Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek

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AWARD BIOS Default Passwords 589589 589721 ALLY ALFAROME AWARD_SW AWARD?SW AWKWARD BIOSTAR CONCAT HLT J256 J262 LKWPETER SER SKY_FOX SYXZ BIOS flashing You should begin by updating your BIOS to the latest version. This can fix issues with certain motherboards, add more features or just improve performance. Although BIOS flashing is a little more dangerous than say, updating drivers as if you do it wrong you may need a new motherboard or BIOS chip. As a result I'd recommend that if you're happy with your PC as it is then you can probably skip this section. Given the potential risks involved with this its highly recommended you backup important data. You can find a list of motherboard manufacturers (& their BIOS updates) at Windrivers.com. Also check out www.amdmb.com for AMD Bios downloads. Your manufacturers website may also contain instructions on how to flash your BIOS. NOTE - BIOS flashing can only be completed in true DOS mode & not in Windows9x/NT. What to do - Begin by downloading the BIOS update & a BIOS flashing utility, e.g. Award Flash utility. - Make a bootable floppy disk (startup disk), Windows 2000 (& other) users can download one here. A standard Windows 98 bootdisk will suffice. - Extract the files from the BIOS update & the BIOS Flashing utility & copy them onto the floppy disk (BIOS update will end with the .bin, binary file extension). - Restart your system & boot from the floppy drive (you may need to make changes in your BIOS to do this, its also recommended that you Load BIOS defaults before doing so). - Ensure that no memory managers are running by typing in MEM /c or MEM /d at the command prompt. If they are you may need to edit the config.sys file on the disk to remove the references to them (EMM386.EXE & HIMEM.SYS). You'll need to load up Windows to do this. Open A:\config.sys with Notepad & delete those lines. Reboot then using the bootdisk. - Type A:\ to go into the floppy drive where you can being the Flashing process. - Update the BIOS via the Flash utility, e.g. To use the Award Flash utility you should enter in AWDFLASH.EXE. Substitute in the appropriate filename if necessary. - You will be asked for the file name to program, enter in the name of the *.bin file on the disk, e.g. NEW.BIN. Hit Enter to continue. - You may be prompted to save your current BIOS. Do so at your own discretion, e.g. Save it as BACKUP.BIN. I would advise backing up your BIOS here, just in case anything untoward happens. - The BIOS update procedure will now begin. Do NOT interupt this procedure in any way. You will be told what to do & when to do it. Reboot when prompted to finish the update. Enter the BIOS & Load BIOS defaults. Save the changes & exit. Boot Windows as usual now & once all is working fine you can start tweaking the BIOS settings. BIOS settings You can boot up faster & improve your performance by changing settings in your BIOS. First of all need to access it. When you're starting the PC, hit the Delete key. It should bring up the BIOS a few seconds later. Use another key if necessary. NOTE - Write down all your current settings for future reference in case you do something that you shouldn't have. Either that or want you just want to restore it to your old configuration. Some of the definitions used are taken from my manual. You may need to search under different sections of your BIOS to find these, so be prepared to look. I'll put these into different sub-categories where they generally would appear. BIOS OPTIONS (last updated February 2003) BOOTSTRAP MANAGEMENT
Boot other device This feature determines whether the BIOS will attempt to load an operating system from the Second Boot Device or Third Boot Device if it fails to load one from the First Boot Device. This feature is enabled by default and it is recommended that you leave it as such. This will allow the BIOS to check the second and third boot devices for operating systems on failing to find one on the first boot device. Otherwise, the BIOS will just halt the booting process with the error message No Operating System Found even if there's an operating system on the second or third boot device. Boot sequence Common Options : A, C, SCSI C, A, SCSI C, CD-ROM, A CD-ROM, C, A D, A, SCSI (only when you have at least 2 IDE hard disks) E, A, SCSI (only when you have at least 3 IDE hard disks) F, A, SCSI (only when you have 4 IDE hard disks) SCSI, A, C SCSI, C, A A, SCSI, CLS/ZIP, C This feature enables you to set the sequence in which the BIOS will search for an operating system during the boot-up process. To ensure the shortest booting time possible, select the hard disk that contains your operating system as the first choice. Normally, this would be drive C but if you are using a SCSI hard disk, then select SCSI. Some motherboards have a second IDE controller built-in. In such motherboards, the SCSI option is replaced with an EXT option. This allows the computer to boot from an IDE hard disk connected to the second IDE controller or from a SCSI hard disk. If you want to boot from an IDE hard disk running off the first IDE controller, do not set the Boot Sequence to start with EXT. Please note that this feature works in conjunction with the Boot Sequence EXT Means feature. Boot sequence ext means Common Options : IDE, SCSI This feature will only have an effect if the EXT option had been selected in the Boot Sequence feature. This feature allows you to control whether the system boots from an IDE hard disk that's connected to the second IDE controller found on some motherboards or a SCSI hard disk. To boot from an IDE hard disk that's connected to the second IDE controller, you must first set the Boot Sequence feature to start with the EXT option first. For example, the EXT, C, A setting. Then, you have to set this feature, Boot Sequence EXT Means to IDE. In order to boot from a SCSI hard disk, set the Boot Sequence feature to start with the EXT option first. For example, the EXT, C, A setting. Then, you have to set this feature, Boot Sequence EXT Means to SCSI. Boot up floppy seek This feature controls whether the BIOS checks for a floppy drive when the system boots up or not. If enabled, the BIOS will attempt to initialize the floppy drive. If it cannot detect one (either due to improper configuration or physical inavailability), it will flash an error message. However, the system will still be allowed to continue the boot process. If the floppy drive is present, the BIOS will query the drive to find out if it supports 40 or 80 tracks operation. But since all floppy drives in use today only support 80 tracks operation, this check is redundant. If this feature is disabled, the BIOS will skip the floppy drive check. This speeds up the booting process by several seconds. Since the floppy drive check is essentially pointless, it is recommended that you disable this feature for a faster booting process. Boot up numlock status This feature sets the input mode of the numeric keypad at boot up. If you turn this feature on, the numeric keypad will be set to function in the numeric mode (for typing out numbers) when the system boots up. But if you set it to Off, it will function in the cursor control mode (for controlling the cursor). The