Tascam Computer Hardware Computer Hardware User Manual
Contents
1. One of the features of XP is the deeper integration of Windows Messenger While Messenger may be useful for on line communication it s a real resource hog we recommend disabling it for audio use To do this right click on its icon in the task tray and select open If an animated assistant pops up just cancel it we ll deal with getting rid of those later Now go to the Tools menu and select Options Preferences and uncheck Run this program when windows starts This will deactivate automatic startup preventing Messenger from loading automatically again next time you log on to Windows XP pi we Peuonal Phones Palanan Praca Conneschon Bera LJ Fan baa peppa maban wingis a GA Alea hit pnag san No un ive basig cured ee re a ag er raie 5 TITE Akit pa FF Display air nana ka baka nhan conieci cora aira a Cipla aborts raed Be kankibad eben n inlari mecisage i eed ma Pip soured when Saba aap in on here F ar Ey masaya LT Ka File Tiaraiwi t Fiksi receh bore oa iaaa ll ber gd in hn oder CiDoosanir and ietigrirgahiy Dorum Epas cet Figure 3 Deactivating Windows Messenger 11 Display properties While pretty photos and animated graphics are fun they also contribute to bogging down your lean mean audio machine And in keeping with Microsoft s tradition of making looks a high priority those fancy visuals are programmed to take processing priority away from what we consider2. you can safely disable any printers DNS clients etc but if you use it for other purposes like Intemet browsing you must leave DNS active Generally speaking these are the services you do NOTwant to disable Cryptographic services DHCP Client unless the computer has no intemet connection DNS Client unless the computer has no intemet connection Event log IPSEC Services unless the computer has no intemet connection Network connections unless the computer has no intemet connection Network location awareness unless the computer has no intemet connection Plug and play Portable media serial number if you use Cubase Logic orany otherapp which requiresa copy protection key TCP IP Net BIOS helper unless the computer has no intemet connection As to other services if you re not sure what it does your safest bet is to set it to Manual rather than disa bling it As with earlier versions of Windows some of the more non essential boot up programs are loaded into the Startup menu rather than through System Services These are usually though not always displayed in the system tray To see which programs are set up for Auto Start go to Windows Start menu select Run and type in msconfig without the quotes Select the startup tab to view a list of app s loaded for Auto Start Note that while it s also possible to disable auto load app s by editing the registry this is generally speaking far more risky and only recommend
3. Note that this does not imply that your NTFS based system can mount read from a MacOS drive simply that individual SDII files imported to an NTFS drive will retain their time sta mp information ACPI Another critical install detail is ACPI mode ACPI or Advanced Configuration and Power Interface isdesigned to help allocate sytem resources to more efficiently run peripheral devices Foran audio machine though it s been reported to cause some performance problems due to its assigning all devicesto a single IRQ During the install process when the on screen message appears press F6 to install additional drivers for third party SCSI drivers or mass storage devices press F5 instead When the screen appears giving you a choice between ACPI PC and standard PC mode select standard pc Here s a tip If you ve upgraded to Windows XP you may find it s lost one important feature when tuming off your PC Start Tum Off Computer Tum Off WinXP goes through its usual Windows is shutting down routine but it doesn t tum off the computer The power stays on with Windows helpfully informing you that it isindeed safe to tum off your computer now until you manually punch the off button This usually occurs if you ve opted to leave ACPI disabled To fix this you may want to enable APM Advanced Power Management Here s how Click Start Control Panel Click Performance and Maintenance at the lower left Click P
4. chama whata bat For arp compuber Cl adit for bea mai D adia Par bast performance desea inahas aides ibaan ininiring and maacdanibing fa _ Paca or ridia rarae mba wana O Packt dr daie Tenis ALO ma O Pasa at rera krs aaa arkir shor dadoa urde raram Show adan urde roa painba C Show iraran sakati saiange D Shor sinos conbents rhis dinggin Sii copan coria boom O Sile tinkber butors D Graph CA aaa Figure 10 Adjusting Display for Best Performance Virtual memory Windows defaults to setting virtual memory automatically Under most circumstances this is fine but for audio it can sometimes be a hindrance to performance If you want to set virtual memory sometimes refered to as Page Swap or Swap File manually go to Control Panel System and select the Advanced tab Under Performance click the Settings button and select the Advanced tab Under Virtual Memory click the Change button Enter the desired values in the boxes and click okay A good basic rule of thumb is to set Virtual Memory at about 1 5 to 2 times the amount of RAM in your computer up to 512 MB If you ve got 512 MB RAM set Virtual Memory to 512 Enter the same value in Minimum and Maximum fields It s also a good idea to defrag your drive after changing Virtual Memory If you have access to a third party defragging utility like System Suite Disk Keeper etc it s preferable to defrag with it rather than Windows defrag utility which doesn t
