1292's at Best Buy on the day after Thanksgiving. I must admit that I haven't used the modem yet (got DSL and 802.11b), but it works at full speed on battery using the wireless PC Card. If I can figure out how to create a modem connection again in XP, I'll give it a try and let you know the results.

[Art]

Originally posted by Sunday Rider

I couldn't tell for sure from your post, but when you connect by battery mode, and you get the web page you want, if you connect to AC power it drops the speed, and the connection?

Yeah, when I connect on battery power only, it works great, then, after it's connected, and I plug it in, it slows up and even stops loading sometimes.

[dsrpilot]

I have a toshiba laptop that is about a year old. It has what they call a 'software' modem. Although I've never used it much as I've had broadband since getting it, I know that the modem can be affected by software updates. Is your bios and O/S (XP?) up to date? That might make a difference.

I've also found some spyware program that take a fair amount of CPU and have caused playback problems on the DVD. Although a long shot, it could be something to do with spyware or a virus. I use ad-aware for spyware and avg for virus. Both are free and can be found at www.lavasoft.de and www.grisoft.com respectively.

[Sunday Rider]

Originally posted by Art
Yeah, when I connect on battery power only, it works great, then, after it's connected, and I plug it in, it slows up and even stops loading sometimes.

Art, mine worked fine. Are you running XP? Mine runs on XP Pro. Did your IT dept. set it up? The Toshiba has some detailed settings for battery, and you can set up different for AC power. I am wondering if that is the problem you are having.

Do you know how to check these settings?

[Sunday Rider]

Hello Again Art,
Try to check these settings.
Go to Control Panel from the start icon,
click on Performance and Maintenance
click on Toshiba power Saver Properties
you will see Power Save Modes, at the top, then you will have a choice of Plugged in, click on the details button here.
You will go to another screen called Full Power Properties. This will have 4 tabs, go to device settings, and see if your modem is listed there. The Control device power management box should be "un-checked".

I tried to duplicate your situation, but couldn't.

If above doesn't work try this.
Start button, choose Toshiba Console, click ConfigFree. There is a connectivity doctor, and device settings tabs. Look in here when you get Disconnected to see if there is any help.
Go to the device settings tab, and you will see a button called Network Connection (picture of wrench on it too). You will see details here,and the dial up connection. Hopefully that will give you some clues when you click on the dial up icon. The details on the left bar will show Toshiba Software Modem, ISP phone number, and IP address stuff.

Good luck