The major saving will be to turn off indexing which wakes up periodically and scans your disk for changes (eats up disk and processor). I also recommend changing the Performance tab to be performance oriented versus presentation oriented, and just turn on a few presentation options like smoothed fonts. I turn Aero off also, so my Vista machine looks as close to XP as it can get.
Also, and this is where your brains will scream at you, but I have never found any antivirus program that didn't mess up my SDR machine (and I have tried a bunch of them). So I leave them off. Especially anything that does "real time protection". Commercial machines (i.e. ones you don't build yourself) comes with a lot of what microsoft calls "crapware" that can eat away at your processor capacity so delete all of those too (unless you are really using them). Neal Campbell Abroham Neal Software Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux www.abrohamnealsoftware.com (540) 242 0911 On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Scott Myers <ac...@ameritech.net> wrote: > Neal, > > Thanks for the info. Answering questions: > > -Yep, you can't disable the PSI root port, else the Firewire card isn't even > seen. Makes sense, but I tried it just to make sure. > - Not much Vista tweaking has been done. I went to tweakhound.com and read > over a good portion on there. There is nothing that jumps out and bites me > and says, yes, this could bog things down. Not that I have tried everything > he suggests, as this will takes DAYS! I also believe there is a basic > underlying problem and it isn't some esoteric Vista setting that squeezes > another 2% out. > - I did the HD check for errors. It was fine. > - No, the PSD hangs, there is no increase in system utilization. So that > makes me wonder if there is a way to give PSD greater priority for processor > time than anything else running. You know how bad Vista is about doing > things in the background you are unaware of. Just a thought. > - I am not normally doing searches when PSD is running, so I don't know how > much file indexing is coming into play. I could disable the indexing, but I > can live with a dropout if I do a search or just disable it later if I start > searching while running PSD. > > Thanks, > Scott AC8DE > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Neal Campbell [mailto:nealk...@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 2:21 AM > To: Scott Myers > Cc: Tim Ellison; flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Freeze-ups on new Flex-3000 > > Scott, I bet that the IRQ sharing with the PSI root port is okay so we > can probably discard that. Have you done any Vista tweaking yet? One > thing is make sure that you have disabled TCPIP over your firewire > card. You can go to www.tweakhound.com and look up his article on > tweaking vista, It is not as effective a tweaking XP just because it > is so much larger/ > > Also, make sure you have performed a disk ckeck operation (by right > clicking on the disk icon and then selecting the Toops tab, then click > on automatically fix all errors. Since it will be your boot drive you > cannot succeed so click yes when it suggests that you reboot your > system. > > When PowerSDR hangs, do you have high CPU utilization (e.g. 60+%) If > so, try setting the run time priority to above average in your setuip > menu. > > Finally, if you still have file indexing active, you should try > defeating that and let your searches take a bit longer instead of > causing your machine to be slowed down. > > > Neal Campbell > Abroham Neal Software > Programming Services for Windows, OS X and Linux > www.abrohamnealsoftware.com > (540) 242 0911 > > > > > On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 12:03 AM, Scott Myers <ac...@ameritech.net> wrote: >> Perhaps Neal is onto something... at least I hope so. I did already do > what >> you suggested Tim with the DPC checker, which I failed to mention earlier. >> I do get the long latencies when PowerSDR freezes of course. When it is > not >> freezing, it is running at less than 1000. >> >> I checked the IRQ's and indeed, the Firewire card is sharing and IRQ (19) >> with something that appears to be core to the computer. It is called > "Intel >> IC8H Family PSI Express root port 2845", which would appear to be > something >> associated with the very slot the ExpressCard is plugged into. It is > listed >> under System Devices. Now whether this is normal or not, I have no way of >> knowing. >> >> Regardless, I do not see any way of changing the IRQ for either device, > like >> we could in the "good old days". >> >> I took these thoughts a bit further and realized I had installed Vcom in >> order to try to use Ham Radio Deluxe. (Which I never got off the ground, >> but that is something for another thread.) So I uninstalled it and this >> didn't have any affect either. >> >> I may try getting things running on my older Prescott chipped 4 GHz >> workstation. Its older, but it should work OK without all the "baggage" > of >> a laptop... not to mention it is XP! (No, I do not like Vista like most > that >> are unfortunate enough to have it, but that is another story.) However, > it >> would be nice to have it able to run on two of my computers though. The >> laptop is nice if I want to take the rig to a friend's shack. >> >> Still scratching my head, >> Scott >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Neal Campbell [mailto:nealk...@gmail.com] >> Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:01 PM >> To: Tim Ellison >> Cc: Scott Myers; flexradio@flex-radio.biz >> Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Freeze-ups on new Flex-3000 >> >> Scott >> >> First place to look is the Device Manager. When you bring it up, >> click on the Views menu and select by connection type menu item. >> Search the entries for your 1394a card and see what else is being >> shared on the same interrupt. Usually, high DPC is a result of having >> the fireware card on the same interrupt as a nigh-usage IRQ (like >> maybe its sharing its IRQ with the USB controllers, video card, >> graphic cards, etc.) >> >> Let me know what you find. >> >> Chow, >> >> Neal k3nc >> >> >> >> On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 8:30 PM, Tim Ellison <telli...@itsco.com> wrote: >>> Scott, >>> >>> I bet you have a DPC issue. >>> >>> Open the DPC checker in the FLEX Firewire control panel and let it run. >> Watch it carefully and you should see a correlation between a very long >> duration DPC (or several in a row) with the freeze ups. >>> >>> If you see that, then we know where to start looking for the culprit. >>> http://kc.flex-radio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50328.aspx >>> >>> >>> >>> -Tim >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz >> [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Scott Myers >>> Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:08 PM >>> To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz >>> Subject: [Flexradio] Freeze-ups on new Flex-3000 >>> >>> I recently received my new Flex-3000. At first it seemed to be working >> OK. >>> Then I noted it would freeze up right after I started PowerSDR. So I >> would stop and restart and it would just run for hours. Then I had a > memory >> issue that was unrelated to PowerSDR and had to update my bios and video >> driver. >>> >>> >>> >>> Than all those little lock ups started happening often; it would happen > as >> often as every 30 seconds or it might go 5 minutes, but it wouldn't be > long. >>> So I followed the instructions on the Knowledge Center and backed the >> sampling all the way down to 48 KHz, turned buffer to 2048. Little >> noticeable change. I even tried turning on the expert mode for buffer > size >> and tried various settings. Still no change. >>> >>> >>> >>> I am running on a Dell Inspiron 1720 with a NVIDA GeForce 8400 video > card. >>> I am using one of the recommended RICOH ExpressCard firewire cards with > TI >> XIO2200 chipset. I have a Centrino Duo processor 2 GHz, 2 Gb of ram, >> Windows Vista home premium 32 bit and it get a 3.3 Vista "performance >> index". >>> >>> >>> >>> So I am now at a standstill. I can't carry on a QSO for more than 30 >> seconds with any certainly of not freezing up. >>> >>> >>> >>> Any ideas? >>> >>> Scott AC8DE >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> FlexRadio Systems Mailing List >>> FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz >>> http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz >>> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ >>> Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: >> http://www.flex-radio.com/ >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> FlexRadio Systems Mailing List >>> FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz >>> http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz >>> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ >>> Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: >> http://www.flex-radio.com/ >>> >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/
