Lied to Again
Written: Jan 19 '04
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Pros: More stable than Win 98 2nd ed.
Cons: Full of the usual falsehoods.
The Bottom Line: Do not buy any Windows Products.
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| mzareba's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite A15-S127 (PSA10U-00RESV) PC Note... |
If you enjoy being pushed around by software and lied to by the computer manufacturer, this is the perfect Laptop for you.
You are supplied not with a Windows XP installation disk, but a Toshiba “Recovery Applications/Drivers…disk”, which is supposed to allow one to either recover individual applications or restore the computer to the original condition that it was in when you purchased it. This disk was made with the cooperation of Symantec, which once produced the excellent Norton Utilities, but each of their “improved” products has been worse than the preceding one.
Windows XP has changed their previous “Windows Explorer”, which was organized in an understandable way, so that now, after “Desktop”, the first Directory is called “My Documents”, a System folder that can not be deleted. After that comes “My Computer”, and then “Local Hard Drives (C:)” there is another called “Local Disk (C:)”. I have no idea what this means. Also, one can not setup Win XP for only one user; there must be a named user and a default user.
Much of my data resides in various folders with the same name, but different locations. For the CD R/W, “backup” now means “copy”, and does not refer to the MS Backup program.
Due to this change in the use of language, it took me some time to discover how to make a copy of a music CD. Unlike France, we do not have laws concerning the use of language. If we did, Microsoft could be charged with “Crimes Against The English Language”. Does “Install” mean inserting the card into the computer, transferring the software into the computer, or setting up the software so that it is functional? The false messages that we constantly receive on our screens tell us nothing about the actual state of the computer, but are simply stored in the computer, to be activated under certain conditions, and are generally incorrect.
Directions are generally best ignored, and one agrees to accept the terms of software usage without reading the pages of explanation. What direction other than downward can these practices have on society?
The Toshiba Satellite A15-S127 claims to allow one to transfer data from your old computer, but does not say that the old computer must be a Toshiba. It contains a Network Setup Wizard, and says that a copy of this wizard can be installed on your other computer running Win98, 2000, or XP. A copy can be made by copying the wizard to removable media or using the Windows XP setup disk. As one is not supplied with a setup disk, one tries to copy the wizard to the CD R/W which comes with the laptop, however the computer does not recognize its own CD writer, and reports that no removable medial is present. A floppy disk drive does not come with this computer.
If you have installed a mail password, the ‘Restore Computer to its Original Condition’ function does not work, and the computer must be taken to an authorized Service Center to have the password removed, allowing one to access their BIOS. This is necessary as, despite having set the Toshiba Power Mode (one can not use MS Power mode adjustments) to always remain on when the computer is plugged in, during defragging, the computer stops after 10 or 15 minutes and can not complete the defrag.
Their ‘Service Centers’, located in various places such as Turkey and India, have very polite personnel, however they appear to know little about computers, and just follow their flow sheet. They often tell one that it is a Microsoft problem and attempt to talk the customer into contacting Microsoft, which those who have attempted this know generally leads one around in circles and supplies one with obvious information (make sure the computer is turned on, do not use the computer while standing in water), but never answers your question.
If you are connected to the Internet and go to the ‘Toshiba Help and Support Center’, the computer immediately begins downloading updates, without asking for permission. I am careful about downloading updates, as they often (like all “improvements” in this Computer Age), degrade performance and efficiency rather than improve it. I wrongly believed that I owned this computer, as I had paid for it, but it is controlled by Microsoft and Toshiba.
I try to avoid all Windows products, and therefore use Netscape as my browser. Netscape has a “Cookie Manager”, which allows one to remove or block cookies which are listed in a partially identifiable form, such as the name of the company setting the cookie. However, Win XP also stores cookies in a non-identifiable form, such as ‘johndoe@…. I I periodically look for this directory (it is no longer identified as a Windows folder named “Cookies”, but is hidden in Systems or Systems 32 folder, I believe.
If you want Uncle Bill and Brother Toshiba to control the computer which you have purchased, the Toshiba Satellite is the perfect computer for you. The Satellite also comes in numerous models, so you can spend your time searching through the features of these models. Giving these models different names would have avoided this, but the name of the game in modern marketing is “Confusion” Present so many choices that `the consumer suffers from ‘Choice Fatigue’, and eventually chooses a product just to accomplish the task.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 600
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: 201-300
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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mzareba
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Reviews written: 1
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