PCWorld.com - Secret Tweaks

[FrankDaTank86]

Secret Tweaks

20 unexpected ways to unleash the true potential of the technology products you already own.

Jim Aspinwall

From the March 2005 issue of PC World magazine

Your neighbors are doing it. Your coworkers are doing it. There's no shame in doing it--even in broad daylight. I'm talking about hacking: your digital camera, your MP3 player, your network, and of course your PC. If it has a plug, a jack, a battery, a cord, a chip, a disk drive, or a display, chances are it can be reprogrammed and tweaked in some way to give you more speed, advanced features, or greater storage--without your paying for a whole new unit.

Hacks can run the gamut from simple software downloads, to involved hardware swapping and modification that sometimes requires specialty parts. I'll point you in the right direction and walk you through the steps to get the goods, do the deed, and enjoy the secrets hidden within your gadgets. But first, a few important notes about safety and other considerations.

Hacking Caveats

Be aware that many hacks will probably void the warranty of your system or of specific components, so until you get comfortable it's best to start hacking on hardware you aren't too attached to. Also note that while some vendors are much more tolerant of hacks and tweaks than others--Intel and NVidia even provide you with some tools--many manufacturers take a harder line and try to make it as difficult for you as possible.

In any case, you'll want to take some precautions before you begin:

* First, back up any data you have stored on the device, or start with a fresh system--hacking can render your PC useless in a nanosecond but cost you hours of restoration time.

* Download and safely store the original firmware or drivers for a device, in case something goes wrong and you need to get your gadget back in working condition.

* When tuning up your PC, measure and test your system before you start and as you hack so that you can tell whether you're doing more harm than good. Check out "PC Benchmarks Tell the Speed Story" in this article to find out what to test and how.

* Disconnect the power before working inside the case of any device. Be careful not to drop or leave tools, screws, clips, loose wires, or extra brackets floating around inside the case; anything conductive could short out a critical circuit.

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PC Hardware: Free Speed: Overclocking Your PC

Performance Boosting Basics

Want a free speed boost for your computer? Try a little overclocking--an enthusiast trick that PC tweakers have been using for years to get free speed out of their systems. Many of today's CPUs can run faster than they're rated to do, and getting that added performance is simply a matter of carefully changing some settings. Overclocking won't turn an ancient PC into a powerhouse, but it can help you squeeze every drop of performance out of your machine.

Two variables set the speed at which your CPU runs: the system bus speed, and the CPU's clock multiplier. To determine the CPU's actual operating speed, those two values are multiplied together. For instance, a bus speed of 100 MHz and a multiplier value of 5.5 translate to a CPU running speed of 550 MHz. This simple formula works with most Intel Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4 chips, as well as with AMD chips.

Some motherboard and CPU combinations let you change one or both of those variables, setting a new speed for the CPU. Boost either setting and you're officially overclocking. In my experience, most CPUs and motherboards will run fine when overclocked 10 to 20 percent faster than the rated CPU speed. The bus speed setting may also affect the speed of the PCI or AGP bus, depending on which chip set the motherboard uses and how that chip set connects to all of the subsystems on the board.

The trick to overclocking is in knowing when to stop. Crank up the speed completely beyond the operating limits of the CPU, system bus, or RAM, and the PC will crash or freeze a lot. If you've set the clock too high on a system that holds the clock settings in BIOS, it may fail to boot, and you'll have to use the PC Setup program to reset the clock settings stored in CMOS RAM. (In some cases, you may have to reset the CMOS RAM more directly: Either remove the CMOS memory retention battery, typically a button-style cell, or move a jumper on the system board; that jumper is often marked 'clear CMOS'.) If your PC uses switches or jumpers to set clock and multiplier values, you'll simply need to reset them to a slower speed.

Utilities like NVidia's NTune, among others I'll discuss below, make it easy to play around with settings, test them, and store certain configs for special occasions--say, when you want a power boost to win in Half-Life 2.

Some systems (mostly the name brands, such as Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, and Sony) and many Pentium I, II, and III CPUs simply cannot be overclocked; the manufacturers hard-code clocking values into the components to minimize support calls.

