FredixBlog

Quertion: Why will my performance not go back up unless I restart my 95/98 computer?
Fredix gave this response on 11/17/2000:
Particularly, I recommend you quit all applications to free up resources.

In general, here are some tricks to improve your computer’s performance. For you, I feel that point c) will do the trick.

First, the three keywords for PC performance are memory, then memory and finally memory… The more memory is installed, the less your computer will be in a situation which will slow it down. Regarding this, 64Mb of memory is an average amount. If your wife agrees that you spend a little money, upgrade it to 128Mb, which is much more comfortable (2000).

Second, set up your pc so that it starts fast. There are a few things to do, avoiding unnecessary checks and program loading:

a) In the BIOS settings
The BIOS settings are accessed when pressing DEL key when the PC is booting. On some PCs it is another key, but it should be displayed at startup. For example, for Compaq PCs, use the key. This displays a menu wich I suggest to browse in with arrows and keys. Change the parameters values with and .
Until you feel comfortable with the settings, WRITE DOWN THEIR PREVIOUS VALUE on a sheet of paper so that you can REVERT, in case things go wrong.

Following are important settings for speed:

- Primary Master Type = User.
This is usually the factory default. But if this is set to Auto, it will spend time checking the drives parameters.

- Boot Sequence = Anything starting with C. Example: C, CDROM, A
In 99% cases, you boot from the C: harddisk. It is not neccesary to access the A: drive each time…
The day you need to boot from floppy or cd-rom, remember to change this setting.

- Quick power on self test = Enabled
When booting, the pc checks the memory. This test can be done quickly.

- Floppy seek or swap = Disable

- Boot up floppy seek = Disable

- Memory shadow = Enabled
If your bios is recent and has this option, enable it. This will cache memory into CPU.

- CPU Autoconfiguration = Disabled
Once this one is done, it does not need to be done every time.

- AGP Aperture size
Increase this value, but not more than the half of your total memory. For a PC with 64Mb, it sould not be more than 32Mb.

- IDE HDD Autodetection
Run it once, just retyping the numbers displayed.

- Turbo Frequency = On
Some BIOS have this option. Turn it on, it says turbo, so… But be careful the temperature, if your hardware is a cheap clone.

Now, it is finished with the BIOS settings, leave the menu and SAVE your changes.

Fredix gave this follow-up answer on 11/17/2000:

We will now go into startup items, which consume both startup time and memory.
b) Startup Items
- Click on ‘Start’, choose ‘Run’
- In the box, type ‘msconfig’ (no quotes)
- Click on the last tab, ‘Startup’
- You can uncheck:
- ScanRegistry
- Scheduling Agent
- Office Startup (If you have Office)
- Microsoft FindFast (Useless)
- The very minimum of programs required are:
- SystemTray
- LoadPowerProfile
- Also uncheck all what does not appear to be necessary. You can always start them from the startup menu, or better, create an icon on the desktop. You will gain memory, which will give RAM space for speed.

c) Quick Launch icons
The Quick Launch toolbar should have only one icon: the Desktop. Move all other icons to the desktop.

d) Startup Menu
- Right click the taskbar, choose ‘Properties’
- Select the 2nd tab and click on the third button, ‘Advanced’
- This shows you the startup items in an Explorer window.
- Move all the icons you don’t use always to a new folder on the desktop. If you need them from time to time, you can launch them from the desktop or from this folder.
- Move the icons you always use on top of the directory’s structure, so that you don’t need to go to submenus. This is also boosting performance, because you will increase your own work speed.
- Always keep a minimum number of icons in the startup folder. You can have as much programs installed on your disk, but keep the startup menu small.

e) No decoration
- Unless you are a Desktop Themes afficionado, set your desktop background to none, and use no screensaver. This will increase your memory a little bit and save you a lot of startup time. The screen goes black with the help of Power Management, which is quite all we need.

- Remove sounds from your Control Panel – Sounds, or choose only very short duration sounds, specially for opening and closing events

f) Use some shareware
There are two sharewares I would have on my PC if I’d go to a desert island:
CACHEMAN at www.outertech.com , which configures disk cache and increases disk access. There are different presets you can choose, depending on your environment (Low memory, Power user, CD writer and more).
NAVISCOPE as www.naviscope.com , which boosts Internet speed by doing a lot of improvements: DNS caching, filtering advertisements, prefetching pages before you read them and MOSTLY configuring your PC for a modem Internet access. When newly installed, the PC is configured for a Local Area Network, not for a modem.
Other sharewares are useful in tuning the pc: WinBoost 98 and Xteq’s X-Setup allows to change various Windows parameters. System mechanic helps to perform usual maintenance task, but from only one program it helps. Some of these programs can improve pc speed, others are used for personalizing your Windows setup, but contain also performance registry settings.

g) Defragment your disk from time to time. Once a month is reasonable, maybe every week is ok. Always make sure you have a minimum of 200-300 Mb free. If you have Windows 98, its a goot idea to set scandisk after 60 minuted of inactivity, a defrag after 120 minutes and cleaning temporary files once a week, so you never bother again about these tasks and your disks are always clean.

h) Do not use disk compression.
When using disk compression, you earn on the storage side, but you loose on the speed side, because data has to be calculated (compress/decompress) each time it is accessed. If you already set your harddisk to compressed, leave it so.

I) If your PC is a bit outdated, try to keep old versions of software installed instead of the very last ones. Software is always more and more resources hungry, and maybe the old versions of software you have is enough for your needs. This is worth for big applications like spreadsheet, graphics or wordprocessing. For smaller programs like file utilities etc., you can do what you want.

All this is for taking the maximum out of your PC, with no new hardware, not really increasing its speed physically. But your old 300Mhz Pentium II may be much faster now than your neightboor’s 600MHz Pentium III. Don’t give him this sheet to read.

Now, if you want to increase speed by upgrading hardware, I’ll vote for memory if you are a power user of Wordprocessing and graphics, Disk if database oriented, CPU if hungry of heavy spreadsheets calculations and video if you mostly play games.

Another cheap way to boost your pc is overclocking. Overclocking consists on changing the speed of the processor to a higher speed than normal, because the factory standard allows a processor to run a bit faster. Many people have already successfully overclocked their processor, but its not recommended doing this on professionnal environments because of the risk of CPU and memory damage due to the increased heat.

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