Author Topic: not really a new topic but as to my complaints about XP Vs 2003 server, I have v (Read 12635 times)

MinersLantern · « **on:** July 29, 2012, 03:50:56 am »

Some collection of tweaks to the registry makes XP act really fast also makes 2003 server reallly fast. I have always thought server was fast anyway, but after doing all the M$ updates to it weeks ago, it got slow and retarded like what I was whining about XP. lol

Transfer a file from one disk to another, wait 2 hours rather than the 8 minutes it should take.

Seems that windows generally has a few nassy little bugs.

I have applied these mods to my server 2003, it got as fast as it was under its virgin install.

Then decided, hmmm....

Lets see if it will make XP behave at least as fast as win2k...

Sure enough it did.

I can now run WinTV7 very easily. (a tuner card software that grabs over the air digital braodcasts then sticks the file on your drive fast as hell)

Before making the changes, WinTV7 would take something like 20 minutes to actually begin to run.

Now its a few seconds.

Same computer, same OS (XP)
XP on that pc is also doing the interface user things instantly.

No more of this waiting around for 15 minutes to open a damn folder.

Conclusion, windows can be damn s*** f****** fast, just gotta make a few changes, mostly via regedit.

Why does M$ not just set the thing up that way in the first place?

After these changes from the Google that I have learned I am equally impressed by XP as Server.

Both are screaming fast, and basically crashproof.

White Stripes · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2012, 03:52:33 pm »

what changes did you make?

Bluey_412 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 30, 2012, 08:43:41 pm »

That's what I was wondering

silicon_toad2000 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 30, 2012, 09:14:52 pm »

MinersLantern · « **Reply #4 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:12:04 am »

Well, this is going to be wordy.

A firefox tweak to speed up the system: set dom.ipc to false:
http://pczonenow.com/how-to-make-firefox-faster-in-few-easy-steps
I also set in options to not let FF use hardware acceleration since that has caused a hard crash of the system.

This is one bad bug that will hang the system: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=819101
There is no patch, you have to disable transition effects.

Launch Folder Windows in a Separate Process:
Actually increases consumption of resources somewhat, but also makes windows less likely to totally
lock up when one app or another freezes.

Registry changes:
Some of these have no effect on XP but XP will just ignore them in that case.

The most effective seem to be:
DisablePagingExecutive (set to 1)
AlwaysUnloadDLL (set to 1)
Max Cached Icons reset to 2000 (defaults to 500)
LargeSystemCache (set to 0)
SystemCacheDirtyPageThreshold (set to hex 80)
IOPageLockLimit (set to hex 800000)

Prioritizing IRQs. (priority set to BIOS and CMOS clock)

Set Processor Scheduling and memory to Programs not background services.

One place to start:
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php/4720-Windows-2003-Performance-Tweaks

For more info just search for things like:
windows performance tweaks, windows tuning, registry settings, etc, and read, read, read.
Some changes can cause problems or even reduce performance or reliability.
The registry is a dangerous but powerful thing.

Be sure you have a backup unless you know what your doing and can
reverse the changes you have made.
I have a bit by bit copy of the entire hard drive just in case. (used Clonezilla)

Im sure I took a big hammer and made some changes that were not needed, but if it works, dont fix it.
Now it works, so I will refrain from further mods for now.

And remember folks, if you break your pc, reverse whatever it was that you did and dont blame me.

silicon_toad2000 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 31, 2012, 12:28:19 pm »

just to reinforce what miners lantern said.

don't make changes to yuour system you don't understand
don't make these kind of changes to your system without a full backup and without the knowledge that you might muff it up and need to reinstal windows

White Stripes · « **Reply #6 on:** July 31, 2012, 07:19:25 pm »

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I also set in options to not let FF use hardware acceleration since that has caused a hard crash of the system.

update your video drivers... if they are the latest version something may still be buggy in the drivers or the hardware is broken...

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AlwaysUnloadDLL (set to 1)

this was a feature in 9x and Me... NT 2k Xp etc ignore it...

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Prioritizing IRQs. (priority set to BIOS and CMOS clock)

again... 9x... this does nothing in NT+

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LargeSystemCache (set to 0)

in NT workstation 2k and xp it is set this way by default.. servers have it set to 1 by default... this would only affect 2k3 in your situation...

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DisablePagingExecutive (set to 1)

this helps but only holds the kernel in memory... not the drivers..

MinersLantern · « **Reply #7 on:** August 01, 2012, 06:10:45 am »

Its still working mostly well. But tonoght I have been transfering files via radio to another pc to make more drive space (gotta record Roseanne ya know)

For some reason, god knows what, after a few hours of that, the thing suddenly vanishes from the LAN.

That one pc has no keyboard, mouse or monitor. I hookup to it using VNC.

