It has been just two years and nine months since the Toshiba joined the home network. Apart from connection issues via the RealTek RTL8191 SE, it has performed well.

There was no hint of what was to come even as it was powered down for the evening. Who would have known that the next pressing of the power button would do NOTHING. All the laptop could do was show that it was still connected to AC power and the fan on the cooler base was still working.

A local laptop repairer has suggested ‘reflowing the GPU’ but that will cost $100 and I am not convinced that it is worth the money or will work for any appreciable time assuming that the repair initially works. Even though the laptop is less than three years old, it is aging and who knows what will give out next. Apparently this is NOT an uncommon problem with Toshiba machines.

I was hoping for four to five years from it, believing in the past that Toshiba was one of the better makes. Since the blow-up about Apple products coming off the same production lines as everything else, I am not so sure anymore..

Now, I face a difficult choice. I don’t like HP because of their attitude towards recalling crap that they produce. I am unsure about Dell, and Toshiba have joined the same rank as Dell. That leaves Asus and Lenovo Hmmm.. 

I think that I need to do some reading on the last two..