CPU Overclocking the Easy Way

Most after-market motherboards built within the past three to four years, such as those from Abit, Asus, MSI, or Tyan, have CPU clock settings available in the PC Setup program stored in the BIOS chip. As your PC boots, an on-screen message should indicate which key you hold down to enter the PC Setup program. Your motherboard manual should explain how to find the parameters that control CPU speed.

The PC Setup program screen in Figure 1 is from an Abit KA7 motherboard that offers lots of overclocking controls when the CPU Operating Speed is set to 'User Define'. The CPU FSB/PCI Clock setting also affects the speed of the PCI bus. I have found that most PCI cards will overclock about as well as the average CPU does.

Overclocking the AMD Athlon XP+ 2600 processor on my ECS KT-600A motherboard involves just one setting. The multiplier in the Athlon XP+ 2600 processor is fixed at 11.5, allowing a CPU speed range between 1910 MHz (166 x 11.5) and 2288 MHz (199 x11.5). The Athlon XP+ 2600 runs at 1900 MHz typically, but the chip I tested worked well when overclocked to 2200 MHz.

CPU Overclocking by the Bits

Before designers made CPU speed settings changeable via software, switches or jumpers on the motherboard controlled the speed. You'll find this arrangement typical of early (3 to 4 years old or older) AMD, Pentium I and II, and Celeron boards. Overclocking with switches and jumpers works in the same way as using settings in PC Setup: You simply increment the multiplier and bus speed settings to speed up the processor until you find a reliable running speed.

The pictures in Figure 3 and Figure 4, above, show the jumper posts for the CPU's frontside bus speed, with options ranging from 100 MHz to 110 MHz. You can see the reference chart for the bus speed jumper settings silk-screened on the board (don't count on such a map being on the board--chances are you'll need a manual handy to properly set the jumpers and DIP switches). The CPU clock speed setting also affects the AGP bus speed on this board. Other motherboards use DIP switches (Figure 4) for both the CPU clock speed and the multiplier settings.

Video Overclocking Made Easy

Most of the overclocking buzz is not about turning a PC into a supercomputer. Instead, it's about gamers being able to see, navigate, run, and shoot faster and smoother. Not surprisingly, you can overclock the processors on your graphics card in much the same way you would your main CPU. Video gaming has come a long way since Pong first appeared on TV-style monitors in the early 1980s. Even if you don't play video games, boosting the performance of your graphics system can enhance the enjoyment of videos and business presentations.

Your graphics speed boost comes from within, without your having to pop the case. To start, simply download the appropriate graphics board hacking tool for the brand of card you have. NVidia has even built overclocking settings into its latest drivers. To enable them, open the Windows Registry editor by going to Start, Run, typing regedit, and pressing Enter. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/NVIDIA Corporation/Global/NVTweak/," right-click the right pane of the editor and choose to add a new DWord called coolbits. Edit that entry and give it a hex value of 3, then close your Registry editor. The NVidia tab (Figure 5) under your PC's advanced display properties settings will now feature a "Clock Frequency Settings" page that allows you to adjust memory and graphics chip clock speeds for your board. Click the "Detect Optimal Frequencies" button if you want the utility to try to find safe overclocked settings for your graphics board.

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Operating System: Make Windows More Efficient

Advanced Windows Tweaks

When I'm ready for some serious Windows hacking, I break out my copy of XQDC's $8 X-Setup Pro. X-Setup offers access to hundreds of novel, esoteric, and critical parameters that configure how Windows and many applications work. What's more, X-Setup Pro provides a lot of help so you can understand what the parameters are and whether they may have a negative impact on your system.

But before you dive into arcane Windows settings, there are some easier tweaks you can make. "Windows Rejuvenated" is full of detailed tips on how to reinvigorate and restore zip to Windows. If you'd like to go deeper, there are a few other settings you can modify to smooth your Windows experience. Your system will run more efficiently with a simple change to two important Windows file settings: the location Windows uses to store temporary files and the size and location of its paging, or swap, file (Figure 6).

