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Even though it, the Laptop, is "old" ( Released approx February 18, 2008) we just got it... so it is "new" to us. More will be added as we use it.

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We are adding some info about the Second Laptop. It is NOT one of ours, but one of our customers. The reason for this addition is because of the problems we had in the "Recovery". The Full recovery was required because the Hard Disc started failing. This was being reported by the S.M.A.R.T. System in the messages that Hard Disc failure was imminent. It had run out of replacement sectors. We replaced the 5400rpm Toshiba MK5055GSX HDD2H21 with a 7200rpm Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 hard drive.

Lists two files to download for fixin... Toshiba and MS Fix

The above and below is information on getting this Laptop Re-setup. It is a Bear!! The "Recovery" discs were created from the Laptop itself using the software provided by Toshiba. We were able to get Windows 7 re-installed -but- it took a horrendously long time. The worst part was trying to get the drivers to validate. Kept claiming they were unsigned and would not use them... even though they got installed!! After mucho, mucho head scratching and finally Web Searching we found some answers. The above are the locations to read and get drivers from. The first one does the talking and tells you where to get the two files... HOWEVER... the second one is where you'll probably have to go to get the MS file.

 PAY ATTENTION HERE!!   The two items above are probably ...no actually... the most important ones of this fix. Don't know why they were not included in the Toshiba Software -but- they weren't.

   

Plans are; to capture info off theLaptop screen and place it here. Just haven't gotten to it yet.

 Restore Point   Ok before continuing in our efforts we are going to Create a Restore Point. 18 Dec 11/9:07am Oh Darn!! Just noticed the time is off by one hour. So the Restore Point is at 8:07am. We'll have to change the Laptop to have the correct time. Anyway, the reason for the mention of a Restore Point here is... we have most of the stuff setup on this laptop -for the second time- but have not yet installed / loaded SP2 (Service Pack 2) for the second time.

Another Gracious Friend gave me this Laptop. He more or less out grew it. Strange thing to say -but- this is NOT really a Gamming System. As you can see by the specs below it is not all that powerful -but- it will take Notes and Surf the Net nicely ... just like our little Acer Lappytop. And if you're looking for a laptop mostly to use the internet, the memory doesn't matter (and neither does processor speed). It'll be your internet connection that gives the internet its speed.

If you jump over to see the Acer, you will see ( unless we have changed it already) the 'old' way we did these pages. Looks rather crude now that we have found this new way. Course that is always the way it is... isn't it??

Anyway the Lappytop was not all that powerful either -but- we do believe it might be a little faster in operations... even though it is a slower clock rate -and- a theoretically lesser Processor. Why?? The Little Lappy is running WinXP and this one is running Vista. More time and usage experience is needed to make a further analyzation. However, it is difficult to use three computers at one time. Most of our time will be on the Desktop Machine. That is primarily why we hadn't purchased a Laptop ourselves in the past. Couldn't justify the cost for the amount of use it would get. However, we're sure that as time goes by, the Laptops will get used more and more. Just have to learn what to use.
    ANNNDDD ... to keep all the data synchronized!! With our my deteriorating memory, that may be a problem.

The FULL Recovery

Ok. The first item will be, -was-, a FULL System Recovery. It is not a New Machine -but- it is to us, so we will make it like it came from the Factory. Recovery Discs were included and we just inserted them and followed directions. It did take a long time. However, when it was all finished we had, essentially, a "New Machine".

Now then, the second thing to do is... dump some of those programs that were included with the recovery. Some of them are only good for 60 days and some of them are useless... to us anyway.

The Do-Over

Ok. We're doing did it!! We were NOT happy with the way it turned out. -But- hopefully we learned a few things and this time around we can get it right. Hopefully, whatever we do differently, we will remember to make it obvious. New text color will be this, if we remember to change it. Annnd hopefully, the date -and- time.

 15 Dec 11 2:25am   Alllrighty Now, it has finished the re-reload.

The advantage of obtaining a "New" machine is that it will have nothing on it that you will need to save... well, it shouldn't anyway. Because of that fact we can then do anything that we want so, hopefully, in the future when we run into various dfficulties we will be able to handle them better. What are we trying to say??? We don't know. Only that one facit of our installation/setup did NOT go like we would have liked. Because we didn't take proper notes on a couple of items ... we are screwed!! Not sure how to fix the problem(s) cause of a lack of information. Again, it is our own fault.

One item that we may have installed a little to early was "Smart UAC". Not sure how much the "Normal -or- Native" UAC will differ, but we will find out. Hopefully, this won't take as long ... cause we have done it once already... right?? ( yeah sure)

The other item of interest is NOT installing some of those items that we decided to remove anyway. Now this won't apply IF you are working with a newly purchased machine that is all setup, -but- it could... IF you got Recovery Discs. Either with the New Machine or separately purchased. It is highly, highly recomended that Recovery Discs are obtained -or- created as soon as you get your new PC.
Well, it didn't make any difference period. There are NOT any options to selectivly loadup the machine. Blam!! You get it all. 15 Dec 11/2:30am

 ARRRRGGGG!!!!  Just had to say that. We are NOT looking forward to this Do-Over, -BUT- at this point in time it seems like the best way, both because and for learning.

Allllrighty Now. Everything has been disconnected except the Power Cord. We will start with a "Naked" machine. We are Recovering to Factory Status. In order to Boot from the CD's, Press the F12 key after Power On.

