Recent Posts

3501

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 12:09 PM »

Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma... I'm in the same boat. *Should* I pursue trying to find either an IDE version of the Samsung drive or a second generation 7200 rpm drive?! Or should I just be happy with what I've got? A little fence sitting to watch which way the wind blows is looking pretty attractive right now!

3502

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:58 AM »

Ooh! And thanks for the link to Microbytes. I've not come across them before and they ship country-wide... Maybe that's not a good thing... This could get me into trouble 

EDIT: Maybe not... it looks like I can have any modern drive that I want, as long as I want a SATA drive  Best I can do is a first generation 7200 Seagate Momentus but that's not likely to improve much for me beyond the drive I already have!

3503

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:56 AM »

I currently have a Samsung 120GB 5400 rpm drive installed (HM120JC) and have been very happy with it. Most of my previous 5400 rpm drives have been IBM/Hitachi Travelstars. I like the Samsung drive because it's QUIET - Travelstars are always thrashing... I also like Toshiba drives   Thanks for the link to Tom's Hardware - I'd forgotten about that site. I'll have to check out how my current drive stacks up - I did... OUCH! Time to buy a newer drive...

Like f0dder, though, I'd go for the faster drive... For me, size isn't a huge factor as I already have a 500GB external and by the time I fill that up no doubt we'll be seeing TB notebook drives...

3504

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP Pro x64 (64-bit) Edition - Favorite Software Compatibility Thread

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:41 AM »

betaclock does not work on x64.  Also not working sarbyx trayclock.

-mouser (December 29, 2007, 11:30 AM)

Hmm... that's too bad, sorry it didn't work out 

3505

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:38 AM »

It was ME!

-Darwin (December 29, 2007, 11:30 AM)

WTF, thought for a minute you were doing something to my machine

-tomos (December 29, 2007, 11:33 AM)

All of your processes are belong to me! ME! (Maniacal laughter ensues, cue music, roll credits).

3506

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:35 AM »

Just checked, Tom, Dopus is using 18MB working set and 121MB private memory. explorer.exe is using... drum roll... wait for it...


17MB private bytes and 30MB working set memory.

I had Process Explorer set up wrong (hadn't noticed) and can now report that at the moment explorer.exe is using 56MB private bytes and 33MB working set memory.

3507

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:30 AM »

One is a trojan

Wasn't someone in the forum with the same problem? Maybe it was you, tomos?

-Lashiec (December 29, 2007, 11:24 AM)

It was ME! I traced the second explorer.exe to QTTabBar...

EDIT: added some clarity...

3508

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP Pro x64 (64-bit) Edition - Favorite Software Compatibility Thread

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:25 AM »

Superboyac's post about betaclock is here: https://www.donation...27.msg90768#msg90768

I've installed it an really like it on 32-bit XP 

3509

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows XP Pro x64 (64-bit) Edition - Favorite Software Compatibility Thread

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:19 AM »

1st Clock looks nice but $30 is pretty steep considering the free alternatives. I'm not sure what other functionality you're looking for, but have you tried Superboyac's favourite Betaclock? I'm not sure if it runs on 64 bit XP or not...

3510

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:16 AM »

100MB of working set memory... the private bytes size was something awful as well - can't remember offhand what it was, about 80MB I belive!

3511

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits on your Windows XP machine with eBoostr

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:15 AM »

Yes, the information on eBoostr that is available is pretty much nil. Once you install it and setup a cache, you can explore the cache, which would give you some clues as to what it does. Sort of reminds of prefetching on steroids. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to interpret it (no idea, in other words)! I can post a screenshot, if anyone is interested...

3512

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 11:07 AM »

Crap, f0dder! Explorer.exe on my XP Pro system fluctuates from a (seldom seen) low of 13MB of memory up to 100MB of memory. Currently, using 32MB memory and 58MB VM, so having a decent day here 

3513

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits on your Windows XP machine with eBoostr

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 10:58 AM »

Just to clarify a point I made in my post about RAM optimization (and to anticipate a question or two) - in addition to simply disabling the icon in the system tray that reported how much RAM I had available, I also disabled automatic RAM recovery. After I had "survived" like this for a couple of months I simply uninstalled the RAM optimizer and never looked back. At this point I had been running Tenebril's MemoryBoost (I recall having gotten fed up with CachemanXP's habit of failing to report the amount of RAM free correctly. Wish I'd run the above experiment BEFORE paying for another RAM boosting application  ).

