madison

Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Home / News & Blogs / Hardware 2.0

RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks

By | September 2, 2010, 1:04pm PDT

Summary: Important information for Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 owners - The US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada announced a recall following over 100 cases of the notebooks overheating and melting.

Important information for Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 owners - The US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada announced a recall following over 100 cases of the notebooks overheating and melting:

Certain Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 laptop computers have been manufactured with a potentially faulty DC-In harness.  These computers will have model/part numbers beginning with PST3AU, PST3BU, or PST3LU. The defective harness may, in some circumstances, overheat to the point of melting the computer’s base at the location where the AC adaptor plugs into the unit.  To date there have been no reports of serious injury, but the temperature is sufficient to pose a burn hazard if specific parts of the DC-In Jack or plug are touched when they are overheated. 

Toshiba is releasing a BIOS revision which will prevent the computer from overheating in this manner.  To protect you from injury and your computer from damage, Toshiba strongly recommends that you update your system BIOS to version to 2.70 for the Satellite T135, 1.90 for the Satellite T135D and 2.70 for the Satellite Pro T130. 

Toshiba has a BIOS update that should identify troubled notebooks:

The BIOS can be downloaded by clicking on the following hot link:  Satellite T135 v2.70 for the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D v1.90 for the Satellite T135D, Satellite Pro T130 v2.70 for the Satellite Pro T130,  The appropriate BIOS revision is also available as an update provided through the Toshiba Service Station Application installed on you computer.

Should the BIOS determine that a harness failure is occurring, external power will immediately be disabled eliminating the possibility of the over heating.  You will then need to contact the Toshiba call center to set up a warranty repair.  If the harness failure is detected while the system is operating you will receive a system message indicating that the failure has occurred and that external power has been disabled.  You may continue to use the system, without risk of overheating, using the remaining battery charge.  You should immediately close all open files and applications to avoid any data loss.  Once the data has been saved the system should be properly shutdown.   It will not be possible to recharge the battery within the system until it has been repaired.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Hardware 2.0”

Topics

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Satellite, Toshiba Corp., Laptop Computer, Toshiba Satellite, Notebooks, Network Technology, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Networking

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

Talkback Most Recent of 14 Talkback(s)

  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    This recall surprises me because Toshiba does not honor its warranty agreements pertaining to shipping defective laptops. My advice when it comes to Toshiba is, buyer beware.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ITOdeed
    3rd Sep 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    Toshibas is doing the right thing unlike HP whom just tells you ooops buy another one its cheaper!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    aussieblnd@...
    3rd Sep 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    GREAT! They "pull the plug" (somewhat literally) on your laptop, you get the hour that your battery might have left, even though you might well have weeks or a month of life left in your system, before it "goes Chernoble" - time to backup the hard disk to your USB drive, so you can move your files to another (manufacturers) laptop! (Their concern for my safety seems to have all the sincerity as the governments concern for my financial well being or ... OK, I'll shut up now!).
    ZDNet Gravatar
    john@...
    3rd Sep 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    I think all these laptop makers are trying too hard for the extra profit and as their manufacturing costs go down and their profits rise, we the customers are being shafted bythis so obvious drop in quality which makes us say "No, we won't pay your grossly inflated prices for this crap quality and service!" My advice> Don't buy any manufacture's product until they lift their game and start supplying better machines, so companies such as HP and Dell, and now Toshiba, who have all sold machines they knew were defective should be boycotted. I already boycott these companies as well as Nvidia who were also involved in the HP scandal by supplying defective chips which all burned out, and who also never offered any help to customers. Companies must start to hurt when their customer base tells them they wont buy their products again and they must learn that their first duty is to these customers and NOT to their shareholders. Without us out here, even their shareholders will back away if the profits are not forthcoming and therefore big dividends for them fall sharply in in size. Thanks HP and Nvidia, I just bought a pair of new machines and made sure none of them were your brands. I will never buy any more of your products after the disgraceful way you treated me and abused my trust by lying to me and acting as if my custom was irrelevant. Everyone should do this and force their greedy prices back down to what these crap products are really worth. Maybe then we wouldn't mind so much if we only had to pay a couple of hundred dollars for a laptop, and we could afford to buy new ones when they burned out every year. The first rule of money is that its highly portable, we can spend it anywhere! CUSTOMER POWER!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    bill.andersen@...
    3rd Sep 2010
  • Where is my Intel recall?
    Speaking of recalls - why only inthe case of power supplies? What about BROKEN COMPONENTS - like Intel's broken GPU? Where is the recall on that? Because of Intel I have $3,000.00 in hardware that has the processor power of a Cray Computer but the graphics capability of an etch-a-sketch! The Intel GPU is DEFECTIVE and it's time they own up to it and make it up to all of the consumers who wasted hard earned money on their junk-ware!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    magusat999@...
    4th Sep 2010
  • What is this AMD?
    @magusat999@...
    What are you trying to do? Run Crysis. It's not like Intel suddenly brought Nvidia for their graphics.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Zc456
    6th Sep 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    A friend of mine has a Satellite P505-S8980 that had the same problem, it started smoking actually. I did some looking at the National Parts Depot website to see what DC IN Harness hers used, wouldn't you know that it is the same one that the T135 Series has.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    sleepwalker0765
    4th Sep 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    I have a Toshiba T135-S1305 affected by the recall and asked Toshiba techs what exactly the BIOS update does. All they will say is that it disables DC charging if overheating is detected. Detected how? No info on that. Does it reduce charging rate? No info on that. BIOS update cannot determine whether unit is one that might be affected - you won't know until it is in melt-down mode. So I could experience overheating on an outbound airline flight and, assuming the BIOS update works, have to make do with remaining battery charge for the ENTIRE TRIP. So said I want repair anyway (DC harness replacement) - am not willing to settle for BIOS update. Toshiba eventually said OK, they will send shipping box. Good for Toshiba, but that makes me even less confident of the BIOS update fix.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    vertical2010@...
    30th Oct 2010
  • Bios update...right....
    I did the bios update that toshiba downloaded onto the system... not compatable with win 7 ... the os that comes standard on the system. It bricked it. I had the machine for a week before that happend it sent it to toshiba on oct 6th and just got it back december 20th. Now half of the other parts don't work. The battery for example... if the battery is in the machine, the machine will not boot. A fine piece of hardware indeed. t135d

