Processor

The processor in the Toshiba Satellite C655D is an AMD Athlon™ II Dual-Core Mobile Processor P340. This dual core processor was introduced in September of 2010, and it is also being used in two version of the Dell Inspiron M5030 notebook. Other laptops that use this chip are the HP Pavilion dv6 notebook, the Dell Inspiron M501R, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge, and the HP ProBook 6455b and 6555b notebooks.

Operating System

The Toshiba C655D-S5136 notebook computer comes with the 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.

Graphics

The Satellite C655D-S5136 laptop has 256 to 1405 MB of shared dynamically allocated graphics memory. The graphics engine is an ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 4250 chip, which has the capability of decoding HD videos such as Blu-ray. This chip is much faster than many older graphics chips, but is still not well-suited for the newest high-resolution video games. You may be able to play newer games in low resolution mode, and most older games will run fine.

Memory

This laptop has a generous amount of memory. With 3 GB of DDR3 memory, you shouldn’t have any problems in this area.

Hard Drive

The hard drive on the Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5136 laptop is only 320 GB. If you download a lot of music or videos, you will definitely need some additional storage space. You can often find a 1 TB USB hard drive for around $100, so that is an option if you decide to go with this laptop but need more space to store your media files.

Optical Drive

The Toshiba C655D-S5136 has a DVD SuperMulti optical drive, which can play both audio and video. Most DVD SuperMulti drives can play DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+R DL, DVD-RAM, CD-R, and CD-RW discs.

Display

The 15.6″ widescreen display on this Toshiba laptop computer is an HD TruBrite® LCD display that can support 720p content. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio and can display up to 1366 pixels by 768.

Audio

In this laptop computer, Toshiba offers standard laptop stereo speakers, and there is a microphone incorporated into the design of the LCD bezel. There is also an audio jack for a mono microphone and a jack for stereo headphones.

Connectivity

The C655D Toshiba 15.6 laptop is equipped with Wi-Fi® for wireless networking and a 10/100 Ethernet LAN. It does not offer Bluetooth, and there is no modem port.

Power

The C655D Satellite Toshiba laptop PC comes with a 65-watt auto-sensing AC adaptor and a 48Wh, 6-cell lithium ion battery. The battery can provide up to 3.4 hours of use, depending on what programs you are running and whether you are using the Wi-Fi® connection.

Media

There is a memory card reader included in the Toshiba 15.6 notebook, so you can easily transfer photos from your digital camera’s memory card.

USB Ports

One of the drawbacks of the Toshiba Satellite widescreen laptop computer is the lack of USB ports. Given that so many devices run on USB today, you would expect more than two USB ports. If you have a wireless mouse and a flash drive, you have already used them up. You should definitely plan on buying a USB hub if you buy the C655D Toshiba AMD Athlon II laptop.

Security Features

The Toshiba Satellite C655D AMD laptop computer features password security, a cable lock slot, HDD recovery software, and the Toshiba Supervisor password utility program. These features will help protect your data if your laptop should fall into the wrong hands.

Software

The Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5136 laptop comes with Microsoft® Office Starter 2010, which contains reduced-functionality versions of Word® and Excel® that are designed to make you want to buy the full version. Other software includes Toshiba Face Recognition, Google Chrome, WildTangent Game Console, Microsoft® Silverlight™, Toshiba App Place, Toshiba Service Station, Toshiba Bulletin Board, Toshiba Recovery Disk Creator, Toshiba BookPlace™, Toshiba Disc Creator, Toshiba Media Controller, Toshiba ReelTime™, Microsoft® Windows Media Player 12, Microsoft® Windows Live Essential, and a trial version of Norton Internet Security™ 2011.

I am not a fan of the software that comes with most laptops. I wish there was a button to delete all the junk.

Other Features

This Toshiba laptop is Energy Star qualified, RoHS Compliant, and rated EPEAT™ Gold. It comes with a 1-year warranty on the battery, parts, and labor. Its standard US keyboard has a 10-key numeric keypad, and there is a touch pad pointing device. It weighs around 5 1/2 pounds. The color is black.

The Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5136 laptop is a good general-use laptop. The price is reasonable, and unless you are playing some graphics-intensive games or downloading a lot of music and videos, it probably has everything you really need, except maybe some more USB ports. You can add on more USB ports by purchasing a hub for under $20, though, so that’s not a big deal. All in all, the 15.6″ Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5136 Athlon II laptop is a pretty good value for the price.

Note: I bought this laptop last winter and I’ve found that it is a good value for the money.  I prefer Toshiba laptops and I bought this one as a backup machine.

I recently sold my old Toshiba laptop and my HP netbook.  I find myself using my Samsung Infuse and rooted Nook Color tablet much more than I use the laptop.

The laptop you choose must fit your needs. Some of you may only be doing school work on it, but for all of you gamers out there, you need to make sure you get one that is top of the line. When the weekend has finally arrived and you open up World of Warcraft or some other game, you do not want it to crash your computer.

What are some of the things you need to consider as you are searching for a college laptop? You need to think about the size and weight, memory and drive space, processor or CPU, graphics, operating system, USB ports, screen size, laptop role, aesthetics, CD/DVD drive and saving money.

Memory and storage: For the laptop, you will need the hard drive to be a minimum of 80 GB and the ram should be at least 2 GB. Just about every current version of applications, operating systems and games are larger than those previous versions and will require more disk space. Today, having a hard drive that is 40 gb simply is not enough. If you are into photography, video, music, or gaming 80 GB probably won’t be enough.

Processor or CPU: Over the past years, the processors have changed a lot. Companies today seem to be adding more processor cores. At present, the laptop you choose should be a dual core processor or above. If you have the money to spend, then you may want to look into some of those quad core laptops that are available today.

Operating System: Do you want a laptop that has Windows XP on it, but found a laptop that has Windows Vista (which is more common)? If so, then you should not assume that you can just wipe off Vista and replace it with XP. Why? Because a lot of the new computers available today may not have the necessary XP drivers developed for them. When trying to change over to Windows XP, this can be a real headache. If you are used to Windows, you may not want to buy a Linux machine.

Graphic Cards: Generally, it is not possible to upgrade or replace the video capabilities on a laptop, so usually whatever video card that is installed is what you will be stuck with for the duration. Generally speaking, the better the graphic card, the more expensive the computer. If you are into gaming, then you need a graphic card that has dedicated memory. Ask other gamers about the laptops they use, so you won’t end up with the wrong kind.

USB Ports: When it comes to USB ports, you can never have enough of them. On average, you will come across 4 USB ports on a laptop and that may sound like enough. However, once you plug in your peripherals such as the mouse, printer, keyboard and pen drive, It will not seem like so many. Of course, you could always purchase an external hub, but you may want to try buying one that has more than 4.

USB ports are handy but wireless is where it’s at today. Bluetooth is a form of wireless networking. Try to find a laptop with built-in bluetooth if you can. Make sure it support simultaneous connections to multiple devices, so you can have a wireless mouse, keyboard, headset, and printer. After all what’s the point of getting a laptop that has to be plugged into a bunch of cables.

Networking: If your laptop can’t go online, you might just as well drop out of school now. Most laptops come with ethernet connections and Wifi. Fewer and fewer come with a dial-up modem. Odds are that you will be using WiFi most of the time to connect to the campus-wide network.

DVD Player/Recorder: Nice for loading new software and watching movie, and handy for backing up projects.

Screen size: The most common screen size of a laptop is around thirteen to fifteen inches and they are generally the ones that have the lowest price tag on them, which is great if you are looking to save some money. However, if you are studying art, architecture, or engineering you should consider buying a machine with a larger screen. You could get a digital television that can double at a monitor and use the remote to switch from PC to TV and back again.

Weight: If you travel a lot or plan to lug your computer from class to class, then a small laptop is definitely a blessing as you will not have to carry a heavy one around. By the time you add in the main adapter, padded case and anything else you need to carry, it will start to get pretty heavy and a seventeen inch laptop will be even heavier. Look for a laptop that is around 5 or 6 pounds if you want to lighten your load.

The Netbook Alternative

A netbook is a small laptop that weighs just a pound or two. Until recently the smaller the computer, the more expensive. With the introduction of netbook the game changed. Consumer netbooks run around $300 to $500, business ones from $700 to $1000.

