Toshiba notebook CPU disclaimer means you're toast if you're chilled
The Seven Deadly Toshiba Sins
By Mike Magee: Wednesday 31 July 2002, 14:56
A DISCLAIMER HAS appeared on the Toshiba site suggesting that it's giving up the ghost on supporting CPUs in a wide range of its notebooks.
The firm lists the Portege, the Satellite series, the Satellite Pro, the TE-Series and the Tecra notebooks – a pretty wide span.
The disclaimer says that CPU performance in Tosh notebooks can "vary from specifications" if:
Toshiba Sin 1 Certain external peripheral products are used
Toshiba Sin 2 Battery power is used instead of AC without changing factory setting
Toshiba Sin 3 Certain multimedia games or videos with special effects are used
Toshiba Sin 4 Standard phone lines or low speed network connections are used
Toshiba Sin 5 Complex modelling software is used
Toshiba Sin 6 Computers are used in areas of low air pressure
Toshiba Sin 7 Computers are used at high altitude or outside the temperature range of 5 degrees to 35 degrees Celsius.
And here, here, is the clincher: "Under some conditions your computer product may automatically shut down. This is a normal protective feature designed to reduce the risk of lost data or damage to the product when used outside recommended conditions. To avoid risk of lost data, always make back-up copies of data...." blah blah blah.
Of course if your notebook suddenly shuts down it's tough to "always save data". At the time of writing you're OK in New York and Chicago because it's only 34 degrees Celsius. But today's highs in the south west of the US are expected to be between 100 degrees and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't call Toshiba support when the temperature hits 95 degrees F, OK?
It's three degrees Celsius in Villa Dolores, Argentina right now. So don't call Toshiba support, especially if you're using a standard telephone line, running "certain games", the air pressure is low, and you're using "certain" peripherals, whatever certain peripherals they are.
Here's the Toshiba disclaimer, which reads to us, to twist UK politician Gerald Kaufmann's words, like the "longest support suicide note in history". µ |
