New to me T43P...Any tips on a long life out of it.

[SaberX]

OK i have picked up a nice T43P from e-bay for $230.00(with no hard drive).I think it's OK deal.

Product: ThinkPad T43p 2668-H1U [change]
Operating system: All [change]

Original description: P M 770, 1GB RAM, 60GB 7200rpm HDD, 15 UXGA(1600x1200) TFT LCD, 128MB ATI FireGL V3200, 24x24x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, Intel 802.11a/b/g wireless(MPCI), Bluetooth/Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, Fingerprint Reader, 9c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

So far the system is very nice.Screen is nice,bright,no marks at all.Just a little dard spot in bottom right corner.
This is my first T43 with ATI video and from what have read on here they run abit hot.

Any tips on the T43p's on keeping them alive for years to come?
Anything i should keep an eye on?
Have been reading other posts about getting a R52 fan and modding it.

[poshgeordie]

The immediate thing to note is that you do have the ATI graphics chip version, and these chips do suffer from becoming unsoldered in common with other ATI chipped TP's.

One way to reduce the possibility of the fault developing is how you move and carry the TP around.

Have a look at this document I send every customer, and try to stick to it.

The other thing which is worth doing is to remove the fan assembly and any old heatsink compound on both surfaces.
Then clean all the dust and dirt from the motherboard and fan innards - an old toothbrush on the blades and blowing out the dust from the fan body fins (don't use compressed air to clear out the dust since it overspins the fan and will cause premature bearing failure - lung pressure's fine!).
Then add new Arctic Silver heatsink compound to the CPU but apply it thinner than thin - less is definitely more here.
From another TP forum member, don't overtighten the three fan screws since the holes are spring loaded and cause the fan assembly to be held at the correct pressure onto the CPU.

Great machine though and enjoy it!

[ajkula66]

Keep it on and NEVER let it go to sleep...when you're not using it just turn the display off...

The same goes for your A31p...

Congrats, you're doing an excellent job of following my steps to ThinkPad insanity...

[sjthinkpader]

I want to suggest setting the Power Manager CPU AC profile to Adaptive instead of Performance. Use an utility such as NHC to monitor the temperature and don't let it go above 60 deg C.

Same basic concept as George's suggestion, keep temperature stable.