I got my Toshiba Qosmio a little over a year ago and it has been a great machine for me while traveling and producing podcasts. It's been rock solid with Vista Ultimate on it, with a few annoyances, but mostly it has just worked.

Until recently.

I was actually rendering a video the other night, sitting in bed with the laptop resting on the bedspread and it cut off. I'm glad I was watching because it just died like the battery had been pulled, no blue screen, no nothing. I tried powering it back on, checked the cables, and nothing helped. It was dead.

I picked it up and then I noticed that it was really hot in one spot. The upper right, near the screen where there are exhaust ports. My first thought was that the CPU overheated, and I was hoping that was the case, so I unplugged it and let it cool down. Later it started up and I felt better.

Over the next few days, I watched it carefully. I was ready to send it in for service, and still am, but I've observed a few things. For one the fan still works. I can hear it coming on and off, and air is blowing out. Also, I'd been working in bed for a few days and I think it sitting on the bedspread, which is thick, probably overheated things since it wasn't cutting off while I had a long video editing session.

I'm backing things up and keeping an eye on it and hopefully it will continue to work well. I like this laptop and would hate to have to replace it.

Though I wouldn't mind a new Powerbook if it goes 🙂