Optimising XP (2 Viewers)

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by Winston
yeah uno how it's

java script
there's not suppose to be a space

ah yes, it works now (no wonder i saw lots of "%20" in the error pages) its very cool- will use it for practical joke purposes.

 

[r0wlzi]

Overclocking a graphics card is risky, as they are the most expensive part in a computer depending on the type. I am running a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT 128MB and I have the option to O/C to a core speed of 650MHz. No way in hell will I ever do this, I have 5 case fans of fair good quality on full speed and they still dont keep this baby cool.

I dont need the extra performance I dont want games running on better resolutions than 1024x768.

O/C my P4 30% right now, from 2.4 to 2.98 or something and never a fault. Hey if it dies it dies it isnt HT and my MoBo supports HT so it doesnt bother me fi I have to buy another chip.

RAM O/C is tricky, very tricky to determine what is a safe speed before it melts lol. 400MHz corespeed is definately enough for about 10 full programs running.

 

[Kez_136]

Overclocking is not that dangerous.... if you keep within limits, and dont be stupid about core voltages, and use decent cooling, then you have nothing to worry about...

Right now I have my 2600+ running @ 2.3Ghz on Stock cooling, at an idle temp of 36 degrees, and 42 load.... ram overclocking is something different, once you get into latency's and timing, it becomes very mathematical... GPU overclocking... ... you really have nothing to be affraid of... if your computer is locking up when you play a game, you've gone to far and it's time to drop bacl 5mhz.... it's all about research and being sensible... research how far others have gone so you can gauge your limits...

Hey I just realised... Choccy made this thread

-Kez

 

[Frigid]

Hey if it dies it dies it isnt HT and my MoBo supports HT so it doesnt bother me fi I have to buy another chip.

what if it dies... and then takes the motherboard with it to computer heaven?

i've had that happen to me

 

[r0wlzii]

Then Ill suu ASUS and take them down, along with my motherboard.

 

[MedNez]

Only a late reply by a few months but I have a few things that are helpful and may be of use to people here.

Overclocking is not that dangerous.... if you keep within limits, and dont be stupid about core voltages, and use decent cooling, then you have nothing to worry about.

Aye, for anything for around 1ghz+, overclocking to 125% is about the recommended safe maximum. I've found processors 500mhz , or roundabouts don't like to be overclocked more than 10 or 20 mhz before they die.

Also, tip of my own for Optimising XP, run XP-AntiSpy. Get rid of some nasty spyware that you don't want/need, and it'll make windows run faster.

One other thing- if you're running a firewall, I've noticed new installations try and connect to sc.windows.com when you try to do a search in windows. Best idea is to block that, keeps your bandwidth free, plus stops an unwanted connection sending details of what you're searching, or something similar, across the Internet.

Med

 

[azn_boy]

Summer is here so i dont think its the best time to OC ( stock speed is safer atm i think unless you know what your doing)

 

[Assasinator_2]

To change what services are loaded on boot, and what are disabled

go start -> run -> "services.msc" without "

here you can select a service, start it, stop it, or choose how it boots. to change how it boots, go into properties. Automatic makes it load automatically on windows startup. Manual means it loads when needed, but isn't loaded on startup. Disabled means it never runs.

Be careful with what you change though, as some will screw up your computer if you disable them when you shouldn't.

 

[SashatheMan]

thanks for the tips. do you know of anything else that u can do on windows that average computer knowledge people like myself wont know about.

can u also please explain what all these files mean when u run Regedit

 

[JimmyK]

one thing that a few of my mates and I do, is we clean install XP, load all drivers needed, and some of the most important software - ie, burning, graphics, stuff like that.. and ghost that partition (usually 10gb) and store the ghost image on a seperate physical hard drive. therefore, if a hard drive dies, we have a quick way to get our computers back up and online - or if we get a virus, we can just ghost the 'system' partition. We use tweakUI to move the docs and settings information to a different partition.
My 120Gb SATA drive is partitioned like this:
10Gb SYSTEM partition (Windows, programs etc) - this is the partition that is ghosted.
40Gb Games partition (where all games are installed to)
The rest is for Data, downloads, CD images etc.

I have a 40gb drive that I hold my ghost image on, as well as my docs and settings, and a few other bits and pecies.
My other 40gb is for all my media - music, movies etc.

Norton Ghost is included with Norton System Works - its fairly easy to use, just create a boot disk using the utility provided and its fairly easy from there. You will probally find that they use it at your school or university - its a very good peice of software.

 

[LoneShadow]

StyleXP is greate for changing da looks of win xp da way u want it to look.....

 

[MuffinMan]

use style xp!!! looks better than classic xp themes

 

[Ghost1788]

Hey ppl a good system utility i found is called Everest which can be downloaded at the site linked below

http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1

very good in my opinion

a good overclocking motherboard is the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe it has dual bios and resets the CMOS(or what eva that thing is ) if you overclock too much , thus saving your CPU from being fried!
Unfortunately this motherboard doesnt support the newer p4 chips but it does handle from 2.4ghz-3.2+ and a little on wards i gues as long as the chip is 478 pin i will take it(albeit after flashing the BIOS)
I managed to overclock from 2.4 to 2.8 and its is very easy to use overclocking can be done in 5% stages or manually in 1mhz increments(for the experts), without any extra cooling or fans, just the stock fan and it runs at 60oC so its ok

Ghost

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http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=53037&page=1&pp=25
^^^True overclock check this out^^^^

 

[FreakTrigger]

If you really want to overclock, you're fine as long as you stay the fuck below 55 degrees.