Two Key Settings

Before you modify anything, clean some clutter off your hard drive:

1. Open My Computer, right-click your C: drive, and then select Properties.

2. Click the Disk Cleanup button, wait until the tool is done calculating, and then click OK and Yes to remove the litter.

3. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.

Now it's time to start tweaking. To tame temporary files and set the swap file size in Windows 2000 and XP, do the following:

1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.

2. Select the Advanced tab and then the Environment Variables button.

3. In the Environment Variables dialog box, select TEMP (Figure 7) and then TMP, and edit the values for those variables to point at an easily recognized drive and folder location so you'll always know where they are. That will make it easy to clean out those files periodically. When you're done making those changes, click OK.

4. On the Advanced tab under Performance, click Settings.

5. In the Performance Options box, select the Advanced tab.

6. Under 'Virtual memory', click the Change button.

7. Select Custom size, enter the same value for the initial and maximum sizes, and click the Set button (Figure 6). I like to set the swap file at a fixed size of at least 1.5 times the amount of RAM the machine has, unless the computer I'm working on has a lot of RAM. For systems with 256MB of RAM, I use a 384MB swap file. With a roomier 512MB of RAM, I back off to a 512MB swap file, and at a comfortable 1GB of RAM, I stick with 768MB.

8. Close the dialog boxes by clicking OK, then restart Windows.

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Networking: Optimize Your Net Connection

Boost your network's reliability and speed by tuning two important network settings in Windows: RWIN, short for Receive Window, and MTU, or Maximum Transmission Unit.

You can use Regedit to set these values in the Windows Registry following the instructions from Annoyances.org, or you can download and run the free DrTCP (Figure 8).

The RWIN setting alters the TCP/IP received-data buffering on your PC--the more you have, the faster your downloads, within limits. Most users have found that an RWIN value of between 32768 and 65536 yields the speediest downloads (if you don't set this, RWIN defaults to four times the MTU value).

MTU sets the maximum size of data packets sent and received, and it must match the type of connection you have--dial-up, PPPoE (most DSL and cable), or LAN. The standard maximum value for TCP/IP is 1500, but for dial-up connections it should be 576 to ensure minimal packet fragmentation. For PPPoE, an MTU of no more than 1492 is recommended. Some ISPs and virtual private network connections require a setting as low as 1300 to allow for the differences in all the networking gear in the system and for data encryption overhead.

For a little extra oomph, also tweak the number of simultaneous connections your PC can make to one server. If you have a fast cable or DSL connection, boosting this setting from its default value of two to four or six can help pages load faster. Some Web servers limit you to two simultaneous connections, so you won't see a speed increase on all sites you visit.

You will have to restart Windows for the changes to take effect. Determine the settings recommended for your PC and test them using the Tweak Test. It may take some time to find the best settings for your Internet connection.

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Quiet PCs: Keep Your System Cool and Quiet

Chill Your CPU, Dude

Speed breeds heat. After you've tuned up your CPU, it's especially critical that you get as much heat away from the chip as possible, or you'll end up with a smelly blackened chunk of fried silicon. Most systems come with factory-approved heat sinks and fans suitable for running the chip at stock speeds, but such standard equipment may be inadequate for overclocking, and it's usually pretty loud. A new heat sink and fan can improve your CPU cooling while keeping your system quiet. Zalman's $50 CNPS7000B CPU cooler (Figure 9) works with many Athlon and P4 CPUs. And Thermaltake's $40 CL-P0092 heat-pipe cooling system for P4 chips looks as cool as it works.

Heat sinks and fans are fine for most people; but at many overclocking and PC modder sites, water-cooling kits (ranging in price from about $100 to $180) are all the rage. Liquid cooling worked for Cray's supercomputers, but in that case the entire machine was immersed in inert nonconductive liquid--not exactly a practical setup for home users. Most liquid-cooling systems for PCs circulate water across a heat pad atop the CPU and then pump and dump the heat outside. This method offers incredible cooling advantages for extremely overclocked CPUs, chip sets, and graphics cards. Make sure you have enough room in your case and around the CPU before you buy, however.