numeric keypad's input mode can be switched to either numeric or cursor control mode at anytime after boot up. This feature merely sets the inital input mode of the keypad at boot up. The choice of inital keypad input mode is entirely up to your preference. First boot device This feature allows you to select the first device from which the BIOS will attempt to load an operating system. If the BIOS finds and loads an operating system from the device selected through this feature, it won't load another operating system, even if you have one on a different device. For example, if you set Floppy as the first boot device, the BIOS will ignore the Windows XP installation on your hard disk and load up the DOS 3.3 boot disk which you have placed in the floppy drive instead. In short, this feature allows you to choose the first device to boot from. This is particularly useful when you need to load a boot disk for troubleshooting purposes or for installing a new operating system. By default, Floppy is the first boot device in practically all motherboards. But, unless you boot often from the floppy drive, it's better to set your hard disk (usually HDD-0) as the first boot device. This will shorten the booting process because the BIOS no longer needs to check the floppy drive for a bootable operating system. More importantly, doing so prevents the BIOS from loading the wrong operating system in case you forgot to remove the boot disk from the floppy drive! This also indirectly prevents the loading of any virus infected floppy disk that was left in the drive during booting. To install operating systems that come on bootable CD- ROMs (i.e. Microsoft Windows XP) in a new hard disk, you will need to select CDROM as the first boot device. This enables you to boot directly from the CD-ROM and load the operating system's installation routine. Quick boot This feature was designed to decrease the time it takes for you to boot up your system. But it's not the same as the Quick Power On Self Test feature because it doesn't merely shorten or skip some system tests just to speed up boot time. It makes use of additional techniques to further shorten the booting process. In fact, the Quick Power On Self Test should be considered as a subset of the Quick Boot feature. In addition to skipping some tests and shortening the others, Quick Boot also performs the following techniques to further speed up the booting process :- Spin up the hard disks as soon as power is supplied (or as soon as possible) Initialize only critical parts of the chipset
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Mr.X.'s TWEAKING AND OPTIMIZING WIN
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-Msdownld.tmp This one needs manual
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If you have Windows 95/NT you can e
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BootKeys=1 BootMenu=0 BootMenuDefau
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Settings\Cache\History] "CachePath"
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Similarly, open Internet Explorer,
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g - Restart your computer once step
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38. Keep IE crash free Here's a tip
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44. Switch off Dos memory manager D
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Data: D:\WIN95 58. Clear Recent Doc
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Click on the property tab for this
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Right-click in the right hand pane
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By the use of this client software,
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8. Want Real mode DOS back in Windo
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Recommendation: This service will f
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detect and/or recognize your hardwa
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It should almost certainly benefit
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Click start. click settings. click
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Click Analyze, click ok, click Acti
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Nonbrowser. A nonbrowser is configu
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Private IP Addressing (APIPA) for p
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provides protected storage for sens
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If the service is turned off, RIS i
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enables NetBIOS name resolution. Pr
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11. Adaptive Menus Microsoft Office
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Page 53 and 54: Note that in doing this, you are co
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Page 57 and 58: When a NTFS drive is formatted it b
Page 59 and 60: Goto above key in registry and you
Page 61 and 62: To get Admin account on the "Welcom
Page 63 and 64: • Security is not opening attachm
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Page 73 and 74: Alt - 119 = w Alt - 120 = x Alt - 1
Page 75 and 76: Alt - 0166 = ¦ Alt - 0167 = § Alt
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Page 81 and 82: Right-click in the right hand pane,
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Page 85 and 86: Install the appropriate post-Servic
Page 87 and 88: Windows XP Home Edition Configurati
Page 89 and 90: Caution If your computer is not in
Page 91 and 92: C:\inetpub\ftproot (FTP server) C:\
Page 93 and 94: MBR Work - www.terabyteunlimited.co
Page 95 and 96: Extreme Tech www.extremetech.com Fi
Page 97 and 98: IconFactory.com www.iconfactory.com
Page 99 and 100: Cable Modem Tips http://homepage.nt
Page 101: _Google _Google Image Search _Googl
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Page 107 and 108: ypass the compensation circuit and
Page 109 and 110: Therefore, using the latest video B
Page 111 and 112: So, for optimal performance, you sh
Page 113 and 114: second clock cycle before sending t
Page 115 and 116: SDRam RAS precharge time This featu
Page 117 and 118: The shorter the delay, the earlier
Page 119 and 120: CPU level 1 cache The modern proces
Page 121 and 122: MPS 1.1 was the original specificat
Page 123 and 124: Please note that even if you don't
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Page 127 and 128: However, this is not a surefire way
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Page 131 and 132: doubling the bandwidth of the proce
Page 133 and 134: When this feature is enabled, the s
Page 135 and 136: VLink 8X support V-Link refers to V
Page 137 and 138: You will notice that the interrupts
Page 139 and 140: AMD OVERCLOCKING - changing the mul
Page 141 and 142: Examples of terminology used You wi
Page 143 and 144: are much easier to use. No matter w
Page 145 and 146: Hard drive limitations Overclocking
Page 147 and 148: 5.0x 500Mhz 560Mhz 620Mhz 665Mhz 5.
Page 149 and 150: If you see copper, you've gone too
Page 151 and 152: "PC" specification that SDRAM uses
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Benchmarks allow you to measure you
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