 

[psychiclobster]

Meh. Overclocking will kill the lifespan of your PC, & will result in strange noises coming out from your Box. Simple Regedit/Msconfig Tweaks will be essentially enough for keeping XP efficient. Also (Begin Rant) the main reason for people having crappy slow PC's is the fact that tehy do the following:
1. Goto websites like (free stuff here, free car!!!!)
2. Have 10+ GB of Games + Stuff they have never used.
3. Have over 30+ apps running in the background, then complaining about their 500+ Ping on CounterStrike.

Seriously people, i am strongly into thinking a coputer is like a house. You dont want to put things in all different folders. I have a AMD 2800+, with 768MB RAM, & my Computer loads in 8 seconds, including the Firewall at boot. Simply due to good 'housekeeping'

Overclocking is good if your OS recognises ur Processor at 1999mhz, when u need 2000 to install a program. Otherwise, dont rely on it. I hear people getting their intel 2.8 up to 3.2, but seriously, the amount they spend on cooling the thing is worse than buying a new processor.

Always have a good chunk of RAM (768 is really good, Ive noticed no change with 1024.)

Dont use the pagefile is using more than 256 MB RAM. Obviously u want psysical RAM rather than virtual. A pagefile really kills ur speed, as it uses it moreso than psysical RAM.

Your Prefetch Folder.... Well, You can go both ways. I have mine off, as I dont mind waiting an extra 1/2 second for a program to load. Its better than waiting an extra 2 minutes for the OS to start, loading over 400 Prefetches. The Regestry setting to disable it is 0. This is shown on the 1st post.

Get Windows to not empty your pagefile at shutdown. Experiments show me that its a 4 second shutdown with it off, & 17 seconds (average) with it cleaning before shutdown.

Seriously, have a few solid programs. This includes: 1 Internet Browser (firefox, its security rips IE, which is utter crap.) Email Client (Thunderbird, or some HTML one.) 1 AntiVirus Scanner (Keep it off, & perform a scan every week. You'll save so much processing time. Norton is incredibly paranoid, it scans every action you perform, including keystrokes, opening, saving, closing files, & pretty much everything in between. 1 Scan a week is more than needed. 1 Anti-Virus Scanner, such as Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com, which is the best scanner around). 1 Firewall, & I must stress this. 2 will conflict with each other, & will kill your network/dialup usage. I personally used to use Zonelabs Firewall Pro, but upgraded to ZoneLAbs Suite, as it is the ultimate protection suite, incorporating firewall, anti-virus & Anti-spyware.

For p2p programs, seriously keep it to one. Limewire is tops, & u can completely disably any uploads on your behalf. NEVER USE KAZAA! Its crap, & installs about 20 different types of ad/spyware on ur PC. This is any version of Kazaa, including the full lisence one.

www.speedguide.net is essential to tweaking ur broadband connection (Dial up, ur on your own, losers.) & it helps to connect to the server multiple times, killing the amount per user allocation.

There is a bunch of Logs + useless files that windows keeps after installation, which are completely worthless. do a search of *.log, *.txt , *.0* & more
after a format to instantly get back like 300+MB of installer crap u no longer need. use common sense, dont remove installer files & get rid of things like JPEG's & Mpegs after a fresh formatting.

there are like 30+ Microsoft services in msconfig, find out which ones u need (keep the obvious ones like windows time/audio, & remove crap, processor intense ones like secondary logon (the switch users thing, which really sucks). A popular techrepublic download lists all the standard services that can be killed. My computer approx. Doubled in speed after this.

Remove the fancy windows XP style. It kills ur processor. Right Click My Computer >Properties>Advanced>Performance Settings> Adjust For Best Performance. This will seriously double ur speed. Im not kidding.

Compress the i386 file, its installer stuff u dont need, & can be compressed, but not deleted. Compressing this (especially after an upgrade compared to a new format)

Keep ur games down. Dont install 5-10 Graphics intense games when u know ur only going to play one. Personally Im a gamer & I only have CounterStrike installed, along with steam(ing pile of shit). Necessary evil...

Clear ur Browsers Cache (Pronounced CASH you Morons!), especially if ur into the 'adult entertainment' category. Delete cookies, as u can easily accumulate 200MB of text files that have no purpose. you can customise firefox to keep certain cookies, such as eBay, Google etc. U dont want to keep cookies while ur 'surfing', as ur gonna get 3+ cookies per site. OOH almost forgot, get a javascript blocker (firefox can use NoScript, the paranoid bastards dream.) This will stop most everything goin through ur system, upon ur command. Its really powerful, as most everything can be done through Javascript.

Thats it (Finished ranting... finally), I learnt all this from www.techrepublic.com, which is like the best site ive ever been to for computer issues. These are people in the IT, Software Development Industry who know what they're talking about. Hope this helped. I Strongly recommend www.techrepublic.com, www.techrepublic.com, www.techrepublic.com, ill stress it. Its incredibly good.

 

[vizman]

hey excellent guide . however if ur not familiar with XP don't muck around with the registry

 

[mr_brightside]

What do you type? I don't understand it.

Exactly what you have put in bold, I believe.

 

[euskadi_warrior]

What do you type? I don't understand it.

yeh, just type in

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

and it closes a few processes. Works well but sometimes takes a while for the processes to close.

 

[MuffinMan]

the registry for xp is much the similar to 2000

 

[m0ofin]

Thanks for the tips Mitochondria , the processing power one works a treat ^^*