Juicier and Quieter

All of your enhanced CPU overclocking and PC tweaking can kill your power supply, as the souped-up parts try to suck more juice out of this obscure, little, wire-crammed box in the corner of your PC case. You need a power supply upgrade, and you need it now. What better way to complement your tricked-out PC than a cool and quiet new power supply with enough juice to keep every chip, drive, and light-emitting source humming along?

Power doesn't always have to be as noisy as the exhaust rattle from a modified Honda Civic. A handful of vendors now offer fanless supplies, such as the $170 Antec Phantom 350-watt model (Figure 10). These units sport beefed-up internal heat sinks that provide enough cooling for the power supply without requiring you to use a noisy fan.

Pad Your PC for Quieter Operation

Now that you've shushed your power supply, it's time to do the same to your PC. You can quit shouting over fan noise and speak in your "inside voice" if you replace a few key components. Temperature-sensing, speed-adjusting fans built into some current PC models make a nice first touch--try the $6 Thermaltake A1214 if your machine needs replacements. But vibrations from fan and especially disk-drive rotation may still be enough to make you run screaming from the room.

Those large, flat-panel areas on the sides of your case can act as sounding boards for any noise inside your system. Put your ears at ease by installing vibration-dampening pads (Figure 11) from DampTek ($50 for a pack of three) on the inside of those panels.

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Digital Cameras: Hacking Pictures

Turn your Canon EOS 300D Into a 10D

With a mere file download and a simple firmware upgrade, your Canon EOS 300D can have many of the features of the much more expensive Canon 10D, including ASA settings over ISO 3200 (shown here), a custom functions menu, shutter release without a CompactFlash memory card present, and more. (I-hacked.com explains this top-notch camera hack and details its full benefits.)

Before you try this hack, grab a copy of the latest firmware upgrade from Canon's Web site, so you'll always be able to reinstall that firmware in case anything goes wrong. After that, performing the hack is a simple matter of following these steps:

1. Download the hacked firmware file here.

2. Use your camera to format a CF card that holds at least 8MB, then save the firmware on that CF card through your PC or Mac.

3. Insert the CF card into the camera.

4. Turn the camera on. It will recognize the firmware and give you directions on the LCD screen for how to proceed (basically you accept the new firmware and then restart).

Reusable Dakota Camera Can Be a Hacker's Bargain

Do you think basic digital camera features should be more affordable? So do I. Start with a trip to your local Ritz Camera or discount store and pick up a $20 reusable Dakota digital camera. You're supposed to buy a Dakota, use it, and then return it to the store to get your images printed. But with a few hacks, you can get the pictures out yourself.

John Maushammer has the Dakota well documented at his Web site, with details on how to hack a USB connection onto the camera. Once you can get pictures off the Dakota, click here for instructions on removing the camera's built-in software limit of 25 pictures.

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Audio Players: Store More Music

Pack More Drive Into Your Creative Nomad Zen Player

Whether the original 20GB hard drive in your Zen has crashed or you simply want to be able to pack more MP3 files into it with a bigger drive, replacing the Zen's hard drive requires little more than a small screwdriver and about 30 minutes. The Zen does all the hard work in its firmware, formatting the new drive so that it can store more MP3 files. Many Nomad-related forums mention this hack--and unlike with many hacks from techie forums, the conclusion in the real world is that this hack really is that simple.

Note: This hack will void your Zen's warranty.

The first step is to find an appropriate replacement or upgrade hard drive. Since Creative, the makers of the Nomad Zen, use commonly available 2.5-inch Fujitsu laptop hard drives, you should have no trouble finding a 20-, 40- or 60GB replacement at a well-stocked local computer shop or online retailer.

Make sure you have the Nomad Zen software installed on your PC before you begin, and transfer all your music to the PC first so you can load it back on the device when you're done.