5. far more independence between these multiple user accounts If you will be using your computer for multiple functions it s a good idea to set up separate user accounts for audio applications and general use This will allow you to slim down the audio profile in order to gain maximum performance from the OS One important note If you choose to install multiple users it s best to do so when first insta Iling XP If you do so later you will need to reinstall your OS Another hint if you are using XP Professional your audio user profile should be assigned administrative rights it defaults to this anyway Reason You can only bum CDs under Windows XP if you are logged on with administrative rights Updates and service packs Microsoft has issued updates and fixes for every operating system they ve ever released and W2K and XP are no exceptions It s pretty much unavoidable with a new OS that there will be some programs and or hardware that don t function as expected and that s what the updates are intended to address With W2K the latest update is Service Pack 2 and it definitely addresses some known problems with audio and MIDI Windows XP is still relatively new and updates are still being developed As of this writing there are two updates Q307 and Q310507 both available from Microsoft which are recommended for improving audio performance 10 System Performance Tweaks Stuff to Do After Installing Windows Messenger
6. A Properties Ea Pim Action Ware hab Gael Fab Wakas ri gt amp a b Fail miia caching and 5 ala Marara E MT ERAGO Wa oe Cee rem Sat DOMES IF Im at Kinita GH BS ge A AICA EEH E Li D R Desi aiii ak TAA drem j Pogay ded ooie p r i p L Erais sia cachi or iha clin E Hren iili Dri si Thi nang oe ee ee nd gg IDE ADALAT APT conira biah ia paced ude na megane Leckie anag aai in chads hea g maging dre E ga Fete Pie ord othe pene ee 4 Pesce W isat PE Sai Port DOSH i LAT 1 bari a ar paran niri GE ha Eaa ok Cancel Figure 13 Disabling Wite Ahead Caching UDMA ATA Mode for Hard Drives As with earlier versions of Windows running Ultra DMA mode will considerably increase the speed at which your system writes to and reads from the hard disk With the current UDMA66 and UDMA100 protocols it s possible to reach throughput levels equal to that of wide SCSI drives resulting in greatly increased track count and system efficiency 20 Windows 2000 and XP can recognize a DMA capable device and will detect and activate DMA mode by default whenever one is connected Most drives manufactured in the last few years support DMA and most modem motherboards chipsets detect this You can check or change your settings by opening Device Manager right click on My Computer select Properties then select the Hardware tab and click Device Manager Expand the list by clicking o
7. TASCAM a whole world of recording Optimizing Windows 2000 and Windows XP for Audio Intro duc tion aaa 2 Deciding on an OS aaa 3 Windows XP Home or Professional u s 3 Hardware requirements aaa 3 Update or fresh install aaa 4 Give it Time 4 Preparing for installation aaa 5 a A 6 Formatting your Hard Disk aaa 6 Booting from CD aaa 7 Setup Tweaks Things to Do During the Install aaa 7 FAT32 VS NIFS ccsscsscssecssesnessnesnesnerseennesneesnesanesnenanennesnersnennesneeseenaesneesnenanesnenseeanesneeseenaesnonansnoess 7 PAC PA AAAH 8 Dual Boat aaa 9 Mass Storage Devices 9 Multiple Users 10 Updates and service pac ks aaa 10 System Performance Tweaks Stuff to Do After Installing 11 111 nmana nan naaa nananana nananana 11 Windows Messenger sssesseceseeeseeensnsnsncnseeuseeusneesoausoausnausnausnaausoausnausnaesnauseausnoesnaesnaesnaesnaaes 11 Display properties aaa 12 Windows SOUMNAS scsscceseceseeeseeensneesneeseeesoaesoausnausnaessoausnausnausnauseaesnaesnaesuaeesnaesnaesnaeseseeesneesaes 14 System Restore aaa 15 Performance u s nananana 15 Virtual memory u s 16 Fast user switc hing aaa 17 Auto Start and System Services aaa 18 Disk I O Perfomance Logging u s 20 Write Behind Caching aaa 20 UDMA ATA Mode for Hard Drives aaa 20 Separate Drives How and Where aaa 21 Defrag Often aaa 22 Virus and oth
8. al use a udio optimized etc Windows XP takes the multiple users concept a step further allowing for fast switc hing between user profiles without logging off the first user The applications in use by the first user will remain active until that user logs off or until the computer is shut down While this isa great feature for large corporate networks it s a big resource hog for your audio 17 machine All those applications running in the background require some degree of CPU usage aswell as RAM To disable this feature go to Control Panel and under User Accounts click on Change the way userslog on and off and uncheck fast user switching HG kaa iraran Qu Mm a E Prienai Tmin P zoh and loge Che the Wei urera Bp alg oe ecm rei rem iy OB pian HY ml reas Lih amen a emi aal dh Doh iinan aga branil biah i mii mi aad La oe iii ee oe Laan ae ee Paa aa eh aa Pr La ek ees a woe ee aoe aga hargi Sore wey a Teer aap afar amar be ria xi wan Figure 12 Disabling Fast User Switc hing Auto Start and System Services Earlier versions of Windows used the startup menu to specify programs which are loaded into memory on boot up Win2k and Windows XP still employ Auto Start for some programs but also handle most system based app s a bit more efficiently with System Services which are started in the background before Windowsboots up XP s improved multita sing allows these app s to run wit