I have a big livingromm but really dont want a bunch of crap laying around by the entertainment center. lol

Anyhow, when that happens, I have to physically walk all the way over there and hit 'reset'

So far that hasnt been an issue, just a pita.

I wonder why its doing that. Is the damn wifi connection timing out on its 'lease' or what.

Lease sounds kinda stupid anyway imo.

If I want to lease, I will phone GMC.

But for whatever reason, interwebz connections do have some douchette lease thing going on.

(My idea of lease is one-trillion googleplex eons) but thats just me I guess.

Making more space on the drive since its damn near full and gotta move a bunch of files elsewhere to record more files.

I stilll hate my 500 gig 'green' drive, and will never, ever buy another, but at least it has room.

And yup, do be very cautious abt messing around with the pc registry. The wrong click or change and your pc can instantly become a nice doorstop.

Which is why I also suggested.. READ, READ, READ.

MinersLantern · « **Reply #8 on:** August 01, 2012, 06:18:20 am »

Oh and I did assume everone would automatically know these changes may or may not apply to your own situation.
My mistake, the operating system you have may be setup on way or another. Even the same OS may or may not have the exact same route to muck around with the settings in that way.

AKA (make sure you know what your doing first, change later)

Or duplicate the entire thing first, change things later. If you hate what it does, you can always go back.

BTW, I do NOT mean that silly windows restore thing. Windows restore only sorta kinda works, maybe, if your lucky.

The best thing to do with windows restore is to shut it off.

If you want to really go back to the last known working config, just image the entire drive.

That requires linux. Microsoft never has and still has no idea how to do that properly.

MinersLantern · « **Reply #9 on:** August 01, 2012, 06:50:41 am »

Also forgot to mention, this pc and the other one are duplicates. Both made in China, back before Bill Clinton got his hot sexy time from Monica.

I did upgrade both with US made RAM and Drives. Which did help alot. But you guys with modern technology would prolly see little difference in changing things.

For example, I have a Celeron single core imitation fake multiprocessor. Nowadays multiprocessor means exactly that.
I use a very cheap netbook (a 4 core atom processor) to transcode my videos now, because its a shitton faster at such things than this ancient tower is. lol Im just tweaking the thing to make it closer to usable.

It is still pretty damn fast, as long as I dont do something silly, like attempt to watch HD video.

For that, the el cheapo netbook is much, much better.

More cores are nice. lol

Cannot update the video drivers, the idiot company charges you money to get them.

It would prolly not work anyway. This thing doesnt have a real video card, just the motherboard chips.

Would be nice to go buy one but ugh, I have no open slots in the PCI, and dont want to spend a hundred dollars anyway.

Bluey_412 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 01, 2012, 08:37:35 pm »

begins to see some of miners' hardware issues: Onboard GPU = Shared RAM vs dedicated VRAM

Find and install a separate graphics card would be good, even a cheap Realtek...

The CPU will always be groaning under the load... Would you try to run a F250 style truck on the freeway, but fitted with 2-litre 1975 Nissan car engine? Dont load up that truck!

Actually, you dont need a Graphics card, you need a whole system upgrade, time to finally sell the Edsel...

White Stripes · « **Reply #11 on:** August 01, 2012, 09:57:54 pm »

heh... i have an old coppermine celeron running a tweaked xp (switching to linux when xp support ends) that has onboard video... used an old sis6326 vidcard with it.... memory access times are much quicker with the addin vs onboard... more ram to work with and less heat too....

dont kick older machines down too hard... they can be made to do interesting things...

once was said "Linux! Because a 486 is a terrible thing to waste."

silicon_toad2000 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 01, 2012, 10:44:29 pm »

obsolete just means inexpensive.
my kids still use p3 based mahcines to surf the web and stream video.

achilles · « **Reply #13 on:** August 02, 2012, 01:03:53 am »

This is an interesting thread. I have been using XP Pro for so so long, but I recently decided to switch my older machines running XP Pro to Linux. I will be looking for tweeks for W7 X 64 now. I think I'm finally going to retire XP Pro. It seems like my application run better on W7 X 64 than they ever did on XP Pro. Its time I really start learning the inner workings of Linux, and make better use of my P4 3.4 ghz 4gb of RAM machines. They run great with a nice distro of Linux. As far as Windows 8 goes I want have any need to upgrade to it anytime soon unless its for some portable device. Long live WinMx!

White Stripes · « **Reply #14 on:** August 02, 2012, 03:18:34 pm »

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obsolete just means inexpensive.

tell that to the macintosh fanatics ... 35$ for a floppy drive is crazy...

...at least the initial load of junk was free.. getting those alien machines to working condition wasnt going to be...

