AMD Processors - Technology Guides

Installing Windows 7 using unsigned drivers

Overmind — 2009-10-25T03:17:38 -05.00

Microsoft did it again. They finally fixed that junk OS called Vista and we got Windows 7, which is actually Windows 6.1 aka Vista SE. So we eventually got what we suppose to be getting initially.
In their 'stupwisdomy', M$ did remove some very important drivers that were present in the Vista installation driver kit, including drivers from well-known workstation SCSI controllers.
This does su*k, because if you have 15k RPM SCSI drives that you still want to use with an older controller, you can't with Windows 7. Or at least so M$ thinks.
Installing Windows 7 on older SCSI controllers will fail because the controllers will not be detected and setup cannot find your SCSI HDDs.
Now smarter drones won't give up that fast. Some came with the (theoretically good) idea of extracting the SCSI drivers from Vista, adding them to a USB, FDD or any media and using them at Windows 7 installation time. This also fails. M$ decided to allow only signed drivers to be used at setup and surprise ... Vista drivers are not digitally signed for Windows 7. The installer will not allow the load of any unsigned driver.
At this point everyone gave up and some probably got big hammers and smacked either the Windows 7 disk or thier old SCSI controllers.
Signed drivers suppose to be the most secure thing in Windows 6.0 (Vista) and Windows 6.1 (7) and very hard to bypass even from within the OS. Well, M$ did not anticipate something and I found a way around this.
Here's how to install Windows 7 using unsigned drivers:
0. Copy your unsigned driver to FDD, USB stick or other media (you will probably need only one .inf and a .sys file).
1. Start Windows 7 setup.
At this point, if you choose 'Install', your HDD controllers won't be detected if not supported by W7. So don't do that.
2. Click 'Repair'.
3. Wait for the pseudo-scanner to finish.
4. Click load driver.
5. Point to your unsigned driver (the .inf file) you previously copied to FDD/USB stick.
6. Wait again for the pseudo-scanner to finish.
7. Click the 'x' in the corner to close the repair mode.
8. Click 'Install' to start the installation.
9. Now your SCSI controllers and SCSI HDDs will be detected and there will be no warning of unsigned drivers.
Everything should proceed just fine from this point on.

Happy unsigned installation !

ATI STREAM with Saphire radeon 4890 1GB

vakata — 2009-07-16T12:20:52 -05.00

Hello from Greece
i own the Judo Portal www.judo.com.gr and i am working on it almost every day.....my primary care is to make screen recording from online competitions, or recording from my SONY-TG3 handycam and convert video to .flv so i can upload it to my site (full flash xml).....i have a desktop with: i7-920, 6GB triple channel memory OCZ 1800, Saphire radeon 4890 1GB.....and because i am a begginer as it concerns ati stream technology.......how (by steps) i can take advantage from Ati stream to do all faster and easier with better results.......

thank you in advance
vakata

-------------------------
Judo Portal-Takis Vakatasis

AMD Rigs Pictorial Guide!

batuchka — 2009-06-06T06:37:15 -05.00

Thought i just share my ideas on AMD rigs builds at several different price points and needs The builds shall be based on hardware available on NewEgg but if you stay at a country where the hardware discussed are not available or just darned expensive, feel free to ask for substitutes ^^

Guide to Locking the CPU at Lowest Performance

carl756 — 2009-03-29T14:23:46 -05.00

CPU: Athlon 64 X2
Platform: Windows XP SP3
Driver: AMD Processor Driver 1.3.2.0053

While watching streaming video with Cool'n'Quiet enabled I observed my CPU freq to be fluctuating between minimum (1.0 GHz) and maximum (2.8 GHz). The CPU was in turn running hotter than at minimum freq and the CPU fan, inaudible at minimum freq, was making considerable noise. I wanted to eliminate the extra fan noise.

I first determined that performance was sufficient at minimum CPU freq by locking the CPU freq at minimum in the BIOS and watching some streaming video. I then set about creating a convenient way to lock the CPU freq at minimum without requiring a reboot and entry into BIOS setup.

The solution was to user the Windows powercfg command line utility to create a new Windows power profile with the CPU throttling parameters set to CONSTANT.

Brief Instructions for Experts
---------------------------------

From an account with administrative privileges, use powercfg in a Command Prompt window to perform the following steps.
The command "powercfg /?" displays the command usage.

1. Whatever Windows power profile you use for Cool'n'Quiet, make a new copy of that profile with a nice descriptive name.

2. In your newly created Windows power profile, change the AC and DC CPU throttling parameters from ADAPTIVE to CONSTANT.

That's it!

Detailed Instructions & Example
------------------------------------

This example will use the Minimal Power Management power profile as a starting point, and will create a new power profile named "Minimal CPU Lowest".

1. Log in to an account with administrative privileges.

2. Open a Command Prompt window.

3. Ensure that Minimal Power Management is the active power profile with the following command:

> powercfg /s "Minimal Power Management"

4. Create a new power profile that is a copy of Minimal Power Management with the name "Minimal CPU Lowest":

> powercfg /c "Minimal CPU Lowest"

NOTE: If you specify a new name that is too long, powercfg /c will fail silently without creating the new power profile.

5. Ensure that Minimal CPU Lowest was actually created:

> powercfg /l

6. Change the CPU throttling parameters in Minimal CPU Lowest:

> powercfg /x "Minimal CPU Lowest" /processor-throttle-ac constant
> powercfg /x "Minimal CPU Lowest" /processor-throttle-dc constant

That's it!

Using Your New Windows Power Profile
--------------------------------------------

Whenever you want to lock the CPU to lowest performance, log in to an account with administrative privileges, go to Control Panel-->Power Options, and select your new "Minimal CPU Lowest" power scheme.

Additional Information
-------------------------

For more info on powercfg see this MS KB article:

How to use Powercfg.exe in Windows Server 2003

What if Lowest Performance is not Adequate?
---------------------------------------------------

For experts only

To lock the CPU at a low performance level other than lowest performance (without using BIOS Setup) you will have to use RMClock.
Be forewarned:

- With RMCLock it is possible to misconfigure the CPU freq and voltage so that as soon as RMClock starts running the CPU crashes.

- RMClock requires administrative privileges at runtime. Many people, myself included, consider it unsafe in Windows to use an account with administrative privileges for routine operations (e.g., web browsing, reading HTML email).

Overheating Processor X2 5600

samsen — 2009-03-04T01:21:31 -05.00

Hi There,

My name is Samrat and I am new to this forum. I am having over-heating problems from the time I got my new system.
Basic Conf: AMD X2 Dual Core 5600 Processor, Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 Mobo,
2 Sticks of 2GB DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS Graphics card.
My overheating problems are very severe now. I had a virus problem, so I thought maybe the heating is due to that. So I formatted my C drive and am trying to install XP. It's loading up the files and restarting. After that when it restarts setup, it heats up and shuts down. Result, I do not have a OS anymore.
I observed my CPU Temp in the BIOS. The idle temp started from 33 degree C and went to 58 degrees.isgust;

Pleaseee help

Divider Chart

cvsi3 — 2008-12-28T13:25:22 -05.00

Here is a chart i came across that I thought I would share, It shows full Multipliers and how they coraspond to the memory speeds. You can use it to cross refrenece what speed your memory should be running at based on your multi. As well as overclocking. For example

My 6400+ runs at 3.2Ghz, but when overclocking it on the 16 multi, i cant get the full potental out of my memory.

Using the stock 16multi and a 215Bus speed, my sytstem runs at 3440mhz with a Ram speed of 860mhz.

But when refering to the chart below, i found that if i dropped my multi to 14, it kept the memory running at 800mhz by the divider. Therefore,

14multi x 244mhz bus = 3416Mhz for the cpu and 976mhz for the Ram. Thats a 116Mhz increase of the memory, and im not forcing the cpu to go beyond what it can handle.

Just thought maybe someone could use it.

2008 Heatsink Buyer's Guide

Superhal — 2008-09-17T07:15:59 -05.00

After doing a bunch of research before purchasing my new HSF, I figured people might want to have a little more information about before making their purchase.

Glossary of terms: There's a bunch of specialized vocabulary you need to know before you can take a look at any of the HSF (Heat Sink Fan) websites:

Backplate: a four screw plate that attaches behind the motherboard to mount the heatsink. When you read about heatsinks that require removal of the motherboard for installation, this is usually why. Very few heatsinks require a backplate for AM2 motherboards.

Base: the bottom of the heatsink that touches the CPU.

CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute): the amount of air that the fan pushes through the heatsink. (Note: all heatsink fans should blow towards the heatsink.) As a general rule, CFM can be determined visually by the thickness of the blades of fan. Silenx fans are well-known for a high CFM.

HDT (Heat-pipe Direct Touch): a heatsink that uses heatpipes but does not have a base. The pipes touch the CPU directly.

Heat pipe: pipes, usually made of copper, that contain a heat transfer liquid, that evaporates when heated, rises to the cool end, condenses, then returns to the hot end.

Passive or Active Cooling: passive cooling is a heat sink without a fan. Active cooling is a heatsink with a fan. Some heatsinks do not include fans, and can be used for passive cooling. However, this is not recommended and if the HSF you want doesn't have a fan, you should consider buying one.

TIM (Thermal Interface Material): This can take the form of thermal paste, thermal grease, thermal compound, or thermal glue. In all cases, the function is the same: to minimize the number of spaces between the heatsink and the CPU to maximize heat dissipation. Currently, not a single HSF manufacturer recommends a heatsink without TIM, and every single manufacturer recommends using TIM, and most today will include TIM with the heatsink. Quality varies wildly. (See "Choosing a TIM")

Part 1: Design Features
Today, there are many different designs of heatsinks. The important characteristics you need to look at are:

Heat Transfer Method: This means how does heat move from the cpu to the radiator to outside the case. The major types are:

-Heat-pipe: a pipe carrying heat transfer liquid is encased in pipes. as the liquid is heated, it changes to a gas, rises to the radiator/fans, is cooled, and condenses back into a liquid.

-"Box-type": these are hsf's that usually are included with chips. the heatsink is directly touching the cpu in most cases. Heat-pipe technology is so superior to box-type hsf's, that no box-type currently is even considered a "high performance cooler."

-Water cooling: water has a much higher ability to carry heat than air or metal. However, the size and ability of the radiator still matters in it's ability to cool the CPU. A water cooling unit with an inadequate radiator performs worse than an air-cooling unit with a large fin area.

-Hybrid-Peltier or air conditioning: The Peltier method is a way to achieve below room-temperature results. However, along with air conditioning, the main issue is condensation. This is the only design that does not require a radiator or fans.

Size: just like your first girlfriend, don't believe it when a review says a smaller cooler is just as good as a larger cooler. Today's top performing hsf's generally run a minimum of 120-150 mm in height, with a minimum of 120mm fans. There appears to be a ceiling for the heat pipe designs at 160mm.

Orientation: In general, the hsf's fan should blow towards the back of the CPU. Those with fans that blow in any other direction have less performance. "Low profile" hsf's are generally orientated so that the fan is parallel to the motherboard. These hsf's have about 10-25% less performance than hsf's oriented perpendicularly to the motherboard.

Base: How does the hsf come into contact with the CPU? The best designs today (with one important exception) all have heat pipes directly touching the CPU, also known as "HDT." Other designs use a cover or another layer of metal between the heat pipes and the cpu.

Fans: Again, bigger is better, but not just in width and height. Thickness and width of blades affects the CFM of the fan. Some hsf's do not come with fans, and thus need to be purchased separately. For example, the Xigmatek S1283 is considered one of the best coolers today. Xigmatek then recycled the design but changed the positioning of the heat pipes and added an LED fan as the S1284 Achilles. Performance was horrible compared to the nearly identical S1284. Then, the S1284 EE was introduced. It replaced the LED fan of the Achilles with a larger, high volume fan. The S1284 EE gets about 2C better performance than the Achilles, and gets very close to the S1283.

Contact Area: to maximize heat dissipation, the hsf must have maximum contact with the cpu. some hsf's, either because of choice or poor manufacturing, do not have flat contact surfaces. TIM can help somewhat, but the best situation is to have a flat HSF and a flat CPU.

In summary, the best air-cooling options today generally look very similar to each other:
A flat, HDT base with 2-6 copper heatpipes
A 120-150mm tower of fins, perpendicular to the motherboard
Some sort of fan that blows through the fins, towards the back of the CPU

Other design options, like dual fans, color, fin material, anchoring/latching mechanism, LED lights, etc. have little or no impact compared to the options above.

Part 2: Accessories that affect performance
A few manufacturers include accessories that do affect how well an hsf performs.

Choosing a TIM: Some manufacturers include high-quality thermal grease, gel or paste with their hsf. Most don't. A good TIM will affect temperatures by 3C+. Changes as high as 10C have been reported. If you are planning on keeping your computer over 2 years and don't mind a burn-in period of 24 hours or more, thermal paste (like Artic Silver 5 or Ceramique or IC Diamond 7) are the best choice. If you don't plan to keep your computer over 2 years (or plan to change the TIM regularly) a thermal grease or gel has better short-term performance without a burn-in time (Masscool Shin-Etsu X23 gel or G751 grease or Artic Cooling MX-2 grease.) In either case, the way a TIM works is that when two metal surfaces meet, they do not touch each other completely, but there are microscopic scratches, pits and indentations that prevent them from touching. TIM contains a metal or other thermal transfer method that helps connect the two surfaces, maximizing contact area.

Fan speed control: Since many motherboards do not allow CPU fan speed control, a few hsf manufacturers include a 1-3 speed fan speed control with their unit. This has the biggest affect on noise. If you are concerned about noise, the best option is to choose a hsf that includes a fan control, or buy one separately ($6+.) As a general rule, fans at maximum speed are always noisy, and fans at lower speeds are always quieter.

Vibration absorbers: probably the only advantage of the push-pin installation is the option of placing vibration absorbers between the hsf and the motherboard. Vibration absorbers, usually made of rubber or silicone, can also usually be purchased as fan mounts.

Backplate heatsink: Some heatsinks offer additional cooling in the form of a heatsink that fits on the back of the motherboard, behind the CPU. In general, this causes too many installation hassles for the average user. Advanced users will generally use a backplate cooling system but not air cooling.

Part 3: Installation
Installation generally comes in two types: backplate mount or AM2 clip. In nearly all cases, the backplate mount is used to attach a rubber ring that is then used in conjunction with the AM2 clip. In general, the backplate mount requires removal of the motherboard from the CPU, greatly increasing the hassle of installing it. As AMD owners, just look for one that has AM2 clips. Push-pin mounts are also available, but are considered the worst mounting method.

In rare cases, installation is a two person job, as one person has to hold the hsf in front of the board, while the other person is behind the board, holding the backplate, and screwing everything in. This is a particular idiosyncrasy of round hsf's that cannot lay upside down on a table.

TIM spreading is another important hsf installation issue, and opinions vary wildly about the "proper" application. This article:
www.innovationcooling.com/applicationisnstructions.htm
shows a clear winner in the TIM spreading discussion.
(Note: Do not ignore the "hazing" note at the bottom of the article.)

Lapping is another issue in hsf installation, where the importance has yet to be clearly determined. Lapping is the process of sanding the contact surface of the hsf and cpu to maximize contact area. This article:
www.innovationcooling.com/Indepandentuserpressuretest.htm
is a good argument both for and against lapping. It shows contact area's importance in hsf performance, yet also shows that good contact can be achieved through pressure alone.

Articles about lapping:
www.tomshardware.com/forum/235616-29-finished-lapping-q6600-with-pics-results
www.tomshardware.com/forum/235216-29-lapped-ultra-extreme-pics-temp-results

Notes about lapping:
Some units, notably those from Thermalright, have purposely uneven bases and should be lapped for AMD cpu's.
There is no comprehensive study yet that proves lapping works or doesn't.
Lapping voids all warranties.
As the evidence begins to mount, it appears that contact area is key. Poor contact will result in poor performance, lapped or not. Therefore, pressure is a much more reliable way to induce good contact than lapping.

Pressure: As noted above, pressure is very important in proper hsf installation and performance. The best way to achieve pressure is a backplate mount. however, with AM2 clips, this is not an option. To achieve good pressure, it may be preferable to use a backplate mount on an AMD board. The Thermalright hsf's, even though they do not have HDT and do not have flat contact areas, continue to have scores in the top 5 on most websites. This may be solely because of the high pressure achieved through the use of backplate mounting.

Part 4: Understanding Performance Data
To prevent this guide from becoming outdated, I would prefer if it educated readers about how to look at and interpret review information on their own.

In general, here's what you should look for in hsf review data:

Testing Bed: How was the hsf tested? In general, if the hsf was tested by throwing a bunch into the same CPU and then measuring it with Speedfan, this is highly unreliable, and results from different tests from the same website usually cannot be compared (or even duplicated independently.) Frostytech (www.frostytech.com) uses a specially made testing unit that allows results to be uniform...since 2001.

Test Reporting: Another thing Frostytech does that I really like is that they report results as change over ambient, or room, temperature. Air and water cooling cannot lower temperatures below room temperature. Without this, you have to manually calculate results yourself based on reported (if reported) ambient temperature. C/W is another popular method of reporting results. This method reports temperature change based on the wattage used to test it, but is much more confusing than Frostytech's method.

Measuring Results: Measuring results through software or motherboard sensors is a very bad way to measure results. Reviewers who use professional grade thermostats are better.

Wattages tested: Most websites will only test idle and load temperatures. Idle temperature, because of the nature of air cooling and ambient temperature, is a useless measurement. Load temperature is the only measure that really tells you how well an hsf performs, but is not comparable across computers (e.g. a full load Q6600 vs a Phenom 9750 would not be comparable.) Frostytech compares hsf's at 85w, 125w, and 150w.

Airflow: Since most testing is done on motherboards without cases for ease of installation, they do not take into account the airflow of a particular case. Airflow has a large impact on hsf performance. If your hsf does not perform as well as a site review says it should, this is probably why.

Note: In the cases of water cooling or hybrid-Peltier cooling, the above may or may not apply. Also, a poorly performing water cooling or hybrid-Peltier system is difficult to detect since "bad" peformance is generally much better than the air cooling solutions discussed here. However, this probably won't be an issue for somebody reading this article, since this is aimed for average users looking to spend less than $100 on cooling. Just understand that if you find a cheap water or hybrid, odds are it will be outperformed by an HDT-perpendicular-120mm+ cooler.

Part 5: Costs
In general, a good HDT-style hsf will cost anywhere from $30-70 with nearly identical designs and performance. However, depending on the additional costs, installation issues, and extras desired, this can vary wildly. In my opinion, a good hsf package should include:
a high-performing heat sink (HP)
a fan (F)
a fan control (FC)
all necessary basic mounting tools (AM2 or BP/backplate)
Note: the hsf's below are all "high performance" and vary within 1-2 C of each other.

Here are my notes from the research I did for my recent hsf purchase:
.............................Cost.........HP..........F.........FC........Mount?
Sunbeamtech
Core Contact
Freezer..................35-40.........Y..........Y(1).....Y...........AM2/BP
Xigmatek
S1283....................35-40.........Y..........Y(1).....N...........AM2/BP
Thermalright
Ultra 120 or
TRUE......................70+*.........Y...........N........N............BP
Silenx iXtrema
IXC-120HA2............45+*.........Y...........Y(2)....Y............AM2/BP

*Thermalrights do not come with fans. The Silenx requires purchase of the 2nd fan.
Fan controls for the Xigmatek and Thermalright can be purchased separately for around $6.

Top Rated HSF's, 2008, HDT design, perpendicular installation, 150mm or taller
Silenx IXC-120HA2
Sunbeamtech Core Contact Freezer
Thermalright IFX-14
Thermalright Ultra 120
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
Xigmatek S1283
Xigmatek S1284EE

Part 6: Design Flaws
While this article does recommend HDT, 150mm+, perpendicular hsf's, what if you don't want one, need one, or see an attractive one? If you apply the basic principles above, and check several reputable websites before your purchase, you should be ok. However, there are some designs that just do not work or are not worth the effort.

For comparison, let's compare the statistics vs. the designs above with numbers from Frostytech. On average, the hsf's above will get:
85w test: 11C over ambient
125w test: 13C over ambient
150w test: 17C over ambient

HDT, non-perpendicular design
Quite popular nowadays is the "small profile" HDT cooler, such as the Nexus HOC-9000.
85w: 14.6
125w: 17.0
150w: 23.6
I suspect that these designs do not work, even though surface area, fans etc. are even larger than the former design, because of the nature of heat-pipes. The liquid evaporates, condenses, and returns through gravity to the contact point. After installation, there are usually huge bends where liquid is trapped or is unable to return to the contact point.

HDT, perpendicular design, under 120 mm
For some people, 150mm+ is an impossibility because of case size. If you have other fans in the way, my recommendation is to remove those obstacles in favor of the larger hsf. If case is a limitation, shorter HDT, perpendicular designs, are available, like the Xigmatek S963.
85w: 13.7
125w: 16.3
150w: 21.9
I suspect these Mini-me HDT's don't work as well because of fan size and CFM. These generally sport 90mm (vs 120mm) fans. However, if you are unable to install a 120-150mm tower fin-hdt-perpendicular, this would be the next best choice.

Heat-pipe, perpendicular design, softball-style fin
The original HDT design that started the recent revolution could be the Zalman CPNS 9700. However, the tower fin design has proved to be much better at dissipating heat.
85w: 12.4
125w: 16.5
150w: 20.3
Except for the Thermalright units, nearly all heat-pipe designs that do not directly touch the CPU are inferior to those that do.

HDT, Perpendicular, 160mm, insufficient fan
While the HDT design is excellent in transferring and dispersing heat, don't ignore the fan. The Xigmatek S1284 Achilles has almost the same design as the S1283, but a slightly thinner fan.
85w: 11.6C
125w: 16.0C
150w: 19.6C
This design was corrected with a larger fan with the S1284 EE.

Water cooling, small radiator
There are many cheap, easily installed home water cooling kits available today for the non-extremist. However, most of them keep the cost down by using a very small radiator. At minimum, a water cooler's radiator should use 160mm of fan or more. The Coolermaster Aquagate Mini R80 uses 1 80mm fan.
85w: 16.2
125w: 23.2
150w: 25.7
The bare minimum you should plan to spend on a good water cooling setup is $200. There's no bargains here.

In these numbers, notice how some numbers are similar to the top performing coolers, but some numbers are not. There appears to be a ceiling where a cooler is unable to disperse any more heat.

Note: The Coolit Pure hybrid-Peltier system has recently come on the market at a $125 price point, and has yet to be reviewed.

Final Thoughts

Currently, it seems like we're having a renaissance in cheap, high-performance cooling. But, before jumping into the HSF market and squirting TIM all over your computer like your first prom date, you really need to ask yourself: do you need additional cooling? While HSF's are a cheap and relatively easy way to upgrade your computer, it may or may not be the best way to spend $50. Just because you are using the stock box cooler, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. The only reason I'm getting one is because I'm planning to overclock my CPU. The stock HSF works fine on my computer, with temps of 43C idle (CnQ) and 55C load.

Also, if you are planning on doing really extreme computing, air cooling might not be the right choice for you. Water cooling, air conditioning, or a hybrid-Peltier might be a better (or worse!) choice depending on your needs, weather, humidity, etc.

Whether you decide to get a new cooler or not, I hope everyone who's read this article has learned something, novice or professional.

References:

Pricing:
www.newegg.com
www.pricewatch.com

HSF reviews:
www.frostytech.com
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Components,1/Cooling,7/

Computer Cooling:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling

Installation:
www.innovativecooling.com
www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/cooling_guide.pdf

Dictionary of useful diagnostic software

Superhal — 2008-09-01T18:22:26 -05.00

Lost? No idea what people are talking about? Trying to keep up with the Joneses 1.0.2? This article is to help figure out what different applications are that posters here refer to. Feel free to add more useful applications.