9. are This is intended purely asa guide and your mileage may indeed vary Deciding on an OS Should you opt for Windows 2000 or a version of XP Windows 2000 has been around longer and many pros consider it more stable It s true that XP s still working out some of the kinks but by and large it s proving to be pretty robust W2k hashad more time in use thus benefits from more users problem reportsand hopefully the resulting fixes Chances are if you ve bought a new computer within the last year it s already got XP installed This pretty much makes the decision for you But don t wony too much since most applications are now tuned to run on XP as is most curent audio hardware In fact some of the problems and bugs encountered during the last year of WDM audio drivers development are fixed in XP In any case it s doubtful you ll encounter any major problems with either OS As Microsoft continues to develop and market XP it s likely we ll see support for Win9x begin to diminish over time In fact the latest updates for some audio applications have reduced MME support in favor of the more efficient WDM protocol and these app smay not mn asefficiently in MME mode under Windows 9x Windows XP Home or Professional Assuming you re going with XP you ve got a choice of two versions For the most part the differences between the Home and Professional versions of XP have little relevance to the audio user XP Professional contains much
10. do a true reorder of the swap file 16 NOTE Some users advise disabling virtual memory for increased performance We do not recommend this unless you have at least 512 MB of RAM Even then note that this is not practical for all systems as it can tend to make some machines less stable That said if you choose to disable virtual memory you can do so on the same page Control Panel System Advanced Virtual bemary i Vialia Aches Dass Vokane Label Paging Als Sare PIRO Paran ected ry Ey dhat ha copiar in eet ka La Greater ober ct E procs bine bo mun pour pragpara amp fa Aha iw bert piliin cl i Pangpang O yar cara Pagan Nile saree Nor pC drive 4 Pala La oars Borr laba LA TE Septem tre Dy default the corepuber a eet bo ue akay chee of Pahinga NG NUN ADL Cara ey Afiat for ber pa lie of hepa ae naia sas MEN IH Placia pia HE 788 Sten umnega n CI Fie pangpang Mie sat bo La Parity A pagia Te i a arep ns bhas hean dic that Wired es oe Waa gaang bi a KG pera ha Mirina akrad F1 Tobal paging Pie dre For all dire TH PAG Dermed w Pe Came emaj j E o ces Figure 11 Setting Virtual Memory Fast user switc hing Windows NT and 2000 introduced a new feature multiple user logons While mainly intended for use in corporate networks allowing multiple users to access the same machine it is a Iso useful for creating multiple profiles e g gener
11. ecommend disabling system restore to improve performance NOTE that this is not recommended unless you make regular system backups To disable system restore open the Control Panel and select System Select the System Restore tab and check tum off system restore on all drives Syetem Properties CG Yara Heba scence Spier Merce Sabon Lidian Pam tere Rada ara kth tend eee Poker Choe la a Fo pampa O Tar of Syeda Pai on al inar Cvs sanga Te change iha aka of Shaan Piia ca the maasar ecard of it maan maibe ko ripa Maia oni a chen med tha chev ered Shears rii Eva Bs plage ey a Sa stamp o ea Hiang i Ukg SgUeHEL ji Hri Figure 9 Disabling System Restore Performance XP Still under Control Panel System select the Advanced tab Click the Performance settings button and select the Visual Effects tab Choose adjust for best performance and then select the Advanced tab Under Processor Settings select adjust for best 15 performance of background services to ensure lowest latency with ASIO based drivers ASO drivers run as background services in Windows W2K Right click on My Computer and choose Properties Select the Advanced Tab then click the Performance Button Change the mode from Application Response to Background Services Partanmaaca thetions Ca Vial Sects ajaisi Soke tha ang you wear bo gan for en appearance ond pamhanmanoa of Windosan oni this copar Lat Wine
12. ed for experienced users An incorect edit to your registry can cause your entire system to crash homibly In any case if you decide to do any edits to your registry make sure you ve backed it up first A note regarding virus programs many virus sca nning applications will under W2K and XP install as system services i e load in the background by default It s best to avoid using these in favor of those that offer the option of running as free standing app s When doing any audio work or installing audio applications it s best to make certain you don t have any virus softwa re running 19 Disk I O Performance Logging Windows defaults to continual logging of Input and Output data to your hard drive Disabling this will free up some resources To disable performance logging go to the Start menu and select Run Type in diskperf n minus the quotes and hit Okay White Behind Caching Windows defaults to write behind caching holding data in a memory buffer before writing it to disk Disabling this function will increase your system performance by wniting data immediately to disk To disable this function right click on My Computer and choose Properties or open Control Panel and select System Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button Click the plus sign next to Disk Drivesand select a drive Choose Properties and uncheck Write Cache Enabled Repeat for all drives in your system a Mencior AS
