Sunday, June 29, 2008

Shuttle XPC Tools 1.7

http://global.shuttle.com/XPCTools.jsp

XPC Tools is a powerful yet easy to use system management utility designed specifically for your XPC. Within XPC Tools' fully customizable interface you can easily monitor system performance, adjust fan speeds, and dynamically overclock your XPC, without the need to reboot the system.

XPC Tools gives you complete control over your XPC. Safely increase bus speeds and voltages for extreme performance and stability when gaming, or configure optimal Smart Fan settings to keep your XPC "Super Quiet, Super Cool" while you watch movies. XPC Tools' versatile profiles system allows you to create save and load profiles customized for any use or setting.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Vista Tips - Remote Differential Compression

I've read a few Vista tips claiming that disabling Vista's Remote Differential Compression improves copy times, even with local transfers. To tell you the truth I don't copy that many files between computers mainly because I have a fairly "slow" 802.11g wireless network (~ 1 MB/sec speeds) and if I have to transfer a large amount of data I just use a USB stick. Anyways, back to Vista's RDC, I thought I might give it a try locally and compare it to XP - as everyone else I feel that Vista's copy times are not as good as XPs.

Tests were conducted on the only machine I have both Vista and XP, the tiny ASUS R2H, standard configuration + 1.2 GB RAM. Both Vista and XP were up to date, Vista SP1 and XP SP3, no antivirus. The tests are performed using the standard copy functionality, in both systems I waited for the copy window to go away (copying in Vista goes quite slow at the end and the window hangs on for a second or two).

The initial test was using a 1 GB test file created with fsutil file createnew and was basically consisting of the usual copy operation of the test file between two folders on the same partition. Each test was performed 3 times to get an better view, when the OS was idle, before each run I called ProcessIdleTasks, wait for idle and then run Sync (I don't know any other utility to flush the data from the buffers). Here are the results:

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Windows XP

1:20.320

1:21.000

1:20.390

Windows Vista without RDC

1:13.050

1:24.830

1:27.290

Windows Vista with RDC

1:29.300

1:12.670

1:12.360


To be honest, the results are a bit mixed, the copy in Vista "felt" slower but it wasn't really that much behind XP. The overall timings didn't look right and then I thought it may be due to the fact the test file was basically a "space" filled file, so I though I might give it another try, this time with a test file generated with random content using MyNikko's Dummy File Creator. Here are the new results:

Test #1

Test #2

Test #3

Windows XP

3:04.450

2:36.570

2:37.030

Windows Vista without RDC

2:28.780

2:22.700

2:35.490

Windows Vista with RDC

2:22.440

2:37.500

2:40.080


The timings don't seem to be consistent and I believe that is due to the different file allocation every time - the machine wasn't doing much else, explorer.exe was the only one in top using not too much CPU. The Vista with RDC disabled seems to be slightly faster, to my surprise it looks even faster than XP, although overall copying in Vista "felt" slower than XP - maybe XP feels faster than Vista just because Vista has a finer progress bar and you can actually notice when the copying is faster at start-up and then it gradually gets slower for some reason, then at the end it gets really slow and the copying window just stays on for a second or two. But from what I can see in my case, Vista with RDC off is about as fast as XP if not faster when copying the 1 GB test file.

Well, as a conclusion, this may not be the best test scenario as RDC is supposed to affect transfer over the network, the "tip" seems to confirm somewhat, even with local transfers - I may have another go accross local network sometime next week. Personally, I will keep RDC disabled just because it felt a bit quicker and I don't have another RDC capable machine on the network to take advantage of the feature. I can see though the potential advantage when transfering large files that change very little between two RDC capable machines (e.g. Outlook .pst files between say Vista and Windows Home Server?!) but I don't think this is much help for the usual home user. Definitely recommend trying it for yourself and see which one's better for you, on or off - see the steps here (screenshots) on how to enable/disable Remote Differential Compression.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Video: Why Intel 915 graphics don’t have a WDDM driver for Vista

http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2007/04/video-why-intel-915-graphics-dont-have-a-wddm-driver-for-vista/

Read the full article on Josh Bancroft's blog, on short it's about the lack of WDDM drivers for Intel 915 integrated graphics much needed to run Vista Aero, Movie Maker and DVD Maker and the reson for that is that the Windows Vista WDDM driver spec came after 915 was complete and in production and is missing a hardware piece needed to be WDDM compliant. Some people complained that Aero used to work on 915 in one of the release candidates, and Josh explains that Intel didn't change the drivers but Microsoft has changed the product to not allow XPDM drivers access to those features.

