Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: asian1 on August 10, 2003, 01:26:02 PM
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On Asian Reader's Digest, there are several tips
by Kathleen McLeary on "increasing the speed of
your PC":
1. Empty the trash.
Only when the trash is emptied, is the valuable
space freed up.
2. Fix fragmented files.
E-mail Microsoft for help finding the defragment
program and running it. Fragmented file may
produce error messages or crashes.
3. Restart your computer:
When you quit a program, large ones will
continue to siphon off memory. Re-boot eliminate
the problem.
4. Switch off start ups.
Instant Messaging and calendars will be started
at boot up. Call your tech support line for
help turning off these "extensions".
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My advice for Linux X86 users:
1. Buy knoppix CD.
2. Buy memory upgrade, at least 256 Megabytes.
3. Disconnect your Hard Disk (power+IDE cable)
4. Boot!
I see the first 2 advice is about HD. Why
don't they turn off hard disk and use RAMDISK+
floppy or ZIP or CD-RW?
Is there any similar advice for Classic Amiga
or AmigaOne?
T.I.A.
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My advice for Linux X86 users:
1. Buy knoppix CD.
2. Buy memory upgrade, at least 256 Megabytes.
3. Disconnect your Hard Disk (power+IDE cable)
4. Boot!
I see the first 2 advice is about HD. Why
don't they turn off hard disk and use RAMDISK+
floppy or ZIP or CD-RW?
Is there any similar advice for Classic Amiga
or AmigaOne?
T.I.A.
you can forget step 1, since you can download it from here (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html)
you can forget step 3, because knoppix doesn´t need your hdd as long as you have enough ram. else you are asked if you want to create a swapfile, or not (then you have a slightly disadvanced version)
:-o
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why not just chuck it down the stairs instant speedup. :-D
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The easiest way to speed up any computer is....
get more RAM!
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This has to be the oddest thread I've read in a while. Is there any question or point being made in this thread?
Adding RAM speeds up a computer. Uhuh.
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Adding RAM speeds up a computer. Uhuh.
It does if you're thrashing on virtual all day. And if you add higher bandwidth RAM than what you have, it might speed it up physically too.
And remember that adding FAST RAM sped up original Amigas. ;-)
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It does if you're thrashing on virtual all day.
Yeah.. Just put 1Gb of ram in my PC, and switched off the page file... Works great with XP so far.. (Still seems to use VM tho, only no slow downs when having lots of stuff open)
And remember that adding FAST RAM sped up original Amigas.
Ah.. the good old days... Chip, Fast and slow ram in an A500... And offcourse trying to get it to load the important stuff in fast ram..
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RAM can be the bottleneck to any system just like any other major component can, but I'd say 99% of the time that a decently configured system, particularly with Windows, can run much more satisfactorily than just adding RAM to a bloated setup already. I think the last time I noticed a speed increase was with a machine running Win95 with 32MB going up to 48MB RAM, 5 years ago now? I've done quite a bit with hardware since then, and not necessarily the money to ensure I can buy more RAM than I ever need :-)
It's just a case of identifying where the bottleneck is, and if there is a way of working out the problem without having to upgrade (and whether it's worth it or not).
And remember that adding FAST RAM sped up original Amigas.
I don't recall a speed increase when DOUBLING the amount of RAM in my A500 :-) A prettyness increase in graphics for games, that was about it... and it was very welcome :-)
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mikeymike wrote:
I think the last time I noticed a speed increase was with a machine running Win95 with 32MB going up to 48MB RAM, 5 years ago now? I've done quite a bit with hardware since then, and not necessarily the money to ensure I can buy more RAM than I ever need :-)
I experienced a general speed increase when I went from 64MB to 128MB with Win98. Even now with 256MB, I can sometimes be using virtual memory, so I think it's still relevant to say that adding RAM can speed up a computer.
Of course, that won't always be the case - it depends on the circumstances. But then it's not always the case that adding a faster CPU will speed up the computer, it depends where the bottleneck is.
I don't recall a speed increase when DOUBLING the amount of RAM in my A500 :-)
Well the Amiga never had virtual memory;) and presumably that extra RAM wasn't a faster type (if you added it via the trapdoor, wasn't that often referred to as "slow" RAM?)