13. er Utilities aaa 22 Plugins and other Goodies aaa 23 XP and Win2000 RESOUN 6S aaa 23 Introduction Many of our users have asked us for an update on Dave Casey s excellent article on PC optimization for audio They ve observed that while the hardware info in the article is useful for all PC users the article is heavily focused on Windows 98 and Windows ME the dominant operating systems when the article was written As more and more PC s ship with Windows XP we ve prepared this addendum to address those users needs It s strongly suggested that you also read Dave s original document as much of the information contained within is useful to all Windows users You can find it on the TASCAM website at www tascam com support faq pc_optimize index php This article will focus specifically on the particulars of these two Windows operating systems Windows 2000 and Windows XP Some basic background Windows 2000 and XP are based on the Windows NT kemel The kemel is the basic set of coding building blocks upon which the operating system is built Windows 98 and Millennium Edition ME are based on the Windows 95 kemel Windows 95 had its beginnings asa consumeronented operating system aimed at users running word processing games and web browsers Windows NT on the other hand was designed for information technology and network connectivity and is widely regarded as being a more robust and stable operating sy
14. for Windows 98 especially if you want to dual boot don t convert While NTFS offers a number of improvements over FAT32 most of these advantages are not all that applicable to audio and you are unlikely to see a major performance difference between the two Moreover defragmenting your drives something you should do on a regular basis anyway is substantially quicker in FAT32 Be aware that Windows 9x cannot read data on NTFS fomatted drives Generally speaking you should use FAT32 if you are doing a parallel installation with Windows 9x ME or if you will need to work with files created with a FAT32 system opening old song files working with others using FAT32 ba sed systems etc leave everything with FAT32 One exception would be if you ll be working with video or other large files in excess of 4 GB or if you also use your PC to browse the intemet or the computer is part of a LAN running XP Professional Only NTFS can limit access rights to your files and therefore provide the security needed fora networked computer In this case select NTFS for all partitions except those which are to accommodate your audio data later One other interesting point NTFS can read the resource fork of SDII files from MacOS and can therefore recognize the timecode stamps used in these files FAT 32 can t do this If you do a lot of work with ProTools or other MacOSbased DAW applications you should consider at least one NTFS partition in your system
15. grading from Windows 2000 to XP a fresh install isrecommended Give it Time When preparing to install a new Operating System it s best to make sure you ve got the time to do it right The process of formatting the drive installing the software new drivers and all your programs is one that can take several hours Try to plan a time when you can focus on the task at hand without major distractions if possible and aren t likely to be pulled away mid insta ll or tempted to skip a step what might appear to be an insignificant item at first glance could end up causing you major aggravation down the line so it s best to lay this foundation right before putting the computer into regular service Preparing for installation Even after confirming that the computer you want to install XP or 2000 on meets Microsoft s recommended minimum specifications you still may wish to do a little more investigating before you attempt an install or an upgrade to make sure that all of your hardware iscompatible with Windows XP or 2000 There are two valuable Microsoft resources that you should employ before installing Windows XP or 2000 on your existing hardware the Hardware Compatibility List www microsoft com hcl default aso and the Windows Upgrade Advisor www mic rosoft com WINDO WSXP home howtobuy upgrading advisor asp Together these applications review your system hardware and existing software and deliver a list of potential compatibility p
16. hout seriously affecting your audio performance most of the time But while some of these background app s are essential to Windows operation many are not These non essential applications can be disabled by opening Control Panel and selecting Administrative Tools then choose Services Now here s where it gets a bit complicated You ll find a lengthy list of services along with sometimes vague descriptions of what each does It will also specify whether the 18 particular service is running presently as well as whether it loads automatically on boot up Manually called up by either the userora program orisdisabled You can edit any service by double clicking on it Some services can not be disabled for safety reasons without these Windows will not run or will suffer serious performance issues It s strongly recommended that you not completely disable any services without knowing what they do and whether other programs or services depend on them Example disabling the Portable Media Serial Number retrieval described in its profile only as retrieves the serial number of any portable music player connected to your computer will disable the dongles used by programs like Cubase Nuendo and Logic It s difficult to define a list of what s safe to disable and what s not since many of the services are determined by the usage of your particular system For example if your computer is solely dedicated to audio
