Satellite C55 Series Laptop|Toshiba

For almost four years, much of my computer work has been done on what I called my first proper laptop, which was an HP G62-DX255 model. It had a bronze finish and was powered by an AMD Athlon II 2.0 GHz processor, and it originally came with 3 GB of RAM. I upgraded it to 6 GB of RAM and was quite satisfied with it, particularly the internal sound card and the internal ALtec Lansing speakers. But then again, HP, in my opinion was always the gold standard when it came to audio and, since the purchase of ATI by AMD, of the video as well.

Toshiba Satellite Series C55 Laptop

Imagine my chagrin when in late April of this year, my laptop suffered what technicians call “the black screen of death”. This is when the laptop won’t boot at all. Apparently this is a result of some loose circuitry on the motherboard caused by the laptop running hot over a period of time, and the constant overheating and cooling down when shut down. I was able t retrieve the data by turning the laptop on and let it get warm (I wrapped it in a towel to expedite the process). It did then boot and I got all my data off the hard drive. After doing some research into the problem, I concluded that it would be cheaper for me to replace the laptop than to attempt a repair, so I sold the HP on E-Bay for parts and went laptop shopping. I was quite familiar with HP products and wanted to try something different. I wanted a laptop that had a bit more processor power than my old HP and with a bit more RAM to start off with. I also felt a little cramped with a 360 GB hard drive and wanted at the least double the space. So, I did some research and dropped by several retailers – Best Buy among them. I came down to a choice between an HP and a Toshiba Satellite C55 Series. There was an HP and a Satellite with an Intel Celeron processor with 4 GB of RAM and 750 GB hard drive. The problem for me was that the Intel Celeron was yesterday’s news and a bit underpowered. I finally spotted a Toshiba Satellite C55 Series D-A5108, with an AMD A6 quad-core procesor, 4 GB of RAM, 750 GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon graphics. Needless to say it came with a Windows 8.1 operating system. It looked and felt pretty good, so I said to myself why not? I purchased it, along with a lightweight computer carrying case, wireless mouse and took it home.

Trial Run

Opening the box and setting it up was just a matter of minutes. Getting Windows 8.1 up and running, installing the updates as well as the programs that I was used to running took the remainder of that evening, and by the next dy I was ready to put the computer through its paces. Right off the bat, I liked the fact that the Satellite C55D-A5108 comes with the ten-digit numeric keypad to the right of the regular keyboard, although at the same time I found it a little more cramped when it came to long stretches of typing, but not so much that it was a hindrance. The graphics I found to be excellent and the audio coming from the internal speakers to be very good for a laptop. I ran many of the programs that I used to run on my poor, late lamented HP and found that the Satellite ran them pretty well,and while 4 GBs of RAM was better than the initial 3 GBs I had on the H, I found it a bit slow and limiting. I worked with the 4 GBs for about six weeks until July, when I able to dd 4 more gigs of RAM, and I noticed a considerable difference in running these programs. This laptop is cable of accepting up to 16 GB of AM, and I hope to add another 4 gigs before year’s end.

Sound Card – Strengths and Deficiencies

As I noted earlier, the sound emanating from the internal sound speakers was more than acceptable. I watched DVD movies and listened to my I-tunes quite happily for several days, so you can imagine my surprise when I hooked up a set of external speakers to the headphone jack and played an audio CD – the sound that came out was distant and almost exactly like that of the internal speakers. I checked to make sure that my speakers were properly configured and the the connector was in the proper jack. All was in order, and the sound was still weak and distant. I was very disappointed and was about to either take the machine back or sell it on E-Bay, when I hit on the solution. Why not purchase an external USB Sound Card – and I went on the Internet and did some more research and found a Creative Sound Blaster USB external sound card. I ordered it from Tiger Direct and upon its arrival inserted it into the USB 3.0 port and what a difference it made! Both speakers and headphones produce glorious sounds from music and videos. Below is a short video of the sound card test. What I did was to play a recording of the Overture to Handel’s “Royal Fireworks Music” – first with the internal sound card and speakers; then with the external speakers hooked into the system (internal sound card), and then with external USB sound card and speakers. You can judge the result for yourselves.

Conclusions

The skinny on the Toshiba Satellite C55 Series D-A5108 is that is a generally good laptop for most applications, but needs upgrading from 4 to 8 GB of RAM when doing video and audio editing. The internal speakers are good for watching DVDs and casually listening to music. However, when listening with headphones or external speakers, the sound is what I call wish-washy. It needs an external USB sound card to bring out the sound quality that I am used to and was getting on my old HP. That being said, that is about the only negative on this laptop. For those of you looking for a good day-to-day laptop, this is a good choice. Just think about adding memory, and if you like to use good external speakers, consider purchasing an external USB sound card. Click on the links or the photo above to find out more about the Satellite series.

Sound Card Demonstration