T43s are very similar in appearance to the T40, T41 and T42s with a couple of subtle differences.

 

Firstly the T43 includes a built-in fingerprint reader. Also it has a different modem, ethernet adaptor and wireless adaptor.

 

Maximum RAM in a T43 is 2GB - which you can fit as 2 x 1GB sticks. One stick is inserted on the underside of the laptop, the other is fitted underneath the keyboard.

 

Getting underneath the keyboard can be a little tricky so it may be worth getting help to do this if you are not comfortable taking apart laptops.

 

If you do upgrade the amount of RAM in your T43, make sure you buy "DDR2 PC2-5300 200-pin SODIMM" memory.

 

A quick and easy upgrade can be made to the hard disk drive space. T43s tended to come with around 40GB of storage space but if you wanted to upgrade this you should buy an "IDE 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive".

 

Fitting a new hard drive is simple - you simply remove the screw holding the HDD into the laptop and then place the new drive in the cradle, replacing the old drive.

 

T43s are solidly built and are more than adequate if you are looking for a laptop to use for surfing the web, emailing and maybe creating documents and spreadsheets.

 

These are 4+ years old so you may find you need to replace the battery but they will happily work from a power adaptor.

 

The Lenovo.com website has plenty of drivers, updates and software for the IBM Thinkpad T43.