17. important processing audio Disabling those effects is a good idea unless you don t mind a pretty drop down menu causing a frustrating dropout oraudio glitch If you feel you must have a picture on your desktop bear in mind that doing so requires Active Desktop to be activated those cute animated GIFs suck up even more resources To zap those fancy visuals right click on your desktop and select Properties First select the Desktop tab select None in the Background field to remove the background Display Properties Lika Thames Dakiip Somes Save Appeare Settings Background E omel jacerd Acid yi Codon 3 iua Lace 16 z Contras Carhisp Figure 4 Background Display 12 Now disable visual effects Select the Appearance tab click the Effects button and disable Use transition effects It salso a good idea to disable Show window contents while dragging PS Bn RS Le a tat i Diri Chante yet a en a Figg aral Ap ana iT Tiago bo AGE NG AP Kai pali liyar 2 bail anan ka Gee an ad r Temim Figure 5 Disabling Transition Effects Figure 6 Selecting Color Quality Now select the Settings tab Set your display color quality to 16Bit Setting it to a higher 24 or 32 bit depth detracts from audio perfomance since Windows will need to allocate more resourcesto screen redraws Ha kay Pie Tt Fren Eteran siaii Hirai APH LaF BBL 1 1 res dace seg a Ti he pa ihih
18. ions Bookmark your software manufacturers websites and visit them periodically Most of the major programs also have users groups where you can read and participate in curent discussion with others many times these groups are instrumental in discovering new issues and reporting them to the manufacturers The Intemet is also a vast resource for info on the various Windows operating systems Aside from Mic rosoft s own Knowledge Base you can find hundreds of sites dedicated to Windows XP and Windows 2000 Some deal specifica lly with tips for audio optimization while others contain more general but still very useful information Sites like XP erience www xp erience org Tweak XP www tweakxp com and Pure Performance www pureperformance com offer lots of tips on optimizing Windows for your particular needs Websites like Tom s Hardware www tomshardware com can keep you up to date on the newest components and excellent electronic newsletters like Woody s Windows Watch www woodyswatch com provide useful and very timely info on issues facing all Windows users And if you ve never checked out TechTV they offer some great programming on multimedia and audio applications Bottom line a bit of effort toward keeping yourself informed can save you some hair pulling and nerves the first time you can say oh yeah know what s ca using that This article last updated 17 March 2002 Daniel Keller TASCAM Sr Product S
19. ives which only need 40 wire cables to operate benefit from the increased shielding the unused wires provide Separate Drives How and Where No doc on optimization would be complete without mentioning the value of separate drives for applications and audio Dave s article covered most of the aspects of SCSI 21 drives and while SCSI still has clear advantages in using multiple drives UDMA drives are now rivaling them in throughput and performance that and a much lower price point have helped find their way into more and more audio setups Probably the single most important thing you can do for your system to increase performance and track count is to dedicate a separate physical hard disk to audio exclusively It is simply not enough to create a separate audio partition on the same drive In fact this is actually a bad idea this makes the drive s stylus work even harder since it s simultaneously seeking application data in one partition and streaming audio from another A dedicated audio drive frees up both drives to separately access the program data and the audio data If your motherboard has only two IDE connectors you would normally connect the system drive to the primary IDE and the audio drive to the secondary IDE Set each drive s jumpers to be the master Configure the CD ROM or CD RW as the slave and make sure to connect it to the same IDE buss as the system drive This insures an uninterupted data flow to and from your
20. just all settings again including system sounds which should be disabled see below Once you ve decided click on Save As and save this theme in case you need to recall it later You can now click on apply to save your changes Windows Sounds Unless you can t live without Microsoft s cutesy startup themes bings and boings it s best to kill the windows sound scheme Those Windows alert sounds can interfere with a udio performance by temporarily causing your audio app to lose sync with the audio device Select Sounds and Audio Devices in the control panel and switch to the sounds tab Choose the No Sounds sound scheme and click on OK Now open display properties again and save all your settings asa new theme Give it a descriptive name like Audio Theme This way you can easily revert back to your settings later if anything goes wrong Stands and Audio Davicen Properties Ha ohms Joh fro Wan Hagdan E piera a h hah bad ees o Nar Ca au GP eg chee oe FT fares reribed Sound mara enmia Di erat GE AE cae ave the GF mard rheng Progar aae p wiede Ha Bi ispo Chat paagi aa Bi Cca aim Ales Caos Sion WD Calm Bep Ot Jl Grmi Figure 8 Disabling Windows System sounds 14 System Restore Windows is set up to write periodic restore check points so that in the event of a crash ora conupted file your system can restore to its most recent functional settings Some users r