3514

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits on your Windows XP machine with eBoostr

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 10:52 AM »

Heh, heh, thanks guys  I'm using CachemanXP because I bought it back when I was running the Win2k machine with 512MB of RAM (it sits in a bag in my closet because I stepped on it a few months ago and cracked the lcd  ). When I upgraded to 2GB RAM on my newer notebook I thought "What the heck, I'll use it to tweak the cache settings, which is what I've done. More than likely, it's simply applied one or more of the suggestions that you have made. I'll investigate...

Now... to eBoostr. I'm still running it and still feel that it improves that stability of my system (placebo?!). I picked up a 4GB Kingston DataTraveller (upper middle of the pack for speed AFAICT) for $25 in the boxing day sales and am using it, 4GB of a 40GB USB powered drive with nothing else on it, and 4GB of my 500GB external backup harddrive with eBoostr. I don't believe that eBoostr is speeding up my boot times - in fact I suspect that my boottimes are somewhat slower now - but I do feel that when running a number of heavy programs concurrently my system is more stable with eBoostr than without. I'd prefer to install more RAM, but I've already got double the supposedly maximum amount of RAM that my notebook will support AND 1.5GB SODIMMS are too expensive to take a chance with. I've not really noticed much difference when running one, two, or three caches (as outlined above) and have written to the developer asking for clarification on what the advantages of running multiple caches are, if any. I'm waiting for a response to that e-mail. I've already had a response to a number of recommendations that I've made, and they hope to incorporate one or more of them into the next version (1.2, I presume). They've also acknowledged that the documentation needs to be improved and have promised that it will be forthcoming.

Anyone else actually taken the plunge and tried this?

Placebo-boy 

3515

General Software Discussion / Re: Vista’s ReadyBoost benefits on your Windows XP machine with eBoostr

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 10:23 AM »

I gave up on memory optimizers as well (and I purchased at least two dedicated optimizers, along with CachemanXP). All things being equal, if you can expand your RAM, that's the best solution. I still have CachemanXP installed on my system but only to use it to tweak my cache - I have the memory recovery disabled because I don't want it going near my RAM. Having said this, there are times when it may be justifiable to use these software solutions and that's when you're dealing with bios limitations that won't allow you to install anymore RAM. However, even when I only ran 512MB of RAM on a Win2k notebook (RAM was maxed at this point), I discovered that it ran just fine when I didn't obsess about the amount of RAM that was free on it. I noticed that if I turned off the memory optimizer (and thus had no visual cue in my taskbar about the amount free) and disciplined myself NOT to keep invoking task manager to check my RAM, that my machine ran just fine. Every couple of weeks it would occur to me to check at a point when all was well but when I had a lot of processes running and I'd be surprised to find that I might have only 35MB free! Now that I have 2GB RAM on my current - though now elderly - notebook, I never even think about it. I've just checked and I've got 1.2GB free. The "old me" would be fretting about the fact that I only booted my computer an hour ago and have only Outlook and Maxthon open, so where'd my 800MB of memory go?! The "new me" couldn't care less.

As tinman notes, YMMV. This is my experience: there's a significant placebo effect with RAM optimizers. I've found that once you stop worrying about the amount of RAM that is free it becomes a non-issue so that the RAM optimizer simply isn't necesary.

EDIT: add last sentence.

3516

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 10:02 AM »

PS Ehtyar's link is a LOT more comprehensive than the example I just posted However, I'd be extremely leery about hacking a resource like explorer.exe. All I can say is backup, backup, backup your system with a disk image preferably, before you even THINK about trying it.