With a new drive on hand, it's time to start the drive-ectomy on your Zen player. You will need a #0 or #00 cross-head screwdriver, steady hands, and a place to keep the parts from getting lost on the floor--a baking sheet works wonders. Set the player face down on a soft cloth to prevent marring the face. Then access and remove the current drive as follows:

1. Remove four screws that hold the Zen's back cover in place--two at the top and two at the bottom of the player.

2. Separate the cover from the body of the player. You will see the hard drive held in place with a metal retaining strap.

3. Remove the strap by prying the edges gently away from where they catch the player body at the top and bottom of the drive. Set the strap aside. It will be put back over the new drive.

4. Carefully lift the top end of the drive (at the opposite end from the connector) away from the player body and up to gain access to the flexible circuit and connector.

5. Gently pull the drive out by holding the flexible circuit and connector steady and rocking the drive slightly side to side.

6. At this point you will see the thin sheet of foam padding (Figure 12) that provides the drive a modest amount of mechanical shock protection. Keep the padding in place.

That wasn't so bad now was it? You're almost halfway through the project and no doubt excited and eager to finish and fill up the new drive; but first we have to install and format it:

1. Once again holding the flexible circuit and drive connector steady, carefully plug the new drive into the connector.

2. Lay the drive into the player body.

3. Replace the metal retaining strap around the drive and securely snap it onto the player body (Figure 13).

4. Replace the back cover and secure it using the four screws you removed in the step above.

So far, so good. The next steps to complete the hack and ready the player to take on music are much easier:

1. Connect the AC adapter to your player so you'll be sure to have enough juice to get the drive prepared, the player properly reconnected to your computer, and its firmware updated. Do not connect the USB or FireWire cable yet.

2. Power on the Zen. It should display a "rescue mode" menu. If not, hold down the Play/Pause button and reset the player.

3. Select option 2 (Format All). The "format" process takes but a few seconds. It's not really formatting the entire drive--just preparing it for the player's firmware, which you'll reload next.

4. Now connect the Zen to your computer. If you've previously installed the Nomad Zen software on your PC, Plug and Play should detect the presence and status of the player. The "ZenUniversalUpgrade" dialog should appear. If it doesn't, disconnect the player, reinstall the software, and then reconnect.

5. Select Yes to proceed with the firmware upload. After a few seconds you should be able to access the "JukeBox Information" to see the firmware version and the new storage capacity.

6. Load up your new drive with tunes and get jamming!

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10-Minute Tips

Radeon XT Platinum Hack

Something for nothing is a common theme among hacks. Sometimes flipping a bit or two can activate hidden power in your hardware, giving you a better product for free. In this case, the folks at I-hacked.comave documented how to upgrade the firmware in the ATI Radeon X800 Pro to turn it into a zippier Radeon XT Platinum.

Lose the Bells and Whistles

Windows provides lots of tiny options and animations that let you customize how the OS looks. They may look great, but each eats a bit of system resources. I normally don't care for fancy background pictures and special effects, as they distract me from the real work--or play--I use my PC for, so I turn them off as follows:

1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties.

2. Select the Desktop tab and choose (None) at the top of the Background list.

3. Click the Appearance tab and then the Advanced button. Choose Desktop in the item drop-down list and use the color 1 drop-down menu to pick a color for the screen background.

4. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

5. Right-click My Computer and then select Properties.

6. Select the Performance tab, and under Performance click the Settings button.

7. In the Performance Options dialog box, I choose Custom and deslect all of the sliding, fading, and animation options. I still get an attractive user interface but without the time-wasting special effects.

8. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

Nevo-Based Remote Control for the Rebel

If you have a Canon EOS Digital Rebel and a Nevo-enabled PDA (most current IPaqs), you'll want to get the Rebel remote shutter control add-in for your PDA from CameraHacker. The site contains several other tricks that are worth checking out.

Better Player Management for Windows

If you're disappointed in the synching software that came with your MP3 player, you're not alone. Red Chair Software, offers alternative player-management programs for lots of MP3 players, such as the $35 Notmad Explorer (for most Creative players), Anapod Explorer (for Apple's IPod and IPod Mini), Riorad Explorer (compatible with an increasing number of Rio's players), and Dudebox Explorer (for Dell's players).

