Toshiba Portege M400 TabletPC Issue - Vista activation problem / reinstall

I was mailing the below to myself, using Gmail as a log, when I realized that maybe other folks with Toshiba problems might like to learn what I have learned - e.g. the Reboot-Tap 0 sequence to get to the Toshiba Recovery Partition - and I think there is nothing sensitive here.

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At 6:30 pm, just before supper, keyboard problems:

a) when rebooting (restarting) the machine beeped for circa 20 seconds - circa 45 beeps. (it hasn't done this for a while - still haven't figured out pattern).

b) having logged in, I tried to use first FireFox, then Internet Explorer, to go to http://www.barkzone.com/.

"www." typed in ok

but everytime I typed "b" it acted as if a weird control key had been typed. nothing more went into the URL. by the time I got to "r" it was as if I had typed the windows key followed by "r" - bringing me to the "Run" menu.

now this gives me a theory - it is as if the Windows key was stuck. which is a bit of a surprise, given the Toshiba's keyboard, where the Windows key is at the top next to the function keys.

I powercycled, hoping to clear up the above problem, and got a new problem:

c) Rebooting got me to the login screen. When I tried to login, first on my usual account "glew", then on "glew-admin", I got a dialog box with the following error:

"The Windows Vista Ultimate Product key you typed is invalid for activation"

with options such as to buy a new product key.

Well, I never entered a product key, since Vista was preinstalled. But I have heard rumours that the product key may be needed again if the computer is changed, e.g. if the motherboard is swapped as my motherboard was, in attempting to fix the keyboard problems that have plagued me since I got the computer.

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I contacted Toshiba support at (800) 457-7777.

After the usual questions - their records of what repairs have been done is inaccurate, I corrected them but I doubt that my corrections were recorded - they told me to reinstall from scratch. I had no particular need to preserve anything on the laptop - thank goodness for Gmail - although it will be annoying to have to reinstall patches, FireFox, etc., which took me the best part of a day when I first received my computer.

Here's the "magic" to reinstall:

Reboot (power cycle)
Tap "0" (zero)

This will show the "booting Windows" progress bar, but will get to the Toshiba Recovery Wizard (running out of the hidden recovery partition). Answer the questions, ad you can reinstall the OS.

The recovery partition also has utilities to repartition the drive, etc.

So now this reinstallation from scratch is in progress.

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Summing up my rather annoying experience with this Toshiba Portege M400 so far:

I received it before Xmas.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually start using it until the New Year. This was unfortunate because the 15 day return policy had expired; if I had powered it on immediately, I would have returned it immediately, along with all the accessories (dock, etc.) I bought.
MORAL: start using immediately, to test in the return window
MORAL: don't buy accessories until you are happy with a device. Returning them is just additional hassle if the P is unsatisfactory.

When I finally powered it on, there were two big problems

a) the fan was the loudest I have ever heard in a laptop

b) the machine beeped loudly for several minutes while booting.

Later, various attempts to type at the keyboard showed that the 5 or 7 keys were stuck. 555555555555555....

I believe that the keyboard being stuck is what caused the beeping.


My first calls to Toshiba service resulted in On-Site Warranty Service being sent to me (I paid extra for that). This is how I learned that On-Site Warranty Service is rather useless for a non-business:
a) they would not come out on the weekend to my home
b) I cannot stay home all day to await them
c) they cannot come into my place of work.

I suppose they could park in the company parking lot, and I bring my PC out to them.

Instead, I got Toshiba to put me in touch with the off-site service center in Portland, NorthWest Computer Support. They are "only" a half hour's drive away.


I dropped off my tablet PC at NWCS. They kept it for a week, and replaced keyboard and fan.


After a week or so, I picked up my repaired computer. It seemed to work fine. However, once again I did not use it intensely for a week or so. When I started trying to use it - installing FireFox, etc. - I realized the keyboard problem was still occurring.


A few days later I brought it back to NWCS (after phoning Toshiba). This time they kept the machine for 2 weeks, replacing the motherboard.


When I received the machine repaired for the second time, I tried using it immediately. I noticed that the keyboard problems and/lor beeping during boot still occurred sporadically, but could be tolerated - e.g. it beeped for 20 seconds, not 20 minutes. I am also just resigned to the fan noise.



This was the state until today, when I got the Vista activation error, and when Toshiba told me to reinstall. Which I am doing.


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Sigh - it isn't so much the reinstall that sucks, as the follow-up. For example, I really need to make new recovery disks for the reinstall, since I think the activation code may be different. Reconfigure network, etc.


If I could return this Toshiba, exchanging it for a different model, I would. I suspect that some of the problems may be due to having gotten a relatively maxed out machine:

Toshiba
Portege
M400
_I_n_t_e_l_(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7600 @ 2.33 GHz, 2.33 GHz
Memory (RAM): 2039 MB
Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit)

Product ID: 89580-OEM-7332132-00182

104GB disk (at least on main partition)89.8GB free
7200rpm.