Name
Function
Address

AMD CPUInfo
Basically the same as System Information in Windows, it does read AMD-specific data, like individual core speeds. It needs to be re-opened to update the information.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/asset...UInfo_2.2.0.zip

AMD Overdrive
AMD's overclocking software. It appears to void AMD's own warranty.
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_overdrive.aspx

AMD Processor Drivers (needed for Cool n' Quiet) or Cool n' Quiet Drivers:
To activate Cool n' Quiet, AMD Overdrive, and other software-based programs to adjust voltage and CPU multipliers. For newer chips, the CnQ drivers are in the processor drivers, but for older chips, they are separate.
Select your processor at: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Proce...,30_182,00.html

Core Temp
For reading TCoreMax, the actual and very accurate CPU temperature.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

CPU-Z
For reading voltage, internal clock multipliers, and overclocking in general.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Everest
Popular, but rather expensive for my tastes. Everything it can do can be accomplished with freeware. Reads temperatures, voltages, and has benchmarking and stress test functions.
http://www.lavalys.com/

NVidia Ntune
An update to the Nvidia Control Panel, it offers many more functions, although most of them are questionable at best. However, of great use for diagnostics is the temperature monitoring utility that accurately measure GPU temp.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/...ternational.exe

RivaTuner
Free fan control software. Note: it only affects the GPU fan.
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

Sandra Lite
Free benchmarking software that checks different CPU and computer functions in different benchmarks. Also useful for doing full loads on multicore processors.
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/in...264&langx=en&a=

SpeedFan
Free diagnostic software that reads TJunctionMax, TCaseMax, and any temperature sensors on your motherboard, including SMART, if available. Also useful for checking voltages and fan speeds.
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

Spybot S&D
Free, non-commercial spyware removal. Does not imbed itself into the registry or slow down processes like other antivirus programs.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Activating Cool n' Quiet in Windows XP

Superhal — 2008-08-29T21:25:38 -05.00

This article describes the Bios and Windows XP settings needed to activate the Cool n' Quiet feature on AMD chips.

IMPORTANT NOTE!: If you are having overheating issues, Cool n' Quiet will not solve the problem. Please refer to this article if you are experiencing lockups or emergency shutdowns, or this article if your computer won't even boot.

Step 1: Get the latest CnQ drivers from the AMD website.
If you are using a Phenom chip, the software is here: www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/AMD_Processor_Driver_1320053.zip

If you are not using a Phenom, the correct driver can be located here:
www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182,00.html

Step 2: Enable software control of voltage in BIOS
After you have installed the latest processor drivers from AMD get into BIOS and allow software to make changes to hardware.

First, reboot, and get into BIOS by pressing "delete" after the screen that shows your graphics card information.

Then, find the option to "enable" Cool n' Quiet technology in your BIOS. In mine, (American Megatrends Inc, included with Asus boards,) it is under "Advanced" -> "CPU Configuration":

Then, locate the ACPI controls, and set this to "enable." For more information about ACPI, read this article.

Note: Do not confuse ACPI with AHCI! AHCI is what activates SATA harddrive support in your BIOS!

Save and exit BIOS.

Step 3: Turn on Cool n' Quiet in Windows.
In Windows, locate "Display Properties." In Windows XP, you can right-click on the desktop and choose "Properties" from the pop-up menu. Go to "Screen Saver."

Click on "Power," and select "Minimal Power Management," "Portable/Laptop," or "Max Battery." Any of them will activate Cool n' Quiet. Note: Conversely, doing the same process but selecting "Home/Office Desk" will deactivate Cool n' Quiet.

Step 4: Check that Cool n' Quiet is working
For this step, you need several different programs, because not all programs will measure voltage and temperature accurately. Here are the programs I use:

Nvidia's Nvmonitor: For my graphics card, this program measures GPU temperature accurately, and allows me to eliminate that from temperature readings. Note that the GPU temperature is not affected by CnQ.

Asus' Pc Probe II: This program allows me to identify TJunctionMax, and verify voltages.

Core Temp: This program is the standard for identifying TCaseMax temperature, but it is limited in other functions.

SpeedFan: This program does everything, but it does not label temperatures correctly, so I have to cross-reference it with the other 4 programs above.

AMD's CPUInfo: This program measures CPU speed. When CnQ reduces the voltage, it keeps the system stable by also reducing the performance of multiple cores by half. When needed, all CPUs will go to maximum speed. Note that when you change the CnQ setting, you have to close and re-open CPUInfo to get a new reading.

Here's all 4 programs in action with CnQ off:

Here's all 4 programs with CnQ on:

Notice several things:
1. Voltage changed from 1.14 to 1.06v.
2. Core temperature dropped 5C.
3. GPU temperature remained the same.
4. Some voltages remained the same.
5. 3 of my 4 cores dropped from 2400 mhz to 1200 mhz.

And that's it!

4870/4850 improved cooling

Overmind — 2008-08-24T12:20:10 -05.00

How to better cool your Radeon 4870 / 4850 without buying any new cooler !

Requirements:
- Radeon 4870/4850
- 5 minutes of your time
- The programs listed below

0. Get GPU-Z 0.2.7 or later, Radeon Bios Editor 1.12 or later and Winflash 2012 or later.
1. Save your Radeon card BIOS (128KB for 4870, 64KB for 4850) using GPU-Z (little green thig on the BIOS version line can save it).
2. Start Radeon BIOS editor 1.12 or later. Load your BIOS from the .bin file (128KB for 4870).
3. Goto fan / temperature control and use the following settings (graph updated, more mathematically correct):

You can also use different settings but I strongly don't recommend it unless you're absolutely sure on what you're doing.
4. Save the file to a .rom file (128KB for 4870).
5. Uninstall your Catalyst Control Center. Do not reboot.
6. End task the two ATI2evxx tasks you can detect in your task manager.
7. Enter Winflash 2012 or later. Load the .rom file and press the 'Program' button. It will take about 30-60 seconds to write.
8. Reboot when asked by Winflash.
9. Reinstall your Catalyst Control Center and re-reboot.

That's it !

To detail a little the graph and settings above:
The look-up table will use the speed I set in row 2 when the card gets to the temperatures I set in row 1.
36% is not at all loud and it will keep your card at ~60C in idle mode (instead of 80-100 as it will do by default).
The PWM ramp is used to increment the speed by a specific amount (1% as I set) so instead of jumps from one column setting to another we have small increments of 1%. This is more efficient and not noisy at all.

Addressing Phenom Overheating with a Stock Heatsink/Fan

Superhal — 2008-08-04T21:33:30 -05.00

A lot of people are having issues with Phenoms overheating when used with the stock AMD heatsink and fan (HSF). A very common problem is that the CPU voltage has been set incorrectly by your motherboard Bios. This article is a step-by-step guide to adjusting core voltage for the Phenom processor to prevent overheating with the stock HSF.

Step 1: Get the proper measuring tools.
There are three programs that you will need:
Speedfan: www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Core Temp: www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
Your graphics card's manufacturer's utility to read the graphics card processor's (GPU's) temperature. For Nvidia cards, this is the Nvidia System Monitor utility that comes separately or packaged with Ntune: www.nvidia.com/object/system_monitor.html.

Step 2: Install the 3 programs and figure out what the heck is what.
There is one main temperature that you need to identify: the Core temperature (also known as TCaseMax.) In AMD chips, there is a special diode inside the chip that measures the cpu's temperature with perfect accuracy. However, motherboards come with another thermostat that sits under the chip (also called TjunctionMax). This temperature does not tell you what the chip's temperature really is, and is often confused with Core Temperature. To add to this confusion, your motherboard may have a host of other thermostats that are reading temperatures from all over the place. You may need to get other utilities that read other thermostats just to eliminate them.
(For more information about reading CPU temps, this article is more detailed but technical: www.overclockers.com/articles1378/index02.asp).

On my computer (AMD Phenom X4 9750, Asus M3A motherboard), Speedfan will give a temperature summary like this:

Temp1: 54C
Temp2: 38C
Temp3: 25C
Core: 47C
Core: 54C
Ambient: 0C

After using the other 2 programs (along with utilities that came with my Asus board,) I was able to interpret this chart as:

Temp1: Tjunction
Temp2: Motherboard
Temp3: Ambient
Core: CPU
Core: GPU
Ambient: N/A (although it would be extremely cool if I could make my computer an ice machine.)

Step 3: Figure out if your computer does have a heating problem or not
While this may sound counterintuitive, idle temperature doesn't matter one bit. What you are worried about is maximum operating temperature under a sizeable load. At this point, run the program that is causing your computer to overheat which brought you to this article in the first place. As a general rule, silicon begins to become unstable at 60C, and could become damaged at 70C or higher. Therefore, most Phenom chips are set for emergency shutoff at 61C. If your computer idles at 30C, it won't matter if it shoots up to 75C in 30 seconds. Conversely, if your computer idles at 50C, it won't matter if it maxes out at 55C after 1 hour at 100% load.

If you don't have any suitable program, you can download SisSoftware's Sandra benchmarking tool at: www.sisoftware.net.

Another rule of thumb is that if your voltage is set at 1.25v or higher without overclocking, there's a good chance the voltage is set incorrectly. Out of the box, the stock factory setting for my 9750 on the Asus M3A was 1.33v.

Step 4: Adjust your CPU's voltage
If your computer overheats too quickly, and doesn't level out, it is very likely that the core voltage is set too high. Check Vcore1 voltage in Speedfan. It should be in the bottom of the opening screen. If this number is greater than 1.20v or 1.30v, we need to adjust this to be lower. First, check your CPU's voltage at: products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUFilter.aspx. If you aren't sure which processor you have, download CpuInfo at: www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_15259,00.html. CpuInfo is also useful to check if you've lost performance by changing the voltage.

Then, get into your computer's Bios. Hopefully, at this point, you've flashed your Bios with the most updated version of the software. If not, you can find motherboard-specific instructions online. Get into your computer's Bios. As a precaution, we'll turn off Cool n' Quiet at this point. (Cool n' Quiet is special cpu-specific instructions that allow functionality [and thus power consumption] to decrease during idle times.) Find "Cool n' Quiet" in your Bios, and set it to "off" or "disabled." Also, set ACPI 2.0 support to "disabled." This will prevent Cool n' Quiet from messing with our readings.

Then, find the voltage settings. On my motherboard, it's under "Advanced" -> "JumperFree Configuration." Set "Processor Voltage" to "Manual," or just keep playing around with "Auto" and "Manual" settings until you are able to adjust processor voltage.

If you found your recommended processor voltages at amd.com above, you should have an idea of the minimum voltage your CPU requires. However, experimentation has found that the recommendations at amd.com are inaccurate. Some chips require more, other chips require less. This won't matter for us. We can change the voltage without harming the computer even if we set it too low. Also, this technique is not meant for overclocked chips. Keep the clock speeds at default or factory settings.

Now, you have to do these steps repeatedly until you figure out the minimum voltage for your processor:

1. Adjust the voltage.
2. Save and exit Bios.
3. See if Windows will boot.
4. If Windows does not boot, repeat with a higher voltage.

On my computer, a voltage setting of 1.115v will result in an actual core voltage of 1.14v. It may take some experimentation to figure out the difference between the Bios setting and the actual voltage.

Also, note that at amd.com, my chip has 2 versions, a 95W and a 125W. However, my setting of 1.14v fits neither one's minimum recommended voltage. Therefore, I think the recommended voltage is merely a ballpark figure, and varies widely because of binning procedures. Your chip is probably the same.

Step 5: Computer's stable, now what?

Now that you've set your computer to the minimum voltage, let's check to make sure that you are receiving the performance you are supposed to receive.

First, check to make sure that all other voltages are the same in Speedfan. If the non-Vcore1 voltages are different, it's very likely you have Cool n' Quiet activated. Deactivate it for now by going to Display Properties -> Screen Saver -> Power and setting the Power Scheme to "Home/Office Desk."

On my chip, the voltages look like this:
Vcore1: 1.14v
Vcore2: 3.30v (Note: some programs will label this voltage as +3.30v. It doesn't matter. One of your voltage readings should be 3.30v.)
+3.3v: 0.00v (this number must have been labled Vcore2 above.)
+5v: 5.00v
+12v: 11.71v

Here are the same numbers with Cool n' Quiet activated:
Vcore1: 1.06v
Vcore2/+3.30v: 3.30v
+5v: 4.97v
+12v: 11.78v

Then, check CpuInfo and make sure all cores are working at the right mhz. They should all be the same. On my computer, all cores are working at 2400 mhz. However, with Cool n' Quiet activated, three of the cores will switch to 50% speed.

Then, start up Sandra, and run one of the CPU processor benchmarks. You can leave Speedfan open at this time, and it may be a good idea to also open Speedfan's temperature charts to monitor your Core and Tjunction temps during the test.

During the test, the behavior you should see is a slow, steady temperature rise that peaks at around 55-56C core temperature. Tjunction temperature may rise past 60C, but this will not harm the chip. Also, you may notice that idle temperature is the same or even higher. This is normal too.

Here are the results for my chip after voltage adjustment:
Temp.......Safe Range*........Max*........Full Load, Sandra.....Idle
Tjunct........<75C.............115C.............63C.......................53C
Core..........<60C.............61-65C..........53C.......................46C
*from amd.com.

And that's it!

If your processor is still overheating after these steps, it is possible that there is something else wrong with the computer, HSF, ventilation, or thermostats. However, this should fix the issue of a computer that overheats too quickly under minimal loads with a properly installed HSF.

Detect Harddrive

dimwit13 — 2008-08-01T23:02:59 -05.00

i have 2 hds in my system and it only reconizes 1.
i forgot how to make windows see it.
can you let me know AGIAN (i will write it down this time)
vista 64 bit

Thanx -dimwit-

CPU Overheating Tips

geezer_wheelz — 2008-06-13T03:30:03 -05.00

If you are experiencing CPU overheating problems then here are a few things to try before posting on the forums asking for help. If these ideas do not help then please post a message asking for more help

#1 - Check the BIOS and see if the CPU voltage is set to auto or set too high and adjust the CPU voltage to the correct voltage. You can go here and find out the correct voltage for your processor.
CPU Specifications
After it displays the results then click on "View Results" Then that next screen will show you the correct CPU voltage

#2 - Check your CPU heatsink and make sure it is clean and that the fan is turning at a fast rate of speed. You can download Everest Ultimate which will tell you the speed of your CPU fan
Everest Ultimate Download Site
When cleaning your heatsink hold the fan blades and do not allow them to free spin when blowing the heatsink out with canned air, that will damage the fan bearings.

#3 - Case airflow - Your case should have a fan at the front sucking air into the computer case, there should also be a fan at the back blowing air out. It is the best if the front fan is down low in the front of the case. Best position for the output fans in the rear of the case is up as high as possible. Also make sure that the wiring in your computer is not impeding the airflow, if it is then adjust your cables.
Generally, more & the bigger the fans the better. Personally I have experienced a 26°C drop in CPU temperatures just by getting a decent case with a screened front end and decent intake and exhaust fans.
So make no mistake, a decent case is a MUST!
Here are a couple very good mid range priced cases.
Thermaltake V9 Case
Antec 900 Case

#4 - Thermal Paste, it does break down over time & the most common problem is the application process and either applying too much or too little
There should be a glob of thermal paste about the size of one grain of big rice (half of a pea) put right in the center of the CPU, then let the heatsink squish it out.
Paste should be of good quality, not the white stuff unless you are planning on taking it off again very soon.
There are many types of thermal paste, personally I like OCZ Extreme Freeze paste, it seems like a good all round product that is fairly high quality and easy to use. Here is a guide for applying paste.
Thermal Paste Install Process

Some other high quality brands of thermal paste are;
Arctic Silver - this company has some very high quality paste, (I think it has the best product available) it is also some of the hardest to work with, hard to clean off the CPU and some of it takes an insane amount of time to cure!!

Arctic Cooling MX2

Noctua NT-H1

Regardless of the brand you decide on, follow the manufacturers install directions for best results.

Also please remember that if you remove your heatsink you must clean off the old paste and reapply new paste every time you break the seal between your heatsink and CPU to have the thermal paste work at peak efficiency.

#5 - Disable Q Fan and or Cool and quiet (For Asus boards) This tip is in case you are having overheating issues, turning those things off will make your fans run at peak performance and that will tell you if the program is throttling the fans too much

#6 - If none of the above things work then turn the voltage for the CPU down below your normal CPU voltage and see if it will boot. If it does boot then chances are you have a problem with the voltage regulators on the motherboard and it needs to be returned or fixed.

#7 - The general consensus is that the stock CPU heatsink and fans that came with your AMD processor is not quite up to the job if you use your system fairly hard.
There are many heatsinks out there that are relatively inexpensive and work very well.
There is a link to a heatsink showdown comparison here
Heatsink Comparison Page
You can use that as a guide to pick out a heatsink if you like.

Personally, for most normal systems I know that the following heatsinks work great and do not cost a day's wages

Scythe Ninja Rev. B I really like this model of cooler. It has a far superior mounting system to the cooler listed below. It requires a bit more work initially, but is worth it in the end by not having to repair the mounting system later on.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro The problem I have seen with this model of cooler is that it quite often beaks off the tips on the heatsink retention bracket. They are cheap to replace, but a pain to not have your computer until you order a new one.

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme

#8 - Low quality power supplies will also cause overheating of the CPU. They do not provide stable power to the CPU which will cause it to overheat, the power supply is the most important part of your system, you will never go wrong by spending a few extra dollars on a quality power supply. If you do not know which are the best then this site has some good tips on what is the best.
Good luck and I hope this helped.

Fix for stalling web sites in Linux

vsingh — 2008-06-11T12:25:18 -05.00

If any of you are having trouble with accessing certain web sites in Linux, here's the fix. It's a problem with TCP window scaling that causes certain sites to stall:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0

If you are running linux as normal user (which I'm assuming most of you are), you need to precede this command with "sudo" or just "su -" and type the root password, then execute the command as quoted above. Any questions can be PM'd to me. Thanks!

- VS

Source: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/...p?p=626207&postcount=5

EDIT: To have this work every time you run your system, you need to put that line of code into /etc/rc.local so that it executes at boot time. Hope this helped a lot of folks.

EDIT2: Alternatively, you can put this code, without the "sysctl -w" part, into /etc/sysctl.conf. Works either way, but not both at the same time.

- VS

Creating an image from a raid array

magdary — 2008-05-19T09:56:48 -05.00

I am interested in creating an image of XP using Acronis so that i dont have to go through the usual install rigmorol when i want a clean install of XP The thing i am concerned about is the fact that i run a Raid 0 array with two drives so will there be any issues make or re-instating the image because of the array.

Thanks

Using more than 2GB of RAM with 32-bit Windows

fizzbang — 2008-05-09T16:49:34 -05.00

I compiled the following info based on my own experience troubleshooting what I initially thought was a memory problem, but what turned out to be just how a 32-bit operating system works. I'm no expert on memory, hardware, or operating system architectures, so if I've made a bad assumption or phrased something incorrectly, I'd appreciate a correction.

Thanks to PorscheRacer for his clarification of Vista memory limits
Thanks to nytrousboy for the PAE Memory and Windows link (pulled from another thread)

--

Both Windows XP 32-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit operating systems are limited to a 4GB total address space. That's not an artificial limit chosen by Microsoft, it's the nature of binary numbers. (You can determine the total address space available in any binary digital system by raising 2 to the bits power. For example, 2^32bits = 4,294,967,296 bits = 4GB.) Of that 4GB total address space, 2GB are directly available to the user, while up to 2GB are reserved by Windows. Note that the memory itself isn't being used, just the address space, but if you're excluded from the address space, you're excluded from the physical memory as well.

The reserved 2GB of memory are used to map...
System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..)
Motherboard resources
Memory mapped I/O
Configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI
Other memory allocations for PCI devices

Due to this reservation of address space, systems with 4GB of physical memory installed often report anywhere from 2.5 to a little over 3GB of available, user usable memory depending on total system overhead. In contrast, both XP 64 and Vista 64 (Business Edition and up) can directly address up to 128GB of physical memory.

--

The /PAE (Physical Address Extension) and/or the /3GB (4-Gigabyte Tuning) boot.ini switches may allow you to use more of your memory.

PAE is a feature of Intel Pentium Pro and above, and compatible 3rd party (AMD) CPUs. PAE changes the addressing scheme used by Windows, allowing up to 64GB of physical memory to be mapped into a 32-bit (4GB) virtual address space. By making more physical memory available, PAE may reduce the need to swap memory to and from the page file, thereby improving performance. PAE also enables certain other system and processor features, so it can be used for reasons other than memory management. CPUID flag PAE indicates a particular CPU's PAE capability.

/3GB (4-Gigabyte Tuning) increases the virtual address space available to applications from 2GB to 3GB, and reduces the amount available to the OS to 1GB. 4-Gigabyte Tuning is most commonly used on servers hosting memory intensive applications. In order for an application to utilize the additional memory, the application process header must include the IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE flag. You don't get any benefits from just dropping "/3GB" into the boot.ini file.

--

Physical Memory Limits: 32-bit Windows XP
Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Limit in 32-bit Windows . . . Limit in 64-bit Windows
Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128GB

Physical Memory Limits: 32-bit Windows Vista
Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Limit in 32-bit Windows . . . Limit in 64-bit Windows
Windows Vista Ultimate . . . . . . . 4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128GB
Windows Vista Enterprise . . . . . .4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128GB
Windows Vista Business . . . . . . .4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128GB
Windows Vista Home Premium . . 4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16GB
Windows Vista Home Basic . . . . .4GB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8GB

--

References

Microsoft...
Document - Memory limits for Windows Releases
Document - memory support and Windows operating systems
KnowledgeBase Article - RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff
KnowledgeBase Article - Vista 32bit/4GB RAM issue
KnowledgeBase Article - Large memory support
Document - PAE Memory and Windows
Document - Physical Address Extension
Document - Operating systems and PAE Support
Document - DEP and PAE
Document - PAE Technical Reference
Document - 4-Gigabyte Tuning
Document - 4-Gigabyte Tuning Technical Reference

Misc...
Old New Thing (3rd party Blog) - PAE Discussion
Wikipaedia Entry for PAE

How to erase a protected folder in Vista

Overmind — 2008-04-30T13:50:34 -05.00

How to erase a folder Vista refuses to erase (i.e. protected system-owned folders):
[Repost from tech section]
01. Right click on folder (Context menu appears.)
02. Select "Properties" ("[Folder Name] Properties" dialog appears.)
03. Click the "Security" tab.
04. Click "Advanced" button (Advanced Security Settings for [Folder Name] appears.)
05. Click "Owner" tab.
06. Click "Edit" button.
07. Click new owner's name in "Change owner to" box.
08. Click box to check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects".
09. Click "Apply" button. ("Changing ownership of..." progress message appears.)
10. Click "Yes" to acknowledge "Windows Security" warning.
11. Click OK to close topmost "Advanced Security Settings" dialog.
12. Click "Permissions" tab (first tab) on current "Advanced Security Settings" dialog.
13. Click "Edit" button.
14. Click to select the Administrator in the "Permission Entries" box.
15. NOTE: If "Administrator" appears more than once, select the one that has "Subfolders and files only" in the "Apply To" column.
16. Click Edit button. ("Permission Entry for [Folder Name]" dialog appears.)
17. Click to check "Apply these permissions to objects..." option.
18. Click to check ALL the boxes in the "Allow" column.
19. Click "OK" (Dialog box closes, return to "Advance Security Settings" dialog.)
20. Click to check "Include inheritable permissions..." option.
21. Click to check "Replace all existing inheritable permissions..." option.
22. Click "Apply" button. ("Windows Security" confirmation dialog appears.)
23. Click "Yes" to confirm that you wish to continue.
24. Watch progress indicator on the "Windows Security: Setting security information..." dialog.
25. When all security information has been applied, the progress indicator dialog will close automatically.
26. You are now at the "Advanced Security Settings for [Folder Name]" dialog box... the "Permissions" tab should be visible.
27. Click "OK" and the dialog box closes, revealing the previous dialog box.
28. Click "OK" and the dialog box closes, revealing the "Properties" dialog box.
29. Click "OK" and the "Properties" dialog box closes.
30. Return to Windows Explorer and delete the folder.