If you already own a desktop pc or a laptop, you might want to consider adding netbook. You can stick in your backpack and take everywhere and not notice the weight.

The first netbook was the EEE PC, and the screen was a miserable 7 inches. I bought one shortly after they came out, and I loved it in spite of the too small screen and cramped keyboard. Much as I liked it, I didn’t hesitate to upgrade 10 months later to an HP Mini 1000 with it’s 10 inch screen and larger keyboard.

For some college students a small laptop like the HP Mini would probably work nicely. The Mini comes with a 160 GB hard drive and 1 GB of ram that can easily be upgraded. You can get a Window or Linux operating system. If you are used to Windows, I would recommend sticking it because you won’t have to learn a lot of new commands and programs.

In the long run the best college laptop is the one that comes closest to matching your needs. Only you can decide.

I was pretty sure that the problem was with the software and not hardware. Why? Because I could make the blue screen appear by just logging into my Amazon affiliate account. Odd or what? Of course, the BsoD also appeared when I didn’t expect it way too often.

I tried several things to fix my laptop:

• System Restore – didn’t work
• Norton Anti-Virus full system scan – half way though the blue screen appeared
• Searched the internet for help
• Sent a error report to Microsoft

Microsoft sent me to a very helpful page entitled Microsoft Windows Error Reporting: Blue screen error caused by device or driver which suggested taking the following steps (in order) to fix the problem.

1. Download and install the latest updates and drivers
2. Remove any new hardware or software to isolate the cause of the blue screen
3. Scan your computer for viruses
4. Check your hard disk for errors
5. Restore your computer to an earlier state

I proceeded to work my way through the steps.

1. No problem getting windows updates
2. Didn’t have any new hardware so I started removing programs and files installed in the last month. I suspected then and still do that the problem was an out-of-date graphics program. I couldn’t prove that it was the culprit and removing it didn’t fix the problem, but I won’t be installing it again.
3. As I said above, blue screen appeared about half way through the virus scan.
4. No significant hard disk errors were found.
5. System restore couldn’t restore the system to any of the 5 or so dates I tried.

I was beginning to think I would have to buy a new laptop. I found myself running my HP Mini netbook along side or instead of my Toshiba laptop. BTW the HP Mini has a great keyboard!

I did want to lose my files or programs, so I went looking for a portable hard drive an Amazon. I find the reviews very helpful and I settled on the Seagate Free Agent Go Portable Hard Drive 250GB model. Since the Laptop drive was only 80GB, I figured 250GB would be plenty and it was. The drive weighed less than 6 ounces and came with a USB travel cable but no power supply.

I would have ordered the drive from Amazon but I needed it immediately. I was able to pick one up at a local Walmart for $69.82.

I proceeded to back up my files using the built-in software.

As a temporary solution I picked up a refurbished HP Slimline Vista Desktop. It was a machine from hell! It worked fine for about 10 days and then all of a sudden it couldn’t get Windows Updates because it wasn’t recognized as a “genuine windows machine.”

The factory refurbished desktop came with a faulty hard drive. One of the HP alerts described how I was supposed to fix it. No thanks. I returned the machine to MicroCenter with no problems.

So I’m back to my Toshiba BsoD machine and my netbook.

On June 30th I backed up my laptop again, ran the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, and proceeded to restore the laptop to an earlier state. Although I hadn’t seen any suggestion online to restore to factory settings, that’s exactly what I did.

First I had to locate the original manual and disks so I would have the necessary registration information and keys.

I went online to see what was involved in resetting the laptop and I found it was incredibly easy to do.

It took about an hour to restore the original factory settings. The process also erased the hard drive.

Once the system was restored I had to spend a bit of time downloading all the Windows updates and removing the software I didn’t want. After that was done, I installed Windows XP Pro and Office 2003. Then I started moving files from the Free Agent drive back to the laptop.

My Toshiba laptop is now slim and trim and works better than ever. I’m happy to report that I haven’t seen blue screen since June 30.

Disclaimer: I am not giving advice about what to do with your laptop, I’m just sharing my personal experience. If you are getting repeated blue screens, seek professional help before you resort to restoring the original factory settings.