21. more by way of networking and connectivity features absent from XP Home Asa basic rule of thumb if you re not planning on using your computer for any network based functions the Home edition should serve your needs Hardware requirements With each new Windows OS the amount of horsepower needed increases and XP is no exception While Microsoft recommends a minimum 300 MHz processor in truth XP needs at least a 600 MHz CPU to keep its wheels from dragging on takeoff Likewise with memory while XP will run on Microsoft s recommended minimum of 128 MB for serious audio use 256 MB is the recommended minimum If you plan on running any virtual instruments or Plugins go for at least 512 MB While some older motherboards don t support more than 512 MB the more recent onesa llow a gigabyte or more XP will also demand a larger hard drive Microsoft recommends a minimum of 1 5 GB of disk space for the operating system alone Actually about 10 15 GB is recommended for all the system files it needs to run As with any audio based system a separate drive ordrives for audio will dramatically increase your track count Update or fresh install Generally speaking a fresh install on a wiped hard drive is the best insurance against potential problems leftover registry items and other omhaned legacy files can lurk in your system for months only to cause unanticipated conflicts with a newly installed program ordriverata laterdate Unless you are up
22. more critical audio drive If your motherboard has a separate ATA controller and two extra connectors for UDMA master slave your setup is that much more simplified as well as allowing for more physic al drives Defrag Often Defragmenting your hard drives is recommended in all Windows OS s and particularly in systems running and editing large audio and multimedia files Defragmenting your disks places the data for files next to each other rather than fragmented throughout the disk which speeds up reading from and writing to the disk and inc rea ses system stability In Windows 2000 and XP regular defragging offers even more benefits XP and 2000 monitor the files that are used when the computer starts up and when your most used applications start By monitoring those files the OS can prefetch them meaning data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache Prefetching is improved if the files are located next to each other on the outer edge of the disk and XP 2000 optimizes the location of these boot and application files while the computer is idle This optimization is done in the background and lasts only a minute or two but even this activity can cut into audio performance if Windows decides the system is idle at the wrong time The defragger will run this task during disk defragmenting instead so Windows won t decide to do it while you re working Virus and other Utilities While virus protection sof
23. n the plus sign next to IDE ATA ATAPI Controllers and right click on Primary Controller Select Properties then go to the Advanced Settings tab Transfer mode should be set to DMA if available not PIO and Device Type to Auto Detection Repeat for Secondary Controller a Primary IDI Channel Properties we Fe Kon Yee Help HG ATE God Amoi Serge Dia Riieta E EE Derai i t y H Caba acl Dee Type W play adapten Inn LER kad gy DCO dite Hy Plone dik maray Cuter Trerefes Mode bra Diii oda 3 rd Floppy kk drives iy Human Interface briar Gerace Sy IDE STAT APT controlers 1 Bj Pe AER PO Bus Mister IDE Conia veel hy Prins I Charred Troiei Mode CALE f areal menir Cf am t H a raging diini Curent rarai a Diii Hada Z H te tebiat gt Fics md ofthe pointing desvie EI Morice HG Poris OM LET HG Sound video and game corinae U Ga Doves youre r E aaa aS Figure 14 Checking DMA Transfer Mode A small few motherboards especially some VIA chipsets do not always auto detect DMA If you so not see options for the above settings you may need to update the motherboard s BIOS or install specific drivers Check the motherboard manufacturer s website forinfo and downloads Also remember to make sure your DMA drives are connected with 80 wire ATA ribbon cables rather than the older 40 wire ones Newer UDMA66 and UDMA100 drives require them but even older UDMA33 dr
24. narade KAG Da 7 j Ce Hay a ITO Fig 1 Microsoft s Upgrade Advisor page It s also a good idea to check and see if there isa BIOS update for your motherboard especially if it contains any fix regarding ACPI or Windows 2000 XP and flash it following the instructions from the manufacturer Before you begin the install it s a good idea to download all necessary drivers for your PC hardware from the Intemet Pay particular attention to drivers for your graphics adapter and any audio and MIDI interfaces As well make sure your printer CD bumer and any other peripherals are covered If you ll be using the computer for connecting to the Intemet also pay attention to drivers for your network card or modem Asa general rule of thumb drivers written for Windows 2000 will work for Windows XP most but not all of the time Drivers written for Windows 9x will usually require an update If there is no Windows 2000 or XP driver for a certain component available and the manufacturer has none planned you will have to consider either upgrading that component or sticking with Windows 9x ME This usually tends to be the case with older hardware ISA based cards scanners older motherboards etc Generally speaking Windows 2000 and XP have drivers for most devices built in but it s alwaysa good idea to obtain them beforehand Beats the heck out of discovering later that you re in need of for example a driver for your modem which y