Happy clean-up.

Upgrading/Installing Graphics Drivers in Ubuntu Linux

vsingh — 2008-04-21T18:36:38 -05.00

Many people have problems updating or even installing graphics drivers in Ubuntu Linux and similar distributions. Here is some help for you Ubuntu users out there who are being frustrated by this type of problem.

Installing/Upgrading Drivers Using Envy (courtesy of RBR)

First, go to this site: http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

...and scroll down to the "Supported Operating Systems" section. At the bottom left of the table on that part of the page, there is a link labeled "Get Envy Legacy". You will be prompted to download a .deb file, which is easily installable in Ubuntu, through these commands:

cd path_to_envy's_deb_package
sudo dpkg -i envy*.deb

The "path_to_envy's_deb_package" is where you need to put the path of the directory where you saved the .deb file. After this, you need to install any missing dependencies, and this command does it in one fell swoop for you:

sudo apt-get install -f

Envy should be listed in Applications/System Tools in the GNOME or KDE system menus. Otherwise, you can just do this in console:

sudo envy

And for the text interface, add a "-t" flag to the end of the above command.

Envy has a very intuitive interface, so it is extremely easy to follow, according to RBR. It will even reboot your system after installing new drivers so that you can start using them!

Installing/Upgrading drivers Using the Command Line (courtesy of MU_Engineer)

Here are the instructions, word for word from MU_Engineer:

1. Ctrl-Shift-F1 to get yourself into a text terminal.
2. sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop to kill X.
3. sudo modprobe -r nvidia to remove the old NVIDIA driver module.
4. sudo apt-get install modules-assistant to install the Debian kernel driver assistant.
5. sudo m-a to start modules-assistant.
6. Select "Update" to update the packages cache on your system.
7. Select "Prepare" to prepare your system to compile modules.
8. Select "Select" to pick which module to work on.
9. Select "nvidia-kernel" to pick the NVIDIA modules, or "nvidia-kernel-l" for legacy modules (for older cards.)
10. Select "Get" to fetch the NVIDIA driver source.
11. Select "Build" to compile the module.
12. The build prompt will ask you if you want to install the module package, select yes.
13. Hit the escape key until you exit modules-assistant as you are done here.
14. sudo modprobe nvidia to load the NVIDIA driver.
15. sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart to restart X.

If everything went correctly, then you should be seeing the GUI login screen at the correct resolution. Note that there instructions work equally well for AMD's Linux driver- just replace "nvidia" with "fglrx" in all cases.

Hope this helps. If these steps still don't work, the Ubuntu Forums are a great place to search for answers or ask for them:

http://ubuntuforums.org/

If I missed anything here, please don't hesitate to PM me here. Many thanks to RBR and MU_Engineer for their contributions.

How to stabilize VISTA

rockaway — 2008-03-17T07:44:08 -05.00

I had a rough weekend testing Vista RTM on multiple hardware configurations because of some minor hardware issues that never surfaced previously. It appears that Vista is extremely sensitive to any kind of memory error possibly because of ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization). It turned out that I had a faulty address block near the end of my second 512 MB DDR2-533 DIMM. I never had any stability issues with Windows XP but I'm guessing that there was almost no chance of Windows being loaded in that portion of RAM. Vista on the other hand randomizes the address layout to mitigate any security breaches if a hacker finds any weaknesses in software but that also means it's quite possible for a critical piece of Windows Vista to use the faulty memory block and lock up the entire operating system.

I recalled that colleague and friend Justin James was having similar problems with his brand new computer with Vista RTM MSDN edition and finding out that he had a bad stick of memory. In a similar fashion, Justin had no problems running Windows XP with the bad DIMM but once Justin got a replacement DIMM from Crucial, all his Vista lockup problems went away. I wondered if I had a similar problem so I decided to run some tests which proved my suspicions correct. It turned out I did have a bad piece of memory so I'm now trying to get an RMA from Kingston for a replacement. For the time being I'm running on 512 MBs of RAM for Vista testing with the bad memory sitting on my desk. Unfortunately, the system still locked up on this particular machine which has been my main Windows XP machine for a year without incident and I'm almost ready to give up running Vista on this machine until I can figure out what's wrong with it. Vista has been running fine on my other machine.

But there is a valuable lesson to be learned here which is to TEST YOUR MEMORY and don't assume it's ok because you're not having any problems with it in Windows XP. Here are some valuable instructions for you to test your own memory using Vista and Memtest86. Even if you're not running Vista, it doesn't hurt to run Memtest86 to check your RAM integrity. Follow the links and instructions below to test your own memory.

MY X2 (K8) OVERCLOCKING GUIDE

kazgirl — 2007-12-28T01:55:21 -05.00

Please note that this is aimed at older K8 Athlon X2's not the newer K10 Phenoms which has different settings and methodology for overclocking - if you are new to overclocking you might still benefit from some of the following however the forumalae provided are specifically for K8 not K10. - Best Wishes Kazgirl

Hi there,

Seeing a lot of Q's lately about overclocking etc and thinking of this reply I did to another post, and thought it may be of some help to others, I'm in no way an expert, and this is what I've come up with myself through my own overclocking experiences.

OK I pretty much did all this in reply to someone asking how they could increase thier RAM Frequency, as they had found how to change the CPU Frequency and so I wanted tot ry and explain that the RAM frequency was linked to CPU Speed and RAM divisor etc......and so it began there....

And well I thought it may be of benefit to others.....

I know it's quite complicated, to follow with all the equations, but it takes some of the guesswork out of overclocking, or at least so I found.

I used these formulae to set up a spreadsheet, so now all I have to do is enter the values I want to change , i.e. CPU Freq, CPU Mulitplier RAM Divisor etc, and then the spreasheet applies the formulas and gives the correct values, and it works like a gem for me....unfortunaetly I cannot post the spreadsheet itself, but if someone would like a copy then feel free to PM me.

Its a basic rundown (as I understand it of PC operation) and the link between each of the main components.

Anyway here it is...hope it's of some help, if anyone would like to add anything or thinks something needs changing then let me know and I will edit it accordingly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OVERCLOCKING GUIDE

Essentially for your PC to run smoothly everything has to work together, so all the components are linked together, for example, theres no point having an ultra fast CPU if the rest of your system is unable to keep up with it, i.e. your RAM, HT speed etc. etc

Ideally for best performance your RAM should run at the same speed as your chipset bus speed i.e on a ratio of 1:1, your chipset bus is essentially what carries all the data between all your various components, so from/to your CPU - RAM - VGA etc.

This is why when you OC your CPU you can only OC it to a certain level depending on the rest of your components.

The formulae used go something like this:

A) CPU SPEED = CPU FREQ X CPU MULTI
B) HTT SPEED = CPU FREQ X HT MULTI
C) RAM DDR2 SPEED = RAM DDR SPEED x 2
D) RAM DDR SPEED = (CPU SPEED / RAM DIVISOR ) x2
E) RAM DIVISOR = CPU MULTI / RAM DIVIDER RATIO
F) RAM DIVIDER RATIO = RAM ACTUAL SPEED : CHIPSET HT BUS SPEED
G) RAM ACTUAL SPEED = (DDR2 SPEED / 2) / 2
H) CHIPSET HT BUS SPEED = NOMINAL MOBO CHIPSET HT SPEED / NOMINAL HT MULTI

So using the above and starting from the bottom of the list and working up using the stock settings for the following:

CPU - AMD x2 6000+ CPU Freq: 200Mhz - CPU Multiplier: x15 CPU Speed: 3000Mhz
Motherboard - M2N32SLI - Chipset HT Bus Speed: 1000Mhz - HT Multiplier: x5
RAM - DDR2-800 - DDR2 speed: 800Mhz

H) CHIPSET HT BUS SPEED = 1000Mhz / 5 = 200MHz
G) RAM ACTUAL SPEED = (800Mhz / 2) / 2 = 200Mhz
F) RAM DIVIDER RATIO = 200 : 200 = 1:1 i.e 1
E) RAM DIVISOR = 15/1 = 15
D) RAM DDR SPEED = (3000Mhz / 15) x 2 = 400Mhz
C) RAM DDR2 Speed = 400Mhz x 2 = 800Mhz
B) HTT SPEED = 200 x 5 = 1000Mhz
A) CPU SPEED = 200 x 15 = 3000Mhz

So looking at this we can see that if we change the CPU FREQ form 200 to 210 and then work through the list making the appropriate changes we can see what effects it has:

A) CPU SPEED = 210 x 15 = 3150Mhz
B) HTT SPEED = 210 x 5 = 1050Mhz
C) RAM DDR2 SPEED = 420Mhz x 2 = 840 Mhz
D) RAM DDR SPEED = (3150 / 15) x 2 = 420 Mhz
E) RAM DIVISOR = 15/1 = 15
F) RAM DIVIDER RATIO = 210:210 = 1
G) RAM ACTUAL SPEED = (840 / 2) / 2 = 210
H) CHIPSET HT SPEED = 1050Mhz / 5 = 210

So from this we can see that by just changing our CPU FREQUENCY it also changes the others as well,... as our RAM speed has now increased from 800 Mhz to 840 Mhz, and our HT Speed has increased from 1000Mhz to 1050Mhz even though all we have manually changed is the CPU Frequency.

Its by manipulating these settings that we overclock our computer and so understanding how each change affects the others is an important part of being able to overclock.

The above only takes into consideration the speed links involved, the next part is to consider the power changes needed in order for the components to be able to run at the higher speeds, as an increase of speed will eventually mean the need for more power, but with more power comes more heat, until you reach a point where the amount of heat being generated prevents being able to push more power and in turn more speed to the various components.....so then you need to look to reduce the heat, so that power can be increased and so can the speed etc...and so the whole balancing act starts all over but now with power and heat.

Until at one point you are limited by either

(a) Your Cooling ability
(b) Power limits
(c) Indivdual components capability for (a) or (b)

So there you have it....lol....the basic concepts (at least as I understand it) of Computer engineering and overclocking.

Hope its of help, I know it'll take some time to take it all in, it took me a while too....lol...piecing everything together through trial and error, and a lot of time....

Hope its of some help to you.

Kaz
-x-

Page 2:

Hi Miguel,

to overclock the memory all you do is increase the cpu freq?

Yes, its not possible to overclock the RAM by changing the RAM Frequency independently of the CPU Frequency.

You can change the RAM frequency by applying a different RAM Divisor. - But this would normally be underclocking your RAM, i.e. if you wanted to increase your CPU frequency to increase your CPU speed further, but that this value would cause your RAM at its optimal divisor to try to run at a speed that exceeded its capability, you can lower the RAM Divisor.

For example using my post above, the optimal divisor is a ratio of 1:1 with the chipset HT frequency, which we know to be 200Mhz, as the mobo is specified to run at a nominal chipset speed of 1000Mhz with an optimal Mulitplier of x5, so dividing the nominal chipset speed by the x5 multiplier gives us the nominal HT Frequency of 200Mhz.

BTW it is optimal as it means that for every 1Mhz of speed that the RAM has for passing information the HT has an equal 1Mhz of speed to carry information, if it were to change so that the RAM was dealing with information faster than the HT could carry it away, then that would cause the RAM to start making errors..

Think of Our RAM like a chain of people passing boxes from one end where it receives the boxes from (Windows), to the other end where they get taken away by (HT), as long as the boxes at the removal end of the chain are being taken away by (HT) at the same speed that the Chain (RAM) is passing them, then everything runs smooth, if however the boxes start being passed by (RAM) faster than they are being taken away by (HT), then you end up with a pile of boxes building up at the end of the chain, until eventually there's no more room for any more boxes, so the whole chain (RAM) has to stop working.

Overly simplified I admit, but you get the idea...I hope....lol.

The DDR2-800 RAM that I have is rated at an actual speed 200Mhz, i.e. 800Mhz @ effective DDR2, divided by 2 = 400Mhz @ effective DDR, divided by 2 = 200Mhz Actual speed.

So 200Mhz Chipset speed and 200Mhz RAM Actual speed we can see is a ratio of 1:1.

So the boxes would be passed from RAM and taken away by HT at a rate of 1 box passed 1 box taken away so everything works fine.

But we can choose to run our RAM at a less than the optimal ratio, so even though our RAM is rated for DDR2-800 or 800Mhz DDR2, we can manually set it to run at a lower rating of say DDR2-667, so now if our Chipset Speed is 200Mhz and our RAM actual speed (now artificially reduced) is 166Mhz (i.e 667Mhz /2 = 333Mhz / 2 = 166Mhz) we can see that 200:166 is no longer a ratio of 1:1

Well there are really 2 basic approaches to overclocking memory:

1. You can go for more speed, i.e. increasing the RAM Frequency, which is done by increasing the CPU frequency, which results in overclocking your CPU as well, so its more of a system overclock, than just a memory overclock. This is the easiest and most common technique, due to its relative simplicity over the second method.

or

2. You can improve the memory timings, this will overclock your RAM only, and you do this by tightening the RAM timings from say CL5 to CL4, i.e. 5-5-5-15 2T to 4-4-4-12 2T. With the lower figures being the better.

The above are the basic memory settings as Memory timings can be changed to different values, with experimentation, and in all honesty I have not yet looked into the details of memory timing as a way of overclocking RAM, that is a subject that I intend to try and learn more about, but at present I can't really say I have a full understanding of it.

My basic understanding of it at the moment is:

As I say I havn't yet looked into the subject of RAM timings in any depth, so can't offer much specific information about this at present.

also to what did you set up the volt of the cpu?

Well I initially had it set to the stock voltage i.e. 1.4v, but was having stability problems so I ended up rasing my voltage to 1.525v, as I have water cooling the extra heat from this wouldn't be a problem, and even at this voltage my temps are well within a safe range, i.e idle temps are 37C and I've yet to see my load temp go over 48C.

and the volt of the memory??

My RAM is rated by the manufacturer for up to 2.3v at its highest EPP Profile, so I put my RAM Voltage to this figure, I havn't bothered trying it at a lower voltage, as I'm happy to let it run at the 2.3v max that the manufacturer has rated it at.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Thanks

Kaz
-x-

TROUBLESHOOTING NEW BUILD/HARDWARE PROBLEMS

kazgirl — 2007-12-23T13:54:23 -05.00

===========================================
TROUBLESHOOTING NEW BUILD/HARDWARE PROBLEMS
===========================================

Ok as we all know there are many things that can cause problems with a PC, which often leads to a lot of frustration and hair tugging....!!!!

So I've put together this guide based on some of the problems I've come across so far, it is by no means an exhaustive list of solutions, but it will at least give some good starting points in diagnosing and helping to fix a problem...

Obviously there are many different configurations and some problems may be related to more complicated issues such as compatability of components... but the details below are on the basis that all components are known to be compatible with one another.

========
Contents
========

1. Hardware
2. Successful POST - Windows Install fails
3. After Windows Install CPU is not recognised (How to Flash a new BIOS)
4. Examples of Common POST Beep Codes

============
1. Hardware
============

Are there any POST message/beeps (if so see below for details of common POST error beep codes) - If POST fails try the following steps

If all the above steps fail to resolve the problem then you'll need to try to test each component to rule out each as being possibly damaged....so if possible try each of your components in another computer.

In the event that all of the above test OK in another computer then its most likely a problem with the motherboard essentially meaning the need for a replacement motherboard.

==========================================
2. Successful POST - Windows Install fails
==========================================

Ok...after you POST OK, Windows install fails, there could be a number of reasons for this depending at which point during the install does it fail and the configuration of the system...

Check that you have completed the following (depending on the system config):-

(KB929777)

Hopefully one of the above will help resolve any Windows install issues.

==============================================
3. After Windows Install CPU is not recognised
==============================================

This is most commonly due to the BIOS, and will mean the need to update the motherboard BIOS.

There are a number of ways to update the BIOS with many motherboard manufaturers now making avialable a BIOS update utility.

Refer to your motherboard manual for more details......but below is a general guideline to flashing your BIOS with a new updated BIOS.... (But please refer to the instructions for your motherboard at your motherboard manufacturers website) And always remember to make a backup of your current BIOS...!!!!!

Flash a new BIOS

After completing the steps above your new CPU should now be recognised provided the motherboard/BIOS supports that particular CPU.

=======================================
4. Problems with CPU utilisation - only one core working etc
=======================================

See PorscheRacer14's guide HERE which has details on Multi Processor installation.

=====================================
5. Examples of Common POST Beep Codes
=====================================

=====================
Standard IBM POST beep codes
=====================

No Beeps - PSU problem , Loose Card, Short or Motherboard problem

1 Short Beep - Normal POST, computer is ok. No problem

2 Short Beep - POST error, check screen for error code
.
Continuous Beep - No Power, Loose Card, or Short, or Keyboard problem

Repeating Short Beep - No Power, Loose Card, or Mobo problem

One Long and one Short Beep - Motherboard issue.

One Long and Two Short Beeps - Graphics adapter issue.

One Long and Three Short Beeps - Enhanced Graphics adapter issue

Three Long Beeps - Keyboard / Keyboard card error

One Beep, Blank Display - Video Display Circuitry

====================
AMI BIOS BEEP Codes
====================

1 Short Beep
============

One beep is good! Everything is ok, that is if you see things on the screen. If you don't see anything, check your monitor and video card first. Is everything connected? Next try to reseat the RAM modules and reboot. If it does the same thing, the motherboard maybe bad, and you most likely need to get another motherboard after trying the steps mentioned above.

2 Short Beeps
=============

Your Computer has memory problems. First check video. If video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory. First check your RAM modules try re-seating them and reboot. If this doesn't do it, the memory chips may be bad. You can try switching the first and second banks RAM modules. First banks are the memory banks that your CPU finds its base memory in. You'll need to refer to your mobo manual to see which bank is first.

3 Short Beeps
=============

Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow the steps above.

4 Short Beeps
=============

Basically the same thing as 2 beeps. Follow the steps above. It could also be a bad timer

5 Short Beeps
=============

Your motherboard is complaining. Try reseating the RAM and rebooting. If that doesn't help, you should consider trying another motherboard.

6 Short Beeps
=============

The chip on your motherboard that controls your keyboard (A20 gate) isn't working. First try another keyboard.

7 Short Beeps
=============

CPU or motherboard problem.

8 Short Beeps
=============

Your Video card isn't working. Make sure it is seated well in the slot. If it still beeps, either the whole card is bad or the memory on it is. Best bet is to install another video card.

9 Short Beeps
=============

Your BIOS is bad. Try to CLR CMOS or Reseat or Replace the BIOS chip.

10 Short Beeps
==============

Your problem lies deep inside the CMOS. All chips associated with the CMOS will likely have to be replaced. Your best bet is to get a new motherboard.

11 Short Beeps
==============

Your problem is in the cache memory chips on the motherboard.

1 Long, 3 Short Beeps
======================

You've probably just added memory to the motherboard since this is a conventional or extended memory failure. Generally this is caused by memory that is not seated properly. Reseat the memory

1 Long, 8 Short Beeps
=====================

Display / retrace test failed. Reseat the video card.

OK thats it........!!!!!...... Hopefully something from above will prove to be enough to solve any initial problems......

I do hope that it proves to be of help to people.....

Best wishes and Happy Computing to all my fellow geeks.... LOL...!!!

DON'T GIVE ME ANY "STATIC"

xp101 — 2007-11-20T12:33:15 -05.00

ELECTRICAL STATIC DISCHARGE
ESD

As it is infamously called, is the Evil Demon that lies in wait for the unsuspecting computer builder who fails to ware the sacred wrist strap before kneeling at the PC altar.

Most PCs cases are chemically treated or have copper fittings designed to channel electrostatic discharge away from the sentive components inside.
The danger from ESD damage begins when the case is opened and the fragile components on the motherboard are exposed. When a human with static electrical charge touches anything inside the case, the charge can travel along the wires interconnecting the various electronic componets. One of the wires may lead inside a component, and when the charge gets close enough to a metal part with an opposing charge, the internal wires and elements of components can explode or weld together.

Here are some ESD facts:
1) Most of the computer's electronic components use 3 to 5 volts of electricity.

2) An ESD shock of 30volts can destroy a computer circuit.

3) An ESD shock you can feel, such as on a doorknob, has around 3,000 volts.

4) An ESD shock you can see carries about 20,000 volts

The real problem with ESD damage is that not all of it is obvious. If an entire component is destroyed, you know it, and you replace the piece. When a component has been damaged but continues to work, though,days, weeks,or even months may pass before the component fails completely. More frustrating is intermittent partial failures that can't be isolated.

Eliminating Static Electricity

1) When working inside the PC, always wear an ESD grounding strap on your wrist or ankle that is connected to either the chassis of the PC or to a grounding mat.

2) Treat carpeting inexpensively with antistatic chemicals to reduce static buildup. Aerosol cans of these chemicals are available in most computer or carpet stores.

3) Store all electrical components in antistatic bag when not in use.

4) Install a grounded pad under the PC. Before you touch the computer, touch the pad to discharge any built-up static electricity.

WARNING
WHEN WORKING ON THE MONITOR, NEVER WEAR A GROUNDING STRAP. THE MONITOR HAS A VERY LARGE CAPACITOR IN IT AND A GROUNDING STRAP INVITES ALL OF ITS STORED CHARGE TO RUN THROUGH YOUR BODY. ---NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE. trust me I know!!

well hope this INFO helps someone out there!!

xp101

Multi-Core Upgrade Guide

PorscheRacer14 — 2007-11-19T17:34:06 -05.00

Welcome! This guide that I created is to help out those individuals upgrading their single-core AMD CPU to a dual-core, or from dual-core to quad-core. The basis for either one will be the same with variations to a step outlined as you progress. I've tried to make it as clear as I can and include some basic pictures to get the steps across in an easy to use manner. It is a long page, but this way if you feel like printing this off to help you through the process you will get the pictures instead of just text to a hyperlink. As I get more pictures and videos I will add to this, so please check back often and if you have any questions or wish to add to this, please start a thread outside of this guide or PM myself directly. This guide is created for Windows XP and Vista users. These are the most common Windows Oses out there, but ME and 2000 will follow similar rules. This is also meant for those doing a straight CPU upgrade and keeping the rest of the basic hardware in tact along with Windows. If you are a beginner or advanced computer user, you'll probably find this equally useful. I won't go to great lengths in detail, as the pictures help that part out, but any questions feel free to ask. Before we start, if you will be replacing the motherboard and CPU and anything else, please backup your files and reinstall the OS with the new hardware. This will make sure the correct and new drivers for the motherboard resources and chipsets are installed, and that no old drivers linger on. Even if you did manage to boot into Windows, the OS will be slow and not perform the way it should. I'd like to also point out, if you have or will be moving to a dual processor setup you will need Windows XP Pro, or Vista Ultimate/Business/Enterprise to use the second processor. Anything less and the processor will be detected but not used. This is part of the Windows licensing scheme.
*SPECIAL NOTE FOR TRI-CORE!!!*
You should have the latest service packs installed for Windows. SP1 for Vista and SP3 for XP. These processors will work without these service packs, but there have been some code added to these service packs specifically for Phenom triple-core processors to operate properly with older, single-threaded applications. This is a performance addition and does not affect the way the processors operate. They will work just like a normal processor without the service packs but possibly a bit slower in some single threaded-programs since the third core may not be taken into affect fully.
Now on to the nitty-gritty stuff before we start. First thing to do is download a cool utility called CPU-Z. Get the most current version and run it. This program will tell you the current processor (or processors) installed, along with detailed information. You can also see the type of motherboard and BIOS version along with RAM and it's operating speed.

