Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Auslogics Disk Defrag & Ultradefrag

I have been using and recommending Auslogics Disk Defrag for years, and particularly like the ability to move system files to the fast part of the disk.

I started using Ultradefrag for the boot-time ability to defrag the pagefile. The program runs quickly.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Mixing PC Memory Speeds

The PC configuration had been upgraded to add two 1 GB memory sticks. The new memory had faster timings than the original two 256 MB memory sticks. The PC adjusted the speeds to match the older, slower memory chips.

Memory overview. Note the speed is 199.5 MHz and FSB:DRAM is 1:1. Also note the clock numbers.
























Four sets of memory:

























I removed the two original memory chips, and the memory speed is about 1/3 faster at 266 MHz and with faster clocks.








Saturday, May 28, 2011

Microsoft Safety Scanner

For those who want to try something a little different, Microsoft's Safety Scanner is available at no-charge to scan for malware.


From Microsoft:
The Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free downloadable security tool that provides on-demand scanning and helps remove viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It works with your existing antivirus software.

Note: The Microsoft Safety Scanner expires 10 days after being downloaded. To rerun a scan with the latest anti-malware definitions, download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner again.


Scan results:

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Windows Update With Older ATI Hardware

The ATI drivers from 2006 have had a few minor glitches. Repeated attempts to upgrade through Windows Update and through Windows Device Manager resulted in no available upgrades.

AMD (owner of ATI) has this page to upgrade to drivers from 2010.

The upgrade went smoothly.



After the upgrade I used Windows Device Manager to look for an additional upgrade. It found an "upgrade", which was a downgrade to the previous version from 2006.



This was cured by reinstalling the ATI upgrade.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Repair Windows Master Boot Record

A corrupt MS Windows master boot record can be serious, though is often simple to correct.

Boot from the installation CD and start the recovery console.  Use the fixmbr command to repair the boot record.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Overheating Laptop

A laptop that would intermittently turn itself off has been diagnosed as overheating.  Even with multiple underside fans running, the laptop could not keep itself cool.  The small form factors don't tolerate dust buildup.

Note the internal temperature of 63C in this picture from SpeedFan.