25. ou can t download because you need a driver for your modem It s also a good idea when installing drivers to allow Windows to reboot after each individual driver install The Windows registry updates itself with every reboot so it s best to allow it to do so before installing additional changes While this takes more time and effort it s something you ll hopefully only need to do once and is generally safer in the long run Another thing to rememberis that a fresh install of any OS will by necessity wipe out any preference settings in your programs e g bookmarks in your browser email settings etc Make sure you make note of these before you begin Installation Formatting your Hard Disk Assuming you ve backed up your data and are preparing a fresh install you ll want to format the drive first While it s possible to format a non OS drive in Windows a low level format in DOS is preferable If you presently have Win98 on your computer you can simp ly select Reboot in DOS from the shutdown menu If you ve got ME you ll need to create a startup floppy and reboot from it Either way once you re in DOS simply type in Format CA without the quotes DOS will sha ke its finger and ask if you re absolutely sure type Y for yes you are sure aren t you The drive will then begin FAT32 format Thiscan take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on the size of the drive When complete you can name
26. ower Options Click on the last tab marked APM Check the box marked Enable Advanced Power Management Support and click OK E Da GB fae En F Frie ri anar mr P sem r F i aa w Ga a Figure 2 Advanced Power Management Dual Boot The compatibility with legacy older software in Windows 2000 and XP is considerably more restricted compared with Windows 9x this is intentionally designed to insure stability against any kind of application failure If an incompatible program is run Windows 2000 or XP will stop it as soon as it tries to access that program It normally will not crash or cause instability but it will not allow the program to be run 1 If you need to run such programs or want to retain Win9x for any other reason be sure to install Windows 2000 or XP in a dual boot configuration so that you can still boot Win9x or DOS when needed This is not a bad idea anyway you can always remove the other OS once it s no longer needed and a dual boot will let you migrate safely to 2000 or XP while allowing you to revert to your previous system if and when something doesn t work in Windows 2000 or XP To install Windows 2000 or XP in a dual boot configuration have your older OS insta lled first then start the Windows 2000 or XP setup from it When prompted do not select upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP rather select Install a new copy clean install and specify a new directory for it when asked Mic
27. pecialist 23
28. pth iha ma ae Laga bor Paga a Mage ag geag Har srira foes ra som bip ha reed Kham Poa ihar Ha eras C aang bea Han Dana Doma pa Kia Tan af moria el x Toara oa bami hah Hew kisalira paari Ta piei roia pam Bui alar Za Cim o ca Figure 7 Disabling Screensaver and Power Schemes 13 Next select the Screen Saver tab Screen savers generally tend to kick in when you least want them to we recommend choosing None On the same page select your monitor power saving options Windows usually defaults to relatively short times of inactivity before shutting off your monitor and hard disk and activating hibemate mode We recommend deactivating hibemate mode set to Never In fact in most cases it s best to set all the energy saving functions to alwayson While you re in there it s also a good idea to deactivate the automatic power down mode for your hard disk These start and stop cycles tend to contribute more to hard disk wear than does actual running time Also disable any options that slow down the CPU when it isunused While these settings a re useful for laptops running on battery power they offer no benefit to an AC powered computer Finally before closing this window select the Themes tab Hee you can choose your fonts and window dressing There are no reported performance differences between the offered themes but keep in mind that if you modify your theme later you will need to ad
29. roblems These are divided into two basic categories critical incompatibilities those which would prevent XP from running e g an outdated motherboard and compatibility wamings hardware and or software which might not function correctly after upgrading these might require you to reinstall the program or driver or update your version to a Win2k or XP compatible version If you are connected to the Intemet while running Upgrade Advisor Windows will offer to retrieve and install any availa ble updates E Windows XP Upgrade Advisor Microsoft Internet Explorer X File Edit View Favorites Tools Help K7 0 0 MAG AAKSSO 3BG Address http www microsoft com WINDOW SXP home howtobuy upgrading advisor asp to see if itis ready for upgrade to Windows XP If you fem needs updates that are available on the Windows nected to the Internet This way Upgrade Advisor will get the latest lardware and software compatibility report for your system In addition to Windows Catalog to find products compatible with Windows XP ible for upgrade to Windows XP you can use Upgrade Advisor to make sure your hardware to check for upgrade eligibility and compatibility i n for Windows XP Home Edition with the dows NTO 4 0 or Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade Advis mended only for download ately 50 megabytes and is re m indo f Windows is eliaible for u