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I used to have a 1230 and speed began to be an obsession. A lot of Ram works indeed, copying stuff to Ram on startup helps even more but increases startup time of course. Faster memory helps also, but there's a limit. Adding a PCI busboard and use gfx cards with loads of Ram, a Voodoo5 with 64 Mb for example, and let that superfast Ram be used by the system. Overclocking is tricky. There is not often much space left to do, especially not on a 68030/50.
And everybody knows that you don't need to load many programs at startup because those things will slow down the system (unless they are patches).
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I experienced a general speed increase when I went from 64MB to 128MB with Win98. Even now with 256MB, I can sometimes be using virtual memory, so I think it's still relevant to say that adding RAM can speed up a computer.
An excellent tweak for Win98, in the system.ini file, under the [386Enh] section, add a line:
ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1
Well the Amiga never had virtual memory;)
You have to read things in the context they were intended for :-)
and presumably that extra RAM wasn't a faster type
It would stand to reason that it was, as the RAM was a good few years newer than the RAM in the A500, I would've thought it would actually be faster RAM. Better technology in use, that sort of thing.
(if you added it via the trapdoor, wasn't that often referred to as "slow" RAM?)
I don't think so, fairly but not very sure about that. Not sure what the whole slow RAM bit was about end of story. :-)
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Well the Amiga never had virtual memory;) and presumably that extra RAM wasn't a faster type (if you added it via the trapdoor, wasn't that often referred to as "slow" RAM?)
It wasn't "slow". It was just pseudo-fast RAM without advantages of the "real" fast RAM.
I guess RAM added via the trapdoor was always behind chip ram bus (?) or something (??).
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itix wrote:
It wasn't "slow". It was just pseudo-fast RAM without advantages of the "real" fast RAM.
I know, but IIRC, it has been referred to as "slow RAM" (certainly that's what UAE calls it, at least). I forget why it wasn't faster though.
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I have not tried this, but it makes sense to me?
Subject: Re: Can I copy just the OS from the HP Recovery CDs??
Date: Sunday, February 04, 2001 4:24 PM
Actually.. once you have restored from a recovery disk... all the files you
need to do a clean install of the OS are ALREADY on your computer.. They
are in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.
Just copy them to a directory (doesn't matter what you call it) under your
root directory. Then delete everything (yes, everything) except for that
directory. You won't be able to delete the directories Windows and Program
files.. so rename them to WinOld and ProgOld.
Reboot from a MS-DOS disk.. go to your directory with all the cab files in
it.. run setup.exe, install to C:\Windows and, assuming you have all your
necessary driver files, you will be good to go. And don't forget to delete
WinOld and ProgOld.
you are installing the same OS that came with your computer, so it is
perfectly legal. It's kind of a pain in the ass way to do things but I've
used this procedure successfully many times on my HP and IBM Laptops[color=CC3300]WARNING[/color]
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chip ram was shared between CPU and DMA, so if DMA was active CPU had to wait.
fast ram was in use exclusivelly by CPU, so accessing it didn't requre waiting for DMA.
mysterious slow ram - only CPU was able to generate address for it, so only CPU was able to access it, but the address space from this range was handled by bus for chip ram - so if CPU wanted access from this ram it had to wait for DMA to finish, altough DMA itself was never able to use it.
Good luck
PiR
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Swapping things to disk isn't _necessarily_ bad.
For instance, a Linux application might have some code blocks marked with __init or something. This will usually be swapped out to disk immedieately after being used, because there's next to zero chance it'll be needed anytime soon. It's basically code you run once per startup. Waiting until memory is sparse before swapping would mean delaying a problem, so much smarter to just use spare CPU/HD cycles and get rid of it now.
However, one shouldn't excessively try to find new ways to increase swap usage either :-D
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re: that other way to reinstall Win98 -
I don't know if the cabs are there, I doubt it though, considering Win98 always asked for the CD when installing new stuff unless you did a few registry tweaks. If it had the CABs on disk already why not pick the files it needs from there?