1. Select "System Recovery Options"
2. Using the above instead of the "Toshiba Recovery Wizard" we get a list of options. That is what brought about the next step...
3. -*-* Instead (finally thinking )... do a System Restore. The last Restore point available looks to be just before we did our deed.
        12/13/2011 2:00:11 AM Install: Windows Update
4. Ok. It came back with the Single LogOn Screen. Now to see what else we possibly lost. Now we get to see how good our notes are otherwise. This was much, much better than having to do the Recovery again. However, it has brought home another item for our notes... time of the day.
   Ah ha!! My excessive verbiage has paid off. The "Windows Update" mentioned above happened at the Install of IE9. So we need the steps AFTER the IE9 install.
5. We installed Firefox then we were trying to do more clean up of the System. In other words removal of the 'extra' programs that were supplied. This is where we ran into trouble. Well not really trouble, just the inability to remove some things cause we didn't have high enough permissions. That was what brought about the idea of the Administrator LogOn. We are gona try again only this time... we won't Deny the 'extra' programs from running. Trying to be to safe and almost blew it entirely.
6. As mentioned above we bit the bullet and just did a FULL Recovery... again.
   15 Dec 11/2:32am

Start of Removals

 15 Dec 11/2:35am Just a note to try and stay consistent. We are doing everything mentioned in this section.

 Norton 360  We never did like the operation of this one. Had troubles back in the old days. And a few of our customers have not had good luck with it either. Prefer Avast! and Ad-aware. ( And NOT just because they are free... BUT because they work!!) Must first go into 'msconfig' and remove the annoying request to install it, Norton 360. Then into the 'Control Panel', 'Programs', 'Programs and Features' and remove it. A Restart will be required. By the way, Company's name is Symantec. That is what is used in the Startup. After turning them off in Startup, a Restart is required. A little Side Note; you have the option of allowing the Welcome Dialog -or- not. We allow it cause... when it comes up then we know the System is finished booting and ready to use. Just a thought. Well, close, avast! may take a little longer.
15 Dec 11/2:41am

Now then, some of these were removed from this Laptop because ... we don't want to perform those operations on the Laptop anyway. We have the same or better programs on our Desktop which is much faster and more convenient. To those of you for whom this would be your only 'puter, you might want to keep some of the stuff we removed. Annnnddd... there are all those updates. The programs on the Recovery Discs have creation dates of February 18th, 2008!! It is now December 11th, 2011. The following list we got off the Net from a conversation someplace. Unfortunately, we don't remember where. At any rate 'most' of this list was on our System. There were a couple that were not -or- at least we haven't found them yet... Another Side Note; During the Un-Install of the following packages, a Restart will be requested by a number of them, an annoying number of times. But have faith, it will be better in the long run. 15 Dec 11/4:15am

• Lojack for Laptops - May be good IF you are a Traveler. We're not, it goes.
• QuickBooks - Nope don't want it.
• Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba - remove if you don't use BT Has the Software -but- NOT the Harware?? Will remove it.
• TOSHIBA ConfigFree - remove, just use Windows built in abilities
• TOSHIBA Assist - if you're competent, removed
• TOSHIBA Security Assist - removed
• TOSHIBA Software Upgrades - removed
• TOSHIBA Disc Creator - remove if you've created discs. Did not create discs -but- have Recovery set already.
• Microsoft Works Version 9.0 - We'll keep it
• Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment - keep since you may need it to run java stuff in your browser
• Google Desktop - remove unless you can't use Vista's searcher
• Google Toolbar - remove, comes integrated into Firefox anyways
• Google Picasa - remove unless you like to edit photos
• Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 for TOSHIBA - removed it.
• Microsoft Office Trial Home and Student 2007 Edition (60-day trial) - removed it
• Activation Assistant for Microsoft Office. - removed it
• Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System - Removed it.
• Norton 360 (60-day trial) - Removed it.
• Microsoft Office Live - remove unless you need to conference with many people over MS Office software
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 - will keep it... for now.
• Shutterfly digital photo service - keep if you do lots of photo stuff
• Napster music subscription service - Removed - Napster is defunct.
• VONGO internet video download service - removed it
• Skype internet communications - remove unless you need video chat
• Memeo Backup - Removed it.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0 - ditch the bloated POS for foxit reader - Ok we did, and we will try out this Foxit Reader.
• =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The ones below need further investigation -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
• eMusic MP3 music subscription service - keep if you want music
• InterVideo WinDVD 8 - remove unless you play DVD's on your laptop
• TOSHIBA Extended Tiles for Windows Mobility Center - remove unless you decide you need it
• TOSHIBA Speech System - remove unless you need something other than the MS Sam voice
• TOSHIBA Game Console - dunno, probably the same as Games explorer, could remove
• CNN Pipeline - remove

   

There are some services that are running -and- they are using up some System resources. Resources that could be used by the needed programs and IF they were NOT running the System would be faster. Some of these will be used by us -but- we don't need them running in the background all the time. There is this thought that the operator wants a faster startup on ALL his/her programs. Well, we do believe that overall faster operation is more important. So the following services will be stopped till they are needed -or- because they are not needed.
15 Dec 11/6:43pm

Another reason for this is... in our travels around the Net seeking information about this Laptop and Vista we ran across some conversation that complained about 100% CPU usage. Upon investigation of this... that's a fact Jack. If you go into the Control Panel-->System and Maintenance-->Administrative Tools-->Reliability and Performance you can observe these usages.

