Boosting your PC performance!!
#1
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I found this on another board and thought it may be useful to others here:
Here they are:
1) Disable unnecessary aps that run during startup. Go to START>;RUN>; then type MSCONFIG.EXE tick selective startup, and you should only have ScanRegistry and System Tray checked. Antivirus programs and other things like Norton System Doctor are a waste of system resources. You can opt not to turn off the Antivirus aps if you're not disciplined enough to check your downloads.
2) Go to START>;Settings>;Taskbar and Start Menu, click advanced, go to the Startup Folder and delete all the files you have there.
3) Now that we've cleaned up your boot process, we're going to optimize your Cache Settings, HDD,
Download Cacheman 3.7 from Softseek.com and use the presets available there for your cache settings. I use my own custom settings. Reboot.
4) Now we're going to set a minimum size for your swap file so that your computer can access its virtual memory on your harddisk much easier. (Virtual memory is an extension of your physical memory that is placed in the SWP file HDD when your physical RAM runs out)
Right Click on My Computer>;Properties click on the PERFORMANCE tab, click Virtual Memory, tick Let me Specify... input a value of about 2 to 2.5 times the size of your installed physical RAM as the minimum (mine is at 256MB). Don't set an absurdly high number like 512 MB or 1 GB, you'd lose HDD space and you'd expect your HDD slow down since its accessing a huge file for data.
You need not specify a maximum unless you know that you wouldn't be using really big resource hogging aps or multitasking AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop with Photoshop, well you get the picture. Setting the max amount for virtual memory only helps in making sure the virtual memory is not fragmented.
5) Which dovetails us to the next step. Defragmenting your harddrive. In this situation, I personally prefer to use Norton SpeedDisk for two reasons. a) It's faster than Windoze's defragmenter, and it is highly customizeable and optimizes your Swap File (virtual memory) by defragmenting it and puts it in the first areas of the HDD. What that means is that the swap file is clunked together and placed in the fastest places for access by the HDD.
Simply fire NDD, click optimize swap file and you're all set. Make sure you shutdown background aps that write to the HDD and disable network connections or else you'll never get anywhere.
If you don't have Norton Speeddisk, you're stuck with Windoze, you should reserve a night to defragment your drive and check up on it next morning. But don't expect it to run faster than if you used SpeedDisk, since Windoze Defragmenter considers Swap File as an immoveable file. Stupid ****es.
6) Alright, now assuming we have Norton Systemworks or Utilities, an additional optimization option is to use Norton Windoctor to clean up your Windows Registry. Fire up Windoctor and follow the wizard, repair all. Make sure you backup your registry before you make any changes to it by using START>;RUN scanregw.exe
*You can restore a previous copy of your registry in DOS by using scanreg
The registry is a database where your system and aps settings are stored.
8) After cleaning the registry, run Norton Optimization Wizard, and compress the registry. It will reboot on its own. You'll notice that windows will function more smoothly afterwards.
9) Check in the Device Manager (Right-click My Computer Properties) and check to see if your IDE devices (HDD and CDROM) and make sure that DMA is enabled. Also make sure your IDE BUS Master Drivers have "BOTH CHANNELS ENABLED".
10) Network: in the Device Manager if you're using a Network card make sure its set to full-duplex mode.
11) BIOS Tweaks: Here's for the advanced. Get into the BIOS on boot up. If you don't know how to get there, don't bother with this.
Memory: If your RAM supports a CAS latency of 2, set it to 2-2-2 there.
IDE Block Mode: On
IDE Prefetch: On
AGP Aperture: 256 or highest possible value
USB Controller: If you don't have any USB devices, save your memory from unnecessary drivers and shut this off.
Printer Port: Set to EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port Mode) for maximum burst rates of 1000+ KB.
HDD: If you're still on auto-detect, set your harddisk type manually and select NONE so that your system doesn't spend time looking for and identifying IDE devices that are not there. If your CD-ROM can be detected from the BIOS, do so. If not set the channel where it is attached to AUTO, e.g. if your CD-ROM drive is attached as the slave of the Secondary IDE channel set the 2nd slave channel to AUTO.
BOOT UP Sequence: Drive C, A, CD-ROM (This bypasses drive A and just boots to C directly) You can optionally disable the detect Floppy Drive on Boot Up.
Init Display: Set to AGP if you're using an AGP display card.
If things go wrong go back to default BIOS settings.
Update your drivers regularly or if things are working OK, don't touch it unless you're willing to learn.