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX-80 and that set me on a path to finding and using a number of computers but the ones I really liked were small. Unfortunately, technology passed most of my computers by and I was forced to upgrade a number of times.

My First Computer: Sinclair ZX80
I ran across an ad for the Sinclair ZX80 in Popular Electronics magazine in 1980 and was immediately taken by the opportunity to buy my very own computer. I don’t remember exactly how much I paid for the computer but I know it was less than $200.

When the computer arrived I had to attach it to a television and cassette recorder in order to record and display programs.

I subscribed to a monthly newsletter for ZX80 owners and read it til the pages were dogeared. The newsletter revealed the secrets of the ZX80 Basic programming language. Although the computer had only 1KB of memory, I was able to learn the rudiments of programming using it.

Programming was fairly easy because the Basic command and even a few graphics were embedded in the keyboard. There was even a Poke command so a bit of assembly language could be added.

The Sinclair ZX80 was great fun but aside from learning a bit about how programs work, it wasn’t particularly useful. Still I was hooked on the form factor even if the functionally left something to be desired. The ZX80 was the perfect size for a netbook and even the built-in soft membrane keyboard worked pretty well. However, some of my later small computers were better precursors of today’s netbooks.

Credits: Sinclair ZX80 and Keyboard

A couple of weeks ago my relatively new AT&T cell phone disappeared. I looked everywhere and even retraced my steps to see if I could find it. After a couple of days I reported it missing and suspended my AT&T account. (Note: Suspending an account doesn’t cancel an account or what you owe on your contract!)

Last summer in a fit of tech-envy I switched from Virgin Mobile to AT&T. I wanted to try text messaging, web browsing, a better camera phone, and neat ringtones. So I picked out a slim flip phone and signed a two year contract. There was a $100 rebate on the cell phone, so it didn’t cost me much.

I needed to try mobile text messaging and web browsing for a project so I paid about $60 a month for these extra. Once the project was done in a couple of months, I shed the pricey services. I now have a very simple cellphone plan and my current monthly fee is only about $35 more than Virgin Mobile but still quite reasonable.

Unfortunately, one of the extras I dropped was the replacement insurance for the
cell phone. My contract was only six months old, so AT&T wasn’t going to give me any break on replacing my phone. The early termination fee would be about $150 but would leave me without a cell phone.

I like AT&T so I checked out the phones I could buy to replace my lost phone. Except for a couple of really crappy refurbished phones, the phones were pretty pricey. The cheapest cell phones were out: I switched to AT&T to improve on my Virgin Mobile experience, not replicate it. The expensive phones were out too, I’m just too cheap to spend a couple hundred on a cell phone.

It was time to do a little research. I combed Google listings for replacing lost cellphones and didn’t find a lot of really useful advice. Until I found Tony May’s article about How to replace a lost or broken cell phone cheaply.

May suggests buying a cheap prepaid phone for your carrier at Walmart or Target. I checked the prices for these phones online and they were great. Target had several prepaid cell phones ranging in price from $9.99 to $79.99. I found a very nice AT&T Samsung Prepaid Cell Phone in red for only $49.99. It has a camera, ringtones, web browsing (if you like really small print), and it small and light-weight. The cheap Nokia was very nice for $10 but I just wanted a few more bells and whistles.

May also suggests replacing the prepaid phone’s sim card with your own. Big problem here: my sim card is with my missing cell phone. So I called my local AT&T store and asked about using a prepaid phone from Target with my current account. I was told that I could bring the phone to the store and the AT&T technician would set it up for my account. I asked if they could do the same thing with a prepaid from their store and was told no. They can only switch the prepaid phones that customers bring into the store.

So I went to Target and got my new red phone and then visited the AT&T store at the mall. I thought that I would have to buy a new sim card, but the AT&T guy told me it’s part of their service.

So here’s what you do if you want to upgrade or replace a cell phone:

1. Buy a prepaid phone for your carrier at a discount store like Walmart or Target.
2. Take the phone to the carrier’s store and have them swap or update the sim card.

It’s another one of those techie tricks that is so obvious once you know about it, but so obscure when you are looking for a solution.