1. pinger.exe - Toshiba
   Dumped Toshiba Software Updates.
2. swupdate.exe - Toshiba
   Dumped Toshiba Software Updates.
3. wermgr.exe - Microsoft Windows Error Reporting Manager.
   Control Panel-->System and Maintenance-->Problem Reports and Solutions--> Change Settings-->Advanced Settings
   For our programs, problem reporting is: Off
   For all users: Allow each user to choose settings
   Windows is set to: Automatically check for solutions
4. Agere Modem - Toshiba Extra
   Stopped this since we do not use Dial up.
5. Registration.exe - Toshiba
   Stopped cause we are not going to register. It's a used machine.
6. hwSetUp - Toshiba
   Utility that allows you to change various hardware settings on your computer. Did not feel that this was need at every startup. However, could not stop it as USER. This is one of the reasons we wanted the Administrator LogON. Needed higher permissions to disable this one.
7. jswtrayutil.exe - Toshiba Atheros
   
The culprit for Toshiba laptop users is an installation known as
    "Atheros Wi-Fi Protected Setup Library"
This program does NOT provide Wi-Fi security; instead, it allows the user to more easily set up Wi-Fi security features. It is not necessary for the operation of your Wi-Fi or your computer, and it can be safely uninstalled without any adverse effects. Here is the procedure to follow:
1) Go into Programs and Features and locate the entry
   "Atheros Wi-Fi Protected Setup Library"
Uninstall it.     Refer: Zone Alarm Forums
8. KeNotify.exe - Toshiba
   Toshiba utility found on their laptops. This program is responsible for the Toshiba LapTop Help 'FlashCards' utility that sits at the top of the screen giving easy access to the 'F keys' alternative functions such as Lock,Power Mode,Sleep etc.
   We will keep it for now. 18 Dec 11/2:34pm
9. igfxpers.exe - Toshiba Intel
   Associated with the Common User Interface module for Intel graphics cards.
   unnecessary to run this program automatically when Windows starts as you can run it manually when necessary.
10. SmoothView.exe - Toshiba
    TOSHIBA Zooming Utility - allows "automatic" zoom feature in some appications, like IE, MS-Office, WMPlayer, Adobe-Reader and also desktop icons. This program is not required to start automatically as you can run it when you need to.
11. SVPWUTIL.exe - Toshiba
    Application on Toshiba laptops supports the administrator password function for the BIOS. If this function is not needed, this utility can be removed from the start-up menu.
12. TOSCDSPD.exe - Toshiba
    Toshiba laptop related. Used to provide an acoustic silencer for the CD drive. If you are playing a music CD, or installing software, and the CD player vibrates noisily, due to a poorly balanced CD, you can invoke this program from the task bar and slow down the player. This results in less or no vibration and therefore less or no noise.

The last of the above Stops was performed 18 Dec 11/3:07pm We will create a Restore Point here.

 15 Dec 11/4:50am  Ok, on the Re-Reload we are setting up this Administrator account right away. Now why do we think this is so important?? Because!! Really, there are a few things that we like/need to do that require higher permissions than we as a User possess. Therefore, we need to switch over to the Administrator. Similar to Signing On as Root in Linux. The Administrator section below will tell how to do it -and- the troubles we experienced. Hopefully, IF -and- when we setup SP2 again it will not have all the troubles that we experienced before. It all worked fine in our Vista under VMware.

 25 Dec 11/9:15am  Well, we have a situation. We can 'LogOff' in each and get SignedOn -BUT- the LogOff / LogOn operation takes longer and longer each time a swap is made. We didn't see that in our Vista in VMware. Now then the difference may be ... ta,ta,tahhhh... the one in our VMware load is an HP version and this is a Toshiba version. Can not yet verify that is the probelm -but- we keep saying HP is the best. We'll keep this in mind as we progress. The 'acid' test will be the loading of SP2.

Got the following from: How-to Geek. He has a nicer explanation and some images... IF you need to see some pictures.

 1. Enable Built-in Administrator Account
    First you'll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by 
    right-clicking and choosing "Run as administrator" 
    (or use the Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcut from the search box)

 2. Now type the following command:
       net user administrator /active:yes

  You should see a message that the command completed successfully. 
  Log out, and you'll now see the Administrator account as a choice. 

 3. Disable Built-in Administrator Account
    Make sure you are logged on as your regular user account, and then open 
    an administrator mode command prompt as above. Type the following command:
          net user administrator /active:no

Now then, we are gona say this straight out. The above assumess that you have some idea of what you are doing. It will give you rights to things that you do NOT normally have. SO BE CAREFUL... -AND- Please note that there’s no password for this account. IF you want to leave it enabled you should Create one!! or you'll possibly be sorry... that you didn't.

Hmmmm... Must listen to our own words. This is NOT working for us as it has on other Systems.Well, all was not necessarily our fault. We thought that we were a little innocent and that is the main reason for this Re-Reload. After setting up this Administrator Account BEFORE any Updates, we can switch between our Normal User Account and the Administrator Account with NO trouble. ( Did we mention how much we hate Updates!!)
15 Dec 11/5:05am
In addition we added a password to the account and changed the Background so that we know where we are. 15 Dec 11/10:45am
Now we LogOff and SignOn to our Normal account. Rut Roh!! Taking a long time to exit out then taking a longer time to get signed on. We keep the Welcome Dialog Box enabled for just this reason. Things are going on in the background and it ain't nice to mess with the System. Once you get the Welcome, you can dismiss it and things should be kosher.
15 Dec 11/10:51am - this thing is working. We can SignOn, LogOff and Switch Users. Weellll now, that is not exactly true. If we signed on to one of the two we have, and then LogOff back to the Dual SignOn screen ... we can switch. How-some-ever, IF we are logged on to, say our Normal Account and then decide we want to switch via the Orb instead of Logging Out... it will work to get on... the other account, -But- when you LogOff it Hangs!! with the background of the page you just left. Nothing will exit. Power Off required. #=============================================================# The following tales of Woe are from our first encounter with this AFTER installing SP2. Let's get that clear... SP2 was installed first and then tried this setup.
We must bring to light that this Administrator setup IS WORKING in our Vista that is running in our VMware inside our SuSE Linux -and- has SP2 installed.

