Have netbook, can't travel

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PaulSF

PFG, Picture Framing God
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I bought a Toshiba netbook a few months ago. It runs Windows 7 Starter. The entire time I've had it, it's been plugged in at home. I went on the road at the end of July and took it with me, and had nothing but trouble with it. It took forever to boot up, and 9 times out of 10 I just gave up. If I have time to drive to Starbucks and back while the computer boots up, and then it still has a black screen when I return, something ain't right. The issue wasn't battery power, because this happened with both a fully-charged battery and while plugged in to an electrical outlet. When I returned home, I plugged everything back in and it was good as new. Then I tried taking it to the local coffee place, and once again we were in Molasses City.

Any theories? Any solutions? It seems pointless to have a portable computer that won't function outside of my home.
 
A call to Toshiba tech support would be the best solution, since it's impossible to determine the problem from your message.

It sounds like some kind of hardware problem if its doing that right out of the box.

Mike
 
I'm far from an expert on anything computer related, but we have a Toshiba laptop that wouldn't work unless it was plugged into the modem directly.

It turned out to be a button on the Toshiba that turned on the antenna, allowing wifi connection.
 
I bought an HP net book a year ago and it is fairly useless.

If I'm web surfing or banning Grumblers or sending emails, I use an iPad, and if I need to do some actual mobile computing, I use a laptop (which is an HP, so my issue is not with the company but with the concept.)
 
Someone suggested that it is Windows update searching for an internet connection, and that's holding things up. When the computer is at home, it's plugged into a cable modem.
 
I'm using a Acer Aspire notebook.

I purchased this notebook three months ago at Mico-Center for $200.00 and its Wi/Fi works almost everywhere. The computer locates every internet within range and only once have I not been able to find a public site, Kaspersky checks every site before you can sign-in. The unit has a 8 hour battery and it does last a full 8 hour on the battery and will recharge in about two hours and comes with 2 GB memory- 160 GB hard-drive. The only problem I have found with notebooks is they don't have DVD drives, but I'm overcome this with flash drives.
 
Ah, but I don't always want to hook up to someone's wireless network. Sometimes I just want to work on my computer.
 
If it won't boot without an internet connection that sounds like a serious design flaw, in spite of the fact that it's called a NETbook... :D
 
PaulSF said:
Someone suggested that it is Windows update searching for an internet connection, and that's holding things up. When the computer is at home, it's plugged into a cable modem.
Click to expand...

Have you tried booting at home and turning off automatic Windows updates, before trying to boot offline? You can always access updates at home.
 
public internet sites

The reason I have the netbook computer is to go on the internet away from home and with protection you can be (almost) safe loging on. Many internet sites allow you to log-on and will supply a password. That is one thing I look for when I book a hotel.
 
When you;'re on the road, look at the WIFI connections, maybe it's locking / defaulting to a very slow one.

Look a all available WIFI connections and select a different one and see if that helps.
 
Well, the problem is, I can't even get to the main screen where I can then check for wifi connections. It might take 10-20 minutes just to get up and running.
 
So, to paraphrase.... when you are at home and jacked in you are good to go.

When you are away from that connection and on the road, you have Starbucks type issues starting.

(if I missed this, I'm sorry).... when you are at home and not plugged in, how long does startup take? Are you broadcasting a wireless at home as well?

Netbook is using a version of the Win 7 program, right? What about shutting down the wireless connectivity of the unit?
 
And one other thing (not to hijack, sorry) why are people using McAfeee, Kaspersky, Symantec, etc when you can get Avira antivirus completely for free and it's every bit as good?
 
pwalters said:
And one other thing (not to hijack, sorry) why are people using McAfeee, Kaspersky, Symantec, etc when you can get Avira antivirus completely for free and it's every bit as good?
Click to expand...

A full featured program such as Kaspersky can run as low as $4 per year (see other thread in this forum).

Regardless of the product you choose, it's important to have SOMETHING :) Free is nice, but you tend to get what you pay for; in my opinion. It's better than nothing, but the products are not at the same level. A recent review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358764,00.asp

Note also that Avira, Avast, and AVG Free licenses are limited to residential use only. AVG Free should be avoided at all costs, in my opinion. The newest version is terrible at protecting folks. I haven't re-evaluated Avira for a couple years, but it seemed OK when I did.

If you're running a free product, it might be good to get a periodic "second opinion" once in a while from a scanner such as the free one at www.malwarebytes.org This will help to make sure nothing has slipped through the cracks.

I hope you don't mind another opinion.

Mike
 
I have had AVG Free for several years now and Malwarebytes has never found anything nor has the McAfee scan that runs every so often.

The worst thing any of these programs has found are Grumble cookies.
 
PAulSF My guess would be that it is trying to log onto a network while booting. When it can't find one it is trying to search for one.

You say when you get home and "plug everything in" do you mean a keyboard and external drives or flash cards? I would think that it is trying to boot up on one of the cards and since it can't find it it is searching for the drive.

Unplug everything at home and see if it is a nightmare to boot. If so then plug in the peripherals one at a time to see which one causes it to boot "properly". My guess would be a flash card.

If it boots fine at home, all unplugged then go into the BIOS and turn off the wifi and see if it boots horribly slowly. My guess is it wants to boot off your network at home, or is searching fro a hard drive or shared drive in the home network.

Go in the BIOS and see if there is a boot order you can set and be sure the hdd is first and that network option is off :) Since it has so far resources inherent in itself I think it wants to grab all it can from the network at home.
 
Framar said:
I have had AVG Free for several years now and Malwarebytes has never found anything nor has the McAfee scan that runs every so often.

The worst thing any of these programs has found are Grumble cookies.
Click to expand...

Well, if McAfee is loaded and running, what is AVG Free contributing?
 
PaulSF said:
Someone suggested that it is Windows update searching for an internet connection, and that's holding things up. When the computer is at home, it's plugged into a cable modem.
Click to expand...

David N Waldmann said:
If it won't boot without an internet connection that sounds like a serious design flaw, in spite of the fact that it's called a NETbook... :D
Click to expand...

Maybe a clue. Maybe looking for the AV's website to get updates ?


Mike Labbe @ GTP said:
It sounds like some kind of hardware problem if its doing that right out of the box.

Mike
Click to expand...

Worked almost exclusively with laptops for years. Usually the customer had "twisted or flexed" the laptop, and cracked the mother board. (The computers were mounted to wheel chairs so "flexing" was an issue :) )

The laptop would boot fine, on a flat surface, but would not boot or boot erratically on a lap or crooked surface, and reboot or shutdown when the laptop was moved. Warranties took care of the motherboard, and a good "discussion" about laptop use took care of the flexing, it was usually a new staff person. :) back then the cases were great but the mother boards were fragile, today the cases and motherboards are both pretty lightweight. While I have little experience with modern laptops my first question is always the motherboard. Almost always someone somewhere could have dropped the box (in shipping or at home) and caused enough trauma to crack the board enough to cause a sporadic booting issue.
 
Pat Murphey said:
Well, if McAfee is loaded and running, what is AVG Free contributing?
Click to expand...

The AVG scans every day and the McAfee seems to run a scan maybe once a week - I can't remember where it came from - it is free too.
 
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