Win2K Pro - Updated - running fine now.

[DanC]

I must admit - thus far, it appears that "Macro-sloth" has out-done itself. I waited until now to install... but it appears to be the best of NT with 98 multimedia...

I'm ALMOST impressed.

/I'm still waiting to get finished with some blocks to check key-rate. This appears to be a pretty good OS

edit - add:
I ran RC5 Benchmark and it comes out to 2.5 MKeys/sec... HOWEVER - I'm getting only 1.07
Ideas?

 

[Adul]

umm Dan, you are now just finding this out

yes I was surprised myself. Wait till you dig in deeper and find all it little features.

 

[DanC]

I've been an NT geek for years... and lamented how NT4.0 didn't have the robust multimedia capabilities that 98 does.

Unfortunately 98 wasn't stable for crap with this system. I usually wait for at least a year after a release of any Macrosloth product for the inevitable "service pack" that fixes the 491 bugs found by the testers....

I'll reserve final judgment for awhile - but so far, so good.... even running UT.

 

[IsOs]

It's better than Windows NT4, but darn hardware manufacturers, they haven't pass the beta drivers yet.

 

[Tetsuo316]

i love it myself. it's all the little features that make the difference. plus, on an aesthetic level, you can't beat those transparencies. keyrate for me is right where it should be too.

 

[DanC]

ACK! Keyrate is 1MKeys/Sec BELOW what it should be!!!!

AAAAAAUUUUGH?

 

[sciencewhiz]

That's what happens when you play UT

 

[SilverBack]

They should be pretty close to the same Dan, but even if it is a little slower system stability and just plain functionality will more than make up for it.

Here's a hint. In Win2000 Pro if you have both IDE channels in use, your keyrate will be slightly slower.
Reason is that the 2nd IDE controller defaults to PIO mode. Thus DMA isn't being used and the system has to poll the second channel. Easy fix though , right click on "my computer". Open properties, navigate the hardware tab, then to the device manager. Pull up the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, choose the secondary ide channel and right mouse click. Choose properties, then advanced settings.
You're there Put both top and bottom transfer modes to DMA if available. This will make your overall system performance faster, because all channels will be using DMA.

 

[crYnOid]

wow, thanks for that SilverBack, i didn't know about that one:Q

I have been using Win2000 for 3 months and I am still finding features that I didn't know about

 

[Poof]

SilverBack - I just checked my 2k advanced server for those settings and by default, the 2nd IDE controller was already set for "use DMA if available".... Maybe because my advanced server released a little after 2k pro did and they had changed it?

 

[SilverBack]

Poof you're right.
I have both and AS does have it enabled.

 

[Netopia]

Hmmmm..... I'm bettng that Poof and Silverback are both HOT-KIT owners, like ME!

Am I correct?

Joe

 

[SilverBack]

Err Hot-kit?
Im taking my MCSE, they gave me a limited version ( 128 days )
Of Win2k advanced sever

 

[Poof]

Heh... actually no. See my Tux icon...

I have a good friend who is an ISP running his entire site on FreeBSD. He had purchased the full AS in the hopes of adding it to his server farm to host web sites running active server pages. He apparently wanted to put it on a test server first and after having a dickens of a time trying to install it onto his SCSI array, let alone finding nothing but beta drivers,if that, for his hardware, he gave it up in disgust... So I became the beneficiary (or unlucky fool...)

As it is, I'm STILL running a beta driver for my 3COM NIC...sigh...

 

[Viztech]

<< I usually wait for at least a year after a release of any Macrosloth product for the inevitable &quot;service pack&quot; that fixes the 491 bugs found by the testers.... >>


LOL! That's about the same thing I say Dan, except that I say 2 Service Packs!
Speaking of which, M$ has a Beta release of Win2K SP2 available for download to the right people.
For whatever reason, the hardware people have been painfully slow to get out 2K drivers. I think that M$ has some very strict standards that they are enforcing to gain stability, hence the many Beta drivers for common hardware.

viz

 

[ElFenix]

and to think i was using this OS more than a year ago during the release candidate phase. i've also found that SP1 screws up more stuff than it fixes. for some reason i get big nasty blue screens when i have it installed, but not when i don't.

 

[Viztech]

ElFenix-

You might want to look through the list of bug fixes mentioned in this list for SP2. Several look like fixes for problems caused by SP1.

As for cracking, I have a dual P2 266 that has been happily cracking away for a couple of months as my 2k test box. Just like NT4, it just keeps going and going. My Win95 crack boxes will freeze up every now and again, but you can't beat the reliability of NT4, Win2k, and of course, Klinux in a pure cracking machine.

viz

 

[DanC]

I did the tweak for DMA, and there was *some* improvement - but still less than half of expectation and benchmark.

Power saving is disabled - no screen savers either. ARRRRGH

 

[IsOs]

DanC, what are the programs/tasks currently running?

Also, if cpu is overheating, Win2K tends to issue an automatic HALT to cool cpu if ACPI is enabled.

 

[Riv]

DanC,

That seems strange. I've been using Win2k since it came out and I'm doing what the TA distributed computing speeds chart says I should (on a P3 500 running at 100MHz bus). Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and check the task manager to see if there are any performance killers running. Also run the Dnet client benchmark.

 

[Athlex]

I've got Win2k running on my laptop and DNetC is working fine. What you might want to check is your task manager. Click on the processes tab and look for dnetc.exe. CPU usage for that thread should be pinned at 99 and the process time should be longer than the other threads in the list. If not, you can check to see what else is eating CPU cycles and see if it can be disabled.
atx

 

[SSP]

Yep. Go to task manager, click the &quot;Processes tab&quot; and look at the &quot;CPU&quot; list to see what program's using CPU cycles.

 

[BGod]

DanC, Right click on &quot;My Computer&quot; then click &quot;Properties&quot;. Go over the the &quot;Advanced&quot; tab and Click on &quot;Performance Options&quot;. Make sure &quot;Background Services&quot; is the one checked. That way it will devote more rescources to the dnet client.

When I pull a RC5 short benchmark on my dually running Win2K Pro, it only benches at 1/2 the speed I'm actually getting. It's like it only benchmarcks one CPU. Also, until both CPU's have completed a block, your keyrate will be a little low. Everytime one is completed you'll see the kk/s for that CPU, then the summary line for the entire process. Something like this:

[Dec 16 21:43:47 UTC] RC5: Completed F2C3988E:30000000 (32.00 stats units)
0.01:38:46.01 - [1,449,802 keys/s]<- single CPU
[Dec 16 21:43:47 UTC] RC5: Loaded F2C5F4E2:40000000:32*2^28
[Dec 16 21:43:47 UTC] RC5: Summary: 679 packets (21728.00 stats units)
23.05:51:43.07 - [2,897,339keys/s]<- both CPU's

 

[DanC]

Thanks guys...
Actually I went through the services and eliminated everthing unnecessary. 2.45 MKeys/Sec now. : )

 

[Slacker]

Hey Dan, how did you determine what was necessary and what was not? P.M. me a list of what you disabled if you can.