• At Power On get the Dual LogOn Screen.
• Click on Administrator.
• Get a Welcome ....
• Get a blank Dark Screen... NO Desktop. It stays blank. Have mouse cursor.
• Get a Desktop... Got avast! Welcome.
  Realtek SkyTel wants to write to System-critical folder. Has NOTHING to do with Vista Operations so... we Deny.
  Here is one of the Progs we think we blew it on the first time...
      C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe     - Allow
  Next is:
      C:\Windows\system32\verclsid.exe     - Allow
  Hmmmmm... got same message that we got the first time:
      rundll32.exe
      Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may
      not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.
  Thought we got that message the first time thru cause of the Denies on the two System programs. -But- we got it again. However, let's see if it follows the same scenario as listed down below... from the first time.
• LoggedOff Administrator account.
• Switched to User at the Dual LogOn screen. Got Welcome then that Dark Screen with a Personal Setting dialog box in the upper left hand corner trying to set personal setting for Windows Media Player!! Sat there for a long time.
• Finally got to User Desktop.
• Did a LogOff and back to the Dual LogOn Screen.
• Selected Administrator...Goes from Welcome screen to Dark Blank screen... and sits.
• Could it be...??? Could it be???
• Nope. Thought it was cause we didn't set up a Password for the Administrator -but- that was not it. It still gets to a Dark Blank screen and sits. Only two ways out. Ctl-Alt-Del or PowerOff. So the only way we can log on to the Administrator Account successfully is at PowerOn -or- a Restart.
• ================== from the first time =====================
• Synopsis: Can get into the Adminstrator from a PowerOn Boot -but- not from a Switch User.
• Got the Welcome Dialog... still OK... -but- lots of disc activity... will wait.
• Ok. All settled now Log Off... NOT Shutdown, just LogOff.
• At the Dual LogOn Screen we select Administrator again.
• Get the Welcome again ...
• Get a blank Dark Screen... NO Desktop. It stays blank. Have mouse cursor.
• Control-Escape ... nothing
• Control-Alt-Del -- Get a Vista Screen with a list of choices
  * Lock this computer
  * Switch User
  * Log off
  * Change a password
  * Start Task Manager
• We chose LogOff.
• Got back to Dual LogOn Screen
• This time chose User.
• Got Password Entry Screen
• Got Welcome
• Got small Personalized Settings... and it sits.
• Ok. Took dog for a walk. Got back and we have Desktop with Welcome Dialog. Don't know what happened in between.
• Closed Welcome Dialog and LoggedOff.
• Got Blank Dark screen again ... then got Dual LogOn screen.
• Selected Administration ...
• Got Welcome and then Blank Dark Screen... and it sits.
• Ctl-Alt-Del again ... this time selected Switch User.
• Back to Dual LogOn Screen and it claims that Administrator is LoggedOn.
• Clicked on Administrator and got back to Blank Dark screen.
• Ctl-Alt-Del again... selected LogOff.
• Back at Dual LogOn and we select Power Off down in the corner.

Now then, we believe that this just "might" be our fault. When the initial screens were comming up for the FIRST time in Administrator we denied the running of some programs. Possibly a BIG MISTAKE. Annnnddd... we are not sure about how to correct them cause we didn't take note of the files names. Therefore, we do not know what was supposed to be running and what -or- how to check them. Investigations will be made -but- this is a learning curve and experience. IF neccessary we will start this whole mess over and take better notes!! ( which just means, enhance these.)

   

Here we will discuss our usages and ... and what?? Oh, just Things.

 System Settings  This gets top billing cause it is really the most important.
Plugging in our Ethernet cause some of the following want to check their Home Place. Also plugging in our USB mem stick cause it has all our programs. 15 Dec 11/5:38am

