Chapter 7. Preventing Problems; General Tips For Preventing Problems - Lenovo ThinkPad E550 User Manual

Chapter 7. Preventing problems

An important part of owning a ThinkPad notebook computer is maintenance. With proper care, you can
avoid common problems. The chapter provides information that can help you keep your computer running
smoothly.
• "General tips for preventing problems" on page 77
• "Making sure device drivers are current" on page 78
• "Taking care of your computer" on page 79

General tips for preventing problems

• Check the capacity of your hard disk drive or hybrid drive from time to time. If the hard disk drive or hybrid
drive gets too full, the Windows operating system will slow down and might produce errors.
To check the hard disk drive or hybrid drive capacity, do the following:
– Windows 7: Open the Start menu and click Computer.
– Windows 8.1: Open the File Explorer and click Computer.
– Windows 10: Open the File Explorer and click This PC.
• Empty your recycle bin on a regular basis.
• Use disk defragment tool regularly on your hard disk drive or hybrid drive to improve data seek and
read times.
• To free up disk space, uninstall unused application programs.
Note: You also might want to look for program duplication or overlapping versions.
• Clean out your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders from your e-mail client program.
• Back up your data at least once a week. If critical data is present, it is a good idea to perform a daily
backup operation. Lenovo has many backup options available for your computer. Rewritable optical
drives are available for most machines and are easily installed.
• Schedule system restore operations to take a system snapshot periodically. For more information about
system restore, see Chapter 9 "Recovery overview" on page 103.
• Update device drivers and the UEFI BIOS when needed.
• Profile your machine at http://www.lenovo.com/support to keep up to date with current drivers and
revisions.
• Keep up to date for device drivers on other non-Lenovo hardware. You might want to read the device
driver information release notes prior to updating for compatibility or known issues.
• Keep a log book. Entries might include major hardware or software changes, driver updates, minor issues
you have experienced, and how you resolved the minor issues.
• If you ever need to run a recovery on your computer to return the preinstalled contents onto the machine,
the following tips might help along the way:
– Remove all external devices such as the printer, keyboard, and so on.
– Make sure that your battery is charged and your computer has the ac power connected.
– Access ThinkPad Setup and load the default settings.
– Restart the computer and start the recovery operation.
– If your computer uses discs as the recovery media, do not remove the disc from the drive until
prompted to do so.
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