Take note of your BIOS and go to your manufacturers website and get the latest BIOS for your motherboard. Install the BIOS according to your motherboards instructions. If you are unable to do this; I.E. you don't have a floppy drive and can't use a USB drive or CD you can always request a new BIOS chip from them with the latest flash already programmed into it. Upgrading the BIOS with the old processor in place let's you confirm it works. Enter the BIOS and write down the settings, or save it to a disk. Disable Cool 'N' Quiet in the BIOS. If your computer is overclocked, reset everything to stock or alternatively you can clear the CMOS. Doing this will take a lot of frustration out before we start.
Make sure your PSU can handle the requirements, especially if the new CPU will require more power. If you have a single-core and you're moving to a dual-core your motherboard may or may not have an extra 4-pin power connector. This is usually required for dual-cores and mandatory for dual-sockets, but I have heard of low end X2's like a 3800+ running without it. You may need to upgrade your PSU so you won't have problems.

1) You should warm the CPU before shutting down. A good thing to do is run a benchmark so you can compare later to the new CPU. In Windows XP you need to uninstall the AMD driver. If you can't, roll back the driver. Disable Cool 'N' Quiet by selecting desktop power plan or any other plan than balanced in Vista. **If you are moving to a quad-core you may need to uninstall the dual-core optimizer but I'm not positive on this. If you have Vista, you don't need to uninstall any drivers. Shut down the computer.

2) Unplug the PSU and/or turn off the PSU. Disconnect anything that supplies power from the computer, such as powered speakers, monitor etc. Get yourself prepared and your work area prepared. Try to set aside an hour with minimal interruptions, including people and pets walking around you. They can create static electricity and we don't want that. Have plenty of lighting and a clean, static-free area. Using a hardwood table, hardwood floor, ceramic floor, counter top, rubber mat, etc. are ideal. Use a grounding strap or constantly ground yourself to the PSU or an earth grounded object such as a water tap. If you are using a tower-like case, remove the cover and lay down the chassis on some plastic so not to scratch that nice finish.

3) Roll up your sleeves and remove jewellery and watches. Take a look at your heatsink and the area around it. Unplug the heatsink fan wires from the motherboard header. You may need to remove video cards, RAM or other components so you can get the heatsink in and out easier. Take note of everything and keep grounded! Take the heatsink cam lock and turn the cam lever up. You should see the tension release. Squeeze the bracket on that side in and it should release as you pull up. Do this for the other side. Take care around northbridge and southbridge heatsinks when doing this. You might have to give a gentle twist when doing this to remove the heatsink from the CPU if the thermal pad was used. That's why warming it up helps. Now that it's out you can set it aside or clean it if you will be using it later. You can use rubbing alcohol or specialized thermal paste cleaners and a lint-free cloth, paper towel or mechanics towel. Something that doesn't promote static or scratching is ideal. You may want to also clean the CPU off while it's in the motherboard since doing it while it's out has a greater tendency for bent pins.

4) Open up the new CPU package and take note of the serial number if it's not on the box or warranty pamphlet. This can be useful later if we need to trouble-shoot or request an RMA. Notice a metal rod beside the socket?

Pull it out to the side and lift it up 90-100 degrees and your CPU will be free to remove. Remove the CPU and set it in the new packaging you opened or somewhere safe. Do you see an arrow on the socket? You will also see a gold arrow on the CPUs. They only fit one way so take the new CPU and orientate it to the arrows. Gently place the CPU into the socket. No force is needed. If you are using force, you are damaging the CPU. Once it's in there flush you can turn the lever down and snap it back in place under the tab. Now pause a moment and admire that new CPU! If you have a dual socket motherboard, you're half way there.

5) If you will be using the stock heatsink and pad, installing the heatsink will be a breeze. If you are using paste you will have to remove the pad. Use one or the other, not BOTH!! Refer to the end of step 3 for products to help you.

If you are using an after market heatsink you may have to remove the motherboard to install a back plate. If that's so, you have a longer journey, but taking your time and the results will be rewarding. You may want to check this site out on heatsink comparisons. If you've gone after market I recommend using the paste or grease supplied as it's viscosity will match the trueness of machined surface. It means it will fit into the tiny grooves left. That said, use a thick paste like Arctic Silver or OCZ 5+ for heatsinks with grooves, and a thin grease or pad for a mirror finish. There are also different weights of Arctic Silver if you prefer a high performance paste for either application. A small rice sized dab of paste on the middle of the CPU is all that is needed. Check your guide for specific amounts for your CPU as this can vary. Avoid getting the paste on your hands or near your eyes as you may be sensitive to the silver. Do not touch the CPU heatspreader or heatsink surface, so to avoid getting oils from your skin on there and reducing the TIM's effectiveness. An understanding of thermal interface material can be found here.

6) Grab your heatsink and notice the orientation.
The side with the cam lever will go in the same way the old one came out. Take care as the new CPU probably has a larger heatsink and maybe even heat pipes. Try not to move the heatsink around on the paste as you install it.

Pinch the brackets together and insert the side with the cam lever first. When you hear a click, it's in. Do this for the other side. Some force will be needed, but don't worry. When you hear the click, take a look to see if any paste has leaked out if you used thermal paste. If you used the pad you're good to go; just turn the cam lever down and lock it in place! If paste leaked out, remove the heatsink, clean it up and use less this time. Make sure none is leaked onto the socket or side of the CPU!!
When it's all in, hook up the CPU fan wires to the CPU FAN header on the motherboard. If you have a dual-socket motherboard, you're becoming a pro, but half way done! You can view a video here.

7) Insert any removed hardware and double check connectors and wires and cables. Admire that setup! Everything look good? Plug your monitor and PSU power cable back in. With the cover off, turn it on. Is the CPU fan spinning??!! Shut down if it's not, unplug and double check your work. If it's spinning, enter the BIOS. Is your CPU being reported? Is it the correct speed and stepping? If it's all good there, go and check your voltages in the BIOS. How are your rails? If they are stable you can boot into Windows. If not, power down and try spreading out DVD drives, hard disks and fans across your PSU connectors to get more even and stable rails. How's those temperatures look? Anything out of the ordinary shut down, and check your heatsink. Is it seated correctly?

8) Boot into Windows. If everything is looking good you can start installing the drivers for Windows XP. If you have Vista, this isn't needed as these drivers are natively supported in Vista. For XP you need to download and install the AMD CPU driver for dual-core, or the Phenom driver for quad-core. Reboot when done and go into your hardware devices tab. You should see two names of your CPU under processors (for dual-core), three for tri-core or four names for quad-core for each CPU you have.

You can now install the AMD dual-core optimizer driver for XP if you have a dual-core CPU. (Also works in Vista to remove stuttering in Windows media Center when using a DVR)

When you reboot, you can enable Cool 'N' Quiet in your BIOS and adjust the settings to your taste, but do not overclock yet!!! If XP is running good and temperatures are ok, you can enable Cool 'N' Quiet in Windows by selecting the Minimal Power Savings plan and adjusting the individual settings in there to your needs. For Vista, select the Balanced power plan to enable Cool 'N' Quiet. You can then adjust the specific settings in there to your preference.

9) To check if Cool 'N' Quiet is working, open up CPU-Z. You should see your frequency jump up and down quite rapidly. This will save you power, keep your computer cool and keep noise down plus things inside your computer should last longer because it won't be an oven. In CPU-Z you should see the name of your processor, the speed, family, stepping and all the cool stuff. If you do, then you are set!
*It's come to my attention that Windows doesn't automatically select all your cores for bootup, nor use all your available RAM. To help speed things up you can manually select this. In Windows XP go to run in the start menu and type in "msconfig" without the quotes. In Vista, type "msconfig" without the quotes in the search box. Click the "boot" tab and click the "Advanced options" button.

Now you can select all your cores, and even select to use all your available RAM on bootup, which will really speed things up. The core count also applies to logical cores. For Vista there are a few extra settings, but you only need to check off the "detect HAL" which will improve hardware loading on bootup.

10) However way you went about it, you should now have a cool and quiet and powerful computer. Keep an eye on temperatures and voltages for next while. If you used thermal paste it will take about 2 weeks or so before you start seeing your coolest temperatures. Avoid overclocking during this time.

If you are certain it's stable you can go ahead, but you have a new CPU and shouldn't need it. That's my disclaimer there. If your temperatures seem high, take your side panel off and envision the airflow in your case as it enters and warms and where does it go? Do you need to add a front sucking fan, or move cables out of the way? Is the heatsink getting adequate airflow? AMD heatsinks push air onto the CPU and I find the heatpipe heatsinks like lots of air movement around them. They do not pull air, so you may need to think about that. When you have the upgrade up and running, run a benchmark, compare and show the rest of us!

*I'd like to also include a look to a great AMD overclocking guide by Atif Butt. It's a very well written guide, but if you'd like a quick and easy version please see kazgirl's guide in this section and feel free to ask her about your questions.

Useful links
CPU-Z homepage
AMD Power Monitor 1.1.5 (works on all AMD CPUs)
AMD driver and utilities page
AMD Phenom driver and utility page

How To Own Your Own Forum

Bruneauinfo — 2007-01-01T21:29:17 -05.00

Build Your Own Forum with Ubuntu and Simple Machines Forum

by Bruneauinfo

Want to run your own forum service from your home or office? Tired of paying for web hosting services that don't give you the server and storage specs you want? The following guide will give you a crack at being a newbie web host yourself! And you can do it all with free, open source software.

This document contains the instructions necessary to bring a Simple Machines Forum into existence on your own personal Ubuntu web server. Don't have a web server? I'll show you how to do that too.

I will be updating this as needed and as suggestions come in. Please feel free to contribute if you find errors.

Please note: I'm no Apache guru, nor am I a Linux Ubuntu, MySQL, PHP, or any other kind of computer guru. The following guide was written by me. It is instended to be a fun way to learn about web hosting. If you are wanting to operate a webserver in a mission critical or production environment please reference the proper resources provided by the Apache Software Foundation for creating a secure webserver environment. I do not offer support in any form for this guide other than I'll do my best to answer questions, and I'll make corrections to the information as I find errors or as they are pointed out to me and I am allowed to make tham.

Also note: Unless your server is going to be located on the Internet with its own public, static IP address you will need to get a Dynamic DNS hosting service to host your DNS records. This is very easy to do. I use DynDNS, but there are many DNS hosting services available. If you don't understand in the least bit what I am referring to go to www.dyndns.com and do some research. I used their Custom DNS package because I wanted to have a top-level domain for my website. You will need to acquire some knowledge about Dynamic DNS and how to configure it before you will be able to access your web server dependably from the Internet. I talk about about Dynamic DNS in this guide, but understanding how it works requires a seperate How To in itself. But don't let that discourage you. It's a challenge that can easily be overcome on these forums.

Resounding note: I reinstalled 15 times before I got all my 'Penguins' in a row. And I don't mean Apache either, I mean the entire system. So if you're going to build a web server using these instructions you'll be dedicating a machine to this task. If you think you may want to opt out of this later and go back to what your system was used as previously make sure to backup all the data on your machine before beginning your install of Ubuntu If you already own an existing web server and intend to use this forum guide for a produciton server please install this software on a test server first before moving it to a mission critical server. This is a guide for hobbyists and enthusiasts, not necessarily for IT professionals. If you are an IT professional or otherwise proceed at your own risk.

I installed this software on an AMD Socket A 1.6 GHz Duron computer with a single stick of 512 Meg DDR400 RAM. I used an 80 gig IDE drive and two 40 Gig SATA drives for storage. A powerful GFX card would be a waste, so I just installed an old 2x AGP card to conserve RAM for the software. Low power requirements meant I could go with a cheap 400 watt power supply. I used a standard Lite-On CD-RW drive for installation. I used a PCI NIC that was compatible with my distribution of Linux.

Needless to say this has created a very beefy web server, storage-wise. So far my forum has been up for a week. It took me about three weeks of blood, sweat, and tears to figure this all out. So if you don't get it on the first try I recommend you get up and try again. If you have questions please contact me through the forum. I'd be more than glad to try and share what little I really know about hosting a web server with you. And perhaps we can learn more together.

(Optional) I also set up a Smoothwall router with three NICs for handling the Dynamic DNS updates and so that I could put my web server in a DMZ. This isn't required. But if you're interested in building a secure firewall router from an old PC check out www.smoothwall.org and download their latest Express 2.0 edition which is what I used.

(Default) You can just as easily use a standard off the shelf router between your Ubuntu server and your Internet connection. I get more into this later in the guide.

Now, to your forum.

Here's what you need to do -

After you build your server you need to get your operating system installed.

I used Ubuntu 6.10 Desktop, Alternate Install disk at www.ubuntu.com. If you love a different distribution of Linux or you don't like the newest version of Ubuntu and decide to go with something else don't have high expectations of this guide working perfectly for you as written. Your installation may require numerous modifications. For simplicity sake I recommend following these instructions as closely as possible on your first install. Where items are listed as “(Optional)” you may go with the “(Default)” setting instead where I try to describe alternative methods to the best of my ability. I recommend that once you arrive at a working web server/forum following these instructions that you start your experiments and modifications.

(Optional) Ubuntu 6.10 Desktop notes: This is the Desktop alternate installation disk. I use the desktop version because it is easier for Linux newbies like myself. The alternate install disk can be found under the download section. My server uses the PC i386 version. If you're not familiar with the download section of the Ubuntu website do some exploring. Figure out where on the planet earth you are going to download your copy of the OS. Once you do this you will see the various options available. To get the options I have listed here download the ISO image that allows other installation options. I use what is called Logical Volume Management – or LVM. This allows for an easier hard drive storage upgrades in most cases.

The standard desktop install CD does not allow you to use LVM. I like to use LVM because it makes increasing your computer's storage capacity much easier. If you don't want to use LVM then you can go with a standard install disk. The installation instructions for the OS will be different that what I describe here.

To get the downloaded ISO onto a CD properly you need to get a piece of software that burns ISO images. Search on www.google.com for ISO Recorder and download and install this piece of software on a Windows based PC. There are other program as well that can burn ISO images available.

Install Ubuntu using the Text Mode. When you get to partitioning let Ubuntu do it for you. If you know how to use LVM then create an ext3 partition about 100 to 200 MB in size and mount the /boot directory on it. Also, create a swap partition that is at least twice the size of your RAM. I recommend making it twice the size of the maximum RAM you'll ever expect to install on your server. Then make an LVM group from your remaining disks and create the necessary volumes to mount / (i.e. That is the root of the file system) to. I also mount /var/www on it's own volume. What this does is allows me to make just the space where the forum will be stored larger or smaller later if I need to using LVM. (If you want to know more about LVM ask.)

(Optional) I also run an ftp server on my machine. So I have a /ftp folder mounted on a 70 gig volume and /var/www mounted on a 60 gig volume. This is handy for backing up and restoring the forum's files over the internet or over the local network. I used vsftpd. However since an ftp server isn't required I won't go into the details of its installation here.

The rest of the Ubuntu installation is pretty much standard. There are enough installation guides available for more details on installing Ubuntu. If you have a specific question please feel free to ask.

Once Ubuntu is installed log in and open a terminal window. Open the terminal under > Applications > Accessories > Terminal, and then type the following command to install the software required for a LAMP server:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server apache2 php5 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd

LAMP server – Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.

(Optional) Go into the folder /etc/php5/apache2 where you will find the php.ini file. This file needs to be edited in two places that sets the maximum size of a post – 'post max filesize' and the maximum size of an attachment – 'upload max filesize'. The specific names of all the required configuration settings are in the general installation requirements listed on Simple Machines Forum homepage at www.simplemachines.org. Click on Download, then click on System Requirements. Changing these two settings is required if you want forum members to upload files larger than 2 megs. I set them each for 1000M (which is 1 Gigabyte) because my forum is a closed forum and attachments are easier to controll with the very few members it has. Also, many of the posts are made from a LAN which has considerably faster upload and download speeds than the Internet. If your forum will be public then keeping the default settings may be plenty.

As far as I can tell all other requirements and recommendations by SMF in the PHP and MySQL config files are okay by default for my needs. In any case I address them in this How To.

Next, in a terminal window type the command

mysql_install_db

to configure the root password for the MySQL server. Make sure to read the output that is produced as a result of this command. You will find the instructions for setting the MySQL root password in that output. Since the MySQL server is on the same computer as the forum you use the first of the two methods and type it precisely the same way. (Don't put quotes around your password. And use a real password, not the word 'password'. Write your password down so you don't forget it.)

Using the 6.10 version of Ubuntu allows you to install MySQL Administrator from the Add/Remove... feature integrated into the Ubuntu desktop. Click > Applications > Add/Remove and then do a search for MySQL Administrator. Install this application now so that you can configure the MySQL database.

One of my security failures in this process is that I can't get SMF to install with anything except the root user name and password I specified in the mysql_install_db step. If you know how to give smf a less privileged status that will still work, please let me know.

Notes: According to the SMF website I do know that the user account the forum uses needs at least the following priviledges:

SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, and INDEX.

And, during installation and conversion:

CREATE and DROP privileges.

However, my ignorance is only a bump in the road towards your forum, and not a roadblock.

Next, point the server's web browser to SMF's website at www.simplemachines.org and download the most recent version of SMF. You need the .tar version. It downloads very quickly with a broadband connection. There is a readme file in the folder you download that should tell you how to continue with the installation. Go ahead and read that file before proceeding. My 'version' of the instructions follows:

What I do is extract every single file and folder from the download except for that single readme file to the following folder:

/var/www

If you get an error open a terminal window and type the following command then try extracting the files and folders again:

sudo chmod 777 /var/www

I do not create a folder called “forum” to extract to, because I don't know much about configuring Apache. If someone has some configuration examples or guides please advise.

Now here's the tricky part. Do not run install.php until my instructions direct you to.

You presently have a LAMP server with a forum installed on it. But before running the install.php file it is very important to work out a few more steps. It is kind of important to have the server computer located where you intend it to “serve” from. In my case I connected it directly to a Smoothwall firewall router that I built. I plugged the server into the DMZ port for added security for the LAN. However, a standard router port will work on a budget Linksys type standard issue $50 router just fine. However, if your ISP has not provided you with a static IP is it very handy to have a router that supports Dynamic DNS. A Smoothwall router supports this feature without the need for additional software or modifications. This will be very important for setting up DNS with a Dynamic DNS service so you can get to your web server from the Internet. A Smoothwall router is optional, but there are other options. Some budget routers support Dynamic DNS. Read into your router's configuration documentation to learn how to set this up. Another option was suggested below:

Daniel15 from Simple Machines Community Forums suggests that running ddclient on your server will update your Dynamic DNS host just as well.

I do not know how this program works and have not tried it myself. So use your favorute search engine to research it if you decide to use this option.

It is also important that the web server have a static IP on the LAN or DMZ port depending on which one you use. If your router is set up to use DHCP for its clients either turn DHCP off and assign static IPs to your workstations or assign the Web Server an IP outside of the range of the DHCP server. This should be a private IP range address.

So get everything connected and get all the IP information for all parties configured. If you don't know how to configure Network settings on your router or Ubuntu computer take some time to learn how to do this. There are numerour How Tos on the subject, and ask for help on the Ubuntu forums.

From a workstation that is not the server but is connected to the same router and type the IP address of the server in a browser address bar and press “Enter” on your keyboard. If everything is configured right you should now see the forum setup screen for your SMF forum. If you don't then try restarting the server and repeat the instructions in this paragraph. If it still doesn't work then check your services and make sure that Apache and MySQL are running.

If all went according to plan you should get a message that the permissions of several files and folders need to be changed for the configuration to continue. So open a terminal window on the server computer and make these changes. All of these files and folders are in the folder /var/www. So do the following:

cd /var/www

then use the following commands to change their user permissions so SMF can have permission to read, write, and execute them:

sudo chmod 777 attachments

Use this command for each file and folder listed until all the files and folder permissions are changed as specified in the list.

Now go back to your workstation and refresh the browser screen. If all goes well you should be at the next page of configuration. It asks you to fill in some information. Name your forum, etc.

Of special importance -

If you've done your homework and set up a Dynamic DNS service online you should have a web address for your web server – like www.superserver.com or something like that – and you should have your router set up to update their DNS servers when your ISP changes your IP from time to time.

Make sure you type the web address of your forum in the box requesting the URL for the server and not the LAN IP address or Loopback IP address. Example: www.superserver.com Typing in the LAN IP is wrong. You will use port forwarding in your router to forward HTTP requests to the router. However, if you use the LAN IP for the URL things just won't work and the forum will get confused and you won't be able to log in.

Here is some more about where I'm a bit stumped about using MySQL properly. This is the same “bump” in the road I was referring to earlier, and not a roadblock. The next step however is useful for confirming that your MySQL server is indeed working. So you should do it if nothing else to confirm MySQL is up and running and ready to go.

I use MySQL Administrator (start it up under the Applications Menu) and log in from the server machine at localhost, root, and then use my root password that I specified for the MySQL server. If all is well and you can log in then close it and skip the next paragraph.

If you're a MySQL Pro and you want to help me troubleshoot this then here are the details: Once I log in I can create a user accound for the forum and even give it the required permissions. But I'm still having trouble here when I use this login account information in the install.php forum setup screen. Luckily, I can try this over and over and over till I figure it out. But I finally lost patience after 30 tries.

My workaround is to simply use localhost, root, and the MySQL root password in the SMF configuration form and it just works. However, I'm pretty sure this is a security no-no.

If you can't figure it out how to do it correctly use my workaround, because it is very effective. However if I ever figure it out – or you do – there is a place in the Forum Admin section where you can change these settings – (no doubt using extreme caution as you do it.)

Finish up configuring your forum and set an administrator username and password. You should be done and you should see the forum on your workstation with a bright red warning telling you to delete the install.php file. My experience is that running install.php causes the config screens to hang from the beginning of SMF configuration. I was not able to get SMF to recognize that the files and folders that need to be chmod'ed to 777 were indeed possessing the proper permissions. So frustrated, I just reinstalled the entire system and tried again. So unless you know a lot more about php and MySQL than I do (I know just about diddly) I recommend avoiding running install.php again at all costs unless you have some knowledgable assistance.

Workaround: Again according to Daniel15 the data base files can be cleared and install.php can be run again.

Note: I don't know how to do this so I've left it out of these instructions. Read up on MySQL administration for more information.

If you need to reconfigure something go into the server folders/files that constitute SMF in the /var/www directory and look at the configuration files. They are plain text and can easily be edited with a text editor such as gedit or vim. Just make sure to start the text editor with su priviledges. And it would be wise to make a backup of a file before you alter it just so you can go back. Linux newbies tend to overlook this precaution.

cp filename filename.bakup

Now you need to log in to your router and add an item to the hosts table in your configuration:

www.superserver.com 192.168.xxx.xxx

The web address should be your server's web address, and the IP address should be the static IP you gave your web server. This way, users on your LAN will be able to reach your server using the www URL rather than having to type the IP address. And it also gets around your router's anti-spoofing rules should it have any. If you don't find a Hosts table entry then your router probably isn't that sophisticated in which case I would only worry about it if you can't reach your computer with it's web address from inside your LAN.

Also, go to the port forwarding section of your router and set it up to forward all requests for port 80 to your web server's static LAN IP. See your router's configuration documents for more information. My experience has been that port forwarding just works. If it doesn't work for you then the problem is not port forwarding, it's something else.

If your Dynamic DNS is set up correctly in your router then you should be good to go. Get a friend who's not on your LAN to try out your www address and make sure the web server can be reached okay.

Note: It sometimes takes a couple days for Dynamic DNS services to get your DNS records setup. So if it doesn't work right away give them a few days or log in and check on the status of your account.

Your now a forum owner. Woot!!!

Removing Starforce

Royal Flush — 2006-09-04T16:10:58 -05.00

My friend installed some game and it had Starforce protection but then his CD Drive wouldn't work anymore, so I uninstalled the game, still didn't work and dug deeper and found Starforce might cause this problem

How I removed it:
Right click on my computer and hit Properties
Click on the Hardware Tab
Click on Device Manager
In Device Manager on the top click View and press Show Hidden Devices
Then under a section called Non-Plug and Play devices you double click and find all starforce names
Then Right click, press uninstall, press yes, and DONT RESTART
Keep doing this until the last one
On the last one, press unistall, press yes, and Now you may restart

After I did this and restarted, the comp took longer to run (I thought I broke it ) but then after maybe 2 minutes everything I tried to start (Firefox, Aim, Task Manager, and Device Manager) all loaded at once, restarted again and it works at normal speed.

