How to keep my "new" IBM T42 running like new?

Some of you may remember me from my previous thread "I think my laptop is about to die ". A sad and sordid storie of love and loss

Alas, as one door closes another opens (hopefully at least) and I right this from my "new" ThinkPad T42. I have to say, this is a real nice machine I bought off of ibmfactoryoutlet on ebay. I'll tell you, it's in such nice condition it could pass for first time user new, I can detect no physical flaws with the exception of one stuck blue pixel. It's much lighter than the R40 and the keyboard has a real nice snap to it.

Long story short, I'm pretty happy with it; if it could play games, I'd be smitten. All this leads me to a rather open ended question wich is "What can I do to keep it running like new? ".

I'm looking for things like software recommendations, maintanence do's and things I shouldn't do. I'd like to keep it from getting "bogged down" as all computers seem to do in a rather short period of time. Do you have a top 3, 5, 10 list? Would love to read about it.

Any input is appreciated.

 

Yes Tom, I remember, "I think it's dead Jim ". Sort of a tragic sci-fi romance, it had everything

My suggestions...
Take care with all programs you install. Use the "Advanced" install method and select only what you will need. Many run background programs, for example, I don't need "driver/software updaters" running in the background.

Open programs and see what options they have, disable those things you don't need.

If you need a program to do certain things, look for a small program that does what you need, rather than one that has features you won't need.

Uninstall any programs you may no longer use.

Keep your drive clean. I do it manually, many recommend CCleaner (be careful with your registry).

Watch what checking programs (antivirus, antispyware) are doing. They tend to want to start checking everything. I cannot understand why they want to run at startup and check files that they probably checked before shutdown. At startup they want to connect to their server and look for updates.

Investigate what has happened to cause the slowdown...to many programs in the background (loading at startup), checking programs, indexing, fragmentation and maybe bad files or a problem with the file system (run chkdsk occasionally), bad or corrupted drivers (I don't update drivers unless I find a problem with them... if your sound is choppy it is no use updating drivers for graphics or the LAN adapter).

Look at why the system may be suffering, is the HDD running hard, are there any clues in Task Manager?

It seems to be due to what we install...thus...self-inflicted

Matt
PS Look at the setting for the Temporary Internet Files (Control Panel -> Internet Options). Reduce it to minimum (50MB recommended) if you can. It does not need a 1GB or more.