what makes a difference? the ram or the bios?

 

I didn't catch that sorry. But I can report that the computer seems quicker for sure. THANKS!!!!

moving the swap didn't speed it up as quickly as the BIOS update. I'm gonna keep my eye on that from now on. WOW!

I just bought the components last month, so I guess the updates weren't in the software.

 

ok, one small problem.

When I log on to sites that require a pssword, ebay, yahoo, yotatech, etc.

A security warning pops up and says that the security certificate is expired or not valid yet.

ANy ideas what that could be?

 

Snap will want to answer, but everything else being equal, the RAM will make a difference.


Hmmm, interesting... okay, then I'll bet that either you were WAY out of date (motherboards can sit around for a LONG time on a retailer's shelf) or it's more likely that the new BIOS updated the RAM timing/clock numbers and you're now running at the speed you should have been to begine with.



What date does the machine think it is?

Flashing a BIOS "could" wipe the clock. XP will reset it when it sees the network, but maybe the clock process isn't running.

 

Oh wierd I didn't even notice. Now my clock says it's december 21st and it is about an hour ahead.....

I changed teh date and it is all good now. That was wierd.

 

(whew!)

Yeah, a BIOS flash is a weird thing... you're changing the software ("firmware") at the lowest level of the machine. You just changed the stuff that knows how to look for drives, memory, clocks, serial ports, etc. when you first power up the box. It's critical for making the machine work at all.

Anyway... There's some specific information that's stored in what's called "CMOS memory" to define specific things about the PC - clock speed, memory refresh, _date and time_!, etc. That memory is "special" in that it's serially accessed in stead of "randomly accessed" (hence _R_AM ).

What a BIOS update will _sometimes_ do is require additional space in CMOS for storing it's stuff. If it does, then everything that was already there will get shifted up/down by one or two bytes. In some cases, when the machine first boots after an update, the BIOS will rediscover some stuff and freshen CMOS. But in other cases, it can't really do much about it, so it leaves it as junk.

I'd bet that's what happened to your time & date.



Have fun!

 

I just did a few tweaks.

Under services.msc I disabled:
Alerter
(Messenger was already done via SpySweeper)
Remote Registry Service
Wireless Zero Config
System Restore (I would rather format than go back in time)

Virtual Memory
Page file now resides on my 80 GB D drive, none on the C drive.
However after I ran Disk Keeper to defrag the page file and D drive, a message popped up saying I should run a small one on the C drive.
Any thought???

Sped up the Start Menu by the Registry, you will have to buy the mag and read up on it.

Also edited the Registry to unload DLLs when program shut down that no longer need them.

To much to type on doing the Registry, so go buy the mag

I can see a difference already, and my PC was darn fast to begin with.

 

Don't do it. Windows isn't smart about managing multiple swap files (edit: ... on the same physical controller). Give him one and walk away from the crazy person.


btw, for a great system file defragger that will run _BEFORE_ the kernel gets control (i.e., it's fast and will get the files that are normally in use), use SysInternals PageDefrag:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

I can't say enough about those guys.... ALL of those utilities are _killer_.

 

Thanks Mark, I will have to check it out.

I never run the Windows defragger, those never run right, even if you shut down all apps in the background.

I have been running Disk Keeper for a few years now.
First version 8, and now 9.
They are up to 10 now.

It only takes 2 minutes or so to do my 160 GB SATA drive.

 

Yeup... It's a smart defragger, but it still won't get the registry hives or the swap file.

 

Hmmmm, it says it does the swap file, and you also have a choice to do the MB at a reboot.
Screen looks lot like Scan Disc does before you enter Windows.

 

ummm... Are you talking about PageDefrag or Diskeeper?

If PageDefrag, then yeah it'll do the swap file ("Page", as in Page file), that was my point in bringing it up.

It looks like Diskeeper has a "boot time mode" where it can get in there as well. That seems to have been added recently, so I'll retract my statement above about them not being able to get to the swap file. Dunno if it'll do the registry hives though - the website only says "critical system files".


fwiw, it looks like that 'cause it's running at a point before GDI (Windows' graphics services) are running and as such, it doesn't have access to the screen fonts.

 

Yes, Disk Keeper.
I can see it move my swap file, puts it at the end most of the time.

PC is running super too with it on the D drive.

Yeah, it has a boot time mode where it can do more stuff.

 

I just delete all the old porn...

 

It is a known fact that surfin' porn leads to a slow computer.
A lot of porn sites have viruses and spyware put there on purpose.

 

From my daily C/Net newsletter.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10165_7...ml?tag=nl.e404

Have not read it yet, but it looks like it covers a lot of the same stuff that the CPU magazine I mention here has in it.