Guide: Folding@Home Distributed Computing.

TLH — 2006-07-29T11:14:56 -05.00

A Comprehensive Guide to Folding @ Home.

What is Folding@Home.

Folding@Home (F@H for short) is a Distributed Computing project run by Vijay Pande and Stanford University.In simple terms it examines how proteins "fold" and what happens when this process goes wrong.When these proteins "misfold" there can be serious consequences including diseases such as Alzheimer's,Mad Cows disease (BSE),CJD,ALS,Huntington's,Parkinson's disease,and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

F@H uses our computers to form one great big supercomputer in order to study and find the relationship between misfolding molecules and diseases,and to hopefully one day find a cure.

Which client to download and Install.

Choose the correct client install for your OS from http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html
Now you have a choice between the Graphical or the No Nonsense Text Only Console.
There were some problems with the Graphical Client when I used it some time ago.Every time I left it open and it sent in results it would just shutdown.I never lost any results but it was a pain nonetheless.
I have no idea whether they have been fixed or not at this time but I find the Text Only Console version is far superior anyway and doesn't tend to get under my feet when using the computer for the miriad of other daytime things it does.

Download the file into a folder (I have mine on the desktop so I can access the logfile if I need to easily) and then run the FAH502-Console application.This will bring up a black dos box where you can enter options according to what spec computer and internet connection you have.

Flags and their usefulness.

Unfortunately, at this time, the only way to add flags to the service is to edit the registry entry for that service.

1/ Shut down that instance through the Services manager snap-in
2/ Run regedit and go to key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ and edit the entry ImagePath, adding whatever flags you wish to the end. Exit regedit.
3/ Re-open the Services manager snap-in, and verify that your changes appear there, and then restart the service.

Note: Registry editing can be dangerous if you do it wrong, although the above is pretty straight forward. Use this procedure at your own risk!

How do I add flags when running the console in service mode?
From FaHWiki

To add flags to the Windows NT/2000/XP Console client, when run as a service, you have to make some changes in the registry. You MUST be logged into an account with Administrative privledges, to make any changes to the registry. Please read the Note: at the bottom, before even attempting this.

1. Shut down the folding instance through the Services manager snap-in.

There are several methods to get to the services snap-in as follows.

* Click Start -> Click Run -> type in services.msc -> Click OK.
* Click Start -> Go to Settings -> Click Control Panel -> Double Click Administrative Tools -> Double Click Services.

Find the service entry for folding. By default, it will be something that starts like this: FAH@......

To stop the service, use one of the following methods.

* Click once on the Service to select it -> Click Action -> Click Stop.
* Right Click on the Service -> Click Stop.
* Double Click the Service -> Click Stop.
* Right click on the Service -> Click Properties -> Click Stop.

You should see the Service stop.

You can then minimize the services snap-in, or close it.

2. Run regedit.

* Click Start -> Click Run -> Type in regedit -> Click OK.
* Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
* Right Click ImagePath -> Click Modify.
* Add whatever flags you wish to the end (after a space).
EG....

* Click OK.
* Exit regedit.

3. Restart the Folding Service.

* Re-open the Services manager snap-in.
* Verify that your changes appear there.
* Restart the service.
o Basically the same way that you stopped it. Just click Start.

Note:Editing your registry can be dangerous to your system, if you do it wrong!!! Although the above is a fairly comprehensive guide, use this procedure at your own risk! I can not be held responsible if you do something wrong.

Folding@Home Console Client: User Guide

Note:The below is intended for Folding@Home v.5. Older versions support similar flags, and an exact listing can be seen by running the program with the argument -?.

F@H Client Do's and Don'ts.

The console is not an installer, but the actual Folding@Home client executable. In general, just download it, run it, and don't worry about it. However, if you like to be "hands on" with F@H, please keep in mind:

* Each different running copy of F@H has to have its own Machine ID number. If you download each copy of F@H from the web site and configure fresh, there will be no problems.
* Please don't manually retry to send WUs soon after a netsend failure. The netsend failure means that the server was probably overloaded and retrying will just make things worse.
* Do not run multiple copies of FAH from the same directory
* We have seen some issues with running the Windows console client with the service option and the Windows GUI version simultaneously. While we debug this, we recommend not combining these two options simultaneously.

Console Client Configuration Options

-config
Allows users to change their configuration information. This includes user & team names (reflected in the stats), whether or not to ask before a network connection is made to fetch/send work, set up proxy servers, preferred work unit type (Folding/Genome), process priority, CPU usage requested (5-100%), whether or not to use assembly loops, whether or not to use deadline information, and Machine ID changes.

-configonly
Same as above, but quit following configuration instead of beginning work.

-delete x
Delete item #x from work queue. This option should only be used if there is a serious error with the current unit that the client does not automatically recover from (e.g. crash-inducing). This should not normally happen, and if it does, we would be grateful if you could send us the FAHlog.txt file from the unit that causes the error.

-license
Displays the end-user license agreement

-queueinfo
Get information on queued work units. Includes for each unit the status (READY/FINISHED/EMPTY), unit type (Folding/Genome), originating server, and date when the unit was received (local time in GMT), as well as deadline if the server sent that information.

-send x
Send result #x back to server. Exits after trying to send unit (successfully or unsuccessfully). Use "-send all" to send all results outstanding. If unit x is not a completed work unit then the client exits without doing anything.

-verbosity x
Sets the output level, from 1 to 9 (max). The default is 3. This option should be used if the user wishes to see more detailed client output, particularly useful if there is a problem which needs to be reported to the F@H client development team.

-oneunit
Instruct the client to quit following the completion of one work unit.

-forceasm
Instruct the core to use SSE/3DNow assembly instructions if possible, even if it has previously made the determination that the machine may not be handling this well.

-advmethods
Request to be assigned work units from new projects, before they are broadly released to the rest of Folding@home. As among the first to try out new advanced simulations, you may wish to post any observations (positive or negative), questions, or issues at the user Forum.

-local
Use configuration files from local directory. This option has no meaning on Linux, but is vital on Windows and Macintosh for running multiple clients on a machine. It instructs the client to read its config information from the client.cfg file in the current directory rather than, on Windows, from the installation directory specified in the registry, or, on Macintosh, the Library/Folding@home directory. Information such as the user name, team name, proxy information, machine ID are maintained in the client.cfg file. The flag ensures that work does not conflict. Use "-local" only if you are planning on running more than one instance of Folding@Home on the same machine (this is only useful if you are running on a multi-processor machine). Create as many directories as there are processors on the machine, copy the exe files and client.cfg file into each of these directories, run "FAH3Console -local -config" on each and specify unique machine IDs for each directory (under the Advanced Settings option). From then onwards you may run each copy by switching to its directory and running with the -local flag.

-help
Print out the command line flags available and then exit.

Linux Specific

-freeBSD
For use by those wishing to use the Linux client on a machine running FreeBSD. See our FAQ for details on how to do this, but with this flag, all Cores downloaded will automatically be branded as being a Linux executable.

Windows Specific

-pause
Pause after finishing and trying to send current unit. Allows a user to shut down after finishing a unit, by pressing Ctrl-C, without then getting new work to process. This is recommended if you are planning on shutting down your machine for a long time (e.g. for a vacation), or are planning to un/re-install F@H after finishing the currently processing work unit.

-service
Run in service mode (for programs such as firedaemon). This prevents the client from exiting when it detects the current user is logging out. If this option is used when the client is not run as a service then it will run normally, but will not shut down automatically if the user logs out, and a "Wait for program to close." dialog box will be displayed.

-svcstart
This flag is used if you configure the console client to be run as a service (through the standard client Configuration). The user should NOT give this flag manually, it is automatically given by the Windows scheduler and is just listed here for information.

How do I add flags using a shortcut to the console client?
From FaHWiki

1. If you currently do not have a shortcut to the console client, one can easily be created several ways.

* Right click the console executable.
* Select Create Shortcut from the pop-up menu.

This will add a shortcut to the console client in the current dir.

Or you can:

* Right click on the console executable.
* Click Copy.
* Go to where you want to place the shortcut to the console client.
* Right Click on a blank area.
* Select Paste Shortcut.

This will paste a shortcut to the console client where you want it.

2. To add a switch to your console client:

* Right click on the console shortcut.
* Select Properties.
* Go to the end of the line in the Target: box.
* Add a space
* Add the desired switch (including the leading hyphen.)
* If you are adding more than one switch, be sure to use a space between each switch.
* Click Apply.
* Close the window.

Visual Example:

Repeat this process for each client you are running.

FAH will now use the switch(s) every time you start the console using this shortcut.

Or, you can place the shortcut in your startup folder, if you want the client to load every time you log on.

To make it load everytime any user logs on, you need to place the shortcut in to the ALL USERS -> Startup folder.

Or just use the consoles clients built in Windows NT/2000/XP service option.

Adding flags when run as a service is a bit more complicated and can be found in this article.

How do I reconfigure the console client options?
From FaHWiki

There are several methods to accomplish this task.
[edit]
Adding -config via a client shortcut.

* Shutdown the client.
* Right click on your FAH shortcut.
* Select Properties
* In the Target: field type in -config at the end of the line (leave a space between).
* Click Apply.
* Click OK.
* Double Click the shortcut.
* Answer the questions.

Visual Aid:

You will either have to remove the config switch from the shortcut, or only use this shortcut when you want to re-config the client.

It is ok to make multiple sortcuts that do any of several things.

Just remember to rename the shortcut for its purpose. That way you will be able to tell what it is for.

IE.... Start FAH, Config FAH, Queue Info, Send All, ect....
[edit]
Running -config via the Run Command.

* Stop the client.
* Click Start
* Click Run.
* Click Browse.
* Locate the client executable.
* Add the -config switch
* Click OK.
* Answer the questions.

Visual Aid:

You can also use the -configonly switch in either of these cases.

This will run the client through the config changes and then stop.

Transfering your client Service folder from one install to another.

Make a back-up of your client install folder whenever you re-install the operating system.It's just as easy to transfer this over from the old to the new as download a new client app. and there are a couple of benefits of doing this,

1.You will still be able to see how many units you've completed in full.
2.You active cpu count on the stats page will not show an extra cpu for 50 days because you installed a new service.
3.You don't have to download all the cores again.

Simply put the F@H folder back where you want it and create a shortcut for the FAH502/3/4-Console application by right click/Make new shortcut.Now edit the shortcut target by right click and add the " -configonly" flag.Make sure you add a space before the "-" as with all flags.This will bring up the DOS box for install of the console and you can re-input all your decisions as for normal install.

Setting up on a dual core machine.

You may want to read Logans Guide on Forcing CPU Affinity to help explain this better.

Open a net browser and go to the downloads page on the Folding@Home main site - here

Download a copy of FAH502-Console.exe to your first F@H folder, and then copy the exe to the second folder.

Start back at the first folder. Run the executable. It should go into Config mode automatically. It will prompt you for a bunch of variables, enter them as required but be sure to install F@H as a SERVICE. When that's done, it will tell you that it will start automatically on the next reboot. It will also download your first WU and begin calcs.

Move on to the second folder. Repeat the process and specify a different machine ID for this folder. It can be anything but the one you used for the first one.

When both executables are running, open the Services pane as described above. Both instances should be listed. Both should be set to Automatic, but not started.

At this point, you can either keep crunching to ensure system stability (and 100% total CPU utilization - both cores, that is. Check the Task Manager to ensure that), or reboot and test the services themselves.

Upon rebooting, check your Task Manager and ensure that both processes are getting 50% CPU each. This means that each one is actually using one core. Also, check the Services pane to see if both services for F@H have reported as Started.

From there on in, you can download and configure FahMon if you so choose, or just create desktop shortcuts to each folder's unitinfo.txt file. You can open it, inspect the progress (represented as a percentile of finished work) and then close it again, being careful not to save if ever asked.

This means that you're forcing each instance of F@H to run on its own core - either core 1 or 2, also called CPU 0 or 1. You'll want to follow the instructions as listed, being sure to force uniprocessor mode first and then binding CPU affinity. I'm happy to help with that as well.

Extra SSE Boost

This makes an awful lot of difference to the speed of Folding so you want to make sure it's active.
If for some reason it got turned off then you could be progressing at only 50% or thereabouts of your original speed.

Possible reasons for it not being active are varied.Improper shutdowns for one will make it use a different table when you restart.You may need to shutdown properly before it will start as usual.

Forcing a restart of your client (GUI or CLI/service) after noticing an EUE will resume computations with any SSEx optimizations enabled.

As far as I know Amber and Tinker core Work Units don't make use of SSE anyway so check your units.

Early Unit Ends

These can happen for a variety of reasons although the main one is overclocked machines that are unstable or have become unstable over time due to component degradation or ambient heat build up.If this is the case then you will likely notice multiple units ending early.
Software can interfere to cause these at times aswell but that is very rare.Only once when I installed RealMedia Player have I experienced problems.

E.U.E's can also be a legitimate end to a unit and nothing to worry about.Some units just cannot be finished properly.The Beta Testing team usually sort this out before the general folding populace get to work on them so hopefully you won't get many.

For further info you can refer to the EUE Types and FaHWiki EUE's pages which explain more about unstable work units and inherent work unit problems.

F@H overclock testing and stability guides:

When overclocking at all, and especially as concerns F@H... stability is king. F@H is great for exposing minor instabilities you were otherwise unaware of.

When you ramp your clockspeed up, chances are you're overclocking your RAM at the same time as well. Keep this in mind as it means you'll have two main points of failure for stability (CPU and RAM).

Generally, most newer AMD64 processors (AMD64 Athlon, Athlon X2 and Opteron processors) have a decent amount of "headroom", or overclocking capacity in them. AMD tends to test them high and issue them low, so to speak. This seems to go double for the Opterons, as they're enterprise-level chips that have also been issued for S939 - this removes the stipulation of registered / ECC RAM and allows them to be easily overclocked.

But enough backstory

Raise your HTT frequency by increments of 5-10 MHz at first to start, and a good rule of thumb is that you will achieve an overclock of 10-15% on stock core voltage for the CPU. However, that doesn't mean that you'll do the same for the RAM. Depending on your RAM, you may need to:

- add voltage
- increase latencies
- drop to a lower ram divider

or any combination of the above in order to ensure stability.

At this point, as you're wringing your hands, eager to overclock... I recommend stopping and thinking. Do you have a motherboard from one of the following manufacturers:

- Asus, DFI, MSI, Abit

If so, then you'd likely end up with a good overclocking experience... RAM notwithstanding. If you've replied Asrock, ECS, Soltek or anuthing else... especially anything with a SiS chipset... I would actually recommend NOT overclocking. Others may say otherwise, but in my 6+ years of overclocking and PC building, I've yet to see SiS do anything right. Nvidia is the OC chipset of choice, and Via is sometimes livable.

Now for RAM testing. RAM should always be tested first, as it can be done at a "low" level (before the OS loads) and this removes any OS instability or incompatibilties. Also, it keeps any OS from hiding any issues as well. Download Memtest86+ from this site. Burn the ISO to a CD and boot your computer from it. You might need to select the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM as a boot device from a quick boot-time menu (F12 for a lot of boards) or set it higher than the hard drive in your BIOS.

Do a standard sweep with Memtest86+ and see if anything dies. Also, as a point of interest, it will tell you roughly your CPU type, your CPU speed, your memory latencies and unbuffered memory bandwidth. For AMD systems, take that last (lowest) unbuffererd amount and multiply it by 2 for the dual-channel unbuffered bandwidth. As a sidenote, most DFI Ultra boards have Memtest as part of the BIOS ROM... just go to the Genie BIOS page and it should be at the bottom of the main CPU adjustment page, below the HTT freq. adjust area. Set it to Enabled and reboot, making sure to set it to Disabled when finally done or you'll never get back to your OS!

Once your first OC ramp checks out, run it up a bit more and Memtest again. If you can cycle through Memtest once without erroring out (ideally, twice) then there's a 99% chance your RAM is sound at that speed. If you have value DDR400, I recommend running a lower RAM divider and keeping your effective RAM speed at DDR400 speeds. Normally with that RAM, voltage and latency tweaks aren't enough to make it stable very far outside of stock speeds. Your effective DDR speed is also shown with Memtest86+.

Once you're done ramping your RAM (unless you're close to stock spec) and you have a half-decent overclock on your CPU speed... get into your OS. For all intents, we'll assume you have XP SP2. Please post if you need assistance with other OSes.

Download and install Prime95 from here. Install one copy per physical processor / core as needed (so on a dual Opteron 270 box, install 4 separate copies to different directories; on an Opteron 170, install 2 copies to separate directories).

Run each one and select the Torture Test under the Options pull-down menu. Start with the small FFTs for a few hours, move to the large in-place FFTs for at least 4-8 hours (once you've settled on a speed you want to stress-test, that is) and finally run the blend if you think you're near the end of your road. If you fail on the first two tests in Prime 95, you have options:

- check current speed vs. stock speed, figure out if overall overclock is >= 25%. If so, decide how important it is to proceed further on air cooling. It's likely not that advisable.
- raise core voltage slightly, retry in Prime
- increase cooling, retry in Prime
- lower HTT freq a few MHz, retry in Prime
- lower core voltage and HTT freq slightly, retry in Prime

Stability testing:

Basically, I've found there's no "magic number" or percentile where a F@H WU will fail outright on an over-done system. It could fail on initialization, 99% or any point in between.

When you think you're near the limit of your CPU's overclocking capabilities, in my opinion... turn it down 100MHz. This isn't periodic gaming we're discussing, this isn't booting into Windows and sitting idle... this is 24/7/365 CPU stressing, 100% per core with a decent amount of load on the CPU itself and a decent amount of stress on the RAM, too.

If your CPU is stable and your RAM is within known limits on its latencies... congrats, you've successfully overclocked your CPU.

Now, for those of you who want better response but not much more core speed (and F@H responds well to extra memory bandwidth on Athlon64/Opteron systems currently - I'm making these remarks in advance of Socket AM2/F)... overclock your HTT bus, lower your CPU and HTT multiplier and leave your RAM divider at DDR400.

Pre-requisite for this idea: "Overclocker's RAM" - Also called DDR466 or higher, it will enable you to have your memory bus running higher than DDR400 overall while still remaining stable. Always use the latencies given by the manufacturer as a jumping-off point when doing this.

2 things to note before the example: I'll refer to Asus and DFI-led experiences when doing this tutorial, and I really don't care about the really minor "l33t" memory latencies. My methods produce solid overclockers with minimal fuss, but likely without using all overclocking potential for RAM and/or CPU. Be warned.

Example: Opteron 170, OCZ Platinum EB 2GB DDR500 kit, {motherboard that overclocks well, supports over-volting of CPU and RAM and adjustable latencies}.

Stock settings: 10x200 CPU. This would only give you DDR400 speeds "out of the box". Not ideal for that RAM.

How to hit DDR500: 8x CPU multi, 3x or 4x HTT multi, 250MHz HTT. Your HTT multi and any extra settings (extra voltage, RAM latencies) would be dictated by your manufacturers. Some OCZ RAM requires high voltage (VX Gold), some don't (i.e. the RAM listed above). Some boards will run stable at 4x HTT multi for 250MHz (keeping it to stock 1GHz HTT link overall), some will need 3x. In a lot of cases, you can bench for usable memory bandwidth and both settings should be equal (HTT multi @ 250MHz HTT).

Just in case anyone's asking "what are you running?"

Opteron 170 @ 2.5GHz, 1.45 vCore
DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-DR
OCZ EL Platinum Rev. 2 DDR400, 2 x 512MB, CAS 2, 3-3-6 (DDR180 divider) for DDR454
Thermaltake Venus 12 HSF
Sunbeam Trio Mid-ATX case with 1 80mm intake and 2 80mm exhaust fans
Nikao 520W "Alien" PSU
etc etc

The reason I run the RAM out of sync with the HTT bus is because it refuses to run at CAS 2.5 anything, nor any more relaxed latencies (3-3-7, etc) which would allow for higher frequencies. Not sure why, but it MemTests clean at this setup and it's still [content edited] fast... so I could care less, really

We hope this was helpful for everyone.

One last thing (or two).

Other tools and programs related to or for use with F@H can be found in the Tools List.NicoV (a longtime member at Stanford forums) has been compiling this list for a long time and there are some good bits of software there,and it's all in one place. The Tools List

If you have any questions or need to discuss anything further please feel free to post in our Distributed Computing forum here at AMD Support Forums.

Perhaps you'd like to join the team and Fold for us. Our team number is 34106.

Our Team Stats page can be found here.

Credits

Logan[TeamX] for Dual Core Workings and Overclocking Theory.
F@H Wiki & FAQ
Stanford Folding Community.org.

How To boot from your USB Storage Device

kniwor — 2006-04-15T15:17:54 -05.00

Hi guys, after i got my Removable USB-Hard Disk i wanted to boot from it.

Finally got it working. Here's how. I will try to keep it as short as possible.
and yes... this in written considering that newbies might want to boot from USB.

You are reading this tutorial here

These are the things I used. It should work for pendrives also and should work for any other linux also.

My 40Gb USB Hard Disk

Slax 5.1.0
http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php

Syslinux Utility

First I made a 256Mb FAT16 partition on my HDD. Let us say this partition is X:\
Then Set it as active.
Right click My Computer > Manage > Disk management.
(you can make the partition here and set it active)

Now i extract the SLAX iso image in the newly created X:\ using Winrar
then copy the files "vmlinuz" and "initrd.gz" which are in the X:\boot directory to X:\
which means copy them one level up

Then I open the file isolinux.cfg in wordpad and remove wherever there in boot/ ahead of vmlinuz and initrd
so wherever there is "boot/vmlinuz" it becomes "vmlinuz"
and wherever there is "boot/initrd" it becomes "initrd"
(u can use the replace all in wordpad to do this instead of looking for.... in case u miss anything)
Save the file as syslinux.cfg

Extract the syslinux zip file somewhere
then open the command prompt
cd to the syslinux directory
cd once again to "win32" dorectory
then run
...win32:\> syslinux.exe X: -f

Reboot and Enter the BIOS...
(usually pressing [del] or [F1] at the time of boot)
Set USB device as primary boot device.
Reebot and if everything was done properly it should boot from USB
This is assuming that ur BIOS supports booting from USB devices.

PhotoShop Easiest Tutorial

Smogsy — 2006-02-26T08:48:01 -05.00

easiest tut in the world to follow

step 1 open new file with a good bg size 1204x768 or 1280x1204 etc put background contents to black

step 2 get the brush tool and white colour and draw anything on it like u was a 3 year old
should something like

step3 go to filters blur radial blur 100 zoom and best qaulity

step4 press ctrl+I twice so brush is white bg is black

repeat step 2,3 but this time do small amout of paintbrush

step 5 press ctrl+U then click colourize and play about and ur done

the good thing about this each time u do a paintbrush different u end up with a new bg

finsh

for more tutorails free backgrounds and layouts go to xkdesigns

Guide: Wired and Wireless Networking Terminology

Old Camper — 2006-02-25T21:25:07 -05.00

Note: Originally sourced from Uniden, with a few minor changes to font/layout, spelling and/or grammar corrections.

Networking Terminology

Please note that you will need a program such as Adobe Acrobat to view this document.

Respectfully,

Old Camper
Proud sporting shooter and member of the SSAA.

So You Want To Run A Webspace From Home

D22_2003 — 2006-02-18T14:50:23 -05.00

So You want to host your own website.

On a side note roughly 60% of canadian and US ISP's do not like or allow you to run your own webspace server so confirm with your ISP before continuing, you will not get in trouble for running one but they will A: shut it down, B: Give you a call, C: Change the ports required to run your webserv

(!!!!****NOTE ABOUT THIS GUIDE****!!!!

