A Week with the T42

The alternative title for this entry was “Working with 512MB in 2017…”

It has been just a little over one week since the IBM ThinkPad T42 arrived in the mail. It has been used to some extent over the past week, despite its limitations.

First, I’ve learned some thing about the machine that I did not know when I wrote the previous entry.

  • The T42 has the Pentium M “Dothan” clocked at 1.8GHz. (The transistor count is 140 million.)
  • The machine features an infrared transceiver.
  • There is no CD or DVD drive on this machine. That spot has been populated with a battery. (The normal battery spot is not populated.)
  • The T42, similar to my T420, features a built-in modem.

The machine has ran like a champ. Originally, I used Chrome to browse the web – which wasn’t a very good idea. I’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 since to browse, as it is less memory intensive and works much better. (Plus, as an added bonus, nostalgia!) WordPress works okay on the T42, although it can become busticated at times and adding media (pictures, etc.) into posts isn’t a possibility.

I’ve actually written my recent posts – including this one – on the T42. Images and editing, however, is still delegated to my T420.

The only issue using it so far is the lack of memory, which is completely expected. 512MB isn’t very much memory to run Windows 7 on. Every five to ten minutes a “Low Memory” error pops up, sometimes even asking me to close programs. I constantly have the task manager open, keeping a close eye on the memory usage.

Soon, I will upgrade the computer from its current 512MB to its maximum 2GB. Then, it should perform much better.