Example of AT&T Wireless Bad Customer Service

Here is a "chat" session, in its entirety, as I attempted to place an order on AT&T's website:

• Andy Glew: So, I am about to place my order. Can you see my "cart"?
• Andy Glew: In case you cannot, I am
• Andy Glew: a) have an existing account - Family Plan ...
• Andy Glew: b) am upgrading my phone, to a refurb tilt
• Andy Glew: b') am adding a data plan for tilt
• Andy Glew: So, my questions:
• Andy Glew: Q1: I want to make sure that our phone numbers will stay the same: me (503-XXX-YYY4), my wife (503-XXX-YYY5)
• Andy Glew: Q2: I want to make sure that caller ID for my wife will read her name (Rhonda Patten), not my name (Andy Glew). ---- currently it reads Andy Glew for both lines; could never get that fixed.
• Andy Glew: Q3: my wife is not at all certain she wants to change phones - but since the new phone is free, why not get it? ---- So, I want to ask: can she move SIMM card between old phone and new phone? ----- both are AT&T phones.
• Andy Glew: Q4: do we keep old SIMM cards? Or will you be sending us new ones?
• Andy Glew: Those are my questions. Is there anyone there?
• Andy Glew: ??
• Andy Glew: I am going to assume that there is nobody there. Great Customer Service, AT&T!!!!!!
• Andy Glew: Adding one extra line, so I can cut and paste the conversation to my blog.

More background:

There are no timestamps up above, but this spread out over a 30 minute period. I.e. I got no response from AT&T's chat support system, in more than 30 minutes.

I understand why companies like "chat": it is easier to a help person to multiplex, supporting multiple people, via chat than phone. But no response in 30 minutes?

Oftentimes I have multiple questions, as above. It might be easier to send this via email, but no, they only provide chat support.

I'm happy enough with chat support - it also allows me to multiplex - but I *do* wish that I could enter multiple lines in the text box. AT&T's submitted every time I hit enter, alt-enter, ctl-enter.

But at least AT&T's chat app allowed me to cut and paste this example...

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Still more background:

I have spent pretty much all morning trying to place this order. At work. I don't care if work complains - I am submitting this to get a phone that I can synch with my Outlook calendar (if IT allows) - i.e. I consider this work related. If company IT did their frigging job, I wouldn't be wasting my time on this.

I have spent all morning because AT&T's website keeps resetting my order. I want a family plan, and just to upgrade my own phone in that family plan. But every time I do that, it decides to give me an individual only plan. After lots of clicking, I can figure out how to persuade it to leave the plan unchanged, and upgrade the phone - but the moment I click on something, it loses all of that effort and I have to start over.

Not only does AT&T have lousy web chat customer service, but they also have a badly designed website.

I would not be using AT&T Wireless, except for 2 reasons:

(1) AT&T works inside my employer's buildings. Verizon doesn't.

(2) AT&T has GSM. Verizon doesn't.

I really wish that I did not have to use AT&T, although the reasons above outweigh

(a) AT&T's lousy service, compared to Verizon's better service and better webpages

(b) AT&T has lousy coverage elsewhere, e.g. at the Oregon coast, where Verizon does better. There are places in Oregon where only analog works - but I can't get analog from AT&T any more.

(c) AT&T has much worse coverage, requiring much more expensive roaming charges, in Canada than Verizon.

But, as usual, you can't mix and match your wants.

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Why do I post this? A vain hope that somehow, making complaints about AT&T visible might give them incentive to improve.

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Oh, did I mention that I have had to log into AT&T Wireless' account page circa once every 15 minutes? I wish that I could say that it was a security related timeout; it seems, rather, to just be caused by colliding cookies.

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I eventually found a way to email a comment to AMD. Of course, it wasn't real email - it was one of thise annoying web forms - "Choose an inappropriate topic for your email", "Choose an inappropriate subtopic for your email", "Enter text in form".

The text box seemed to indicate a 1000 character limit. So I cut & pasted this blog items' URL. But I also cut and pasted the entire blog item's text. The webform accepted it, no matter the putative text limit.

But, of course, all newlines and formatting was lost in the submission: all of the text appeared as a single paragraph.

A pox on all stupid webform and database designers!!!


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Did I mention that I was half-way through this process last night when AT&T took their webserver down for service.

TOOK THEIR WEBSERVER DOWN FOR SERVICE????!!!!!! What sort of penny-ante company doesn't stay up 24x7 in this day and age? OK, so I can't really call AT&T penny ante - but I can say, with justification, that they aren't really playing in the web era.

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Finally, taking a completely different path into AT&T's website - not beginning from the link that my company had sent me, but coming in through my existing account online - I was able to find a phone number.

The phone support person blames my issues on the Cingular to AT&T transition, and has reportedly "updated my code" to indicate that I am allowed to stay with a family plan when upgrading my phone.

OK, this makes the problems understandable. Annoying, and inexusable, but understandable.

Push Cell Phones should be a Tool, not a Status Symbol

For the last umpteen years, my reviews have contained paragraphs of the form "Andy misses too many meetings and annoys important people". This *has* been career limiting.

I've long had this problem, but I had it solved for a few years via a technical crutch: I had our calendaring software send me a message, a page, just before the meetings. I find it hard to ignore the beeping, buzzing, or vibrating of a pager or cell phone.

