The saga continues:

The Evil Toshiba, now named 'Lucifer' ate it's third hard drive in July of 2005.  This time I bought a Western Digital drive to replace it.  So far so good, but if it stays on schedule I've only got a few weeks until it goes down again.

I'm glad I didn't use it for target practice.  It seems there is a large class action settlement against Toshiba for creating this monster.  Lawyers have apparently forced Toshiba to do the right thing and provide relief to those who purchased one of these unfortunate products.

Here are the highlights:

In January of 2005 several class action suits were filed.  They state that the Satellite Pro 6100 had a number of design defects that resulted in problems like mine.  Further, that Toshiba knew about the defects, concealed their existence, and continued to sell them.

Toshiba denies all but settled for the purpose of "Avoiding the uncertainties, expenses, and time of further litigation"

The settlement provides for various levels of relief for owners of these useless boxes based on the number of times they have been in for service.  Of course the lawyers made off like bandits.   

So, Lucifer may not be around much longer as I qualify for the maximum relief level and may end up with a new laptop.  Unfortunately, it would be a Toshiba.  But it has to be better than Lucifer right? 

Information may be obtained from the Independent Claims Administrator 1-800-916-4895 or:

sp6100settlement@gardencitygroup.com

PO Box 91044
Seattle, WA  98111-9144

Hi Tom,
  Sorry to hear about the unfortunate experience with Toshiba.  Maybe you could include the forum address so they can see what customer support is all about.  By the way how is the IBM working for you?

Jeff

The stores are open     Got my $1500 credit voucher today and spent it on a new R20 tablet.  The spec sheet is attached.  I would have never chosen another Toshiba PC but for $121.13 I have a new PC.  I'll risk that    A bit more with an extra battery pak and tax but whatever....

I customized it:

SYS.BASE01      TOSHIBA CONFIG SYSTEMS                   1  1621.13    1621.13
    BASE0117    SATELLITE R20                         1                        
    APP0006     MICROSOFT WORKS                       1                        
    APP0010     MS TRIAL STUDENT/TEACHER              1                        
               MICROSOFT OFFICE TRIAL VERSION                                 
    APP0014     WIN-DVD CREATOR                       1                        
    COM10026    INTEL PRO WIRELESS ABG                1                        
    COM20015    BLUETOOTH VERSION 2.0+EDR             1                        
    CPU0190     INTEL CORE 2 DUO T7200 2.00GHZ        1                        
               4MB L2 CACHE 667MHZ FSB                                       
    GFX0032     INTEL GRAPHICS CARD                   1                        
    HDD0037     80GB HDD (5400RPM, SERIAL-ATA)        1                        
    IDENT0002   NO TABLET PC RESERVE PEN              1                        
    LCD0056     14.1" DIAGONAL WXGA+DISPLAY           1                        
               (1440X900) W/ HIGH BRIGHTNESS                                 
    MEM0066     1024MB (512MBX2) PC5300               1                        
               DDR2 667MHZ                                                   
    OS0038      MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP TABLET           1                        
               EDITION                                                       
    SBAY0027    DVD SUPERMULTI(+/-RDOUBLE             1                        
               LAYER) DRIVE                                                   
    WARR0001    1 YEAR STANDARD WARRANTY              1                        
             MFG Part#: PSR20U-15P00U               

I will report back here in time as to how this works out......