TweakHound

Computer stuff...

Eric (a.k.a. TweakHound)

Nvidia 195.62 WHQL Drivers Out

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Download’em here.

New in Version 195.62
* Adds GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta. Learn more here.
* Adds support for GeForce GT 240.
* Adds support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
* Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements. See CUDA Zone for more details.
* Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more.
* Includes numerous bug fixes including improved performance for Need for Speed: Shift. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.
* Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

Tweaking Windows 7

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My Tweaking Windows 7 guide is done (finally). I hope you find it useful.

Please help spread the word to your favorite website, friends, and family.

After so many hours of writing and editing everything tends to get a little jumbled in my mind. Please post any errors, suggestions in this post.

How long did it take to research and write? I don’t really know. More than a 100 hours, less than a 1000.

This labor of love started when Windows 7 beta was released. I am really impressed with Windows 7.

My goal of this guide was to make it a little easier to understand for the non-geek (thus it is screen-shot heavy).
It was also to ensure that the tweaks were safe and worked as advertised.
Verifying, and testing many of these tweaks required installs on laptops & desktops, 32&64-bit, UAC on & off, networked & not, etc.

Updated Intel Statement On SSD Firmware Issues

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Just saw this updated statement in the Intel SSD forums:

Intel Solid-State Drive Firmware Update — Nov. 16, 2009

Intel has confirmed an issue with the firmware update process for 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M SSDs (80GB and 160GB). This predominantly affected Windows* 7 (64bit) users during or immediately after the upgrade process to 02HA firmware using the firmware update tool (version 1.3). Intel plans to release a fix for this issue by the end of November 2009.

Please see below to decide what you should do:
– If you have not upgraded to 02HA but using 02G2 or 02G9 – then use new tool when available to upgrade to new firmware to get Trim support and better sequential write performance (160GB)
– If you have successfully upgraded to 02HA – then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.
– If you have received a SSD with 02HA pre installed – then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.
– If you have unsuccessfully upgraded to 02HA – then contact Intel Customer Support for instructions on how to recover the SSD via secure erase or return SSD to Intel for replacement or refund.

http://communities.intel.com/community/tech/solidstate?view=discussions

Windows 7 Superfetch

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I’m about 2/3 of the way done with writing the Windows 7 tweak guide. I’ve come across an issue that I need some help with. It applies to SSD’s. During my research I found these 2 statements:

“In Windows 7, SuperFetch is automatically enabled for disks that have a low Windows Experience Disk Score and disabled for disks that have a high score.”
Performance Testing Guide for Windows

and

“If the system disk is an SSD, and the SSD performs adequately on random reads and doesn’t have glaring performance issues with random writes or flushes, then Superfetch, boot prefetching, application launch prefetching, ReadyBoost and ReadDrive will all be disabled.” Engineering Windows 7 – Support and Q&A for Solid-State Drives

One problem with the above 2 statements. I have an SSD disk (specifically the Intel X25-M Generation 2). My Windows Experience score for Primary hard disk is 7.7 (out a possible 7.9). This was a clean install to this disk, not a clone or image. According to the above statements Windows 7 should have disabled Superfetch. Windows 7 did not disable the service nor adjust the registry settings. It is visable via Task Manager (SysMain) and is actively using system resources.
I’m interested if anyone has had Windows 7 disable this as they claim.
I would also like to know what qualifies as a high “Windows Experience Disk Score” according to Microsoft. (not really expecting an answer on this)