A pager or a cell phone works for me, whereas I have a demonstrated ability to ignore whatever notifications Microsoft Outlook throws at me on my laptop. My laptop sound is nearly always muted; my cell phone may be on vibrate, but at least I still notice it. My laptop does not have vibrate. I carry my cell phone everywhere; I do not carry my laptop everywhere.

Why does this no longer work?

Because of IT, and information security.

(I say frigging not as a pejorative, but as a term of endearment: because I work in computer security, I understand the motivation, although I do not necessarily like the consequence.)

IT does not want company email or calendar pushed to devices that the company doesn't own. Potential security holes: the very meeting titles may give away Top Secret information, while the meeting information may contain a phine bridge number and an access code, allowing somebody who came into possession of a lost device to listen in.

IT therefore wants such information to be kept only on company owned devices; or. at least, on devices where company IT can remotely cause all sensitive information to be erased if the device has been lost or stolen. LoJack for PDA phones.

So far, so good - this sounds reasonable.

But, budgets being what they are, the company will not pay for a secure push cell phone for all employees who want one. In particular, they won't pay for a secure push cell phone for me.

What if I'm willing to buy my own phone, and allow company IT the remote access they require for security? Budgets again: the company won't pay the fee for connecting me to the corporate network via BlackBerry or the like.

What if I am willing to pay for phone, *and* the service? Oh, no, we can't do that...

The net upshot is that only bigshots have push cell phones with calendar and email synchronization. The use of such a push cell phone has become a status symbol. People will ostentatiously poke at them during meetings.

I resent them their status symbol, because I am the sort of guy who needs to use something like a push device as a tool. But I am thwarted by IT at all points.

I know how to create my own tunnel through the corporate firewall, evading their restrictions. *I* don't do this, because as a security wonk I think it would be wrong, but I know people who have done so. (Fortunately, I know nobody doing this at the moment, and the folks who did this all moved on to companies with less annoying IT departments.)

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Yes, I know the saying "It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools."

(1) Yes, I am a poor craftsman, when it comes to getting to meetings on time. As for my actual craft, computer architecture, I am one of the best in the world - and - it is my ability to concentrate on my work, ignoring all distractions, that results in me missing meetings.

(2) This saying is stupid. Jack G. Ganssle said it quite well, at Embedded.com 03/19/07:

It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools. That phrase sounds wise and profound. It's wrong.

Perhaps Noah could build an ark with nothing more than an adze. Few boatbuilders since have managed such a feat.

...

It's a demanding craftsman who blames his tools. And then he discards the bad ones, sharpens those that are dull, and adds additional tools where a need exists.

Sick and Tired of Machines Slow to Come Out of Standby

I am sick and tired of getting to work, docking my laptop - and not being able to do anything for 15 minutes.

This seems to happen when my laptop has been in standby overnight, and has not been connected to the network. Once it comes of standby at work it goes into a mode where the disk clicks madly, and everything runs like molasses, if it can be said to run.

Although the display comes up quite quickly, after less than a minute, nothing useful can be done for a much longer time. I understand that the folks who design things such as standby think that it is important to get the display up really quick, even if stuff is slow after that - byt 1 minute to display, and 15 minutes to useful work, is ridiculous.

It took 5 minutes to get to the point where my laptop started trying to enable the external monitor. 3 minutes more until my desktop was proper on external and internal monitor.

At about 4 minutes I ran CTL-ALT-DEL to get task manager. It took 3 minutes until I got the chance to press a button to get task manager, and 2 more minutes after that until I got to see the task manager.

Once I saw the task manager, I looked at top CPU consumers and PF Delta (recent PageFaults). I wish there was an I/O delta, but there does not seem to be. I swa processes such as the following:

scan32.exe
svchost.exe
cisvc.exe
naPrdMgr.exe
BESclient.exe
icdesk.exe
McScript_InUse.exe

It appears that most of the running and page faulting processes are related to virus scanning, with patching (BESclient) a close second.

I conjecture that the virusscanner's "cache" of recently scanned files has expired, and it is rescanning everything that needs to be open / which was open when I went into standby.

This sucks!!!

TTN

A new TLA especially suited to computer architecture at the large microprocessor companuies that I have worked at:

TTN. Time To Numbers. Specifically performance numbers.

Formex

I have a confession: I told a manager type guy at work that I needed to write a spreadsheet to prepare some hardware estimates. So, I wrote a spreadsheet programming it in Perl.

Actually, I am reviving a tool That I first wrote in undergrad circa 1984- a sort of free form spreadsheet. Not WYSIWYG in this incarnation, but could/should be. Actually started (re)writing it this summer. Formex = Formula Expander. I am quite happy.

Thunderbird (map Interface to Gmail.

I got sick and tired of Gmail's web interface, but I want to use it as my mail store-since amain has already outlasted of my PCs.So I installed Thunderbird. Imap to browse on the Gmail server; it appears that can use POP to back up the email, albeit without tags/ labels.

The mapping of Gmail tags/ labels to Imap folders sucks. Gmail needs some sort of structure for its tags.