•  Windows Firewall   - Until it gives us troubles we'll keep it.
•  Auto Updating   - Personally, we don't like updates. And especially ones that pop in on you all of a sudden. So, NO Auto and we get them when we need them. Living dangerously?? Not really, we just like to pick and choose -and- know that things have changed and why. We will be notified, unless that gets to annoying, and then decide.
  Leaving this the same. 15 Dec 11/5:39am
•  Malware Protection - Avast!   - This install also used the USB port Jump Drive for the first time... on this machine. Also a good test of the Audio and Speakers. The "Welcome to Avast" came out loud and clear. Better than on our Little Lappy.
  First part of the Install was creating a Restore point. A Restart was NOT needed. 15 Dec 11/5:42am ... Well, ok, we got a notice that there was an Update to avast! so we are installing it BEFORE doing Ad-Aware... this time a Restart was requested. 15 Dec 11/5:47am
  Oh Darn. It did some system update. Not sure which one but the screen came up saying 1 of 3. We looked away to type this and then looked back and the Dual LogOn screen was showing. So we will just LogOn and continue. At the Desktop an offer to use WebRep was made but we declined for now. 15 Dec 11/5:53am
   Ad-Aware   - The next install. Hmmmmm... In Windows Explorer, we clicked on Ad-Aware95Install. Looked away, back to this page on the Desktop, did some things and then looked at the Laptop. Nothing was happening!! Well, it really was -but- we couldn't see it. The first install window, which was the License Agreement, came up -behind- the Windows Explorer window!! Usually, when this happens, the trying to be seen window will also have an Orange Notification on the TaskBar and it may, or may not, be flashing. Just click on the Orange Notification and the window will come into focus on top. While it is installing, there will be two more instances of it halting and waiting for your permission to continue. Once again these will be Orange Notifications in the TaskBar. We have a problem. Have seen it before, the Ad-Aware Banner stays up. Looks like things are finished -but- the Banner is still up. Did a Shutdown and Restart... now Avast! is updating. Needs to Restart... speaking of which... it now takes longer to boot up cause we are doing all that checking - for Viruses and things!! Seems like you can't win.
  The Install went better this time. In fact we got the Scan operation screen. We decided to do a scan, as it turns out, a Full Scan. It takes a long time -but- we are gona do it anyway. 15 Dec 11/6:04am
•  Smart UAC   - We found this whilst setting up Vista in VMware inside our Linux machine. We like it better than the one that comes with Vista. It will get installed in C:\Program Files\Smart UAC. For some reason the install did not seem to go well on this one. -But- it did get installed and is working.
  Installed, clicked on Finish, clicked on Ok to the Restart and thought that it Restarted. However, the last Smart UAC dialog window is still showing. We clicked on OK again and now it is still sitting there with a circling mouse cursor. Clicked OK again and this time the Dialog window faded... -but- it stayed. Found the Starting Dialog window behind this one and we clicked on the Finish again. The window disappeared -but- the dim one was still there. We then decided to try a Restart from the Start Orb. It didn't work. However, it or one of the other attempts finally tried to shutdown the System. We got our infamous Blank Dark screen and then up popped a Dialog Box with this message:
      Logon process has failed to create the security options dialog.
            Failure - Security Options
  We just clicked on OK... and got back the screen with the Dim Dialog Box!!! As a last Resort we just killed the Power. 15 Dec 11/9:35am
  Ok. Power back on. Got the usual Windows Error Screen with Boot choices. We just picked Start Normally. The System apparently survived and booted up Ok.
  15 Dec 11/9:40am
  Now then, Ok, may, or may not, be deceptive. This Smart UAC warns you about programs, just like the 'normal' one -but- you can tell it to NOT warn you again. It warns us about both of our Protection Programs. We are going to say they are ok and not to warn us again. So, it appears that Smart UAC is working. Even though we once again had a troublesome install.
  15 Dec 11/9:46am
• Jump Drive - There are two USB ports on either side of the Laptop. We had used one of the ones on the Right side in our initial endeavors and the System called it "Removable Disk (E:)". This was all well and good -but- we decided to use one of the ports on the Left side for our next excursion. Guess what??? It was also labled "Removable Disk (E:)". Vellly intellesting. Don't have two jump drives, so we can't see what would happen if we had one in each at the same time. We're sure one of them would be (F:).

 Mouse  This gets trying. We don't really like the little Mouse Pad below the keyboard. Annndd we prefer a real mouse. Have one for our Little Lappy -but- haven't obtained one for this one... yet. Could just use the one from the Acer -but- we want to try to get used to using the Mouse Pad. It, by the way, doesn't seem to be as bothersome as the one on the Acer. Could be cause we haven't used it that much. We prefer the 'Single Tap' on the Buttons -but- with these Mouse Pads that is dangerous. So we double click... till we get a real mouse and can turn off the Pad.

 Wireless  Our first attempt at this was a dismal failure. Then we read the "destructions". There is an ON/OFF switch for the Wi-Fi on the front edge of the machine. It was in the OFF position.

 EtherNet  We have a connection reserved for the Laptops. It worked well. Its first use was with the Avast! setup. Changed WORKGROUP from WORKGROUP to TRCOMPUTING. this should let me see both machines from each. Hostname is Dusty-Tosh.
15 Dec 11/2:27pm

 Sleep Mode  We have experienced this on some of our customer machines. It goes into Sleep Mode and won't come out. So we will turn OFF that feature... for both Battery and Power Modes. Right Click on Desktop-> Personalize-> Screen Saver->Change power settings-> Change plan settings. Change 'Put the computer to sleep' to Never on Both.
Now then, this could be further revised by cliking on 'Change advanced power settings' in this last window. Then inside that one select 'Sleep' and adjust the settings. ONLY IF you have NOT turned OFF Sleep Mode as described above. ( ooooooooooooo.... this can all get so confusing!!)
Another solution is offered by: Annoyances Resolved Their problem with the Sleep -or- Hibernation Mode stems from a Disk Clean Up.
To resolve this problem in Windows Vista, run the powercfg -h on command at an Administrative command prompt to enable the hibernate feature and the hybrid sleep feature. To run this command, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
2. Right-click Command Prompt, click Run as administrator, type powercfg -h on, and then press ENTER.
This 'Sleep', 'Hyper Mode' and 'Hibernation' were all relatively new. Notice we said 'were'. Like most things in our Computer World, lots of trials and errors occur in the beginning. Especially because of all the variances required because of "Copyrights". The 'Reliability' of your Sleep Modes will possibly depend on the 'age' of your machine... or not.
So, there are answers. If none of the above fit your situation... just search the Web some more... and Have Fun.
On the Re-Load, Burned again. This time it was in SP1. Don't remember whether the above occurances were before -or- after SP2 -but- this time they are definately in SP1. We are going to fix them the same way for now... turn off hibernate. 17 Dec 11/12:14pm