This was done before I had purchased a router, setup with a router will be different and involve opening ports I believe

To Start
you will need phptriad found here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p..._id=75430"

Next you will need to find out if you have a dynamic or a static IP address, to do so, go to ---> www.whatismyip.net , find out your current IP address, then unplug your modem for about 5minutes. After pluging it back in, log into windows and click repair connection and check your IP at www.whatismyip.net again, if it has not changed you probably have a dynamic IP address, (there is not much of a difference in setting this up for a static or dynamic IP address)

Next - go to http://www.dyndns.com/
and register, you must use an e-mail address that you can acess otherwise your Dyndns account will not be activated.

Ok now assuming you've got the e-mail from dyndns and activated your account,. proceed to log in to your account at http://www.dyndns.com/ after loging in click on my services in the left panel,

click add Host Service.

Now here is where it can get tricky, I will not go into to much detail but I will show you the process for static along with screenshots as we go. starting with static, click add static host, then fill in what you wish your webadress to be. (for safety and security reasons my ip has been blacked out)

static and dynamic setup appear to be both the same so this should apply to dynamic ip setup as well. continuing on with static though in the screenshot see my hostname?

d22serv.game-host.org (yours will not be the same of course) remember what your hostname is,. that it what you will put in to open your page and make sure everything has been installed properly.

now moving onto the setup of phptriad, install phptriad. now that phptriad is installed click start apache,

now type in your favorite browser your host name,

Congratulations, continue onto the next part.

Setting apache to run on boot look in "C:\apache" for a file called controlpanel.bat and doubleclick it, it should open a new window where you can adjust settings - see screenshot,

Now if you want a 24/7 server or a server that you can set and forget (click install apache as a service) now whenever you boot your computer apache will start itself.

Continuing on to editting and setting up your server.

Your index file and all concurent .html files for your website will be place in "C:\apache\htdocs" and linked together using simple html code, see screenshots for index and test.html

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4111/test21eq.jpg

Congratulations on setting up your own personal webspace

On a final side note my server has since been taken down I have only revived it temporarilly to get screenshots for this guide, so attempting to browse around my webspace is useless until further notice /sleep.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="-_-" border="0" alt="sleep.gif" />

~D~

High quality, 720x480, video capture

stinson4th — 2006-01-14T17:00:15 -05.00

Have you ever noticed how mini-DV movies have terrible smear of action? One suggestion for the cause of this is that the camera has long exposure time. However if you hook up a video out signal directly to you TV and watch live action there is not nearly as much smear as when you record to mini-DV tape and play it back. The real reason for the smearing is that mini-DV is compressed about 5:1 compared to standard NTSC video. The compression used for mini-DV is excellent for stiil or slow moving shots but sports/action are hopelessly smeared by the compression process. This leads to the question of how to capture video in an uncompressed format.

The following is a how-to for building cheap system that will do lossless capture of YUV2 video at 720x480 pixels and 30FPS (full quality standard NTSC). This is basically a data throughput problem starting at the camera and ending at the hard drive.

First we can estimate the data rate. For YUV2 video there are 2 bytes of data for each pixel. So the video data rate is calculated by the number of bytes per pixel, times the number of pixels per frame, times number of frames per second.

In this case:
2 x 720 x 480 x 30 = 20.736 MB/s

The data rate for cd quality video is:
2channels x 44100samples/s 2 bytes/sample = 0.1764 MB/s

So for full quality NTSC video capture you need about 21 MB/s sustained data throughput.

Theroretically USB and Firewire could provide the bandwidth, however, actual data rate for USB and Firewire is often below 20Mb/s so there is a huge potential for dropping frames with either. In addition to this the uncompressed digital stream is not available with mini-DV camcorders. So for the reasosn just stated, no Fire-Wire or USB 2.0 links can be in the signal chain.

One option is to use video capture at the computer. I am using a JVC camcorder with S-VHS output ($229). The capture solution I tried was to use an ATI TV Wonder tuner card and capture from the video input. This setup did not allow the full speed capture for me. The next step was to try a ATI all-in-wonder 9800 AGP card. The 9800 was able to capture direct from video without dropping frames. This system was using Windows ME. Windows ME only supports FAT32 which has a file size limit of 4GB. That limits clips to under 3.5 minutes.

Installing windows XP solved the file size limit problem but created a new one. The hard drive would not keep up with the video capture data and Pinnacle Studio refused to capture at best quality because the hard drive no longer tested fast enough. It showed a data rate of only 19Mb. I first tried putting the OS on a 40Gig HD on as a new C: drive and then put the 80Gb drive on the secondary IDE as a single drive. This is the reccomended set up for a capture hard drive. Unfortunately this was slower than when I used the 80Gig drive alone for both system and capture. The reason why is not apparent. Since the drive was proven capable of the data rate I decided thatr I needed a different data path.

After much searching the best solution appeared to be buying an inexpensive raid controller and hard drives. This is RAID 0 which means data is "striped" into both drives. Drive 1 takes the first chunk and while it writes the data the controller sends the next chunk to drive 2. The card and drives I bought was $25 + $115 +$115, and is able to get better than twice the data rate of the 80GB drive. The new drives are IDE WD 200GB units with the 8MB cache. Pinnacle Studio test results give 47MB/s data rate and the drive space allows 5 hours of uncompressed video capture.

The system is a Sempron 2200+ on a SiS 741GX motherboard with 512MB DDR3200. Better performance was given by overclocking from 1500 Mhz to 1800 Mhz.

Many people have told me that I need an Athlon 64 to do this kind of work but so far the low budget Sempron system which I have does it.... for about $1000 total.

Forcing CPU affinity for program glitches

Logan[TeamX] — 2006-01-02T12:58:40 -05.00

http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php' ">http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php

Follow the instructions there. It's simple as far as savvy computer guys go. If you need a hand, ask!
It IS a command interpreter text-only tool. It CANNOT perceive spaces within file pathings, so you must encapsulate a path to a file with open and closed quotes (" "). Alternatively, you can copy the executable to each game directory, run it against your game file, and then delete it afterwards.

Also, if the first -a 0xX command doesn't work, perform the -u pathtoexecutable first and then redo the affinity setting command. Remember your quotation marks!

7800 Series VIVO Help

dot_pixel651 — 2005-12-14T17:25:26 -05.00

if you are having any problems with your VIVO with your 7800 card, here are some troubleshooting tips to help you out:

1. VIDEO IN: make sure you have the latest drivers installed. make sure you have the latest WDM VIVO drivers installed and check your connections as well. this can be found at http://www.nvidia.com' ">http://www.nvidia.com

2. TV OUT: if you are having problems getting your tv to work with tv-out, make sure your tv is set to M/NTSC (USA) or PAL, ext. for international users. also make sure you have it set to composite or s-video depending on what type of connection you are using. make sure that you see your tv icon on the nView settings as well. if you still are having problems viewing it, you might need to check your hardware, connection, cables, ext. if you are able to get a connection and see your desktop on your tv but its in black & white, take a composite cable and stick it in the BLUE port which deals with HDTV and set your setting to composite. this should get your tv to show in color. as of now, s-video out (for users who have VIVO adapters that came with the card or just doesnt work in color) will not work in color until... who know. /laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /> im guessing and highly think that it is a nVidia driver problem that should be fixed when they release newer drivers or it is a hardware issue that the video card mfg. needs to look into and fix. if your tv doesnt appear at all using s-video and you have checked all your connections, settings, cables, ext., you most likely have a hardware problem that needs to be RMA'd.

if you have still have problems, post your problem(s) EDIT: in the troubleshooting section of the forums and either i or one of the forum members should be able to help you out. good luck and enjoy. /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

dot.

Adding Drivers/Slipstreaming XP CD

redclawkefar — 2005-10-22T16:10:12 -05.00

i know this topic was posted before but i've come across a really idiot proof step-by-step guide. the guys at pcstats.com' ">http://www.pcstats.com did a great job with this... heres the link:

Advanced Guides' ">http://www.pcstats.com/article...?articleid=1703&page=1
QUOTE(PCStats.com)Advanced Guides: Unattended Windows 2000/XP Installations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make a customized Windows Install CD with all the drivers already included. Let the install process go ahead 100% unattended, so you can get down to some real work, and leave the "click ok" job to the non-IT folks. - Version 1.0.4

this is Ebbo's Post link...' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=32257 where he points to GreenMachine's' ">http://www.greenmachine.msfnho...om/READING/addraid.htm more basic streamlining.

edit:
send me a PM if you know of any other useful stream liners and i'll add them

Canadian Buyers Guide

Zozio — 2005-09-13T21:41:22 -05.00

Ok guys, I compiled this list of places to buy computers parts from canada. Canadians are really being jipped with Newegg, Monarch, and ZZF not shipping to us. Hope you all enjoy my list of places to buy from /tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> /happy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='happy.gif' /> /tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> .

http://www.bestbytecomputer.com/main.htm' ">http://www.bestbytecomputer.com/main.htm
http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/index.php' ">http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/index.php
http://www.bytewizecomputers.com/' ">http://www.bytewizecomputers.com/
http://www.dangeo.com/' ">http://www.dangeo.com/
http://www.eglobalonline.com/' ">http://www.eglobalonline.com/
http://www.28minutes.com/skynet/' ">http://www.28minutes.com/skynet/
http://www.extreme-pc.ca/' ">http://www.extreme-pc.ca/
http://www.genitechcomputers.com/' ">http://www.genitechcomputers.com/
http://www.greenlyph.com/' ">http://www.greenlyph.com/
http://www.accountwizard.com/c.../shop.asp?web=greytech' ">http://www.accountwizard.com/c.../shop.asp?web=greytech
http://www.iccomputers.ca/icdesktops/front.htm' ">http://www.iccomputers.ca/icdesktops/front.htm
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php' ">http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php
http://www.jnetronic.com/' ">http://www.jnetronic.com/
http://www.mocc.ca/' ">http://www.mocc.ca/
http://www.memoryexpress.com/' ">http://www.memoryexpress.com/
http://www.ncix.com/' ">http://www.ncix.com/
http://www.pccanada.com/' ">http://www.pccanada.com/
http://www.pccyber.ca/scrMain.asp' ">http://www.pccyber.ca/scrMain.asp
http://www.pcgatecomputer.com/' ">http://www.pcgatecomputer.com/
http://www.pcinfocomputers.com/pcinfo/' ">http://www.pcinfocomputers.com/pcinfo/
http://www.pcvillagecanada.com/' ">http://www.pcvillagecanada.com/
http://www.shoprbc.com/ca/index.php' ">http://www.shoprbc.com/ca/index.php
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/indexca.asp' ">http://www.tigerdirect.ca/indexca.asp?
http://www.vibecomputers.com/' ">http://www.vibecomputers.com/

How to build your own Screwball Farm

Mime — 2005-08-14T01:24:19 -05.00

Along with the bins of cables, manuals, old heatsinks and various other junk, spare parts are something that geeks tend to acquire over time. However, unlike the other junk spare parts can actually be useful if you have enough of them and put them to the appropriate task. I decided that the appropriate task was to build a network of diskless terminals dedicated to running Folding@Home. This guide is intended for any and all of my geeky bretheren who might be interested in doing the same.

An obvious question at this point is why I called it the Screwball Farm. The answer to that is exactly the reason I explained above. The entire network is built almost completely out of spare parts which had been collecting dust on shelves and filling up empty space in various bins and drawers for an undetermined amount of time. As a result many parts of the network don't always work as expected and sometimes stopped working altogether. Nonetheless, I decided it was better to put up with these quirks and hiccups in order to put the parts to some kind of useful work and thus the Screwball Farm was born. If you're interested in seeing how a project like this can develop in a "real world" setting you can check out my project thread below.

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=34972

Prerequisites for the guide
I was basically a Linux newbie when I decided to build my folding farm, so it is possible for Linux newbies to build their own farm like I did. However, in order to prevent this guide from being even more scary-big than it already is, I'm not going to explain the basics of using Linux. If I say you'll need to enter a certain command "as root" or "you'll need to edit your /etc/hosts file" you'll need to know what that means. Also, I'm not going to explain much about basic tools like cd, cp, ls and su, so if you don't know what any of that means you'll need to check out a tutorial on basic Linux commands. Feel free to do so and follow this guide at the same time, but be aware that it's going to take a lot more work to learn Linux and LTSP both at the same time.

Before we get started...
As I usually do I'll be providing a little background to help get things started. For those familiar with Linux and networking or those who already have a machine with a working Linux distro installed you can skip ahead and go directly to the hardware setup for each terminal.

You'll need to be logged in as root in order to edit many of the configuration files involved in this project. There's a general rule in Linux-dom that root access is to be used only when necessary. One reason for that is to prevent someone from making a simple mistake that ends up hosing the entire system. Also, Linux expects users with root access to know what they're doing, so you won't be prompted with as many "are you sure you want to do that?" messages as you usually are in windows. I don't mean to scare anyone off, and there are some guards in place, but the moral of the story here is that when you're logged in as root you will be able to mess things up that you really(really! do not want to be messed up. A little caution can go a long way.

Picking a Linux distribution for your LTSP server
When it comes to picking a Linux distro a lot of it is just personal preference. Some people like Fedora, some prefer Ubuntu, and others are partial to more "unix-like" distros like Slackware and Gentoo. All of them should make for a solid system once properly installed. In this guide I'll be using Fedora Core 4, but it's been my attempt to provide a guide that will extend relatively easily to other distros as well, so hopefully you'll be able to follow along without much trouble if you decide to go with something else. Package names and/or versions will probably be different but the overall procedure should stay more or less the same. In the cases where there are significant differences I've provided some links below to alternate install guides targeted for specific distributions that I've used while installing LTSP.

LTSP on Slackware
http://www.linuxquestions.org/...s/sh...threadid=234286
http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/Slackware

LTSP on Gentoo
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/ltsp.xml
Note: At the time of this writing the ltsp ebuild(net-misc/ltsp) creates an invalid directory structure in /tftpboot which breaks net-booting via PXE. The correct directory structure is explained in the LTSP wiki. Also, the ebuild script will install LTSP to /opt/ltsp-4.1 just in case you might already have a different version of LTSP installed at the default location of /opt/ltsp. If that's not the case, then it may be helpful to create a symlink at /opt/ltsp that points to this directory.

LTSP on Ubuntu
Currently there's work being done to integrate LTSP directly into ubuntu. It's a completely different kind of LTSP than what I describe below that has the upstream codename of "MueCow". The overall install procedure looks like it'll be simplified a great deal, and be more easily supported which can only be good things. However, at the time this guide was last updated(August 2006) the project is still very much experimental, so I'm not recommending it to anyone who doesn't have a strong background in linux. For those who do and are feeling a bit adventuresome feel free to poke around at the Ubuntu Linux forums(linkage) or the Ubuntu Wiki(linkage) and give it a shot.

If anyone comes across a similar case with a different distro let me know and I'll update the guide accordingly.

About versions...
The version of LTSP being used in the guide is 4.1. Barring a radical overhaul of the way LTSP works, most of the edits made to the various configuration files below will largely be independent of version changes in LTSP, with one possible exception. Minor things are sure to change, such as the keywords used to invoke certain features in lts.conf(the main LTSP configuration file), but the overall structure should stay more or less the same. The one exception is rc.sysinit. If you try to copy the rc.sysinit I provide below into some other installation of LTSP, there's a good chance everything will become hopelessly screwed up since that file typically is not changed when setting up the network. The modifications made to rc.sysinit aren't very complicated at all, so if you want to try using a different version of LTSP and feel like trying your hand at hacking it on your own, then by all means give it a shot.

Hardware setup for the terminals
Each of your LTSP terminals will boot over the network and download their kernel from the server. Motherboards with onboard LAN often work the best since only very, very old motherboards will not be able to net-boot using PXE and you won't have to mess with PCI cards to get them started. However, if you don't have any of those nor any NICs with onboard bootroms you don't have to worry since the boot process can be changed a little bit depending what you've got to work with.

If you don't have any bootable NICs handy you can head over to rom-o-matic.net and download an etherboot rom image that's been built for your network card. The rom image can then be put on a floppy or burned to a CD. The floppy or CD will then do the work of initalizing the system and getting it ready to download the kernel from the server.

Something else you might want to hunt down are the MAC addresses that you'll need later while configuring DHCP. A MAC address is a unique identifier sort of like an IP address, but a MAC address is embedded into the hardware of a network card. That means it'll be the same every time you turn on the machine no matter what. That makes it useful for jobs like this when there's no OS running on the machine to provide any other kind of interface to the system. Usually you'll find the MAC address on a sticker on the back of the network card. If you're using onboard LAN you'll find the MAC address either on a sticker on the last PCI slot or somewhere else on the board. If all else fails and you can't find that blasted sticker anywhere you can hook the terminal up with a live network cable and a monitor and power it up. The machine will fail when it tries to boot over the network, but it'll display the MAC address on the screen so that you can write it down and pop it into the DHCP configuration file when the time comes.

BIOS tweaks for the terminals and server
It's also a good idea to play around in the BIOS a bit before you let your machines loose to be dedicated crunchers. For both the terminals and the server it can be useful to set the BIOS to power the system up after power loss so that you won't have to run around turning everything back on if the power goes out. Setting the option "Halt On" to "no errors" on each terminal will prevent the BIOS from hanging up during POST if you don't have a keyboard or video card in the system. Also, in some cases you'll need to enable an onboard network boot rom in the BIOS before you can use it.

Requirements for running LTSP
The LTSP server is what controls the configuration of each terminal and the process of booting each terminal over the network. LTSP requires a few basic services in order to make that happen properly. Those are DHCP, TFTP, NFS, XDMCP, and optionally DNS. A detailed description of how each of those services are used can be found in the LTSP documentation. You can check to make sure each of those services are installed by opening a terminal window and entering the following commands below.

CODE
[root@screwball ~]# rpm -q dhcp
dhcp-3.0.2-12
[root@screwball ~]# rpm -q bind
bind-9.3.1-8.FC4
[root@screwball ~]# rpm -q nfs-utils
nfs-utils-1.0.7-8
[root@screwball ~]# rpm -q tftp-server
tftp-server-0.40-6
[root@screwball ~]# rpm -q portmap
portmap-4.0-65

It's ok if the version numbers are slightly different, but if any of these commands respond with "package not installed" or simply plop you back at the command line without responding at all, then the package need to be installed. The easiest way to do that in FC4 is to use yum(yes, they named it yum) which is similar to apt-get that Debian users know and love.

For example, entering this command as root would download and install NFS.

CODE[root@screwball ~]# yum install nfs-utils

If you needed to install NFS you might find that it requires other packages in order to work properly. yum should be able to get those for you also, but it might pester you with the kind of "is this ok?" questions that geeks typicallly say "yes" to without hardly even reading them.

It's also helpful to have each of those services set to load when the server boots so that you don't forget to start one of them and wonder why your network has suddenly taken a dive. The GUI for starting and stopping services is under Desktop->System Setting->Server Setting->Services(check the man page for chkconfig if you prefer the command line). Putting a check in the box next to the service name will make sure that the service starts when the system boots. Don't worry about it for now if any of these services won't start. We'll deal with that later. The service name of bind is named.

As a side note, an alternate DNS server could be dnsmasq. It's a nice little daemon useful for jobs like this on small home networks. If you're new to linux, one advantage to using bind is that it can be installed when you install Fedora which removes the need to install it manually either by using an RPM or by compiling from source(which often is a pitfall for many a beginner). However, configuring bind can be a little bit troublesome for beginners as well since it contains a ton of features that this project will probably never need. I actually prefer dnsmasq over bind for this project just for that reason.

Installing LTSP
After you've installed the required services you can get started on installing and configuring LTSP. The download page is here...

http://wiki.ltsp.org/twiki/bin/view/Ltsp/DownLoads

Personally, I like using the LTSP installer rather than the ISO. Using the LTSP installer to download the packages for you is less complicated than having to extract or mount the ISO, and it'll probably be less painful if you've got a slow connection.

After you've downloaded the RPM, run the command as root shown below to extract the RPM and install the package all in one shot.

CODE[root@screwball ~]# rpm -ivh ltsp-utils-0.11-0.noarch.rpm

Again, the version number may be different. 0.11-0 was the latest release at the time of this writing.

Afterwards, you can run the installer by typing "ltspadmin". The ltspadmin installer requires that it be run as Superuser which requires you to enter the command "su -" rather than just "su". If you keep getting the message "command not found" when trying to run ltspadmin that's probably the reason why.

You'll need to configure the installer, but that's a simple process where you'll again be asked the usual confirmation questions which most geeks hit "yes" to without hardly even reading them. Once you've started the installation and are presented with a list of packages to install, hit 'A' to select all packages and 'Q' to start the installation process. Installing all the packages in one shot might seem like a sledgehammer type of approach, but it's still the best option because a full install doesn't take up that much space and it's a drag to back up and install the others if you miss something.

Once you start configuring LTSP, you'll be given the choice between "Show status for all services" or "Configure the services manually". Pick configure manually. A short summary of each option is listed below.

1. Runlevel: Chooses the runlevel of the server. The description given in ltspadmin describes this one pretty well. I always leave it at runlevel 5 and then determine the behavior of the terminals later by using screen scripts(which I'll cover a bit later).

2. Interface Selection: If your server has more than one NIC this is where you tell LTSP which one it will be using.

3. Configure DHCP: This option allows you to start and configure the DHCP service that LTSP uses for network configuration. The configuration file DHCP uses is found at /etc/dhcpd.conf and it'll need to be edited later to fill in the details of your network.

4. Configure TFTP: TFTP is used to download the kernel that will run on each terminal from the server. Very rarely have I needed to manually configure TFTP. Setting it up usually is just a matter of hitting "Y" when ltspadmin asks you if you want to start it.

5. Configure Portmapper: The portmapper acts as a sort of switchboard. It coordinates which ports are being used by what applications on the server in order to avoid traffic jams on the network. I've had the same experience here as with TFTP. Usually you can just start it up and leave it alone.

6. Configure XDMCP: XDMCP is the X Display Manager Control Protocol. The same deal holds true here, at least as far as this project is concerned. If you're not going to be booting into a Linux desktop, then you won't have to mess with this one at all.

Options 8 through 11 all create templates of various configuration files that tell LTSP everything it needs to know in order to behave properly on your network. You can either go ahead and have ltspadmin generate all these files for you and tweak them later, or leave them all alone and start from scratch.

Editing /etc/hosts
The hosts file contains the name-to-address mappings for your local network. My hosts file looks something like this...

CODE
127.0.0.1        localhost       localhost.localdomain
#for loopbacking, leave this line alone

192.168.1.11     screwball       #LTSP server

We're starting off easy. If the IP of your server isn't 192.168.1.11(and if you want its hostname to be something other than screwball), then you'll need to change that in order to fit your network. You can do this by going to Desktop->System Settings->Network and clicking on the hosts tab, or by editing /etc/hosts as root in the editor of your choice. I have my server set up to assign dynamic IP addresses to each terminal. If you want your server to assign static IPs, then you'll need to include a line for each terminal containing its IP and hostname as well.

Editing /etc/exports
One of the coolest features of LTSP is that all the files generated by the folding client can be stored on the server hard drive. This allows you to take a peek at how each terminal is doing in exactly the same way as you could if the client was running locally on the server. Before it can do that though the server needs to know where to put all those files and how it should treat them. The NFS service is what does that and the exports file is what NFS uses to figure out everything it needs to know about your network.

There's a GUI interface for this also(if you have it installed) which you can find at Desktop->System Settings->Server Settings->NFS or you can login as root and edit the file directly using the editor of your choice. My exports file looks something like this...