Also found this on Intel's website explaining the hardware limitations in 915 chip.

Q5: Why doesn’t the Intel 915 Express chipset family support Windows Vista Aero?
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-023606.htm#5

To be honest from reading Intel's explainations I kinda get that it would've worked but would've been slow. I think there's a bunch of politics involved as well, they can't release some half compliant WDDM driver since they are such a big company and obviously they don't want to spend time and money on an older chipset so they've dug up these technical details. Fair enough, but they should've came out with these explanations from the beginning and most people probably would've understood, now there's a bunch of angry people out there feeling that they've been deceived, they are not sure now if it's Microsoft or Intel or both.

Personally, I don't think they did a great job with the XPDM driver either, I can notice is slower on my R2H in Vista compared to XP even when drawing up windows and not themed ones - so maybe they should've tried to put together some half-cooked WDDM driver and release it through some Intel community channel, there are you are boys, we couldn't build a public release WDDM driver cause Microsoft would never sign it, why don't you have a go at this version but keep in mind you are on your own, don't come back crying if it brakes. It would've been installed by the 6000 technology geeks petitioning now, there you go is slow as we told you a while ago, then everyone would've disabled Aero cause it draws too much battery but happy now they have a WDDM driver :-) and maybe then I could've been able to change the brigthness from Vista Mobility Center :-) but since that won't happen, back to the drawing board on that one...

Sunday, June 15, 2008

ASUS R2H - ADI SoundMax drivers

While looking for a new audio driver for Vista on RH2 I found this exhaustive post on nForcersHQ.com forum covering various ADI SoundMax drivers for XP and Vista (btw, mine has an ADI 1986 chip, or so it says in Device Manager, Hardware IDs).

I've tried the latest one from the ASUS series, the one labeled 6.10.02.6400 [03-01-2008] which I believe is in fact 6.10.1.6400 due to some strange ASUS version labeling, I've seen this with the latest sound driver available on the ASUS R2H drivers page as well - note the driver version on the page then download the file and open the i386\Vista\ADIHdAud.inf and look for DriverBuildID.

You may have to uninstall the previous SoundMax drivers from ASUS (Control Panel > Programs and Features). It seems to bring an audio processor from Sonic Forge that you can configure from Control Panel > Sound > Playback (tab) > Speakers (configure) > System effects (tab). You will also notice that when enabling the Sonic Focus processing the sound is fuller and also audiodg.exe will take about 10% CPU. Oh, the software will also install a SoundMax entry in Control Panel that doesn't seem to work and it's related to that the same icon in tray area (disabled, you can get rid of it using Autoruns - also remove the SoundMaxPNP entry if you get an error message about it when you logon).

One other thing, when enabling the audio effects, these drivers still have the bug where it's loosing handlers, explained here at WithinWindows.com - you see them going by in Task Manager or Process Explorer, add the Handles column and watch audiodg.exe process - before throwing another one at Microsoft :-) read the article at WithinWindows.com.

Next in line was the 6.10.01.6200 driver from Lenovo. Nothing added there, just that it simply works, when compared to the default Windows Vista driver :-) No audio effects as you won't be able to use the installer - extract somewhere and use the Device Manager > Update driver > Let me pick my ... button and go for i386\Vista folder, not that you will, but just if you were thinking to try it anyways...

Same luck with the 6.10.01.6380 Lenovo drivers, installer doesn't work, you could update them manually but again why would you.

Finally, the conclusion is that if you want the audio effects you should install the ASUS drivers. If you don't want/need the effects you can simply uninstall previous SoundMax entries from Control Panel and use the Device Manager to manually update the drivers with whichever driver you want, without the audio effects they all sound as flat as the other one :-) I'll keep an eye on the Sonic Focus support page if they post a driver for ADI 1986 (the current one is for 1988 chip) maybe the CPU usage is going to drop as well as fixing the handles issue.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

ASUS R2H - How to restore the state of integrated GPS receiver after reboot


Posted by Bogdan Apostol  on
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070419204221625&board_id=3&model=R2H&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
Hello fellow R2H owners

I was very much annoyed that on reboot the GPS didn't recall the last setting, like the WIFI remains active on restart... so, I have decided to write my own application that activates and deactivates the device. I am also planning to work on my own navigation system and some other GPS enabled applications.