 Software Problems???   The reason for the question marks is... cause these may -or- may not be considered problems. They may just be annoyances. Either way we want to fix -or- take care of them. As we find solutions, they will be posted here.
These Programs keep popping up in our Smart UAC as writing to a system-critical folder. pinger.exe - Toshiba
This program is a non-essential system process. The program starts upon Windows startup (see Registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run).
You can completely remove TOSHIBA Software Upgrades
(Control Panel-->Add/Remove programs). 15 Dec 11/10:15am
swupdate.exe - Toshiba
Still investigating. However, we think the above fix also fixed this one. All it does is update any Toshiba-specific components. With Toshiba, there are seldom any updates beyond the released software. 15 Dec 11/2:03pm
wermgr.exe - Microsoft Windows Error Reporting Manager.
Disable it in: 'Control Panel'-->'System and Maintenance'-->'Administrative Tools'--> 'Services'-->'Windows Error Reporting Service'. Right click on it, select Properties, in Startup type select Disabled. Click on Apply then OK. 15 Dec 11/10:33am
Well, another find that was/is not totally true. Our Smart UAC just reported wermgr.exe trying to write to a system-critical folder. 15 Dec 11/3:37pm
Refer: Overclock

   

Allllrighty now. Here we are in the section of most interest to us at this time... our own installations. In other words, the programs that we want on this Laptop.

• Firefox 8 - 17 Dec 11/1:41pm - They just released this version. The install was fairly simple. Just download the appropriate file from Mozilla and click on it. Follow the directions and then use it. We will want to copy our Bookmarks over from the Desktop Machine.
• Thunderbird 8 - 17 Dec 11/1:45pm - This is the latest. It has been installed -but- not setup ... yet.
• Foxit 5.1 - 17 Dec 11/1:52pm - Adobe Acrobat replacement.
• Internet Explorer is at Version 7. We will update to the latest. Well, maybe. Updating so the we could use IE9 was what brought us troubles the last time. We are going to slowly Update and see where it messes up the system. -Or Not-. We don't use IE so why should we care what version is installed. for now we will leave it and try to start using this Laptop.
• Starter Setup - 16 Dec 11/5:47am Allows you to look at your startups and control them. More user friendly than msconfig.

   

Updates -- Including SP2 and IE9

( Did we ever mention how much we hate updates???) Anyway, a word of caution --- which we are sure you have heard many, many times. Do NOT do these updates on Battery Power. Especially this machine. It's fully charged battery will only last about an hour and a half... or less.

 17 Dec 11/2:05pm   Re-Load - As of this time we DO NOT have and WILL NOT install SP2. We will get updates as they are needed. IF it ain't broke, don't fix it. IE9 which is mentioned next can wait.

 Internet Explorer  One of the items that will be updated almost immediately. This came with IE7 and we do believe that they are up to IE10 now... or are working on it.( Yep. They are creating IE10 -but- it won't work on Vista!!) Ok we will get IE9 which was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT.
Well, we went to the MS Site to download IE9 and got greeted with the following:

Looking for Internet Explorer 9?

To get our latest browser, you need to be running Windows Vista or Windows 7.
So, we'll use our LAN connection on the Laptop. Now this will get real interesting. Even though it is listed above, Firefox has NOT been installed yet. So, we will be using IE7 to update itself which is probably how it should be anyway.
Hmmmmmm... Well, all it did was download it?!?? I do believe that this is a CYA move. It checks what System you are on and then offers that version of IE9. So, this way you are sure to get the proper one. Not a bad concept.

We, I, updated my sister's Laptop from IE7 to IE9 and it was NOT fun. Primarily cause the connection she had at the time was 'phone DSL'! Talk about a time comsuming project. Guess we will now get to see the difference.

Alllrighty now. We clicked on the downloaded file IE9-WindowsVista-x86-enu and got greeted with a "Service Pack is not supported". Well, that figures. Three, almost four, years have past since this machine was created. Lots of things have changed since then. So, we guess the FIRST thing to do is get all the Service Packs. Think that IE9 is in there somewhere anywho.

 Service Packs  At present we have "Service Pack 1" installed. This was by default with the Recovery Discs. Thought about it and thought about it. After all this thought it was decided to .... enable Auto Updates long enough to get the latest. ( Did I mention how much we hate Updates???) Anywho, after this extensive update session ... and the Laptop survives ... we will get back to our setups and installs. 12 Dec 11 -- Took 35 minutes to Download 122 updates. Now it is installing the updates. ARRRGGHHH...!! I see it installing Internet Explorer 8!! Boy... that'll be something if later we see it install Internet Explorer 9.?.! like we were hoping on in the first place. Ooooops... Big Oooops. Another one of those "windows" hiding behind others. We thought the IE8 was taking a long, long time to install. Well, it wasn't. A response window was hiding behind the main one... with a question... "Do you want to Install IE8??" Just waiting for us to answer... we said NO. Got things going again -but- if you are reading this ... BE AWARE that some windows demanding attention ... hide. Watch your TaskBar closely... especially when you think something should be happening -- and it isn't.

