Saturday, March 1, 2008

Ethernet Not Working After Update

I was trying to not install any of the updates that are available to be downloaded and installed through Windows Update, but I've been having problems while downloading large amounts of data, that my router gets all hosed up and I have to reboot it. I had the same problem while running Ubuntu in VMware. It's always with the wireless card. So, I happened to look through the available updates, and noticed a new driver the Realtek network cards; one for the wireless and one for ethernet. So, I decided to install them and see if perhaps the update would fix the problems I was having with my router. Surprise, surprise!! Now, my ethernet port doesn't work at all. I tried to go and uninstall the update, but it didn't show up in the list of updates available to uninstall. I'm going to try and download a driver directly from Toshiba, and if that doesn't work, I'll try re-installing the original drivers from off of the factory media.

Black Screen of Death

The black screen of death continues to haunt me.

While typing an email or working on a program or document, the screen will just go blank; the system is still on, the screen has a faint light, so it's not completely off, but completely blank.

I've found that others have reported the same issue with the A215 series of Toshiba laptop computers. It seems to possibly be a hardware problem. The workaround is to adjust the power settings to never turn off the display. I've gone in and adjusted my power settings and I'll see if that works or not.

Toshiba seems to be pumping out so many different models, versions, and variations of computers that they can't provide quality assurance and satisfactory customer service. I don't know what's happened to Toshiba. I couldn't find a new version of my PDA, the Pocket PC e335 on their site either.

I'll continue to try and get by with this system, but I'm now on the hunt for a Linux compatible laptop; one that has all required drivers, and has been tested and documented and will be ready to go.

Back To Vista

Well, Mandriva required finding, downloading, installing, and building drivers, as did the other Linux based operating systems that I've tried. I can't afford to keep spending an inordinate amount of time getting my system to work. I actually need to get my real work done.

I was about to go and buy a mac, but after looking at the prices, I changed my mind.

So, my only resort is to submit and use Windows Vista. Its quite apparent that Toshiba designed this machine specifically for Vista. Thus, I have used the recovery media to re-install the factory shipped version of Vista back onto the machine.