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Monday, Toshiba will issue a BIOS update for Satellite 5005-series notebook models S504 and S507 to correct a frustrating problem: Some of the systems shut themselves off in the middle of work.

The update, which will be downloadable through the company's Web site, will correct a BIOS problem appearing in a small percentage of the notebooks, Toshiba says. The glitch causes a redundant cooling system to shut off the notebook's desktop processor before its fan has a chance to cool it, explains Carl Pinto, director of portable product marketing in Toshiba's computer systems group.

Pinto says the 5005 series of notebook PCs has sold quite well since its launch in October 2001, although he declined to release figures. And the multimedia-tailored system garnered positive reviews from PC World both online and in the February 2002 issue.

Of all the 5005-series systems Toshiba has sold, fewer than 0.5 percent of owners have contacted Toshiba about a shutdown problem, Pinto says. While a handful of owners of 5005-series laptops reported problems in the months after the product's launch, it wasn't until about three weeks ago that Toshiba began to take a closer look at the issue.

Dissatisfied Customer

Cameron Mackenzie thinks Toshiba knew about the seriousness of the problem far sooner than that, and he suggests the issue is far more common than the company says.

A police officer with the U.S. Air Force at the Beale base in California, Mackenzie bought his 5005-S504 notebook in October 2001. A few weeks later, it started shutting down while he used it. At first he thought the problem might be related to Windows XP, but then he found the Toshiba Computer Forum (an official Toshiba forum), where numerous other users were complaining about the same problem.

Mackenzie contacted Toshiba's tech support, and the company sent a box so he could return his notebook for repair. Two weeks later, Toshiba shipped his notebook back to him with a new motherboard and processor. The shutdown problem returned about two weeks after that.

Particularly frustrating was the fact that every time he called Toshiba for help, the technicians claimed no knowledge of such a problem. "It feels almost like a gag order has been issued to Toshiba employees," Mackenzie says.

Still, Mackenzie hoped Toshiba would make good on the problem. "I held out hope for a fix for almost four months before I sent a letter to the Toshiba USA president demanding a replacement or refund," he says. Eventually he got his refund--which he spent on a Dell notebook he likes very much, he says.

Part of the Process

Toshiba's Pinto doesn't deny that some customers have returned their 5005 notebooks for repair. In the process of troubleshooting, Toshiba at first tried replacing the motherboard and processor. Later it tried adding a silicon gel to the processor, which replaces the air between the chip and the cooling system, for more effective heat extraction, he says.

"We're not perfect in production," Pinto says. When isolated troubles like this come up, it's a matter of working through the possible problems, he explains.

Eventually the company figured out the redundant system problem. Normally the primary cooling system revs up the CPU fan first to begin cooling the chip if a processor-intensive program causes the chip to heat up.

In more serious situations when the fan isn't enough, Toshiba's technology can even cut back the chip's power, reducing its frequency by 25 percent, he says. The redundant system that shuts down the chip isn't supposed to kick in until both of these options have failed. Instead, it was happening before either could do its job.

Pinto says the BIOS upgrade Toshiba will offer will fix any and all shutdown problems with the 5005.

Unhappy Returns

The 5005 problem has nothing to do with Toshiba's use of a desktop part in a notebook, Pinto says. Toshiba's proprietary cooling system is designed to handle the higher heat of a desktop CPU, and since these chips cost less than mobile processors, it lets the company add more features for the same amount of money.

Intel's mobile division discourages the use of desktop processors in notebooks, says an Intel company spokesperson. However, Pinto says Toshiba has worked closely with Intel when designing notebooks that use desktop processors.

Former 5005 owner Mackenzie says he didn't realize when he bought the notebook that it used a desktop processor, but the knowledge wouldn't have changed his decision.

"Even if I had known, I still would have made the purchase. I assumed when you spend $2099.99 for a computer that it will work correctly," he says. Although he eventually received a full refund, the entire episode has left him with a bad impression of Toshiba, he says. "This was my first and last Toshiba."

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