30. rosoft recommends installing it in a different partition than your other OS We recommend going a step further and using separate physical drives for each OS This precludes the possibility of Windows inadvertently sharing files across partitions Your best bet is purchasing removable hard disk sleds for your separate drives this will enable you to retain completely disc reet operating systems and simply boot up with the one you want to use Mass Storage Devices A single track of audio for an average song can easily take up more than 20 30 MB multiply that by 24 tracks and you can see that larger drives are no longera luxury With the price of hard drives dropping almost by the hour many users are now opting for larger drives and even RAID arays Redundant Aray Inexpensive Disks protect your data by writing simultaneously to more than one drive when used in traditional RAID format However many professional audio setups also employ RAID arrays in a different mode where multiple physical drives are seen as one large drive allowing for throughput far exceeding that of a single drive In the event of a hard disk crash the data is replicated ona second orredundant drive During the install process you will be prompted to press F6 to install additional drivers for mass storage devices Multiple Users While Win9x also offers the option of setting up multiple users on a single computer the implementation under W2k and XP offers
31. stem Since Microsoft orginally marketed Windows NT and 2000 as its business solutions Windows 2000 s user base is largely made up of corporate users who value its ability to create and maintain large networks of computers There are however considerable numbers of audio and multimedia users who praise Win2K s stability and use it by choice In contrast Microsoft is marketing XP as its OS for everyone by offering Home and Professional versions Anyone contemplating the purchase of a new computer will undoubtedly find it preloaded with XP and many users of W98 based operating systems are making the switch as well The main reason cited by most users is system stability Audio and other multimedia applications require more precise timing with processing and input output speeds much higher than the needs of typical computer users applications Windows 2000 and XP are simply more efficient in the way they process system tasks and that sa critical factor in system stability and dependability The majority of Windows 2000 users have been using Windows 2000 for some time now whereas XP is still a relatively new player with more users actively seeking solutions to common issues Consequently we ve tired to focus a bit more toward XP where differences exist One final note as with most computer based technologies there are far too many variables and changing conditions to predict how your own hardware and software combinations will comp
32. tware is almost a necessity for general use systems they often run in the background and can cause problems with audio systems If you re running a dedicated audio machine it s best to not install them at all If your machine is connected to the web it s safer to protect yourself but try to find utilities that only run when called up System tune up utilities are also quite useful in most circumstances but some tend to optimize according to the needs of general usage and can change settings that can compromise audio performance A clean minimal setup is your best insurance 22 Plugins and other Goodies The Web is full of DSP Plugins ranging from freeware to shareware to demos of high end packages You ll also find hundreds of virtual instruments in VSTi and DXi formats While many of these are of excellent sound and quality it s best to carefully consider before you install Do you really need 26 different reverb Plugins or ten different vocoders Before you install that third virtual Theremin remember that a bigger plugs folder will contribute to slowing down your system Install what you ll realistic ally use XP and Win2000 Resources Stay Up to Date If you ve owned a computer for more than an hour you know that the word of software development moves very quickly While you need not sink neck deep into computer geekdom it s a good idea to stay informed of new information changes and updates in your OS and your audio applicat
33. your drive or not and hit Enter Booting from CD You will need to tell your computer to boot from the Windows CD ROM instead of your presumably blank and formatted hard drive To do so you must access your computer s BIOS usually hitting DELETE key during boot up will access the BIOS some computers use F8 or another key so check your computers documentation or the manufacturers website Once in the BIOS you will need to change the order of boot up devices This is normally set for 1 floppy drive 2 hard disk 3 CD ROM Make the CD ROM the first boot device Put the Windows CD in the drive and restart After stepping through the boot up you ll see a message Press any key to begin installing Windows Setup Tweaks Things to Do During the Install There are some actions you will need to take during the initial XP installation as they set certain system defaults which are much more difficult to cha nge later FAT32 vs NTFS You have the option under W2k and XP to choose the file system that best suits your needs FAT or NTFS FAT File Allocation Table is the native file system based on the Windows 9x kemel inc luding 95 95a 95b 95c 98 98se and ME NTFS New Technology File System is the native file system for operating systems based on the Windows NT kernel including NT4 2000 and XP During the installation Win2K or XP will ask if you want to convert the installation partition to NTFS If you need compatibility
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