Well, it finally got through it and proceeded to ShutDown... and it stayed there. Just stayed on the ShutDown screen. Then all of a sudden it went Black ... actually a Dark Grey. And there it stayed... and stayed... and stayed. Well, you get the picture. Eventually we pressed to OFF button and then went to work.

After work and upon arrival at the home front we applied power. There was a lot of disc activity and we got the Microsoft screen with its progress bar... for longer than we should have.. and then the screen went black. But we still had disc activity. Then we got a screen stating that it was in Phase 3. After that finished we went back to a black screen ... with disc activity. And that is where we are now. I am going to get something to eat and drink whilst this is making up its mind on what it is gona do. 12:03am and the disc light is flashing... screen is black. 12:11am hit the shift key and our black screen became the SignOn Screen. Entered our password and hit ENTER. Viola!! We have a Desktop with a Dialog that says:

We just sat there and looked at it for a while... munching on Fritos and sipping our ScrewDriver. It's been a long day.

Ok. After all that we still have IE7. We really thought that the Service Pack would install it. Nope. So we are gona have to do it ourselves... which is what started all this updating in the first place.!.! We'll click on IE9-WindowsVista-x86-enu again. Hmmmm... how-a-bout that. First thing it does is "Install the required updates"!!! And it appears to be a lot. Well, they must have been for IE9 also cause now we have a Dialog that says:

And it wants us to Restart. So we will. A little long in the LogOff and then we get a screen with the message:

Which becomes "2 of 3" and sits there... and sits there... Well, other than go to bed and check it in the morning.

Hmmmmm... that last sentence didn't make a lot of sense, did it?? Well, that is the way most of yesterday went. What we were trying to say was; "Ok. We'll get some sleep whilst it finishes whatever it is it is doing." Now then, here it is the next morning and the Laptop is sitting there... OFF. Reason?? We in our -Brilliance- had turned off the little Power Strip -and- forgot to turn it back on. The Battery will only last for about an Hour and a Half. It has been over 5 hours!! Ok. Let's hope that it finished what it was doing before the Power died. According to what we have seen on the Web... it's a 50/50 chance. Actually, probably a 70/30 chance that it didn't finish.

First we will turn on the Power Strip, let it sit and charge the Battery for a bit and then we will turn it on. Actually, (that word again) actually, we are going to have to take our dog for her walk and then go to the Dentist for a root canal. So, we will leave things as they are till we get back from the Dentist. No sense in being miserable about two things.

Power on after Dentist ( which was a good trip by the way). Gives a time count down till Windows Resumes. We let it. Got a Dialog in upper left corner saying Personal Settings. Still had disc activity... so waited. Got the SignOn screen and signed on. Did its things and then got the Normal Desktop. May have missed a couple of things but that was the general gist of things. The main thing is; we got back to our Normal Desktop and all "looks" well.

Alllrighty now. We have the Welcome Screen come up and one of the items you can select is "View computer details". We selected it and it listed, among other things, Service Pack 2. Closed out the Welcome Screen and selected Internet Explorer from the Start Menu. IE9 came up. It had a question box and we, at this time, selected "Ask me later". Want to investigate things before selecting any 'defaults'. -But- the big thing is IE9 got installed even though we sorta blew it. Ok, after closing the questionnaire we got a change in the IE9 screen. It went from a default WebPage to a Meet your new browser page.
Meet IE9.

   

Refer: Vista-SP2 and Information about Service Pack 2

We're calling this section "The Browsers" cause we want to discuss Firefox 8 and Internet Explorer 9. We have had minor experience with IE9 -but- none yet with the new Firefox 8.

 25 Dec 11/6:08am  Well, here it is Christmas morning and we are on the 'puter. But, must wait for the better half to get up. Anywho, we 'Updated' our Firefox on Windows and now have version 9.0.1. So we are out of sync again with the Linux versions.

   