3517

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows Explorer [SOLUTION]

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 09:59 AM »

Ha! Ehtyar - you beat me to it. I came back here to post this link as illustrative of how to get around WFP 

3518

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 29, 2007, 09:54 AM »

Great! Another guinea pig (I hope)! As I've stated, I'm quite keen to see/read more real world/real user's experiences with the upgrade to a 7200.2 drive vs. 5400 rpm. For me to go down this road will involve ordering a drive and paying to have it shipped to me, so I want to be sure that it's going to be worth my while  Thus, Ken and Armando, if either or you do this, please let us know how things turn out.

PS Thanks, vega, for already telling us about your experience. Would you mind elaborating on it a bit? For example, have you noticed a big difference in terms of battery life and heat dissipation? How about performance - how significant is the increase (yes, I know this is pretty subjective!)? What might be more interesting - from everyone who goes down this path - are the specs of the notebook that you upgraded. I'm considering doing this on a first generation Centrino with an anaemic 1.4Ghz PM processor and 2GB of 266MHz RAM. I'm wondering if the upgrade to a 7200.2 drive is going to benefit me that much given that the bottleneck on my system is the processor (not that I really suffer that much)...

3519

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 28, 2007, 06:03 PM »

Armando - I eagerly await your report on the effect of upgrading to 7200 rpm! I realise that I'll have to wait until you actually buy and install the beast... but I'm curious as to whether or not you will see the performance gains you are looking for. I'm also interested in the hit on your battery and any perceptible increase in the operating temperature that you see. I'm leaning towards waiting now until I get a modern machine as the laptop I am on now has a slow CPU and a slow bus speed - they're the real bottleneck.

3520

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« Last post by Darwin on December 28, 2007, 12:29 PM »

I've ordered four harddrives over the years (if memory serves - might be more) through the post and have never had a problem. Regarding taxes, though WATCH Canada Border Services Agency!!!!! They'll slap a $5 inspection fee onto your package and then PST and GST and possibly duty as well. I got my Donationcoder mug in the post and had to pay $18.16 in taxes and inspection fees to be able to take possession (NB it shipped with an invoice indicating the price as $99.99). The problem is that they are entirely random about whether or not they inspect a package. Just be prepared...

It'd be tempting though... as TigerDirect.ca has the same drive for $195 CDN. before taxes and shipping  FWIW, if it was me and I could get it in person for $179 + taxes, I'd take that route...

3521

General Software Discussion / Re: Question: Quickest way to receive spam?

« Last post by Darwin on December 28, 2007, 08:51 AM »

Heh, heh - thanks for the update, nite_monkey. I'd entirely forgotten about asking it! I like Mythbusters as well... though with a 3 and a 5 year old and one TV I rarely get to watch it (I'm becoming an expert on Franklin, Dora, and shows of that ilk, though...) 

3522

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image

« Last post by Darwin on December 27, 2007, 12:49 PM »

I commented about Nero 7 in the post titled Nero 6 in this same section....

-Cuffy (December 27, 2007, 12:34 PM)

Ah... so you did! I've never tried Nero so wasn't actually aware that version 7 is problematic, let alone that version 8 is out!

Thanks again for posting the link, Cuffy 

What bits of Nero 7 should one avoid installing, Lashiec?

3523

Living Room / Re: Yet Another Ploy For Tinjaw (and collaborators) To Up His (their) Post Count(s)

« Last post by Darwin on December 27, 2007, 12:37 PM »

Hey! This is elitist and discriminates against those of us who do not participate on the IRQ channel  (But I'm still upping my post count )

3524

General Software Discussion / Re: Webopi: Rate Any Site

« Last post by Darwin on December 27, 2007, 12:03 PM »

Nice one, nighted  , and good point about software libraries, Armando 

 

3525

General Software Discussion / Re: Download Demons...

« Last post by Darwin on December 27, 2007, 12:02 PM »

I don't usually use a 3rd party downloader. When I do need one, though, I use Stardownloader Pro which sadly appears to have been abandoned. There is also a (likewise abandoned) ad-free freeware version available... http://www.stardownl...er.com/downloads.php

NB while it's effectively been abandoned, it still works well for me!