I am very happy to, finally, make time for this (have the R2H for some time now) and would like to share this small tool with all of you. It is very simple to use, and can be set to run once on start-up. It acts as a command-line, with the following syntax:

gpsCtrl.exe [on|off]
Everytime is being executed, it stores the last option in registry... and when executed without parameters, will read the last option "on" / "off" from registry and activates / deactivates the device accordingly.

Also, for those developers out there, I am providing the full source code of this small utility. I have no idea how to attach a file on this forum, so, those interested can contact me on the email specified on my profile page and will be more than glad to send a reply with the corresponding attachment. Here's my profile page: http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=2619477

Happy navigation!

~~~
I have managed to upload the tools here: http://r2h.setbb.com/viewtopic.php?t=2

I'm hoping to be able to put more useful things on that forum; anyone invited to subscribe for news / updates.

Best regards,

Bogdan



UPDATE 26 Nov 2016

Now also available on GitHub dandar3/ASUS-R2H-gpsCtrl project, see Releases for downloads.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.2.0.1001

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2101&DwnldID=16012&strOSs=44&lang=eng

This driver provides support for high-capacity & fault-tolerant Serial ATA (SATA) RAID 5 arrays and high-performance & fault-tolerant SATA RAID 10 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X and 945 chipset-based platforms. It provides support for high-performance SATA RAID 0 arrays & redundant SATA RAID 1 arrays on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925, 915 chipset-based platforms. It also provides AHCI support on select Intel® 4 Series, 3 Series, 965, 975X, 955X, 945, 925 and 915 chipset-based platforms, as well as on Mobile Intel® 915/910 chipset-based platforms.

Note: Intel® RAID Technology requires the Intel® ICH9R/ICH10R SATA RAID controller hub, Intel® 82801HR I/O controller hub (ICH8R), Intel® 631xESB/632xESB I/O controller hub, Intel® 82801GR/GH I/O controller hub (ICH7R/DH), Intel® 82801FR I/O controller hub (ICH6R).

Read Me (txt) Release Notes (htm)

File : iata82_enu.exe
Version : 8.2.0.1001
Date : 2008/06/02
Size :
6858 KB
OS : Windows Server* 2003, Windows Server* 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Vista*, Windows Vista* 32, Windows Vista* 64, Windows* XP Home Edition, Windows* XP Media Center Edition, Windows* XP Professional, Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition

This download is also valid for the products listed below. Use the links below for additional product downloads:

Intel® 3 Series Chipsets
Intel® 4 Series Chipset
Intel® 5000P Chipset
Intel® 5000V Chipset
Intel® 5000X Chipset
Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 955X Express Chipset
Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 975X Express Chipset
Intel® E7230 Chipset
Intel® Matrix Storage Manager
Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family

INF Update Utility 9.0.0.1008 - Primarily for Intel® 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=816&DwnldID=16023&strOSs=163&lang=eng

Intel® Chipset Device Software is the new name for the Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility; this name will be seen when running the installation package.

The Intel® Chipset Device Software installs the Windows* INF files. The INF files inform the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as AGP, USB, Core PCI, and ISAPNP services.

Note: This version of the utility no longer contains support for chipsets using an I/O controller hub older than the Intel® 82801EB controller hub (ICH5).

Note: This version of the utility no longer contains support for Microsoft Windows* Millennium Edition and Windows* 98SE.

Read Me (txt) Release Notes (htm)


Download
Ver : 9.0.0.1008
Date : 6/2/2008
Size : 2455 (KB)
OS : Windows Server* 2003, Windows Server* 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server* 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Vista*, Windows Vista* 32, Windows Vista* 64, Windows* 2000, Windows* XP Home Edition, Windows* XP Media Center Edition, Windows* XP Professional, Windows* XP Professional x64 Edition


This download is also valid for the products listed below. Use the links below for additional product downloads:

Intel® 3 Series Chipsets
Intel® 4 Series Chipset
Intel® 6300ESB I/O Controller Hub
Intel® 848P Chipset
Intel® 865 Chipset Family
Intel® 875P Chipset
Intel® 910 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 925X Express Chipset Family
Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 946 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 955X Express Chipset
Intel® 965 Express Chipset Family
Intel® 975X Express Chipset
Intel® Centrino® Duo Processor Technology
Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology
Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility
Intel® E7210 Chipset
Intel® E7221 Chipset
Intel® E7230 Chipset
Intel® E7320 Chipset
Intel® E7520 Chipset
Intel® E7525 Chipset
Intel® E8500 Chipset
Intel® E8501 Chipset
Mobile Intel® 910GML Express Chipset
Mobile Intel® 915 Express Chipset Family
Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family