Toshiba Satellite A205-S5000 - C 540 1.86 GHz - 15.4" TFT specifications

• General
• Built-in Devices Wireless LAN antenna , Stereo speakers
• Width 14.3 in
• Depth 10.6 in
• Height 1.5 in
• Weight 6.0 lbs
• Color Black
• Localization United States
• Processor
• Processor Intel Celeron 540 / 1.86 GHz
• Data Bus Speed 533.0 MHz
• Chipset Type Mobile Intel GL960 Express
• Cache Memory
• Type L2 cache
• Installed Size 1.0 MB
• RAM
• Installed Size 2.0 GB / 2.0 GB (max)      Two sticks of 1024 megabytes each.
• Technology DDR2 SDRAM - 667.0 MHz
• Memory Specification Compliance PC2-5300
• Configuration Features 2 x 1 GB
• Environmental Parameters
• Min Operating Temperature 41.0 °F
• Max Operating Temperature 95.0 °F
• Humidity Range Operating 20 - 80%
• Storage Controller
• Storage controller type Serial ATA/IDE
• Storage Controller / Serial ATA Interface Serial ATA-150
• Storage
• Floppy Drive None
• Hard Drive 120.0 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400.0 rpm
• Storage Removable None
• Hard drive type Portable
• Optical Storage (2nd)
• 2nd optical storage type None
• Optical Storage
• Type DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
• Read Speed 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
• Write Speed 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD±R) / 4x (DVD±R DL)
• Rewrite Speed 10x (CD) / 4x (DVD±RW) / 5x (DVD-RAM)
• Don't know where they got these specs -but- this System does NOT have a Dual Layer Drive.
• Card Reader
• Card reader type 5 in 1 card reader
• Supported flash memory cards Memory Stick , xD-Picture Card , Memory Stick PRO , SD Memory Card , MultiMediaCard
• Display
• Display Type 15.4 in TFT active matrix
• Max Resolution 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) and supports native 720p technology
• Widescreen Display Yes
• Features TruBrite
• Video
• Graphics Processor / Vendor Intel GMA X3100 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0
• Max Allocated RAM Size 256.0 MB
• Audio
• Audio Output Sound card
• Input Device(s)
• Input device type Touchpad , Keyboard
• Telecom
• Modem Fax / modem
• Max Transfer Rate 53.0 Kbps
• Networking
• Networking Network adapter
• Wireless LAN Supported Yes
• In order to access the wireless card, you have to turn on the switch that is located on the front edge of the computer.
• Data Link Protocol Fast Ethernet , IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g , Ethernet
• Compliant Standards IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g , Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
• Expansion / Connectivity
• Expansion Slot(s) 1.0 (total) / 1.0 (free) x ExpressCard/54 , 2.0 Memory
• Interfaces 1.0 x Display / video - Input - Mini-phone 3.5 mm , 4.0 x Network - Phone line - Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 1.0 x Headphones - Output - RJ-11 , 1.0 x Modem - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) , 1.0 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - S-video output - RJ-45 , 1.0 x Hi-Speed USB - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - 4 pin USB Type A , 1.0 x Microphone , 1.0 x Display / video
• Miscellaneous
• Compliant Standards RoHS
• It's quiet!
• Power
• Power Device External
• Voltage Required AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
• Battery
• Technology Lithium ion
• Installed Qty 1.0
• Capacity 4000.0 mAh
• The Battery averaged about an hour and a half depending on what type of task. Need to see if a better battery is available.
• Operating System / Software
• OS Provided Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
• Software Microsoft Works 9.0 , Toshiba Value Added Package , Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial) , Toshiba Assist , Toshiba ConfigFree , Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5 for Toshiba , Toshiba Speech System , Toshiba DVD Player , Toshiba Game Console , Toshiba Extended Tiles for Windows Mobility Center , Google Desktop , Google Toolbar , Memeo AutoSync , Norton 360 , Memeo AutoBackup , Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment , Adobe Acrobat Reader , Toshiba Disc Creator , Napster , Google Picasa
• Manufacturer Warranty
• Service & Support 1 year warranty
• Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year

   

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 17 Dec 11/2:05pm   Re-Load - As of this time we DO NOT have and WILL NOT install SP2. We will get updates as they are needed. IF it ain't broke, don't fix it.

There were a couple copies of this floating around on the Web. Also included comments as to the possible invalidity of some items. But who knows?? We'll find out as we use it ... and hope it works. There were complaints about this Update by a lot of people. Hope by now they have it fixed.

Kevin Tofel put together a fairly comprehensive list of what's inside the Vista SP2 update - just as the beta rolls out to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Here is what users can expect:

 Emerging Hardware Support
 •SP2 contains Blue tooth 2.1 feature pack supporting the most recent specification for
  Blue tooth technology
 •Ability to record data on Blu-Ray media,
 •Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration to Windows Vista SP2,
 •exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file
  synchronization across time zones.
 •SP2 provides support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID. new form factor support
  –example USB form factor as opposed to PCMCIA).
 •Support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
 
 Security
 •SP2 includes all previously released security updates, and builds on the proven
  security benefits of Windows Vista
 •Secure Development Lifecycle process updates, where we identify the root cause of
  each security bulletin and improve our internal tools to eliminate code patterns
  that could lead to future vulnerabilities
 •Reliability
 •SP2 addresses previously released reliability updates, as well as addressing crashes,
  caused by Microsoft code, discovered since the launch of SP1
 Performance
 •Resume performance when Wi-Fi connection is no longer available after resume from sleep
 •Inclusion of Windows Search 4 for improved indexing performance, improved relevancy
  in search, broader indexing scenario inclusion, as well as new Group Policy integration
  for Windows Search,
 •Improvements to the RSS feeds sidebar gadget to improve update performance and
  responsiveness
 Application Compatibility
 •It is our goal that applications that run on the Windows Vista Operating System
  today and are written using public APIs will continue to work as designed on
  Windows Vista SP2.
 •Previously released Application Compatibility updates are included in
  Windows Vista SP2.
 •Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm now working with POP3 email accounts
 Administration and Support Improvements
 •Customers installing .net framework 3.5 service pack 1 will notice shorter download
  and installation times with Vista service pack 2 or Windows 2008 service pack 2
  already installed,
 •Service Pack Clean up tool (Compcln.exe): This tool helps restore the hard disk space
  by permanently deleting the previous versions of the files (RTM & SP1) that are being
  serviced by Service Pack 2.
 •Single installer for both Vista & Server 2008
 •Ability to detect an incompatible driver and block service pack installation or warn
  users of any loss of functionality
 •Better error handling and providing more descriptive error messages where possible
 •Better manageability through logging in system event log
 •Componentization for Serviceability of the installer
 Some Specific Fixes/Additions Include:
 •Inclusion of Hyper-V
 •Event logging support in SPC
 •DNS Server now listens over ISATAP address
 •Fixes DRM issues from WMP upgrades
 •Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless
 •Reduction of resources required for sidebar gadgets
 •Improved power settings for WS08

   

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