CODE
/home                          192.168.1.11/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)
/opt/ltsp                      192.168.1.11/255.255.255.0(ro,sync,no_root_squash)
/var/opt/ltsp/swapfiles        192.168.1.11/255.255.255.0(rw,async,no_root_squash)
/opt/fah/screwball001          192.168.1.11/255.255.255.0(rw,async,no_root_squash)
/opt/fah/screwball002          192.168.1.11/255.255.255.0(rw,async,no_root_squash)
# ... and so on for each terminal on the network
# Notice the blank line below!

Again, change the server IP of 192.168.1.11 to whatever you need it set to. The options of ro and rw should be fairly self explanitory as read-only and read/write. The others of sync and async correspond to the option in the GUI of "Sync write operations on request". The sync option enables this feature and the async option disables it. The no_root_squash option corresponds to enabling the GUI option of "Treat remote root user as local root". You'll need to login as root in order to create directories in /opt on the server, so if this option is not enabled you might run into file permissions problems with the folding client not being able to write files to the directory. If security is a big issue, then you might want to find a way to make NFS happy without using this option, but for this project it probably won't be much of a problem.

Each terminal will run a separate copy of the folding client, so the directories of /opt/fah/screwball001 and /opt/fah/screwball002 and so on are where the folding client for each terminal are stored on my server. screwball001 and screwball002 are the names I picked, but you can call your terminals pretty much anything you want as long as you use the same names in all the different configuration files. You can also pick pretty much anything you want for the directory on where to store the folding clients. Since /opt is usually used for software that's not installed with the distro I decided to store all the directories in /opt/fah.

The directories of /home, /opt/ltsp, and /var/opt/ltsp/swapfiles can all stay put. The only reason you'd need to change something is if you installed LTSP to some directory other than the default of /opt/ltsp.

Note: If you're editing /etc/exports by hand there must be a blank line at the end of the file. I have no idea why that is, but there must be a blank line at the end of the file. If do not put a blank line at the end of the file, then you could very easily end up pulling all your hair out and crying on the floor trying to figure out why NFS won't work.

Editing /etc/dhcpd.conf
If you're getting a little fried at this point now would be a good time to take a break and get some pizza or something because this is often where the real fun starts.

If you're still reading this, then I guess you're ready to go ahead. LTSP uses DHCP to provide the IP addresses to each terminal. The dhcpd.conf file contains all the information needed for the DHCP server daemon to behave properly while running on the server.

One common source of problems is when a router with DHCP enabled is serving IPs from the same range that the LTSP server will be. In most cases, a home network will not need more than one DHCP server, and unless you're very tricky about it having more than one DHCP server on the same physical network will almost always cause you problems anyway. The best thing to do in this case is to turn off DHCP in your router. Once you get DHCP configured properly, the LTSP server can take the role of assigning IP addresses to each of your terminals as well as the rest of the network.

In order to make this a little easier, I made a sample dhcpd.conf and put way too many comments in it. Once you're done editing the file copy it to /etc/dhcpd.conf I'll go over it here as well to provide a little more explanation. If you're using a copy of dhcpd.conf that ltspadmin generated for you, then that file will probably look a little different.

At the top of the file, you'll see a few lines that look like this...

CODEddns-update-style         none;

option option-128 code 128 = string;
option option-129 code 129 = text;

default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 21600;

All that stuff you can probably leave alone and be ok. These options just pass a little more information about your terminals and network on to DHCP and also define how long each IP is "leased" to a given terminal.

Next up is to tell DHCP some details about the network and the LTSP server.

CODEoption root-path         "192.168.1.11:/opt/ltsp/i386";
option domain-name       "localhost.localdomain";

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
  option domain-name-servers    192.168.1.11;
  option broadcast-address      192.168.1.255;

  option routers                192.168.1.1;
  option subnet-mask            255.255.255.0;

  range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.254;
}

The root-path option is where DHCP can find the LTSP software on your network. Again, change the server IP to whatever you need to set it to. If you have a domain name, you can fill that in for the value of option domain-name. Otherwise, leave it as localhost.localdomain.

The subnet declaration is where things might start to get a little sticky. The IP of my LTSP server is 192.168.1.11 which means it lives on the 192.168.1.0 subnet. Every subnet that's tied in to the LTSP server must have it's own subnet block otherwise DHCP will become very unhappy. If you want to work some more separation into your network, this is where you'd need to let DHCP know about it by including multiple subnet blocks. Most of the time though if you have only one physical network, then you're going to be working with only one subnet. I have everything set up on one subnet here and it works just fine.

Now let's take a look at the options inside the subnet block. I use a standalone router to provide Internet access to the server and the terminals, so the value of option routers is the IP of my primary router. The values of option broadcast-address and option subnet-mask are pretty standard for home networks.

I have my network set up to assign dynamic IPs to the terminals since I think it makes dhcpd.conf a little cleaner that way. The range statement is what defines the pool of IP address that DHCP will pull from when assigning IPs to the terminals. However, if static IPs fit your setup better you can bend DHCP to your will in that way also. Next up are the group and host declarations, where we tell DHCP a little bit about each terminal on the network.

CODEgroup {
    use-host-decl-names    on;
    option log-servers     192.168.1.11;

    host screwball001 {
        hardware ethernet  00:0C:76:90:93:FD;
        filename           "/lts/2.4.26-ltsp-3/pxelinux.0";
    }
    host screwball002 {
        hardware ethernet  00:40:F4:B0:27:D1;
        filename           "/lts/vmlinuz-2.4.26-ltsp-3";
    }
    # ... and so on for each terminal...
}

The big string of garbage on the hardware ethernet line is the MAC address for each terminal that you collected earlier. The filename parameter tells LTSP where to find the kernel that the terminal will use when it boots. You'll notice that the filenames listed for each terminal are different. In the example above, screwball001 is using a bootable NIC, and screwball002 is booting from a CD or floppy. The details on why different boot processes require different kernels aren't particularly important, but remember how you set the terminals up. Pointing DHCP towards the wrong kernel is a sure-fire way to bring everything to a screeching halt.

If TFTP starts with the -s flag, then the path you'll need to pop in to dhcpd.conf will be relative to /tftpboot. That is, if the actual path on the server is /tftpboot/lts/vmlinuz-2.4.26-ltsp-3 then the path you'll need to enter in dhcpd.conf is /lts/vmlinuz-2.4.26-ltsp-3(notice that "/tftpboot" is not included here) If you're not sure about TFTP, try running ltspadmin again and this time pick "show status of all services" after choosing to configure LTSP. It should show you what's going on with TFTP.

Barring any errors that might pop up, at this point you're pretty much done(yay) with the configuration of DHCP. The only thing left to do is to create the leases file by issuing the command below as root...

CODE[root@screwball ~]# touch /var/lib/dhcp/dhcpd.leases

Editing /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
lts.conf is the main configuration file for LTSP. The entries in lts.conf provide the last bits of information needed about the LTSP server and terminals. Near the top of the file should be a block that looks something like this...

CODE[Default]
        SERVER              = 192.168.1.11
        XSERVER             = auto
        X_MOUSE_PROTOCOL    = "PS/2"
        X_MOUSE_DEVICE      = "/dev/psaux"
        X_MOUSE_RESOLUTION  = 400
        X_MOUSE_BUTTONS     = 3
        USE_XFS             = N

The server IP should be familiar by now, and most of the other entries pertain to how the terminal should behave when using a graphical interface. I've kept them in there for the sake of compatibility even though I don't often use any of the terminals in a graphical interface. The USE_XFS statement is whether or not to use a font server, which for this project you won't need.

Next up is the configuration of each terminal.

CODE
[screwball001]
        NIS_DOMAIN         = screwball.ltsp
        NIS_SERVER         = 192.168.1.11
        LOCAL_APPS         = Y
        SCREEN_01          = shell
        RCFILE_01          = startfah

[screwball002&

Guide: Firefox speed tweak

newfan — 2005-08-13T15:44:19 -05.00

Guide: Firefox load tweak

This information is available around the net... First you need to download firefox web browser, it's free and better than IE. You can download it HERE.' ">http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

1.Open a new browser window. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. To alter an entry, right-click on it, and select toggle. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0″". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Cheers Liam

Guide: Terminology & Acronyms FAQ

Greyhound — 2005-08-11T08:07:14 -05.00

Terminology & Acronyms FAQ

This Guide is supposed to serve as a quick reference for you, if you come across a term or acronym that you don't understand.
You may use your Browser's search feature (usually, you can just press Ctrl+F) to quickly find the term you're looking for.

I've tried to keep explanations relatively short, yet detailed enough to give you a basic idea of what you're dealing with.
Some terms may also include a link (colored green) to a site providing specifications or a more detailed explanation.

I'd appreciate any Feedback on this Guide:
If you think a term needs further clarification, if you think I got something wrong
or if you would like me to include a term or acronym that's not mentioned in this Guide, feel free to contact me via PM or post your thoughts in my Feedback-Thread' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=53303 over in the General Tech Chat section /happy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='happy.gif' />

Finally, this is just a first version of my Terminology Guide - it's not complete yet and I'm planning to add a couple more terms as well as some links soon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[left]3DNOW![/left] Developed by AMD for their K6-2 processor, this was the first Floating point SIMD Instruction set extension for x86 processors. 3DNOW! was designed to improve performance on FPU-intensive applications, especially 3D games.With the introduction of the Athlon Processor, new instructions were added to 3DNOW! and the name was changed to Enhanced 3DNOW! to reflect these new additions. Finally, starting with the Athlon XP processor, SSE-support was added and Enhanced 3DNOW! became 3DNOW! Professional.

[left]3GIO[/left] 3rd-Generation Input/Output – Former codename for PCI-Express used during development of the new technology.

[left]ACPI[/left] Advanced Configuration and Power Interface – An industry standard for motherboard/device configuration and power management.
Basically, ACPI gives control over most power-management features to the operating system and defines a variety of low-power and sleep/stand-by states for all sorts of devices.

[left]AMD[/left] Advanced Micro Devices. The guys that (hopefully /tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> ) made your processor /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />

[left]AMD64[/left] AMD's 64-bit extension to the x86 instruction set. Formerly known as x86-64.
AMD64 is fully backward compatible with existing 32-bit and even 16-bit architecture.

[left]APIC[/left] Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller - A motherboard 'feature' that will allow a APIC-aware operating system (Win2K/XP, recent Linux distros) to assign more than 16 interrupts to your devices to prevent conflicts.

[left]Applebred[/left]Codename for the AMD Duron Processor, Model 8.
The name 'Applebred' (sometimes also known as 'Appalbred' is a combination of the former codename for this part which was 'Appaloosa' and the codename for the 130nm Athlon XP Model 8 core which is 'Thoroughbred'.
In essence, this Duron core is a 'Thoroughbred' Athlon XP core with part of its L2- cache disabled, leaving only 64KB of functional L2-cache.

[left]Athlon[/left] Brand name for AMD's line of Desktop processors, also name for the very first AMD 7th-Generation processors (K7).

[left]ATX[/left] Form Factor used for most of today's Desktop Motherboards.
A full-size ATX Motherboard is 12" wide by 9.6" deep (305mm x 244mm). Sometimes used to refer to the ATX family of boards. The ATX family also includes µATX, Extended ATX, and Flex ATX. See www.formfactors.org' ">http://www.formfactors.org/ for complete listing of form factors in the ATX family.

[left]Bandwidth[/left] The amount of data (usually in MB/s or GB/s) which can be moved over an interconnect between devices within a certain time, usually one second.
Bandwidth can be calculated using the following simple formula:
Physical clockspeed (in Mhz) x Width of interconnect (in Bytes) x number of packets
of data that can be transferred per clock-cycle

Example for PC3200/DDR400 memory:
Physical clockspeed: 200MHz
Interconnect width: 64-bits = 8 Bytes (8 bits = 1 Byte)
# of data-packets per clock-cycle: 2 (DDR = Double Data Rate)

So, we get: 200MHz x 8 x 2 = 3200MB/s

[left]Barton[/left] Codename for the AMD Athlon XP or AMD Sempron Processor, Model 10.
It's a 130nm 7th-Generation core with 512KB of L2-cache used on Athlon XP/MP, Mobile Athlon XP-M and some Socket A Sempron processors.
Basically, it's a Thoroughbred-core with an additional 256KB of L2-cache, for a total L2-cache size of 512KB .

[left]Base-Clock[/left] Also known as 'Reference Clock' – The 200MHz reference clock-signal generated on all AMD 8th-Generation platforms from which most other clockspeeds, such as the processor's core clock or the Hypertransport-Link's clock, are derived.

[left]Beta[/left] Pre-release version of a Software. Most features planned for the final version are complete and functional, but being in an unfinished state, the Software usually still suffers from a couple of bugs.

[left]BGA[/left] Ball Grid Array – A package-type for ICs. BGA-chips are soldered to a PCB with a number of small solder 'balls' on the bottom of the chip.

[left]BIOS[/left] Basic Input/Output System - The BIOS will recognize, setup and initialize all important hardware-components when you turn on your machine. It also allows the user to manually set a variety of parameters.

[left]BTX[/left] Balance Technology Extended - Family of motherboard form factors. Includes Pico BTX (pBTX), Nano BTX (nBTX), Micro BTX (µBTX) and full BTX. BTX was designed to replace the ATX family by providing better thermal and acoustic properties. See www.formfactors.org' ">http://www.formfactors.org/ for complete listing of form factors in the BTX family.

[left]Cache[/left] Small and very fast memory used to greatly speed up access to crucial data.
On modern processors, caches are integrated directly into the CPU-core (die) and consequently run at the processor's operating frequency.
Harddrives or Optical drives also have (significantly slower but bigger) caches for buffering small amounts of data to optimize data-transfers to the host.

[left]Clawhammer[/left] Codename for the AMD Athlon 64 processor, Model 4 (754-pin) and Model 7 (939-pin).
It's a 130nm SOI 8th-Generation core with 1MB of L2-cache – half of this 1MB cache may be disabled on certain models, leaving 512KB of functional L2-cache.

[left]CMOS[/left] Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor – This term usually refers to the small battery-powered memory on every motherboard which holds the user-configured BIOS settings.

[left]Cool'n'Quiet[/left] A power-saving technology for Desktop processors that was introduced with the AMD Athlon 64 processor.
Cool'n'Quiet (C'n'Q) will dynamically adjust the processor's clockspeed and voltage depending on CPU-usage, so the system will consume less power when idle or at low CPU-utilization (e.g. Word-processing, surfing the web, etc).

[left]CPGA[/left] Ceramic Pin Grid Array – A package type for ICs.
CPGA packages were used for the first Generation of Socket A processors, i.e. Models 3, 4 and 7 as well as some mobile Model 6 parts.
The vast majority of older AMD processors (Am386/Am486/Am5x86/K5/K6) also had CPGA packages.

[left]CµPGA[/left] Ceramic Micro Pin Grid Array – A package type for ICs.
CµPGA (aka CmPGA or µCPGA/mCPGA) packages are used for the first Generation of AMD Opteron processors (up to revision CG).

[left]CPU[/left] Central Processing Unit – The Processor, i.e. the IC that does all the calculating, etc. in a computer. The term 'CPU' sometimes used to refer to the entire case with everything inside in the past, but it is only very rarely used in that sense today.

[left]CPUID[/left] An instruction upon which a processor will return a string of data which allows the user (or software) to determine its Brand/Type, core model, core revision and capabilities. CPUID-utilities can be downloaded for free and provide a means to exactly identify a processor that's installed in a running system.

[left]CrossFire[/left] Developed by ATI, CrossFire is a technology that, like Nvidia's SLI, enables the user to link two PCI-Express videocards together for improved performance.
One of the two videocards must be a special CrossFire-card and the motherboard must be Crossfire-Ready aswell. So far (Aug, 2005), ATI has only announced boards using their Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire chipsets to be CrossFire-ready, but more (non-ATI) platforms may become CrossFire-certified in the future.

[left]DDR[/left] Double Data Rate – A technology that allows for two packets of data to be transferred per-clock cycle, instead of just one. Using DDR-technology effectively doubles the maximum theoretical bandwidth of a device.

[left]DDR-SDRAM[/left] Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory – A more advanced form of SDRAM which uses a DDR-technology and is therefore capable of transferring twice the amount of data per clock-cycle.
Consequently, the effective clock is doubled, even though the physical clockspeed remains the same, e.g. DDR memory parts running at a 133MHz physical clock are referred to as DDR266 or sometimes 266MHz DDR memory.
Common DDR-SDRAM speedgrades are PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200 – the numbers after the 'PC' reflect the maximum theoretical bandwidth (in MB/s) provided by that DDR memory of the respective speedgrade.

[left]DDR2-SDRAM[/left] 2nd-Generation DDR-SDRAM – This is the 2nd, more advanced generation of DDR-SDRAM. It's internal architecture is slightly different from normal (1st Gen) DDR-SDRAM, enabling higher theoretical bandwidths.
In practice, however, DDR2-SDRAM still has to become a bit more mature to actually show significant benefits over the previous generation of DDR memory.
Comparably high prices, as well as clockspeed/throughput and latency issues still prevent DDR2 memory from replacing normal DDR memory in the mainstream segment at present (Aug, 2005).

[left]DIMM[/left] Dual Inline Memory Module – DIMMs are small, easily installable PCBs with DRAM-chips soldered on them. A DIMM is often referred to as a 'stick' of memory.
There are different types of DIMMs, distinguishable by their pin-count as well as the position of the notches on their connectors, which are used for different types of memory (SDRAM, DDR-SDRAM, DDR2-SDRAM).

[left]DRAM[/left] Dynamic Random Access Memory – Volatile Memory used as system memory on modern computers, although they usually use some more advanced types of DRAM, e.g. DDR-SDRAM.

[left]DTR[/left] DeskTop Replacement – A 'class' of mobile processors designed to provide Desktop-like performance on mobile computers. DTR processors usually also have a power-consumption similar to their desktop-cousins.

[left]Dual-Channel[/left] This term refers to the use of two memory-controllers rather than just one, each driving their own memory-channel and providing the full 64-bit bandwidth of modern DDR- or DDR2-SDRAM.
A dual-channel setup effectively doubles a system's available memory-bandwith.
The term is also often used to refer to the modern 939-pin and 940-pin AMD Processor's 128-bit memory-interface, although this is not technically correct.

[left]Dual-Core[/left] This term refers to a processor with TWO full-fledged cores on a single chip, like the AMD Athlon 64 X2 series or the AMD Opteron Dual-Core series, currently comprising the x65/x70/x75 models.

[left]Duron[/left] Brand name for AMDs first line of budget processors, based on the AMD Athlon and Athlon XP's cores, but with only 64KB of L2-cache on all models as well as slower bus speeds on most models.

[left]ECC[/left] Error Checking and Correction – A technology used for memory which allows for the detection and correction of single-bit errors as well as the detection (but not correction) of multiple-bit errors.
Like Parity (which was used on older SIMMs), ECC uses one additional bit for each byte (=8-bits) of memory in order to be able to detect errors, so an ECC-DIMM is 72-bits wide instead of just 64-bits (which makes it more expensive as an additional chip is required on each DIMM).
Performance will decrease slightly when using ECC, so it only makes sense in mission-critical systems like Servers/Workstations...that's why most desktop- motherboards don't support ECC.

[left]EMI[/left] ElectroMagnetic Interference – Electronic devices (such as computers) emit electromagnetic radiation that may affect other electronic devices nearby (e.g. mess up your TV reception). Don't worry, your computer's case provides adequate shielding against EMI.

[left]FID[/left] Frequency IDentifier – A 6-bit binary number that represents the processor's core-clock multiplier.

[left]FSB[/left] Front Side Bus – Connection between the Processor and Chipset (and thus the rest of the system) on AMD 7th-Generation (and earlier) processors.

[left]GDDR3[/left] DDR memory for Graphics, 3rd-Generation – This is the 3rd generation of DDR memory developed specifically for use on videocards.
GDDR3 memory is typically capable of reaching significantly higher clockspeeds and bandwidths than its desktop-cousins DDR- and DDR2-SDRAM.
It is, however, also quite a bit more expensive, especially at the very high speeds required for high-end videocards.

[left]GPU[/left] Graphics Processing Unit – Specialized processor used on videocards to deliver fast, high-quality graphics.

[left]Hammer[/left] Codename for AMD's 8th-Generation of Processors, also see K8.
[left]HT[/left] HyperTransport – As with HTT, the acronym HT might also be used for HypertThreading.

[left]HTT[/left] HyperTransport Technology – see Hypertransport.
The acronym HTT may also be used for HyperThreading Technology which has nothing to do with Hypertransport at all.

[left]Hyperthreading[/left] Hyperthreading enables a single CPU to act as two 'virtual'(or 'logical' CPUs. It will only offer improved performance if applications are specifically optimized for Hyperthreading, otherwise there will be little to no benefits - in some cases, performance may actually be slightly reduced when running non-optimized applications. AMD processors currently do not support Hyperthreading.

[left]Hypertransport[/left] A fast, scalable, serial, packet-based interconnect used by AMD 8th-Generation Processors (Athlon 64/Opteron, etc) for communication between the Processor and Chipset as well as for inter-CPU communication on Multiprocessor systems (Opteron 200/800 series).
Hypertransport is not limited to AMD Processors, it can also be found on other devices (e.g. North- to Southbridge communication).

[left]IC[/left] Integrated Circuit – A complete electrical circuit made out of semiconductor material, comprising components (e.g. transistors, resistors, etc.) as well as interconnects between all these components.
Modern silicon chips like microprocessors, but also DRAM or flash memory are all ICs.

[left]JEDEC[/left] Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council – An organization responsible for the standardization of semiconductor devices, most importantly (for us /tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> ) DDR-SDRAM.

[left]K5[/left] Brand name for AMD's Family of 5th-Generation Processors.

[left]K6[/left] Name for AMD's entire Family of 6th-Generation Processors, comprising the original K6 as well as the K6-2, K6-III and their respective mobile counterparts.

[left]K7[/left] Name for AMD's entire Family of 7th-Generation Processors, comprising Athlon, Duron, Athlon XP/MP, Mobile Athlon 4, Mobile Athlon XP-M, Mobile Duron as well as some Desktop Sempron (Socket A only! Processors.
The very first (Slot A) AMD Athlon processors were also called 'K7 Athlon', but the K7 name was dropped after the 7th-Generation Family moved to the Socket A platform.

[left]K8[/left] Name for AMD's entire Family of 8th-Generation Processors, i.e. Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Opteron, Sempron (754-pin) as well as their respective mobile counterparts. Unlike the K7, they were never officially referred to as K8, however.

[left]LDT[/left] Lightning Data Transport – former codename for Hypertransport Technology.
Although the term is not commonly used anymore, you may still come across it when making adjustments in BIOS (CMOS Setup).

[left]LGA[/left] Land Grid Array - A package type for ICs.
Unlike most other package types, this one is completely pinless. However, some kind of pins are still required to connect an LGA-chip to its socket - they have just moved from the package to the socket.

[left]Longhorn[/left] Codename for Microsoft's upcoming Operating System, officially called 'Windows Vista'.

[left]Manchester[/left] Codename for the Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor, Model 2B.
It's a 90nm SOI 8th-Generation DUAL-CORE part with 512KB L2-cache per core
for a total of 1MB L2-cache.

[left]Memory Timings[/left] There are several important timing parameters for your memory that can be changed/adjusted on most motherboards.
Java has made a nice Guide to Memory-Timings right here' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=12017 in our Technology Guides and Tips section. Read it to find out what things like CAS, RAS, tRP, Command rate, etc. mean.

[left]Morgan[/left] Codename for the AMD Duron Processor, Model 7.
It's a 180nm 7th-Generation core with 64KB of L2-cache and SSE-support.

[left]Multiplier[/left] A number (usually encoded by an FID) with which a base- or reference-clock signal is multiplied to get an output clockspeed.
On an Athlon 64 processor, the system's 200MHz base-clock is multiplied by the processor's core-clock multiplier to get the actual core-clockspeed (e.g. Athlon 64 3500+: 200MHz x11.0 = 2200MHz).