Jim Aspinwall is an admitted hardware hacker and the author of O'Reilly's PC Hacks and McGraw-Hill's Installing, Troubleshooting, and Repairing Wireless Networks.

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This article can be viewed in 8 different pages by going to this website, http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid...267,pg,1,00.asp. Enjoy :D

[Joseph Zollo]

These are some great tips, thanks a bunch!!!

[vysakh]

stupid thread

[insanekiwi]

hahaha.

Want a free speed boost for your computer? Try a little overclocking. jeez. THAT'S ACTUALLY NEW TO ME :rofl:

[GameOverRob]

nice thanks

[thor777_au]

stupid thread

Why is it a stupid thread?

[Sensayshun]

Ironic. They build moderately low spec pc's shove them in a shiny case so that they look nice and then tell people how to make them faster. Could have spent their ?2000 on a less shiny case and a pc that'd be able to cope.

[Tevage]

thats a good point

[rageagainstmachine]

stupid thread

585605299[/snapback]

dont flame. we do not need people like that at neowin

RAM

[kaffra]

lol, overclock as a secrect tweek? The fix virtual mem 'tweak' doesnt work, in their example a lot of problems will come with heavy ram applications.

7. Select Custom size, enter the same value for the initial and maximum sizes, and click the Set button (Figure 6). I like to set the swap file at a fixed size of at least 1.5 times the amount of RAM the machine has, unless the computer I'm working on has a lot of RAM. For systems with 256MB of RAM, I use a 384MB swap file. With a roomier 512MB of RAM, I back off to a 512MB swap file, and at a comfortable 1GB of RAM, I stick with 768MB

[edbro]

Why is it a stupid thread?

585605313[/snapback]

Well, for one thing, he quotes the entire article as well as giving us the link. The link would suffice.

[WarStorm]

Well, for one thing, he quotes the entire article as well as giving us the link. The link would suffice.

585605718[/snapback]

Does it really matter? :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Interesting..but nothing i didnt know, could be useful to others tho

[McLaren_F1]

Thanks for the guide

[Axel]

Well, for one thing, he quotes the entire article as well as giving us the link. The link would suffice.

585605718[/snapback]

I would rather read the article in neowin... stops me having to visit any more sites.... there's no problem with copying the entire article in this case. There are some very useful tips there for some who may not already know.

[+longgonebn Subscriber²]

I am trying that videocard tweak.. I have a Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 64mb. I need to know what are good settings to put the clock and such speed at? Anybody know?

[Nelsinho]

yep, this can help someone here principally newbies then is useful anyway good job :)

[Hurmoth]

stupid thread

585605299[/snapback]

Stupid post :rolleyes:

Thanks for the info... I'll have to check this out :yes:

[Tech Star]

Nice Find man! Thx

[Tech Star]

stupid thread

585605299[/snapback]

Welcome to Neowin.net but why is this a stupid thread? If you don't have an answer don't flame and that is a stupid post! :rolleyes:

[Slimy]

cool stuff, will definitely add to my list

[johngalt]

Here is a link to the article in one big page, ready for printing:

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/...d,119267,00.asp

Great find, btw.

[FrankDaTank86]

Thanks for the link John... Also guys, feel free to look at the other threads that I posted. I hope that you find them useful as well. I'm not being mean, but I find it strange that I post great information (not this thread) and it gets something like 1,000+ hits or something like that and only 5 people respond with a thank you. Its interesting that some people take it and run away, but others take it and thank me for the info. Thank you guys for making me feel a little better =)

Frank

[PseudoRandomDragon]

Some systems (mostly the name brands, such as Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, and Sony) and many Pentium I, II, and III CPUs simply cannot be overclocked; the manufacturers hard-code clocking values into the components to minimize support calls.

585604405[/snapback]

That maybe one reason, but another reason is to prevent resellers from OCing the computer, then upping the specs and selling it at a higher price.

[Tech Star]

This is old

[DanManIt]

Thanks for summarizing all of the tweaks!