Disclaimer: If you bollocks your system doing any of these, its not my fault. All these things I picked up along the way and have been using for my systems as well as my clients. There are deeper tweaks I can perform but it's not good for sanity, mine and yours.
If I have the time, the real hardcore hacks will follow.
Phew!
Here they are:
1) Disable unnecessary aps that run during startup. Go to START>;RUN>; then type MSCONFIG.EXE tick selective startup, and you should only have ScanRegistry and System Tray checked. Antivirus programs and other things like Norton System Doctor are a waste of system resources. You can opt not to turn off the Antivirus aps if you're not disciplined enough to check your downloads.
2) Go to START>;Settings>;Taskbar and Start Menu, click advanced, go to the Startup Folder and delete all the files you have there.
3) Now that we've cleaned up your boot process, we're going to optimize your Cache Settings, HDD,
Download Cacheman 3.7 from Softseek.com and use the presets available there for your cache settings. I use my own custom settings. Reboot.
4) Now we're going to set a minimum size for your swap file so that your computer can access its virtual memory on your harddisk much easier. (Virtual memory is an extension of your physical memory that is placed in the SWP file HDD when your physical RAM runs out)
Right Click on My Computer>;Properties click on the PERFORMANCE tab, click Virtual Memory, tick Let me Specify... input a value of about 2 to 2.5 times the size of your installed physical RAM as the minimum (mine is at 256MB). Don't set an absurdly high number like 512 MB or 1 GB, you'd lose HDD space and you'd expect your HDD slow down since its accessing a huge file for data.
You need not specify a maximum unless you know that you wouldn't be using really big resource hogging aps or multitasking AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop with Photoshop, well you get the picture. Setting the max amount for virtual memory only helps in making sure the virtual memory is not fragmented.
5) Which dovetails us to the next step. Defragmenting your harddrive. In this situation, I personally prefer to use Norton SpeedDisk for two reasons. a) It's faster than Windoze's defragmenter, and it is highly customizeable and optimizes your Swap File (virtual memory) by defragmenting it and puts it in the first areas of the HDD. What that means is that the swap file is clunked together and placed in the fastest places for access by the HDD.
Simply fire NDD, click optimize swap file and you're all set. Make sure you shutdown background aps that write to the HDD and disable network connections or else you'll never get anywhere.
If you don't have Norton Speeddisk, you're stuck with Windoze, you should reserve a night to defragment your drive and check up on it next morning. But don't expect it to run faster than if you used SpeedDisk, since Windoze Defragmenter considers Swap File as an immoveable file. Stupid ****es.
6) Alright, now assuming we have Norton Systemworks or Utilities, an additional optimization option is to use Norton Windoctor to clean up your Windows Registry. Fire up Windoctor and follow the wizard, repair all. Make sure you backup your registry before you make any changes to it by using START>;RUN scanregw.exe
*You can restore a previous copy of your registry in DOS by using scanreg
The registry is a database where your system and aps settings are stored.
8) After cleaning the registry, run Norton Optimization Wizard, and compress the registry. It will reboot on its own. You'll notice that windows will function more smoothly afterwards.
9) Check in the Device Manager (Right-click My Computer Properties) and check to see if your IDE devices (HDD and CDROM) and make sure that DMA is enabled. Also make sure your IDE BUS Master Drivers have "BOTH CHANNELS ENABLED".
10) Network: in the Device Manager if you're using a Network card make sure its set to full-duplex mode.
11) BIOS Tweaks: Here's for the advanced. Get into the BIOS on boot up. If you don't know how to get there, don't bother with this.
Memory: If your RAM supports a CAS latency of 2, set it to 2-2-2 there.
IDE Block Mode: On
IDE Prefetch: On
AGP Aperture: 256 or highest possible value
USB Controller: If you don't have any USB devices, save your memory from unnecessary drivers and shut this off.
Printer Port: Set to EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port Mode) for maximum burst rates of 1000+ KB.
HDD: If you're still on auto-detect, set your harddisk type manually and select NONE so that your system doesn't spend time looking for and identifying IDE devices that are not there. If your CD-ROM can be detected from the BIOS, do so. If not set the channel where it is attached to AUTO, e.g. if your CD-ROM drive is attached as the slave of the Secondary IDE channel set the 2nd slave channel to AUTO.
BOOT UP Sequence: Drive C, A, CD-ROM (This bypasses drive A and just boots to C directly) You can optionally disable the detect Floppy Drive on Boot Up.
Init Display: Set to AGP if you're using an AGP display card.
If things go wrong go back to default BIOS settings.
Update your drivers regularly or if things are working OK, don't touch it unless you're willing to learn.
Disclaimer: If you bollocks your system doing any of these, its not my fault. All these things I picked up along the way and have been using for my systems as well as my clients. There are deeper tweaks I can perform but it's not good for sanity, mine and yours.
If I have the time, the real hardcore hacks will follow.
Phew!
#2
Wow, I hope you pasted that. Thanks for the things to go over! I'm always looking for things that make this machine gin. In msconfig I like to leave a. ScanRegistry
b. SystemTray
c. LoadPowerProfile (Usually twice)
d. TaskMonitor checkked because otherwise has been known to leave some PC's unbootable and nothing is gained by deselecting these. The only other thing I have to add to this very complete list is: Tweak the settings in Windows as follows:
Right click My Computer...select Properties. On the Performance tab, click the File System button and alter the use of the computer to read "Network server". This is a slight cheat as you aren't really using it as one, but Windows will cahnge to its "power user" configuration for you and this does slightly improve system performance....Mike
b. SystemTray
c. LoadPowerProfile (Usually twice)
d. TaskMonitor checkked because otherwise has been known to leave some PC's unbootable and nothing is gained by deselecting these. The only other thing I have to add to this very complete list is: Tweak the settings in Windows as follows:
Right click My Computer...select Properties. On the Performance tab, click the File System button and alter the use of the computer to read "Network server". This is a slight cheat as you aren't really using it as one, but Windows will cahnge to its "power user" configuration for you and this does slightly improve system performance....Mike
#3
Kick
I get a kick out of stuff like this. I have been a beta tester for several companies includeing MS (currently) for many years. I really would like to know how some 15 year old hacker is going to improve on what MS has spent millions to develop? I have seen several of the posting such as this in the wares groups etc but when it come right down to it they really dont help that much at all and could actually do some real damage to your system. I am not saying that what you have posted in not right but I do not advise doing it. You want to make a real improvement on your computer? Speed up the CPU, increase your physical RAM to a minimum of 256 megs, make sure you have at least 1 meg of L2 cache and that you are running the latest software updates etc available. Also COOL the CPU. I have a computer, one of many, with a 350 AMD K6, 128 megs of ram and 1 meg L2 and it's clocking at almost 650 Mhz. I use a refridgeration type cooler on the CPU and it make a huge difference. Turn off the cooler and just use a good size heat sink with a fan and my Mhz drops to the 400 Mhz overclock speed. Please I mean no offence but these speed up your connection programs etc are just a lot of smoke and blown out of proportion/fixed numbers.
#4
I agree that 3rd party programs that enhance performance are most often a lot of candy for a nickle but there are some tweaks that help and depending on the system, what is installed on it and how you use it some of these things are very helpful. As far as damage to my system I will try anything. I'll fdisk and recover in a heartbeat. Any ideas anyone wants to try? I'll go for it. Yeah, Bigmike you are correct, you can throw money at anything and max it out but I think the jist of this is for the average user on a limited budget to limit startup, define your PC properly as to to its use, make certain that resources are on track and by all means have fun!...Mike
#5
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Also COOL the CPU. I have a computer, one of many, with a 350 AMD K6, 128 megs of ram and 1 meg L2 and it's clocking at almost 650 Mhz. I use a refridgeration type cooler on the CPU and it make a huge difference
here`s his site.http://www.hwlabs.com/He makes those pc refidgeration units that you mentioned.
I actually know very little about whats inside that "silver box" so I rarely play around with it,but because of that post,I did. Nothing blew up....and not a trace of smoke.Just a smoother running P.C.
#6
No doubt
No doubt that the listed performence fix didn't work, I have seen it before. But as you get older you realize the just because it works today doesn't mean it will work tomorrow Let me know how it's going in six months, I will be very interested to know. I also would like to know how much this has enhanced your OS and the boot process. My normal boot times on a fully loaded server are about 1 min 30 sec to 2 minutes according to what is being loaded. My real thing here after several years of working on this junk is, I no longer get in a hurry. If it takes 10 minutes to re-boot I would be concerned, or one minute to load a program. But as long as it takes less time then the next commercial I am happy. I truly believe we are in the situation we are in today as far as the happenings of the last two weeks because we want it now, not now but right now... Slow down, take a breath and god forbid wait that extra 30 seconds for your toast to cook Don't sweat life, nobody get's out alive anywayThis from a person that has broke bones because I used to be in a hurry!