Quote

As far as Windows 8 goes I want have any need to upgrade to it anytime soon unless its for some portable device.

winmx wont run on windows 8/arm (portable devices) ... ive honestly yet to find a place where win8 would be useful ... linux works better on arm and doesnt require 'secure boot' ...

win8 is basically active desktop reborn and grafted onto win7 ....

Lagerlout666 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2012, 11:28:31 pm »

Quote

win8 is basically active desktop reborn and grafted onto win7 ....

totally agree with that comment, windows 7 is probably the best they have made, but linux is catching up very very fast, to the point i cant keep up with it anymore. If only games ran native linux

silicon_toad2000 · « **Reply #16 on:** September 01, 2012, 12:05:00 am »

Quote

tell that to the macintosh fanatics ...

yeah i know, i work with them, all our work machines are macs and every company phone is an iphone
I'm consantly reminding them it's just an intel lappy running bsd with a shiny case, it's not worth that much.

Bluey_412 · « **Reply #17 on:** September 01, 2012, 11:13:52 pm »

Quote from: silicon_toad2000 on September 01, 2012, 12:05:00 am

it's just an intel lappy running bsd with a shiny case, it's not worth that much.

And made in Sweatshops that make the old Nike ones look like palatial paradise

MinersLantern · « **Reply #18 on:** August 24, 2013, 07:40:55 am »

After all of this, I have decided that its all a bandaid.
After letting M$ go wild and update the thing totally, it still got slower. It would also freeze the whole pc just by looking at some webpages.

My latest problem for the past few months has been how the pc refused to copy any large file (lets say 800 Meg and up) from a flash drive in the usb port to the hard drive. Smaller files would just scream along at warp 27 and successfully complete.

Another little issue was how my SATA drive would fail at doing the same thing.
Yet another was that anything involving Flash on websites would either work just fine or freeze the entire computer, requiring a reset.

All that stuff solved by replace the M$ driver for my video with the original, made in 1991 driver by the mfg. Turn down the bus speed to 100 mhz, even though the stupid pc said, no... turn it up to 133.

Last but not least downgrade flash from the 'newest' version to version 11.7 (security upgraded).

Now its as stable as hell, and so far at least hasnt destroyed any more files, simply by reading them. Which is a refreshing change.

Another thing was that I read that shadowing of video ram, does nothing on a modern pc. Pfft.

I tried it both ways abt 20 times using the same avi. Shadowing always speeds up the frame rate anyway.

I have been pissing around with my BIOS for about a week and keeping very exacting track of what happens with this, that and the other change.

In my case, I think screw what I read, just try and test. If it goes faster and is more stable that is a nice thing.

Right now, my pc is overall, sorta kinda a tad slower, but it plays video faster. File copy does not do stupid freeze and crash things either.

Sorry, but stuff like this makes me think of Microsoft as not quite as bad nor ignorant as many think it is.

MinersLantern · « **Reply #19 on:** August 24, 2013, 08:04:21 am »

If there was an edit function to this forum it would be nice....

Risky business, but for my next experiment...

Increase core voltage then tweak up clock speed just a bit.

So much simpler than messing around in the registry. Not much danger that the CPU or RAM is going to catch fire like DIck Van Dykes Jag did. I have this thing uncased and exposed to the air with many noisy fans.

Since mine is stable now, and reasonably fast im not going to reverse the stuff I changed as to the registry, that can take years. lol

I reckon such mods to the BIOS would work in a positive way on my other pc that simply exists to record ota tv broadcasts (its the XP one) my latest discovery abt XP was DO NOT update, nor do any patches. If you do, it will stupidly freeze at random, for no reason at all, because its in a mood.

It froze every .00000001 nanoseconds when I did my duty and updated the thing. Bah.

I erased the entire drive and did it all over again, w/o any updates. Now its scary stable.

It is also not in any danger of hacking or whatever, it isnt allowed to connect to the real internet, just my pc via LAN as incoming to program it to record this and that.

Still imo, very surprising. XP can be fast and reliable, just dont allow microsoft to have its way with the OS.

Stick in a firewall, no not microsofts, Sygate is nice (I know its hacked, whatever, its hacked if someone can enter your house and get direct access to your pc). Diasable trash such as Javascript in your browser, dont just allow shit to be installed willy nilly.

Just a few simple things can make anything very secure, including any version of windows.

So much for all these comlex changes to the OS to try to make it run faster.

BIOS is where its at. Drop bus or clockspeed. Remove delays to the video card, stick video ROM into ram as a shadow.

Most of all, ignore whatever the hell the dimwit computer pops up on the screen when booting as far as 'settings' should be.

According to mine, BIOS insists that I crank up the bus speed to 133, cut the delay from 3 to 2 .

lmao

I already know what happens when I do that. Non-bootable pc.