Toshiba Thrive Tablets Comatose, Owners Say

Owners of the recently released Toshiba Thrive tablet say the device has an annoying bug causing the tablet to refuse to come out of sleep mode. Forums on Toshiba’s own site and third-party forums have numerous complaints from new Thrive owners complaining of the problem. “The white status light is blinking but pressing the On [sic] button does nothing requiring [a] reboot like a Windows computer,” said Toshiba forum user sjwheat. The Thrive issue was first reported by Engadget.

The only reliable way to get the device out of sleep mode is to reboot, disgruntled users posting on the forum say. Some have found removing the battery has helped; others say the problem is related to Wi-Fi settings while a few say the problem has spontaneously fixed itself.

Most speculate the problem is linked to Thrive’s firmware as opposed to a third-party app conflict. Some users complained the problem only happened after a recent software update, while others say they experienced the issue from day one, right out of the box.

Toshiba doesn’t appear to have a fix yet. But an administrator on the Toshiba forum is asking Thrive users who are experiencing this problem to send him a private message (registration required) with the following information: your name, contact information, location (city, state), your tablet’s onboard storage (8, 16 or 32GB), approximate frequency of the problem, what happens to cause the problem, and any other details you feel are relevant.

The Android Honeycomb-based Thrive launched on July 10 and is Toshiba’s first foray into the emerging one-panel slate market. Reviews for the new device have been largely positive with most complaints related to the slate’s bulkier size compared to similar tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

PCWorld rated the Toshiba Thrive 4 out of 5 stars calling it, “the first tablet that makes it easy to do anything other than consume entertainment and apps.”

Toshiba’s Thrive features a 10.1-inch screen with 1280-by-800 resolution, 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB RAM, 8, 16 or 32GB onboard storage, SD and USB ports, 2 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, and Android 3.1, Honeycomb. The Thrive is priced at $430, $480 and $580 depending on your storage size.

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