Intel Chipset Design Issue

Effective January 31, 2011, Intel announced a design issue with the Intel 6 Series chipset. This Intel design issue affects a limited number of Toshiba laptops released for sale on or after January 9, 2011.

The following are the only Toshiba models affected by this issue:

Model Name Model Numbers
Satellite A660 See note below
Satellite A665 S5176, S5177, S5182, S5183, S5184, S5185, S5187, S5189, S6100
Satellite A665 3D Edition 3DV10, 3DV11, 3DV12
Satellite E305 S1990
Satellite L655 S5161, S5161BN, S5161RD, S5161WH, S5162, S5166, S5166BN, S5166RD, S5166WH, S5167
Satellite M645 S4116, S4118
Portege R835 P50, P55, P56
Qosmio X500 Q930
Qosmio X505 Q8100, Q8102, Q8104
Note: If you purchased a Satellite A660 from Toshiba Direct, with a Core i7 2630QM quad-core processor, you will be contacted directly by Toshiba.
Intel has announced that in some cases the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives.

At this time, Toshiba requests you return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund. You should back up your data and remove any confidential, proprietary or personal information before returning the product.


Thank you for choosing Toshiba.

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Added on June 14, 2010, 11:24 amDear Toshiba users,
It seems lately nearly all Toshiba notebooks are equipped with both 32-bit Operating systems (Windows for this case) as well as 64-bit Operating systems (which are installed into the hidden HDD partitions of each notebook). Notebook sellers prefer to start up the whole notebook with 32-bit OS , mostly because of the shorter time required to boot the whole system. Since 32-bit OS can only support around 2.98GB of RAM, those who bought Toshiba notebooks with RAM upgrades (to 4GB RAM- models include Satellite L510, Satellite Pro L510, M500, M300, T130, F60 etc.) will not be able to fully utilize the RAM. This can be settled by converting your 32-bit OS to 64-bit OS. You can do it via recovery from the Toshiba hidden partition itself, or via the 4 system recovery discs that you burnt when you 1st got your notebook 

The guide to Toshiba's HDD system recovery can be found here: cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/content/.../PMA500339010_web.pdf

Generally, it would be easier to conduct the recovery from the Hidden partition than the recovery discs (noneed to keep on changing discs XD )
In general, the steps involved are:

1. Make sure you backup all important files, EVERYTHING will be reformatted (except the Hidden Partition) when you recover your system. Noneed to worry about drivers and Toshiba programs as they are included in the Hidden Partition/Recovery discs.

2. Plug in A/C adapter and if possible, plug in the battery just in case of blackouts (in Malaysia) XD

3. Shut down your notebook.

4. Press and hold the "0" and the "power" button. A window will appear asking you whether you want to load a 32-bit or 64-bit windows. The remaining will be easy, just choose the "recover to out-of-box state" (Actually noneed to change anything, as for the subsequent windows, the initial ticked box will be the recommended one)  XD

5. Partition reformatting will commence. Initiate the next step.

6. After that, leave everything to your notebook, it will restart on its own for quite a few times (to install the drivers and programs), may take up to 1-2 hours depending on your system. You will be configuring your OS in no time.

I guess that's all, hopefully this will help those who wanted to switched to 64-bit OS i.e. Eguy1314 ^_______^

** Be warned, Toshiba's feather touch buttons may become unresponsive after switching, still looking for answers for that one, it seemed there are no drivers for these buttons zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anyway, Do refer to the link above for more elaborated details 
Best of luck!