[left]Newcastle[/left] Codename for the AMD Athlon 64 Processor, Model C (754-pin) and Model F (939-pin). The core was also used on some Semprons (with 64-bit capability and part of the L2-cache disabled).
It's a 130nm SOI 8th-Generation core with 512KB of L2-cache – part of this 512KB cache may be disabled on certain models, leaving 256KB or 128KB of functional L2-cache.

[left]OPGA[/left] Organic Pin Grid Array - A package type for ICs.
AMD started to use OPGA packages with the introduction of the Athlon XP processor.
This package-type was used for all Athlon XP processors as well as the newer Athlon MP models and all Socket A Semprons.

[left]OµPGA[/left] Organic Micro Pin Grid Array - A package type for ICs.
OµPGA-packages were first used by AMD for some of their Low-power Mobile Athlon XP-M models. The entire 8th-Generation Family (with the exception of the early 940-pin parts up to revision CG) uses OµPGA packages.

[left]OPN[/left] Ordering Part Number – A Code that is printed/etched on every AMD processor.
It allows for the exact identification of the Processor's Brand/Type, core, revision and specifications (e.g. speed, voltage, maximum temperature, L2-cache size, etc.).

[left]O/S[/left] Operating System – The most important piece of Software installed on any computer.
The O/S loads after the computer is turned on and has passed POST.
It allows other software (applications) to run on the machine and take advantage of the installed hardware which is managed/configured by the O/S.

[left]Overclocking[/left] Running a device (e.g. processor, videocard, etc) outside of, i.e. faster than its specified parameters. Overclocking may give you better performance, but it will void your warranty in any case and it may also damage your hardware unless you know what you're doing.

[left]Package[/left] The ceramic or plastic/organic Substrate on which an IC is mounted, so that it is protected from mechanical damage and able to communicate with the outside world via connectors (processors usually use pins) on the package.

[left]Palomino[/left] Codename for the AMD Athlon XP Processor, Model 6.
It's a 180nm 7th-Generation core with 256KB of L2-cache used on the first Athlon XP/MP parts as well as on Mobile Athlon 4 processors.

[left]P-State[/left] A pre-defined performance state on AMD 8th-Generation processors determining which clockspeed/voltage combinations may be used by the processor's Cool'n'Quiet feature.

[left]PCB[/left] Printed Circuit Board – A fibreglass board on which the connections are printed/etched, so no wires are required as an interconnect between components soldered to the board. Modern PCBs usually have multiple layers, i.e. there are connections running inside of the board which cannot be seen from the surface.

[left]PCI[/left] Peripheral Component Interconnect – A bus-type, parallel interconnect used to connect various devices to the chipset's Southbridge chip.
PCI expansion slots can still be found on all modern motherboards and are used by today's consumer-level add-in cards (excluding videocards – PCI videocards do exist but are not widely used anymore). Running at 33MHz with a 32-bit width, the PCI- Bus's 133MB/s of bandwidth are not suitable for modern high-bandwidth devices such as Gb-LAN or S-ATA RAID cards. Consequently, it is about to be replaced by
the more advanced PCI-Express standard.

[left]PCI-E[/left] PCI-Express – A new, fast, serial interconnect developed to replace the aging PCI and AGP buses. With a peak bandwidth of up to 4.0GB/s, PCI-Express (x16 slots) has already replaced AGP as the main standard for videocards.
The smaller x1, x2 or x4 slots are supposed to eventually replace the old PCI-slots
as a computer's main expansion slots. Being a serial interconnect with radically different signalling, PCI-E is incompatible with the old PCI bus. You can NOT put a PCI card (or AGP card) in a PCI-E slot, it won't even mechanically fit.

[left]PCI-SIG[/left] PCI Special Interest Group – The standardization body for PCI, PCI-X and PCI-Express.

[left]PCI-X[/left] PCI-eXtended – A new, faster version of the conventional PCI-standard. Developed before the introduction of PCI-Express as a solution to the
bandwidth-constraints of the old PCI bus, this 64-bit PCI-variant clocks at up to 533MHz, providing bandwidths up to 4.2GB/s – more than enough for even the latest
high-bandwidth devices. PCI-X slots are used EXCLUSIVELY on Server/Workstation type devices – you will NOT find a PCI-X slot on a Desktop motherboard.
Unlike PCI_Express, PCI-X is fully backward-compatible to the old PCI bus, meaning you can put a PCI card (32-bit or 64-bit) in a PCI-X slot.

[left]POST[/left] Power On Self Test – A set of basic tests and hardware initializations performed by the system's BIOS right after power is switched on and before any O/S can be loaded. A successful POST is usually concluded by a single short beeping sound.

[left]PowerNOW![/left] A power-saving technology for Mobile processors that was introduced with the Mobile AMD K6-2+ Processor.
PowerNOW! will dynamically adjust the processor's clockspeed and voltage depending on CPU-usage, so the system will consume less power when idle or at low CPU-utilization (e.g. Word-processing, surfing the web, etc).
ALL Mobile AMD Processors released since the Mobile K6-2+ support PowerNOW!. Recently, AMD has added PowerNOW! support to their Opteron-line of Server/Workstation processors.

[left]RAID[/left] Redundant Array of Independent Disks – A technology developed to improve both redundancy (i.e. securing against loss of data) and performance by connecting multiple individual harddrives together to appear as a single drive to the system in which they're installed. There are various 'levels' of RAID, with each level representing a different configuration of the array of harddisks.
If a RAID is present on today's desktop systems, it will in most cases be a RAID 0.
RAID 0 is sometimes not even considered a true RAID-level because of the absence of the redundancy-component: In RAID0, two (or more) harddrives are just striped together for improved performance. If one drive fails, however, all data will be lost.
We have a guide about RAID right here' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=10335 in our Tech Guides and Tips section.

[left]RAM[/left] Random Access Memory – Volatile Memory used as System Memory by computers, see DRAM.

[left]RDRAM[/left] Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory – A proprietary memory technology developed by Rambus Inc. RDRAM uses a serial architecture which is radically different from the parallel approach used on 'normal' DRAM such as SDRAM or DDR-SDRAM. The few RDRAM implementations found on PCs suffered from high latencies and heat. They also came at a pretty steep price due to RDRAMs proprietary nature.

[left]Registered DIMM[/left] also known as 'Buffered' DIMM – This type of memory module contains very small bits of extra memory (on small, seperate chips) called a 'buffer' or 'register'.
Control and data signals from the host (memory-controller) are first stored in the buffer or register and then distributed to the actual DRAM-chips.
Due to its buffers, registered memory's performance will be slightly below that of 'normal', unbuffered memory and registered DIMMs are also a bit more expensive.
However, using registered memory will improve stability, especially under high loading conditions, i.e. when using lots of DIMMs or very high capacity DIMMs.
That's why it is predominantly used in Server/Workstation type systems.

[left]RIMM[/left] Rambus Inline Memory Module – A memory module holding RDRAM-chips. Due to RDRAM's architecture and the heat resulting from its power-management policy, these were the first consumer-level memory modules that actually required the chips to be covered by a metal heatspreader.

[left]San Diego[/left] Codename for the AMD Athlon 64 processor, Model 27.
It's a 90nm SOI 8th-Generation core with 1MB of L2-cache as well as SSE3-support Half of this 1MB cache may be disabled on certain models, leaving 512KB of functional L2-cache.

[left]SDRAM[/left] Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory – A type of fast DRAM designed to run synchronously with the system bus.

[left]SIMD[/left] Single Instruction, Multiple Data – A means of processing multiple data streams with a single instruction. Using SIMD can and will improve performance, but only if the software is optimized for the SIMD extensions that the processor is capable of.

[left]SLI[/left] Scalable Link Interface – Developed by Nvidia, this technology enables the user to link two PCI-Express videocards together for improved performance.
Two cards with identical GPUs must be used – ideally, videocards with the same manufacturer and model should be used.
At present, SLI will only work with PCI-Express videocards based on Nvidia GeForce 6600, 6800 or 7800 series GPUs.

[left]SMP[/left] Symmetric MultiProcessing – An architecture that allows for multiple processors to work on individual processes or threads. Any processor may work on any task and can access the system's entire memory.

[left]SODIMM[/left] Small Outline DIMM – A smaller version of the standard DIMM used for mobile devices, i.e. Notebooks/Laptops.

[left]SOI[/left] Silicon On Insulator – A technology used for silicon wafers (from which processors are made). Basically, an insulating layer is placed between a thin layer of silicon and a thicker substrate silicon layer. I won't go into physical/electrical details, but the benefit of this technology is that transistors may become faster while consuming less power. SOI is a key technology that helped significantly in developing high-performance processors while keeping power consumption and heat at an acceptable level.
AMD's entire 8th-Generation Family of processors (i.e. Athlon 64, Opteron,etc.) uses SOI technology.

[left]SSE[/left] Streaming SIMD Extensions – A Floating Point SIMD instruction set extension for x86 processors. SSE2 and SSE3 are further, more advanced extensions to SSE.
As with all SIMD instructions, Software must be optimized to actually benefit from SSE/SSE2/SSE3.

[left]Sledgehammer[/left] Codename for the AMD Opteron processor, Model 5 as well as the first 940-pin Athlon 64 FX processors (also Model 5).
It's a 130nm SOI 8th-Generation core with 1MB of L2-cache and with three active Hypertransport-links (non-Opteron processors only have one active
Hypertransport-link – consequently, the additional links are disabled on the
940-pin Athlon 64 FX models).

[left]TDP[/left] Thermal Design Power (or Thermal Dissipation Power) – This is the maximum theoretical amount of power (in Watts) that a processor may consume and therefore dissipate as heat. TDP-values are crucial when it comes to designing cooling solutions as they specify the maximum amount of power (=heat) that a cooling solution must be able to dissipate.
Note that AMD's TDP-values are absolute maximum, i.e. 'worst case' ratings.
During norma

A Guide to Networking: Wired and Wireless

bvchurch — 2005-07-26T01:40:34 -05.00

A guide to networking wired and wireless.

I have decided to write a guide about how to network with both wires and signals, after seeing that this forum had no guide on how to effectively network, thought the resources are available on the internet they are scattered, thus I feel it will be good to collect all the resources I can think of and write my own tutorial on how to network, protect yourself, and have some fun.

Wired Networking
Common items used in wired networking:
Network Interface Card, often built into most newer motherboards, AKA Lan Port
Straight (patch) cable, a basic cat 5/6 cable
Crossover cable (used for hooking up most routers to modems, switches to other switches)
Hub, switches and routers.

First I had a request about Cables, Patch(straight vs Crossover)
A Cat 5 cable has 8 wires in it, a straight cable has each wire going to the corresponding position on each end. A crossover cable will have a change over of 4 cables. Meaning that all the wires will not be in the same place. This does a good diagram of them http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.asp' ">http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.asp

A crossover will use one standard at one, 568-A, and then 568B on the other end. A standard patch cable will have both ends using 568 B or A, I use the B standard more

Creating a network between two or more computers using only cables.
Well for this style of networking you need to have crossover cables and network interface cards (a computer of course) and that’s pretty much it.
A) Cable setup is easy, just plug in an end of the cable into the other computer.

/cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' /> Windows setup requires that you go into control panel, and choose Network connections or network adapters. Double click on the network adapter, and finally scroll down the list of protocols it uses and choose Internet Protocol TCP/IP and choose properties. In that change Obtain IP automatically to assign your own. You want each computer to use a different IP, and you want to use one an IP address beginning with 192.168.XXX.XXX or 10.1.XXX.XXX, there are other possibilities, but these two class b address work the best.

Example:
Computer 1 will have an IP address of 192.168.0.1
Computer 2 will use IP address 192.168.0.2

C) Next you need to change your workgroup, in windows XP you go to control panel, system, choose the Computer name Icon, click change and you will see workgroup towards the bottom. I recommend using something personalized, not MSHOME or WORKGROUP, but something such as FAMWKGP.

D) Configure any firewall that you have installed on your computer to allow network users to view my files.

The Application of this form of network: basic file sharing PC to PC. You can share internet via windows internet connection sharing, something to which I will answer eventually on how to do.

Creating a network between two or more computers using a hub or switch with no router
For this network you use patch cables, a hub or switch, and network interface cards.

A) Cable setup requires you to plug a patch cable from computer 1 into a port on the switch/hub and a cable from computer 2 must plugged into a port on the switch/hub. Use the ports that say Ethernet, do not plug into a WAN/Uplink port.

/cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' /> Windows setup requires that you go into control panel, and choose Network connections or network adapters. Double click on the network adapter, and finally scroll down the list of protocols it uses and choose Internet Protocol TCP/IP and choose properties. In that change Obtain IP automatically to assign your own. You want each computer to use a different IP, and you want to use one an IP address beginning with 192.168.XXX.XXX or 10.1.XXX.XXX, there are other possibilities, but these two class b address work the best.

Example:
Computer 1 will have an IP address of 192.168.0.1
Computer 2 will use IP address 192.168.0.2

C) Next you need to change your workgroup, in windows XP you go to control panel, system, choose the Computer name Icon, click change and you will see workgroup towards the bottom. I recommend using something personalized, not MSHOME or WORKGROUP, but something such as FAMWKGP.

D) Configure any firewall that you have installed on your computer to allow network users to view my files.

The Application of this form of network: basic file sharing PC to PC. You can share internet via windows internet connection sharing, something to which I will answer eventually on how to do.

Creating a network between two or more computers using a router
This is the easiest setup out all of the 3 main ways of creating a network between computers. You need patch cables, a router, and network interface cards

A) Cable setup requires you to plug a patch cable from computer 1 into a port on the router and a cable from computer 2 must plugged into a port on the router. Use the ports that say Ethernet, do not plug into a WAN/Uplink port.

/cool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cool.gif' /> The router will have a DHCP server built into it, meaning that it will assign each computer an IP address, so you don’t have to change the windows default setting.

C) You do need to change the workgroup, in windows XP you go to control panel, system, choose the Computer name Icon, click change and you will see workgroup towards the bottom. I recommend using something personalized, not MSHOME or WORKGROUP, but something such as FAMWKGP.

D) Configure any firewall that you have installed on your computer to allow network users to view my files. The router doesn’t need to be configured.

Creating a network with multiple Hubs or switches
You are going to follow the same cabling instructions and windows instructions in the above section, but instead you will need to hook the two switches together, from one basic Ethernet port to the second switches Uplink port (most switches/hubs just have a regular port). Some switches require you to hook the two together via a crossover cable, you can find out about this by contacting your switch/hub company, reading the manual, or reading articles on line.

Creating a network with multiple routers
Follow the router article above, but once again to connect router to router you take a crossover cable and plug it in to a regular port on router one, but when connecting to router two you must hook the cable into the WAN/interent port. You also need to access the router’s web interface and make sure that router two is set to receive like a cable connection (DHCP) so that router two accepts an IP from router 1.

Sharing the internet

Sharing the internet with a switch
If you already have a modem/router you just plug from the modem/router into the Switch with a crossover or patch cable, once again it depends on the switch itself.

Sharing the internet with a router
If you have a router/modem combo your setup is fairly simple, just plug in all the correct modem cords and then just plug in a patch cable from router to pc. Usually the included software cd does a good job installing the router/modem.
If you have a router for and a basic modem, like a cable modem or a dsl modem (the frame relay fujitsus), then you need to setup your router so that the data port on the modem goes to the WAN/internet port on the router. Most require a crossover cable, but there are some that need only a patch cable. Patch cables then need to go from router to PC. Software setup requires you to choose how to login to your internet service, most require PPPoE, but there are companies who require different protocols, check with your ISP.

Networking without wires-Wireless
First look here for the description of the Wireless standards
An About.com guide' ">http://compnetworking.about.co.../a/aa80211standard.htm
So basically each computer you want a wireless network on needs to have a wireless card, either: A B or G, most cards that are g standard are also b.

I’ll just go through some basics on wireless.

Is it possible to create a computer to computer wireless network with no router?
Simple answer yes, you need to follow the directions above to create a workgroup and an IP to have it work the best, will I guarantee it will work, no! But have I seen it working, yes, a lot of superstores, CompUSA, Officemax, etc do use this form of computer to computer networking.

A wireless network built with a wireless Access Point/bridge.
Well the setup for this is plugging a wireless AP/Bridge into either a switch (already hooked into a router) or a standard wired router, some may require a crossover cable, others may not. The original router will give out an IP, and you can setup a workgroup with the steps above. Most APs should allow you to assign keys, SSIDs etc.

Setting up a wireless router
Once again this is an easy setup, follow most of the steps of using a wired router but you will just need to setup your SSID, and security features. I recommend using WPA-TKS or WPA-AES security encryption, as this is the hardest wireless security code to break. WEP has become to vulnerable in my estimation.

Now once you have an SSID, I would choose to hide that SSID, or not broadcast, I recommend also using a mac list.

Good luck with all the setup.

Remember to successfully share files you need to be in the same workgroup, and you need to make sure that you have your firewall configured.

If you need any more help send me a pm.

bvchurch

Now some enhancements:
***
How to share a folder, drive etc, right click on the drive, sharing and security, and choose the name to share it as.
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If you have a DSL or cable modem you may need to set it up so that it is in Bridge mode, meaning that the login for internet service is no longer handled by the modem/router combo, but handled by the second router.

Building an AMD 3700 K8N Neo 4 SLI Win x64

cove3 — 2005-07-09T22:14:19 -05.00

I finally built my signature system AMD 3700 retail, K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI with Windows x64. It's working & stable now, and here's my summary of pitfalls and lessons learned along the way and open issues remaining to sort out at my leisure. I converted from an AMD 1600 with Win XP.

1. Sign up for 10 or 15 forums & bookmark them. They're lifesavers. A list of the ones I used is at the end. Also bookmark AMD & MSI support pages. I also used alltheweb.com and Google a lot; these dig out an amazing amount of help at both forums and non-forum sources if you use the right keywords. Thanks to all who answered my many posts. I couldn't have done it without you.
2. When working on case, ALWAYS unplug first. Then discharge static electricity by touching a ground or wearing a wrist strap.
3. I discovered the importance of a good Power Supply in conjunction with research on a -5V requirement for Soundblaster to work. It appears MSI has now removed this requirement, but it led me to a 520W OCZ 33A 1 rail with -5V and I found a convincing thread for 1 rail instead of 2 which included a great power calculator.
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....c=80...66952#msg566952' ">http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....c=80...66952#msg566952
4. Mount the processor/heat sink with the mobo out of the case ( I didn't do). Make sure the processor lever locks down UNDER the tab. Practice this before inserting the processor. The processor drops in easily and only goes in one way. If you want to practice positioning the heat sink, don't remove the plastic wrap over the thermal pad until the final try, as once you do, it will grab. The locking lever will not break off, it just takes a lot of force starting around 12 oclock up to 1 oclock to swing it over to horizontal (a cam is kicking in)
5. Start with only the minimum stuff...graphics card, CD/DVD drive, 1 memory chip, 1 hard drive (SATA if you want Win x64 on it, otherwise IDE drive will get a lower drive letter & you can't change it after install unlike the other later devices. I have SATA as C, D, IDE as E, and DVD as F.
6. If you can make it to Windows x64 setup screen, you're 80% there. If you don't get 4 green LED lights, it's another world of searching out forums
7. I discovered Settings/File transfer Wizard in Accessories/System Tools. It's invaluable in transfering Win XP settings for IE 6.0, cookies, trusted sites, Windows Explorer & desktop preferences, etc. which in my case represented lots of labor in getting right for my Win XP system. I've learned now to keep the settings file in backup. You can save both the settings and data files info on the hard drive of the old system, and use file sharing drive mapping to point the X64 wizard to the old folder. Note that you have to make a floppy on the X64 which has a new required version of the Wizard which you then run on the XP system to create the transfer file.
8. I also used System Restore in Accessories/System Tools to create checkpoints before each major change to the system. I had to use it several times as I screwed up setting up User Accounts/Passwords & got locked out & had to Safe Mode start to get back to my Administrator account to make account/password changes.
9. It's not clear about where to go for driver updates & in what order after Win x64 install. I installed K8N Neo4 Platinum platform drivers (except for audio) from NVIDIA home page, VGA drivers from MSI home page, and Soundblaster 24 drivers from PlanetAMD64 (because I was getting an install error using SB 24 from MSI site). MSI Live Update doesn't work for 64 bit and even if it did, posts seem to suggest not to use it. Posts also recommend not updating BIOS unless there's something in the BIOS version listings at MSI of fixes that applies to you, so I'm still at BIOS 3.0
10. I had trouble installing my modem, but finally find a 64 bit driver at Intel for modems using their chipset
11. I had real problems getting AOL 9.0 and 8.0 to install. Auto play from the CD or download won't recognize the AMD64. I had to use setup.exe from within the folder on the CD and in one case had to right click & set compatabilty mode to Win XP. I then couldn't connect to the internet, but using ACS 4.0 from the AOL Beta site installs a 64 bit Win miniport which does work
12. I couldn't find any printer drivers, but discovered Control Panel/Printers/Add printer will get you a list of almost all the printers used in Win XP setup. I think Microsoft is using a 64bit printer emulator to use the old supported printer drivers. Good for them
13. Not true, however for scanners. Can't find 64 bit drivers for my Canon
14. No drivers appear to be available for digital cameras. Can't find one for my Kodak DC210.
15. My old TV Wonder VE tuner/video capture card has no 64 bit drivers, & I doubt it ever will as it's legacy & not supported any more by ATI. I'll buy a new tuner when/if one comes out with 64 bit support. Update: I've found a French program K!TV which provides Beta drivers for any tuner with gt848 or 878 chipsets. It's partially working and I've posted a thread at http://usuarios.lycos.es/forum...topi...a249452f959c29e' ">http://usuarios.lycos.es/forum...9585d40a249452f959c29e
16. The free McAfee virus check that comes with AOL won't install with 64 bit & this appears true for most virus checkers. However, I found a free Avast 64 bit anti-virus program at http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html' ">http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html which is working just fine.
17. I still have to research out AMD home page for drivers/apps for the 3700. A couple I tried didn't install or else failed to execute. I wanted to monitor temperature, and found Everest at http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en' ">http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en. Computer/sensor & wait 5 secs brings up various temp & fan speeds.

It's been a long road, but worth it. The system is much faster than my old AMD 1600. Most of the crucial stuff is working, and at my leisure I'll work on or wait for solutions to the rest. I've got a leading edge platform for relatively little money (thanks ZipZoomFly) that should be good for several years, and I can add a 2d 6600GT for SLI when I'm ready to get some benefit out of it. Right now games are low priority due to time pressures.

I did research out a dual core versus the 3700 early on, but concluded my usage environment wasn't right. Not much in the way of content creation applications in multi-processing mode, and what other MP I do have can be done over lunch or overnight, eg backup, virus check, adaware. Also since very few programs are set up for multi-threading it just didn't make sense for me to go dual core. I'll look at it again when prices come down & if more applications are multi-thread.
I choose the 3700 for the 1M L2 & good price, figuring I could always overclock to a 3800, but couldn't overclock a 3800 to get 1M L2.

I've documented a 50 item step by step check list in MS Word as I went along so if I ever build another system or have to re-format & reinstall Win x64, I'll know all the tricks.

Regards, Ron

http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showforum=84' ">http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showforum=84

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=1' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=1
http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=7' ">http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showforum=7
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....ESSI...5ecd&board=28.0' ">http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....ESSI...5ecd&board=28.0

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=34' ">http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=34
http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=79' ">http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=79

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....ESSI...05ecd&board=9.0' ">http://forum.msi.com.tw/index....ESSI...05ecd&board=9.0

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=88' ">http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=88
aol://5863:126/mB:548253
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=82315.0' ">http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=82315.0
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=104' ">http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showforum=104
http://www.forum.osnn.net/forumdisplay.php?f=58' ">http://www.forum.osnn.net/forumdisplay.php?f=58
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f.../forumdisplay.php?f=58' ">http://www.xtremesystems.org/f.../forumdisplay.php?f=58