Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I recently bought a T430 and am interested in any pointers that would guide me to some articles that would detail how to take care of the laptop.

My main concerns are proper battery care, ensuring that the laptop doesnt overheat, any specific instructions on cleaning the laptop and such information.

Kindly help me.

Hi,

Battery: (That's what I was told by my fellow technician)
If you are planning to use your laptop mostly with AC adapter plugged-in, you should detach/eject battery from your laptop (leave it charged to approx. 60-70%) and store it in a dry place.

Cleaning:
Personally I use alcohol-free spray and microfiber cloth to wipe my laptop. When it comes to screen cleaning - do it gently - don't apply to much pressure.

Possible overheating:
Make sure that place where you put your laptop does not block air intake and exhaust of its cooling system (located around the top left corner of your t430)


I have been following above for years and never had problems with any of my laptops.

Just a note about the battery, with some models of thinkpad, if it is connected to a 65W power supply and the battery is removed, it runs at a lower speed. While I'm not sure if the T430 does that, a better solution if you are not planning to use your battery much is to open the advanced settings in power manager, choose the battery tab, battery maintance, then the radio button "set charge limits automatically". while your battery may not last quite as long, you won't be sacrificing performance, and you are still protected from power outages. Regardless of what you do with the battery, it will eventually degrade over time, so I figure it may as well do something rather than sit in a drawer.

Hi craigmontHunter and deltoid84,

Thanks a lot for sharing the tips.