    In dealing with their team I called every day it was gone and they said they needed parts. The bios could just be manually flashed... but apparently they would rather waste time and money. When I called them on the lemon-laws their support refused to speak to me and I was blacklisted to the point that they pulled my serial number out of the toshiba system so no support could even look up the number.

    I work in IT and a lot of people ask me for advice on machines... Well Toshiba, you bought yourselves a hell of a lot of bad publicity.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Rastlosen
    23rd Dec 2010
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    I just had a similar experience with a Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324 (it is my wife's, and a refurb, so there is no warranty). I installed the BIOS update described here. The computer worked fine for 6 months before updating the BIOS. The update was supposed to respond to this
    overheating problem. But there was no overheating. Within a few hours - presumably when the newly-installed BIOS detected "overheating" - the computer stopped working. Since it is out of warranty, Toshiba tells me to take it to Best Buy or some such thing, since it'll be cheaper than getting Toshiba to fix it. Seems to be that there could be a class action suit in there somewhere. Looks like I'm stuck buying a new computer because I installed a "critical" update.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Former Toshiba Fan
    2nd Feb 2011
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    Had mine for just about a year I'll leave it plugged in all night long. No smoke no fire. It gets hot like any laptop. The two things I never did was update the BIOS and run windows on the laptop. GO UBUNTU!!!!! When will you people learn that using an over priced OS like Vista or Crapdows 7 just give you heart ache. Go open source it's usually free and makes you smarter!

    P.S. Yes I'm sure I want to connect to the internet! That's what I would be saying if I had a windows OS.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    seeyaduck
    2nd Mar
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    Don't think I have the problem but since Toshiba would rather cut off a nut than make it easy to fix our little Chernobyl's, I think I'll just sell it. Thank God I didn't download the Bios and brick the f-in thing. No more Toshiba for me-Me get Power Book next time. Ya they f-up too (see antenna gate), but at least when I have a problem with their products I can go directly to source and verbally abuse them at the Guinness Bar until I'm happy. LOL
    ZDNet Gravatar
    beckola
    18th Mar
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    When I called in about my T135D the tech was rude and argumentative. I hung up on him. That was 3 days before my warranty expired. Now months later, the base of my laptop is melting, the dc in jack is nearly off the motherboard. My guess is no support available. I will be cancelling some of my online classes so I can afford to buy a new computer. What a royal piss off @Toshiba.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    sdhdfw
    15th Jul
  • RE: RECALL: Toshiba Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 notebooks
    In asian countries the model T130 goes under the Portege family. I own one of this and I think it is a crap. I'm not experiencing any meltdown, but after I had this junk for a year it has gone BSOD on me at least 10 times. Other points to note for someone consider buying this crap are:
    - sloppy keyboard (actually, I had a couple of buttons pop out after less than 1 year of use, but managed to push them back in) ;
    - tochpad is often uncontrollable ;
    - wifi and ethernet cards don't work as well, compared to other brands ; and
    - the most of all, tsb support is suck!!!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    cbnjzd2
    9th Jan

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
Click Here

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources