How To Optmize Your Comp's Speed

[Tyberious]

by request I thought I'd post a howto guide on making your machine mroe effecient, if you want an example of how powerful you can get a machine then ill tell you what happened to both of my machines or you cna doa benchmark before and after.

the first thing to do is update ALL of your drivers, this should be one common sense and two automatic. Upgrade firmware (cdroms, hard drives ect), update your bios on your video card and motherboard (remember to backup unless you want a good excuse to buy another board) and update your windows to the latest files (such as service pack 1 (or service pack 2 which will eb coming out soon). Please note the firmware and bios updates are dangerous and can destray your hardware if you don't know what your doing or if the program freezes or somthing goes wrong so close down everything accept for the bare componets of the operating system and start flashing your bios.

Second optmizations can be made int he operating system its self aswell as programs that you have installed such as sound blasters AudioHQ.

One thing to do is somthing that should be done first, speed up your hard drive, to do that one make sure your controllers are all set to DMA (direct memory access) and not PIO (programmed input output) PIO was back in the dos days, we live in the future where dos may run int he background but, we have so much mroe control of what goes on with our computer.

Get a program called Cacheman (if you run windows 95-98-98SE-ME-NT) or get Cacheman XP (if you have 2000-XP)
http://www.outertech.com/
click on download and I told you what program you should get to optmize your hard drive, you an also get a program from the same site called "Cpu-Usage" that tells when your cpu is working hard or hardly working.

HUGE WARNING WITH CACHEMAN XP USERS! If you have a recent ATI card then don't use the large system cache option unless you want to f*ck up your data like I did (if you have a dual boot pc and you accidently do this then you need to install the backup that you made with your program in the backups tab

another thing you can do is go to microsoft.com and go under downloads then power tools and download tweakUI and tweak the user interface to your settings.

another would be to download both fresh UI and fresh diagnose and tweak & diagnose your machine to get an idea of how certain tweaks affect performance you can get them both here http://www.freshdevices.com/.

one huge way to tweak stuff would be to download a program called X-Setup Pro, just google it my friend but, if you have no idea what a setting does then leave ti the hell alone.

also get a program called tweak XP pro to do mroe tweaking.

if you want better video drivers (that are unoffical or jsut other porgrams that encahce your graphics capabilities then go to www.guru3d.com and select download files and select your video card, Right now im running the DNA 2.0.4.1 driver set based off of Radeons 4.1 Drivers (these are unoffical and are tweaked) If you run Nvidia graphics then get a driver set called StarStorm 53.03 (or whatever the newest version is out).

I will post mroe later as I haven't tld all of my tweaks, soem of the tweaks I do can't be told because I would have to be there in person, most of them are good tweaks too so I will try my best, and if you have a tweak that is not listed or have tips or ideas or even questions then submit em! Think of this as a computer weight loss camp, your computer loses all teh extra crap and is in better shape and runs faster.

My windows XP Pro operating system runs with 75MBs of memory or less without all the extra services, if you don't want to upgrade just yet then start tweaking to save cash.

One more thing you can do if you want to (Please have some knowledge before attempting this, better yet go to forums and websites to learn how and read up on everything you can find, and then read up on how it affects silicon) is to overclock, I ofcourse do this and it has netted me alot of benefit, My computer is extremely fast. I also make my own heatsinks, now its not about getting the fastest clock speed you can get, its knowing when to push and knowing when to back off. When you think oh I cna push it a little further and increase the voltage... I think yo should stop because that little bit could fry your hardware (I don't run higher then standard voltages so if you do then start reading up on how to do so safely).

To get rid of heat you can clean up that rats nest of cables in your computer and add more fans, or better yet get higher performance heatsinks and faster fans. Note that heat degrades performance so this will help a good ammount when it comes to your computer being faster but, it will help alot for making your computer last long enough to become a hand me down (and even longer if you take really good care fo it.)

[Tyberious]

I forgot to add, Sorry for the long post!!!

[DooMAD]

.... and update your windows to the latest files (such as service pack 1 (or service pack 2 which will eb coming out soon).

That's the only part I'd disagree with. As a Win98 user, I have less bundled spyware than people who have downloaded the relevant service packs. One day I'm going to get around to clearing out all of 98's spyware,as documented here (http://www.teamhellspawn.com/cleanup.txt).

[Marshall Flag]

I just updraded to XP recently and I`ve found this (http://xpcorner.com) site helpful too :)
lots of tips and downloads.

[Tyberious]

true that you may have less spyware but, I had so many BSODS (blue screens of deaths) hard drive crashes, program incompatabilities, memory dumps ect without updating and really sucky ass performance. Also these updates do somthing called updating bugs/glitches and make the operating system more stable, It was the same with 98SE for me aswell. That is what I have to say but, if everythign works for you without updating then more power to ya.

thanks for the site marshall flag.

by the way, I run a gaming rig/misic rig and everything else, my parents are civil engineers and run autocad, run networks and other stuff, not only is performance important, stability and staying updated and having undustry standards are also necessary, that is why I think its a good idea to stay updated. What id doom III runs on 98SE but, you don't have th updates for it? Remember, without these updates there are alot of holes that are unpatched and crackers can go ina nd mess you up (its happened alot to me, thats also why I run NTFS file system and its helped ever since.)

[iori]

*downloading Radeon DNA drivers*

Cool Stuff ;)

[Player_of_Doom]

I've always tried "omega" drivers on my radeon and they work fine.

[Tyberious]

I been looking for those damn omega drivers. Also I jsut fixed my parents (read fast processor with a severely castrated motherboard and a crappy graphics card) computer because if kept BSOD (blue screen of death A.K.A. Memory dump), I loaded service pack 1 o it and most of the recommended updates on it and it works fine. Also I really recommend running anti-virus (no brainer there) software, I jsut detected 8 virus/worms on my computer (although really weak) so its best to have it for backup aling with Ad-Aware 6 (kills spyware), spyware blaster (disables ad-ware, spyware and scumware active x controls from being installed on your pc) and spybot search and destroy 1.2 (gets rid of spyware and blocks active x controls). I also knowa site for registry tweaking but, don't o anything unless you know what you are doing.

One reason I do all this stuff is to get to know computers more and learn more.

Like I said I make my own heatsinks, my siters computer's north bridge (also known as frint side bus) was running around 80-90 degrees F. Mind you that is pretty cool but, I can't help but to make computers as cool and as reliable/stable as possible so I slapped on an old GeForce 2 MX 200 heatsink onto it and a cheap ass 486 fan onto it, it went down to 80-85 degrees with silver compound. I thought nice but, I want it to be even better to the point where it still has more breathing room. I took my old Voodoo 3 3000 heatsink and lapped it (sanded it down till it had a shiny serface on every part and looked high performance then cleaned it. I put it into my sisters computer and used a pentium 2 fan and it dropped between 70-75 degrees.

my sisters computer also runs an athlon cooler. I have an engineering sample (both motherboard and processor) processor Pentium III with unlocked multiplier and internal frenquency, it was at a slow 750Mhz (mind you these processors run hot and are at 0.18 micron process also known as the codename coppermine) its running at a stable 900Mhz (which is an amazing clock jump) and runs at only 80 degrees F. Cooling helps your computer very much. I don't want my sister to have to suffer waht I had to through on my video card (heatsink fell off and landed on my motherboard and I almsot fired my card). I also tightened the cables and cleaned it up as much as I can, ill get a screenshot later. I still have to get a new GeForce 2 MX as I accidently fried that card (I bet the memory chips went first as the core was chilly with a copper heatsink and a fast card fan). That computer can compare with a pentium 4 (around 1.4 to 1.6 ghz) when it comes to some benchmarks but, others pass it up but, maybe not that much. The moral of the story is, treat your pc right and don't hold it back by not tweaking it and it will treat you good.

My motherboard was fried (when I bought my first computer with my own money) by a voltage virus which screwed up the south bridge and borked the north bridge, my computer must have loved me because it lasted a damn long time till I just had bought another motherboard and then it died, what a trooper. It was so unstable I lost the master hard drive and half of my ram plus lost my secondary and would hav eot coax it to come out of oblivion.

If oyu have a story about your pc, good or bad then tell one. I have more but, I don;t want to make your eyes bleed! You read enough, I written my length like novel post now. Cheers

[DOOM_GOAT]

You can pick up a GeForce 2 MX/400 for about $30 now, so I wouldn't worry.

[Wicked Anime Kid]

i can get a gf4 mx440 for 50 euro's:D
Oh the good days these are:p

[Exl]

a gf4 mx440 for
There's that MX type again. *casper*

[Player_of_Doom]

It's really interesting that you make your own heatsinks Tyberious.

[Looney]

Doom Mad, Just curiuos, how do you delete the only system file (WIN386.SWP) that windows98 needs to run its Virtual Memory. This file will recrate its self every time you reboot Windows. ;)

Question:

What is win386.swp.

Additional information:

The Win386.swp is the Windows swap file used for Virtual Memory in the Windows environment. This allows the computer to provide more memory to applications than is physically present in the form of RAM.

This file can grow very large in size and needs to space to grow. Hard disk drives with low available disk space will experience issues and decreased performance because of the lack of space available for this file to grow.

Additional information about swap files can also be found on our swap file dictionary definition.

Answers:

The following is a listing of questions and answers to those questions relating to the Windows Win386.swp file.

How can I change the Win386.swp file location?

It may be necessary and/or recommended that users with different partitions or hard disk drives store the win386.swp on a different hard disk drive. Reasons why this may be beneficiary.

* If little or no space is available on the drive where win386.swp is located moving the swap file will help save space on that location.
* If a faster hard disk drive is installed onto the computer, moving the swap file location may help in increasing the performance of the computer.
-----------------------------------------------------
How to move the swap file location in Windows 9x and Windows ME:

1. Click Start / Settings / Control Panel and double click the System icon.
2. In System Properties click the performance tab.
3. Click the Virtual Memory button.
4. Select the option "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.
5. Specify the hard disk drive where you wish for the win386.swp file to reside.
---------------------------------------------------
After setting custom virtual memory size, file changes from C:\<windowsdirectory> to the root of C:\ drive.

This behavior is by design to help inform any individual examining the computer that a custom virtual memory setting has been selected.
-----------------------------------------------------
After deleting the Win386.swp file it re-appears.

Windows Swap file is created by Windows and if it happens to be removed, Windows should recreate the file unless it has been disabled.
----------------------------------------------------
When storing the Win386.swp file on a removable media device and attempting to eject the storage medium from that device errors occur or the computer freezes.

Because the Windows Swap file is almost always being used ejecting the device or removing the device storing this file will cause errors as it will remove the location of where information is temporarily being stored.
-----------------------------------------------------
When booting from a removable media the performance tab may show that the computer is running in MS-DOS compatibility mode.

Change the location of the win386.swp file to a non-removable media.
----------------------------------------------------
Is the Win386.swp a computer virus?

While it is not impossible for a virus to be within the Win386.swp file it is very unlikely that you have a virus on the computer.

There are several users or so-called 'hackers' who claim that they have infected your computer with the Win386.swp virus. This file is not a virus however to some users it may appear to be a virus as the file grows very large in size as well as well re-appear after deleting the file.
If an individual has claimed to have sent you a virus through a chat channel, however you have not downloaded or accepted any files it is very unlikely that you have a virus and that they are just trying to scare your or cause you to believe that they are a hacker.

[Tyberious]

yeah, I make my own heatsinks and have to modify parts just to get them to fit but, whatever works. Also I use an MX in my sisters card because she is runnign autocad (she only uses the 2 demensional lines) and the occasional game (microsoft games mind you) and internet. Also that was funny looney, man I gotta tell someone that! Anyways ill be busy so I wont be able to make more tips jsut yet, jsut fixed my parents computer, bad stick of ram caused a 2 day PC headache and forced a massive reinstall and recover. I fixed alot of the stuff, ill tell ya all more stuff later, but not all is bad. I have one tip that everyone knows as a no brainer but, seldom people follow.

Make sure your pc runs rock stable, a microscopic instability is ok but, nothing above that. Alsays have a mix of performance and stability aswell as compatability.

[Tylenol]

Always make sure to keep your computer physicaly clean too. My rig had soo much dust in it, I even took the fan out of the power supply and cleaned it. Don't do this folks, unless you really know what your doing. The power supply has capacitors in it, meaning it stores power. No touchy.
You can pick up "normal" IDE cords at any computer store, instead of having those mammoth strips in your computer.
You can learn a lot by just taking the case off your computer and looking at it. I learned a lot about how computers work by just taking apart an old 486DX. It's amaxing what we can do without nowadays.

[Aliotroph?]

Don't do this folks, unless you really know what your doing. The power supply has capacitors in it, meaning it stores power. No touchy.

Hehehe, I've touched capacitors bigger than the ones in a PC power supply. It hurts like crazy but not for long.

[Looney]

While that may be true for one that has been unused a while in a power supply, don't ever touch one in the back of a monitor, unless, you want to die. They can hold enough to cause an instant heart attack for months after being turned off.

[DOOM_GOAT]

Anything around 1A will kill you pretty quickly. Just play around with a CRT instead, while 35,000V might sting a bit it's only a few mA so you should live long enough to learn never to do it again.

[Tyberious]

Always make sure to keep your computer physicaly clean too. My rig had soo much dust in it, I even took the fan out of the power supply and cleaned it. Don't do this folks, unless you really know what your doing. The power supply has capacitors in it, meaning it stores power. No touchy.
You can pick up "normal" IDE cords at any computer store, instead of having those mammoth strips in your computer.
You can learn a lot by just taking the case off your computer and looking at it. I learned a lot about how computers work by just taking apart an old 486DX. It's amaxing what we can do without nowadays.

yes this is all correct. Your computer should be clean, you should never handle power supplies or moniters, also a quarter of an amp is enough to kill the average person, please handle with care, avoid touching powersupplies and moniters unless you know what you are going or you are an electrical engineer. Also if you want to clean your computer, use a can of compressed air. Dust can seize up fan bearings making fnas useless and your computer catch on fire. Also ground oyurself before touching a computer, static electricity is around 1995% times the normal vontages in a computer which averages around 2000 volts, it takes taht much for a homan to feel static electricity, tahts why it cna jump small gaps.

a tech killed my mothers computer because he did not ground himself and it erupted in a ball of fire. Please use caution.

[Tylenol]

Also if you want to clean your computer, use a can of compressed air. Dust can seize up fan bearings making fnas useless and your computer catch on fire.

Actually, don't use compresed air, it just wedges particles further into tiny places. Suck that crap out. Q-tips--I'm sorry, thats a brand name, "cotton swabs" do the trick on fans.
Grounding yourself only requires touching a metal part of the case, and to be sure not to fry your computer, try to keep a hand firmly placed on the power supply.
And don't forget to unplug your comupter before doing any of this stuff too. Although there is never enough power running through any of the parts to shock you, even when it's on, just do it, so XP doen't crap it's pants(in my case).

[Tyberious]

Also if you want to clean your computer, use a can of compressed air. Dust can seize up fan bearings making fnas useless and your computer catch on fire.

Actually, don't use compresed air, it just wedges particles further into tiny places. Suck that crap out. Q-tips--I'm sorry, thats a brand name, "cotton swabs" do the trick on fans.
Grounding yourself only requires touching a metal part of the case, and to be sure not to fry your computer, try to keep a hand firmly placed on the power supply.
And don't forget to unplug your comupter before doing any of this stuff too. Although there is never enough power running through any of the parts to shock you, even when it's on, just do it, so XP doen't crap it's pants(in my case).

no offense but im nto that fanatic about computers to the point where I will drag my 50 pound vaccuum into the room just to suck up an ounce of dust. Also those little tiny dust particles are so minicue that they wouldn't make much if any of a difference at all. That is just my opiniopn but, do whatever makes you happy. Eitehr way, get the darn computer clean somehow.

[Tylenol]

I don't lug my fifty pound computer into my room. I have a Dirt Devil Scorpion, a little mini vac.
And anyone who knows how to clean a computer, knows you don't bring the fifty pound vacuum to the computer, you bring the computer to the fifty pound vacuum!

[Tyberious]

that was a little uncalled for, you can be a little nicer and say it with a little respect, I also never said you lug around anything so please disreguard any previous thoughts. the only vaccuum I have is that 50 pounder and I learned quickly not to carry it up or down stairs very often. Also vaccuums can cause static electricity, it is a posability but, we are getting off topic.

One note, make sure your cooling is as top notch as you can possibly make it. You should have a case fan suck in air and another one blowing air out. For the fan sucking in air make sure its in the front of your case below the exaust. The exaust fan should be higher since heat rises so you have a constant airflow (my case doesn't allow this so I need to get a new one, the only fan it allows is a 50/60MM not the standard 80.) I also recommend using thermal pastes and silver compounds for heatsinks for maximum transfer, and if you want better transfers, you cna lap your heatsink with a fine grain sand paper, you should do research in overclocking forums for that. I also recommend doing research for your processor manufactors website for chip specs to find out the measurement in heat and power ect. Very helpfun when reading heatsink specs so you can match heatsinks with processors and make sure your dream pc doesn't go up in silicon smoke.

another huge warning, when shopping for fans and coolers, make sure they aren't sleeve bearings, look for ballbearing fans or magnetic tip drive fans, either one will do you better then the other fan as the sleeve bearing fans die really fast hince defeating the purpose of cooling whatever part you are trying to cool.

P.S. I don't mean to be an ass, just be a little nicer, thats all. :)

I am "planning" on making a new guide on overclocking and how latencies work and hwo you can use that to your advantage.

[Nephil]

Hehehe, I've touched capacitors bigger than the ones in a PC power supply. It hurts like crazy but not for long. Strange hobby you have there! :D

[Tyberious]

yeah it would hurt like crazy! Those things (correct me if im wrong) hold alot of electricity, personally I recommend against fiddling around with those at all costs. By the way I have been testing my ram and I noticed somthing that is somewhat true. My memory is the cheap ass vauleram crap found in your local bargan bin for 2 bucks (not really but, you get the point). I threw on a copper heat spreader and threw them into my oven (also known as ym computer). Those things were clocked at 266Mhz and running at the tomings CL2.5-4-4-8 which is really slow. I downloaded bios uptade 1.9 form MSI (for my I856PE MSI Neo 2 LS motherboard) and it allowed P.A.T. (performance accelleration technology) which speeds up the ram/chipset timings to maximum when set to ultra turbo. I set that and they had no problem what so ever (even if they were only rated for CL 2.5, they were 256MB sticks if they were 512, then I'd be running slower timings I bet). I overclocked my machine to the following

P4b 2.4Ghz @2.7Ghz (even)
Front Side Bus 533Mhz @ 600Mhz (even)
Ram 266Mhz @ 300Mhz
Radeon 9600 Pro 400Mhz (core) 600Mhz (memory) @ 472Mhz (core) 700Mhz (memory).

and the system runs stable, not a problem in site and menchmarks are great. My ram shows me kicking RDRAM and DDR400Mhz Dual channel memory ass, and it goes beyond that. Mind you my memory is dual channel and is running around the same speed as my bus (1:2 since I don't have thsoe controls they are default). I highly recommend copper heat spreaders for ram, they make it look more like high performance (and can in some cases make them perform like that aswell) complament your case and reduce temperature (which can degrade performance) and if ya want (and your case and processor temperatures are low enough) you cna back off on some fans to make your pc mroe quiet (mine sounds like the F-22 Raptor taking off wish my high speed VGA heatsink and intel fan, yeah I still run stock cooling on my proc... I know ill change it later). My pc runs very fast and all this was doen for the low low price of FREE! Just make sure you watch your temps and know what you are doing.

if you want to overlcock, then do it in small increments, between 2-5Mhz at a time, boot up, test for stability, restart after testing and repeat, when you start losing stability, dial back 1Mhz untill you find your most stable overclocked setting. This is called "the sweet spot" and the same applies for overclocking all componets, plus ill put an article on here on how to unlock AMD Processor multipliers and how to use Athlon XP processors in dual CPU rigs (you usually have to use Athlon MP for multi processing rigs but, there is a hack just like the multiplier hack on the processor)(intel boys are S.O.L. because there are no known methods of doing anything to your processor so start overclocking those FSP settings.

another warning! If your bios supports clock dividing then set the AGP to 66Mhx and PCI to 33 Mhz (unless you want missing hard drives, finicky pci cards, and mess up your graphics card (especially ATI cards, they are extremely picky if you change this setting). You can also increase the voltage on any componet you overclock, jsut do it in .02/.1 increments but, there is a chance you cna destroy somthing so be careful! I will gather mroe tips about safe performance hacks later that wont put your hardware at risk so stay tuned.

[Abrax]

I opened my old 233MHz rig (R.I.P), which had been in use for ages (1996 or 7 I think), which had been in almost everyday use, under the stairs, which is a dark and dusty spiders den, to find that the only dust was around the fan on the heatsink, and the PSU fan, the PCI cards were still as clean as when they went in.

A performance booster in my opinion, is to have as much RAM as possible, the more the merrier. The system mentioned above had 128Mb PC100 in it, that cost my father, through several contacts a lot of money, but that was a long time ago.

The rig also had the OS (Win95) installed on a small hard drive, (2.6Gb), with the Page file Location on it, and everything else running off of a larger 10Gb drive, resulting in a noticable performance boost, with more of the system resources being available on startup.

The more Physical RAM you have present, the smaller the windows page file is going to be, and will improve performance, especially on older/not very much free space hard drives.

(Note little "w" for "w"indows, a small measure of my appreciation for all those years of blue screens, and continuous Ctrl-Alt-Del usage due to system hangups and crashes.)

[Tyberious]

*blows the dust off of this thread* Is this thread that old? Man maybe when I get time I should atleast post something.


One way for more performance is to make sure your ram is at a 1:1 ratio and see if you can get the tightest timings possible.

remember, cooling is everything but don't go overboard unless you want to go deaf (especially if you use those tornado fans).

[Abrax]

If you only have room for one system fan, make sure that its taking the air out, it then stops the same (warm) air being used over and over again.

*chokes on dust cloud created by Tyberious before posting reply*

[Tyberious]

lol sorry, I really should clean this thread more often.

I jsut got a new case, the damn thing has 5 fans, all for my cooling pleasure, now maybe ill get ym core up to 500Mhz and my memory to 375Mhz(750Mhz) hopefully if not 400Mhz(800Mhz), that would save me a huge bundle of cash.

also don't forget to upgrade all your cooling to copper if your system runs hot (like mine, my processor is 111-120F Case temp 100-120F northbridge 110-150F) since I have no case fans, my computer's case is crappy so im stuck with an oven for a case.

Also Learn a technique called "lapping" where you sand dwon the heatsink to a flat shiny like mirror surface, this helps make it flat as well as get rid of those deep machine marks which messes up the heatsink's effeciency. Also a note, there are different ways to lap the heatsink, one is in a figure 8, this is good for getting rid of machine marks and uneven surfaces but is nto the best way to flatten it nor is it a good way to get a mirror smooth finish since there will be alot of scratches all over it. After you sand it back and forth going with the grain of the heatsink (just like wood working) get a rotary tool with some polishing cream and start smoothing it out, then clean it (before smoothing) and after polishing. Remember, you should use wet and dry sand paper. I find WD40 works great with heatsinks but, that is my personal experience.


also use silver compound such as artic silver 5 or some other off brand, anything else still works as long as its not that thermal foil or that damn thermal tape (frag tape).

If you can't get your heatsink to stay on the desired object bacause it doesn't have the clips or mounding holes, don't use frag tape......ever! That tape is not meant to hold a heavy copper heatsink, Use EPOXY! There is a slim chance that you can get the heatsink off after glueing it on but, you will most likely have to freeze it and work carefully, I have done this often and thats how I popped off numerous heatsinks because the tape gets brittle, either that or play a game for a long time (a couple of hours or so) and warm up that frag strip (not for epoxy) then it will be easier to get it off.

Also, upgrade your northbridge fan! They usually slap on a "just good enough" heatsink and fan combo.

Also note, ramsinks, put them on your video card and put on a heat spreader on your memory, best of all use copper! These really work, I have taken my value ram from 266Mhz to 300Mhz from stock timings 2.5-3-3-8 to 2-2-2-5 with no problems in sight and increased performance alot, I also used a 1:1 timing to make sure everything is in sync. Mind you can achieve these timings better if you use 256MB modules then 512 but it depends on your manufactor, just check out a major overclocking ram company like corsair.

last but not least. Love your machine and treat it good, no im not joking. You will have less problems of it acting up (it worked for me and numerous friends of mine, hell I still hate my dads computer and curse at it and it STILL gives me problems, but if anyone else uses it its fine), never put down your machine, don't leave your machine in a dirty state, CLEAN IT UP! Secure the cables, clean the dust install fan filters, clean the outside of the case and treat it like a king. Trust me good things will come of this. No machine wants to hear, well my computer sucks, these are my stats

well here is some news for you, some of us have worse machines then you so be greatful and give your machine the respect it deserves.

[Tyberious]

I plan on making new video bios for Nvidia and ATI cards, I have already modded some 9600 Pro's and have tested them and they are successful, I noticed that ATI's bios is more conservative then other third party manucactors. Just give me requests, here is a list of stuff you can get and I will provide thorough directions as others do not.

CLOCK SPEED: you can flash your new bios and have the default clock speed changed without having to overclock, although these are custom bios setups but, i will make a standard taht will work for everyone but will have less agressive settings.

CAS: Yes I do mean Cas latency as in ram, there is cas of 3 (slow) cas of 2 (normal) and cas of 1 (ultra), mind you I haven't had time to test the latencys out nor the bios updates.

REFRESH RATES: Standard refresh rate is always 60 reguardless of resolution, I can change that. I highly recommend 75 because its healthy on the eyes and isn't too bright (going over 75/70) nor does it flicker (going under 75/70)

TV standards: yes they are in here too, you can have a choise of NTSC or PAL (there might be more but these are off the top of my head).

and thats all I can remember, I will post mroe later.

NOTE: I noticed when I flashed my video bios taht it caused the drivers to not reconize it as the drivers reconized my bios as 11.000.000 and not 11.030.000 so therefore you will need to reinstall your drivers if such an event happens, I will supply driver uninstallers for ati cards. Nvidia card owners should be ok with reinstalling over the existing one if such an event happens.


WARNING: Backup your video bios before modding! Also keep a backup pci card just in case. I am not responsable for you modding your card as it was your choice, please make sure you have adiquate cooling and give me the exact model version example:ATI radeon 9600 Pro 128MB, because if you say you have powercolor or some other 3rd party brand when you have ati, there is a chance your hardware will get screwed up since the PCB (electronic board) will eb different from manufactor to manufactor. If anyone is interested then I will zip up the information, provide a how-to guide and e-mail it to you, please follow the guide as its the only thorough guide I have seen, I also wrote this guide myself because the other guides don't tell you how to work the flash program.

As for Nvidia, I will have to see how the flash program works so give me time. Don't ask for laptop or integrated graphics bios uptades because I am not aware of such updates nor will I support them since there is a good chance things could get screwed up if something goes wrong.

[Abrax]

*Uses a 50 pound vacuum to clean the dust off of this thread, to avoid choking anyone else who visits*

I keep my Start Menu clean, that speeds up my browsing of my menus very quick, not only does it keep things tidy and easier to find, but it saves the computer from having to check whether the shortcuts still exist, and loading the graphics for the shortcut.

My menu used to be huge (it used to fold out 3 times, and thats on 1024x768 as well), but now it has 7 sub menus, and appears instantly).

Talking about menus, another thing to do, is disable menu animations, like the fade in and out one, or slide up and down ones, not only are they annoying, but they make also slow the computer down a bit.

Unbind any unneeded network protocols from any networking adapters, as this effects startup time, I just keep the essentials, like TCP/IP and the IPX/SPX compatible protocol.

Remember, only mess with what you understand, not what you think you understand.

[Tyberious]

I use folders for my desktop to keep it as clutter free as I can, haven't tried the start menu folder idea though.

One way to increase performance is to disable services you will never use use this site for more info on waht you need and what you don't. it shows easy to use diagrams and explains everything (unlike microsofts idea, every service should be enabled).

It also adds a little diagram such as, home, office, gaming, internet etc so you can picka nd choose which of those fits you best and disable services as you like.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/supertweaks.htm


I also found out that windows xp will run fine with 256MB-384MB of ram but shows a great performance jump when you have 512MB but, doesn't show its true speed till you have 1GB of ram (that is my experience atleast). Also for more performance, if you have 2 hard drives (boot drive and storage drive) then set the page file on the secondary drive. Here is an example:

My hard drive configuration:
80GB hard drive (the hard drive I boot windows XP off of)
40GB (my storage drive)

in this case you would take the page file off of the 80Gb and put it on the 40GB so it wont slow down your main hard drive.

More performance tips on the way.

I recommend sending in requests on what you want such as speeding up boot times or tell us exactly what you want tyo speed up since that is what this thread is for. Thanks for your post Abrax, I will try your tip (will no doubt help me alot).

"Remember, only mess with what you understand, not what you think you understand."

yes I agree with the above, if you aren't sure how to do some of these tips then you shouldn't be doing them (unless under discriptive direction from someone who knows what he or she is doing)

[Looney]

"Remember, only mess with what you understand, not what you think you understand."

yes I agree with the above, if you aren't sure how to do some of these tips then you shouldn't be doing them (unless under discriptive direction from someone who knows what he or she is doing)

I agree to a point, If you have the resources to get older parts to experiment on, why not try... I learned allot by ripping old boxes apart, mixing hardware, finding drivers... Playing with the BIOS....

[Tyberious]

same here, but when we say don't mess with taht sutt we mean your main expensive rig (unless you have the dough), I messed up some of my old hardware but learned alot from my experiences. Thanks for your opinion, keep em rollin'

[Abrax]

also don't forget to upgrade all your cooling to copper if your system runs hot (like mine, my processor is 111-120F Case temp 100-120F northbridge 110-150F) since I have no case fans, my computer's case is crappy so im stuck with an oven for a case.

Also, upgrade your northbridge fan! They usually slap on a "just good enough" heatsink and fan combo.

last but not least. Love your machine and treat it good, no im not joking. You will have less problems of it acting up (it worked for me and numerous friends of mine, hell I still hate my dads computer and curse at it and it STILL gives me problems, but if anyone else uses it its fine), never put down your machine, don't leave your machine in a dirty state, CLEAN IT UP! Secure the cables, clean the dust install fan filters, clean the outside of the case and treat it like a king. Trust me good things will come of this.


1: I can only work in metric units, so degrees centigrade please

2: My CPU normally runs at about 40 degrees c

3: I have no case fans, my computer jams up if I don't take the side off, which then it immediatly stops

4: I don't even have a fan on my northbridge, no problems

5: I don't like my PC sounding like a 747 taking off, my vid card fan and PSU makes enough noise.

6: I agree totally, treat your comp like a king, and it'll treat you like a king, I've solved lots of problems using this method (honestly, it works) *Runs from men in white coats*

7: I'm getting some of the new(ish) compact IDE cables, which improve airflow throughout your case.

8: You can get filters on you're fans? I'm getting one. (no more nasty build ups.)

[Tyberious]

First off I will answer your questions in order.

1. I am not too fimiliar with the metric system so since I live int eh united states I either work with *F or *c and my processor was around 40-50 *c I forget which. I apologize but I was tought it but I forgot it so I am not ignorent of its existance.

2.most cpus run normal at taht operation, its when they breach temperatures of 80+ *C that is the problem but that is no excuse to let your processor be as hot as the climate in vegas, your parts will last longer if they are cooler and be mroe stable.

3. ok...... first off I would suggest cleaning up the rats nest (if you have one) of cables in your case, cleaning dust from your computer with any type of aerosol can of air, vacuum out dust bunnies and tie cables out of the way, if that is not the problem then I totally misunderstood your statement.

4. most motherboards get by with "passive" cooling (no fan on the northbridge) but its mroe wise to put on better cooling to protect your envestment (your computer in this case) from heat which damages your componets.

5. who said you had to get those damn loud tornado fans?! I have fans much louder then the common silence fans and I can barely hear the fans in my computer! I have 10 fans (5 for case with an optional 2 extra slots for more, 2 for my power supply, 1 for my graphics card, 1 for my northbridge and 1 for my processor.) in my computer case, its quieter then hell and very cool although I need to replace my heatsink for my northbridge and my processor so they are cooled more effeciently because they are both aluminum heatsinks which means if I switch to copper I can bet by with a slightly weaker fan which is much quieter. THere are fans that are below a wisper and if you have a good case then you can close the case door and you wont be able to hear them. By the way you can also upgrade to a cooler and yet quieter solution just like I did.

6. yeah it does work, my operating system gave me problems and I lost my windows 98 OS so I got pissed at ym pc and guess what? I had to reload XP too and now that I fixed everything its performing faster then before. lesson to learn? Treat your pc the way you would like to be treated..... with respect.

7. oh! You are talking about those round IDE cables! I forgot about those! I plan on getting some to add mroe color in my case and to make airflow better because I am sick of stuffing cables underneath the motherboard tray and other drive bays (they are pretty hard to see but atleast they are out of the way but are a pain in the ass to work with if I need ot do something with them)

8. you can either get filters or make your own, I choose thsoe drying machine anti static clothes. They work as great and easy to install filters and are anti static which also adds some protection from static buildup which you may have when touching computer equipment which I advise you to ground yourself.

Hopefully this will help. If you want something mroe in depth then I will see what I can do. I appreciate your post in here and am glad you asked these questions as it will help other people.

[Ravey]

Well, my PC is pretty old school. I think I might need to replace the case for it since it is the same case I have had since my days of the 486 (My first computer). I don't think one fan can handle my revamped computer (Pentium 4 3ghz/512mb RAM/GeForceFX5200). I still have my old speakers too, but they haven't given me any buzzy crappy sound (They are actually alot better than when I first had them).

I recommend cleaning out the dust in your comps though, every time I upgrade my pc, I take it up to the garage to give it a nice cleaning because it tends to collect enough dust and it's a surprise that it doesn't set itself on fire from all the crap in it.

Optimising... I don't tend to do much but I do a little. I use Ad-Aware 6, Spybot S&D and McAfee Anti-virus. All updated with the latest data, I occasionally defrag my drive too. Not too often since I have a 120gb HDD. If spyware annoys you too much, Mozilla FireFox is organised a little better than other browsers and has built-in protection from spyware and popups.

Latest graphics card drivers is a must, especially for older graphics cards if you want to run games such as Doom 3 at a respectable speed. I updated my GeForceFX5200 series 128mb graphics card recently from the November 2003 drivers to the 29th July 2004 drivers, as well as installing Direct X 9.0c over 9.0b and the speed increase was great. I went from playing 640x480 low with low FPS to 800x600 low with decent FPS. I haven't tried any unofficial drivers though.

[Tyberious]

well firstly I would like to add on your first post, I heavily recommend getting a new case with that equipment due to the extra heat output. You need atleast 1 80MM fan sucking in cool air and one 80MM fan exausting air. I currently have a 3 and 3 setup of the following.

secondly you could do the traditional method of blasting the air out with a can of compressed air and vacuum cleaner combo, or take out all your ahrdware, spray it with the can of aerosol, clean it with rubbing alochol (of course letting it dry for a good hour to half hour) and blow your case out with a leaf blower. I heard it works but haven't tried it out myself.

third. Those aren't optimizations, that is maintainence work, it is an act of cleaning up which is ALMOST required for a computer. Optimizing involves tweaking and modifying. By the way firefox is a great browser but it does not block all spyware, tehre is still a handful that leaks onto your computer so don;t depend on firewalls, virus scanners, browsers etc. to keep all the riff raff out of your comptuer, it takes effort and still requires your attention. Those are merely tools to ade you in protecting yourself. The popup blocker and Flask Block (plugin) save bandwidth.

forth the general rule is to stay current in a upgrade, otherwise its not consitered a real upgrade if you can't keep current. As one person said "if you can't affort a current generation graphics card then save up! I don't recommend buying 3 or 4 generation old hardware as its a waste of money and will force you to upgrade sooner then when you thought."

also service pack 2 seems to increase speed of games, windows overall etc. I recommend getting it at this point, you can always uninstall it later if you don;t like it. What do you have to lose? There are numerous ways to "optimize" your rig, more then I can count. One of the best parts it shat most of this optimizing is free and does net you a consiterable performance boost.

[Doom2Hell]

clean it with rubbing alochol

actually, you shouldnt use rubbing alcohol on computer components, its not pure, isopropyl alcohol is meant for cleaning sensitive components, such as computer parts

sont mean to post to this since it hasnt been in a while, and it is Tyberious' thread, but i wouldnt want something happening... even though it was prolly a typo, i hear ALOT of ppl call isopropyl alcohol rubbing alcohol

*thumbs*

[Tyberious]

yes you are correct, I mean't isopropyl alcohol. Rubbing alcohol has oils and minerals that can actually crap heat on the surface of the chip's die while isopropyl alcohol is more pure. That was indedd the type of alcohol but I couldn't remember the name for the life of me. Thanks for the correction. I am going to have to update this when I get the time.

[xtremeneo10]

I just recently discovered that doing a selective startup, limiting your startup icons can drastically improve computer performance. I thought some of the newer computer people could benifit from such an easy tip.
*WARNING* If your not familiar with windows don't even bother.
For Windows users
Do the following in Order
1-click start
2-choose run
3-type msconfig in the space provided and press enter
4-enable selective startup and click apply
5-click ok and restart computer
if this doesn't help you can always enable nomal mode by doing steps 1-3 and chooseing normal startup.
*WARNING* Do NOT go into the startup.ini,Win.ini, or boot.ini menus or change any other settings provided

Otherwise contact your computers manufacturer

So I hope this helps somebody if not then *chuck*

[Tyberious]

yes that helps greatly. You guys remember me stressing about good cooling? Well it happened to me. I have a wonderful Gigabyte motherboard, an I865G chipset to be exact. It has a not so great northbridge heatsink on it The thingt looked like someone had a CS knife fight with it then sanded it with a 2 grit sand paper, the machine marks were so terrible that it was impossible to get good thermal contact with the northbridge chip even with AS5 (Artic Silver 5). Instead of just lapping the thing I bought a Iceberq 4 Pro cooler (which has a lovely mirror like finish and a kick ass blue LED) and modified it to fit on the motherboard. Now I don't have any problems. Before just to not get crashes and freezes I had to run timings of 3.0-5-5-10-64 U-sec timings with half my availible ram (thought the ram was the problem) Now I have all my ram (1GB of ram) and timings of 2.5-2-2-5-7.8 U-sec timings. I also got a processor cooler (Thermaltake Spark 7+ xaser edition).

old heatsink: idle: 64*f Full load: 96*f
Spark 7: idle: 55*f Full load: 87*f

that is a huge difference. The processor is overclocked to 3.06Ghz up from 2.4Ghz so my computer needs some good cooling (not to mention my 6800GT which ironically has lower temps because of the new cooling). I now have 11 fans in my computer so I installed a fan controller for my processor fan because the noise was almost as bad as a tornado fan so I keep it at slightly more then half speed when idle and doing basic stuff, it can play games with very low temps with that fan speed but I turn up the fan on full blast since I am too busy paying attention to the game then the noise of my computer.

[MR_ROCKET]

Was just skimming threw the posts here and noticed something Tylenol was talking about cleaning his ps , theres nothing wrong with that as long as you know what your doing, but taking it apart is a different story. reason , after the power supply has had electricity running threw it for several hours it creates and holds radio activity even among the caps you and alio were talking about, also like older monitors and tv's, which can damage your eyes and brain. i wouldnt worry about it yet , but repeated contact with such things shouldnt be taken lightly. you can clean it , just stay away from it heh
Just a precaution I thought I should post up about. :)

[Tyberious]

yes, that is correct. It is recommended to leave it off for a fedw days before it loses/grounds its charge. It is recommended to leave it off for 48 to 72 hours. Even 24 hours is not enough for it to ground its charge, that is why messing around inside the power supply is DANGEROUS and FATAL at times if your unlucky enough. I need to solder (or splice) on a new fan to my PSU's dying fan but I will do that maybe in a few more days or so.

[Looney]

It can store a charge for alot longer that a few days Tyb ;)My Dad used to work in cable TV (setting it up and moving on worse than the military.. hahahaha) he told me stories of guys getting zapped after months and it can store for longer. The dangerious part is the capasitors. They are what store the energy. TV and Monitors are the worst but, as said above, power supplys are just as dangerious

[derek]

I suggest removing programs from msconfig and the following registry keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

Also remove programs from your start->all programs->Startup

When working in windows, its also a good idea to turn your color down from 32/24 to 16bit.

Once that is done, I suggest you to remove any spyware with Spybot S&D, Adaware, MS Antispyware.

I also dual boot my system. I found out that in average my system runs games faster with Win98SE then WinXP.

You may also want to update your chipset drivers.

If you have a Ati Radeon or Nvidia GF card I highly recommend these tweaked drivers:
http://www.omegadrivers.net/
Especially if you have a laptop.

[gRiMgRaVy014]

I have a dell windows xp 3000 with 512 RAM and 80 gig hard drive.When I first got the computer I opened up the taskmanager and noticed how many programs i had running i believe it was around 25-30 now i just opened it up the other day and I had 46 thing running in the backround .what are these thing? Are they spyware /viruses?

[FATAL]

Very likely some of them are. You may have downloaded some yahoo toolbars or some other shit like that. You should enter their filenames to google, and if you come up with something suspicious, hunt it down and delete it.

[Tyberious]

thats why when I get a dell PC, i format it and reload. Amazing how much faster they run! *mock exasperation*

[Doom-Dork]

A great program to help you maintain the speed of your computer is TuneUp Utilities 2006.

Here is a list of the things it does, so you can make up your own mind.

Customize & Analize

1. TuneUp System Control. Lets you control the look and feel of the Windows interface.
2. TuneUp StartUp Manager. Controls which programs are executed at Windows Startup.
3. TuneUp System Information. Provides comprehensive information on you computer.
4. TuneUp Styler 2. Customizes the appearance of the entire Windows interface.

Clean up & Repair

1. TuneUp Disk Cleaner. Removes junk data from your hard disk and recovers disk space.
2. TuneUp Registry Cleaner. Removes invalid entries and references from your system.

Optimize & Improve

1. TuneUp MemOptimizer. Monitors and optimizes free memory in the background.
2. TuneUp Registry Defrag. Corrects physical errors in the registry and defragments it.
3. TuneUp System Optimizer. Checks your system for settings that might be slowing it down.

Administer & Control

1. TuneUp Process Manager. Allows you to manage currently running programs.
2. TuneUp Registry Editor. Helps you edit and search the registry.
3. TuneUp Uninstall Manager. Uninstalls programs you don't need anymore.

File recovery & Destruction

1. TuneUp Shredder. Deletes files securely, ensuring that they cannot be recovered later.
2. TuneUp Undelete. Recovers files that have been deleted from the Recycle Bin.

I have been using this program for about 9 months now, and I haven't had any problems with computer speed.

You can download the free trial at http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

[Props]

Just a thought. If you truley want to optimize you computer, just give me a call, over the internet.

goto start, and then RUN...

gpedit.msc
services.msc

are two ways to speed things up, especially if you have Windows XP Pro.

If you're one a network, than it could be a little different. If not, then you haven't any problems.

Windows, since 3.1 has added a lot of background programs, and they run off of resources. It uses all of them, along with your CPU and mem, and you must figure out how to disable the drain of simple CPU process's and ussless programs.

[Props]

You can also partition your HD to adapt to which files are used most. I used to have 2 partitions, along with a secondary HD (which was for my paging file). But, if you have a large sum of memory, you may not need such a large page-file. Also, save system resources by going into your system config/device manager, and disable things you'll never use. Ethernet, if you have a USB for network/INTERNET, serial port, internal speaker and useless stuff like this....but be forewarned, later down the road, you may have something that depends on this, and don't remember exactly what you did....which could lead to several headaches.

I agree with downloads/spyware/adware...that come with explorer pluggins...they only add to your total mem usage and slow the whole computer down.

...figure out what you use your computer for....mainly games, along with INTERNET, and checking email? There is a simple setup that speeds your overall performance. If you're on a wireless network, there are some things you need to do, to achieve maximum performance.

Regcleanr (you're registry is essentially the spinal cord of your computer software), Adaware (for unwanted cookies and little programs that constantly run and send reports to the source, to allow them to know what you use your computer for, and therefor better market software), and if you're worried about virus's, only visit safe websites and use Mcafee Online to scan, so you don't have to have your HD constantly being scanned.

Too answer gRiMgRaVy014, those extra process' could be numerous things, from auto-update programs for your installed programs(such as anti-virus), as well as background apps for newly installed hardware and not to forget...spyware/adware. If you have SP2 for WinXp, it added a ton of protection, and under svchost.exe, there are more dll's that have been loaded for different functions that the computer might use but doesn't necessarily.

Your registry associates extensions with programs to open them, as well as where system information is located. Like I said, it's the spinal cord to your Win Xp's functionality. After you install/remove a lot of software, that registry can get sloppy, because some of these paths specified in the registry may be used by other programs. To be safe, it won't remove these useless entries. Though, it may continue to waste your mem by loading dll's that aren't used for anything. The key thing to look under task manager, is how many processes/thread & handle counts/cpu usage (all can be viewed under options) are being ran, and how much mem they use. Because svchost.exe is primarily a windows based process, it's tough to determine what is grouped under it (usually network and security). But for all the other processess...just search the internet for what it may be, and determine if it's something necessary. Just like derek said, open regedit under "run" and goto the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
find what matchs the process, and delete it. DO A BACKUP BY EXPORTING YOUR REGISTRY FIRST.

I can also tell you about overclocking video and motherboards....but it's something that could lead to hardware failure. If you do decide to alter anything on your computer...do extensive research first, so you don't have to start from scratch. Also, if you bought a prefab computer, get all of the system specs, and look into doing firmware updates, to optimize your hardware. If it's an old computer, there usually are updates to your hardware, that may increase overall performance.

[Props]

New Edition...

Windows Vista...If I can help, I will

So far...I've figured out the security functions, and what they are appropraite for...
Also...disabling background apps that are specific to how your computer is configured...meaning wireless /w network, or stand alone computer. Most options, like all Windows OS' are installed as a generic OS, compatible with tons of diffent setups. The problem is...your setup isn't using all of the apps ran in the background. On top of that, you can stabilize your system, by setting alot of parameters such as shared IRQ's and DLL's. I/O also can spare your system useless processes. You just need to figure out what your computers role is. For now..until I get my old PC running, this is my primary computer...but I'm limiting it to web/games....not much in the area of downloads/running them. After my old PC is functional, I'll be using that for everything but gamming.