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windows Xp runs fine here on 128MB of RAM. Psst... the trick is: use Ad-Aware; don't run crap on startup. I also use Xp-Antispy and run in 'classic' mode though the computer works fine with looks set to 'teletubby' AHEM I mean 'best'.
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@Mikeymike
I dunno, when I reinstall drivers, I always am offered to look in C:\windows\options\CABS in W98.
"re: that other way to reinstall Win98 -
"I don't know if the cabs are there, I doubt it though, considering Win98 always asked for the CD when installing new stuff unless you did a few registry tweaks. If it had the CABs on disk already why not pick the files it needs from there?"
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I always copied the Win98 diectory from my CD onto my harddrive, then ran the install from there. The registry then pointed the C:\win98 directory and always looked there for any necessary drivers.
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It's been a long time since I played with a Win98 install.
@ Lo
Is your Win98 setup your own, ie. did you install it to a newly-formatted partition with a normal Win98 setup CD, or is it a recovery CD job of some company's install?
Reminds me a while ago, asking someone if they had reinstalled their machine before... "yeah! loads of times"... I later found out he used a recovery CD :-)
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@mikeymike
Yes it was from HP recovery disks the point being (to speed up computers) to eliminate all the JUNK that comes with Hewlett Packard software and just wind up with a bare windows box. (well almost)
Is your Win98 setup your own, ie. did you install it to a newly-formatted partition with a normal Win98 setup CD, or is it a recovery CD job of some company's install?
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by Dan on 2003/8/10 18:13:33
The easiest way to speed up any computer is....
get more RAM!
I've noticed barely any difference since I installed more memory in my G4 Mac. The only thing that has made any visible performance improvements was the Radeon 8500 Mac Edition Graphics card.
Just how much ram does one need to install for a noticable result? :-?
I have 640mb btw.
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The difference is between not enough and enough RAM. If you didn´t notice any difference then you clearly had enough already.
Going from 128MB to 1GB on my pc was a big difference just like going adding 32MB Fastmem to the A1200.
And I used Adaware and Antispy and had the interface set to "custom" no shadows or other crap.
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Well I went from 128mb to 640mb, isn't that quite a big leap? :-o
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by Mike_Amiga on 2003/8/13 1:28:02 Well I went from 128mb to 640mb, isn't that quite a big leap?
I don´t know how much memory MacOS needs at all but if it was an amiga you wouldn´t notice the difference.
It also depends on what programs you run obivously a 3d-program benefits more than a textviewer, they biggest difference for me is that with 1GB I can run UAE without shutting down all running programs first.
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Looks like I have enough memory then, any more would probably be a waste of the GBP. Well in my case at least... :-) :-D :-P
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I read somewhere that w2k and wXP has its optimal ammount of memory at around 1024mb. =1gb
Kind of insane isn't it?
Despite being a w2k user, I must say GO GO GO! to the people behind the new winblows worm.
Microsoft must learn its lessons about taking security to lightly.
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optimal amount of memory at around 1024mb
my A500 with its 512 Kb is laughing !!!
Ok AmigaOS 1.3 doesn't do what Win does, I know.
But it can do what Win still can't: loadwb loads a GUI in half a second...
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XP has 192mb seems a bit of a struggle
A1 has 512mb
oh and the 1200 has 2mb hehehe
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I read somewhere that w2k and wXP has its optimal ammount of memory at around 1024mb. =1gb
Complete load of cobblers.
Win2k and XP, a decent configuration (for home needs anyway) including drivers and all patches should weigh in between 30 and 50MB RAM used, depending largely on drivers.
Anything after that depends on your use of the computer, take a look at Task Manager's total memory used. For average app usage, I'd recommend 128 - 256MB. For games, up to 512MB. Beyond that you should have a specific need for the additional RAM.
If you do have loads more RAM than you need in a WinNTx (NTx = NT4, Win2k, XP) there are a few tweaks you can do to increase performance, which are not done automatically. Can't say I've noticed a big performance difference using the tweaks, but in theory they should make some difference.
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@ Staticman
While Windows isn't very efficient with memory, have you done a feature comparison between your Amigas and presumably your PC?