racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

So I went ahead and got myself a Compaq Presario B1256TU notebook computer for use as my mobile workstation. The retail package did not include an operating system (that’s why it’s relatively cheaper), and so while paying I was thinking whether to:

• Install Ubuntu Linux as my primary OS,


• Install a bootlegged copy of Windows XP or Vista.


• Purchase an original copy of Windows Vista.

A new copy of Windows XP was out of the question, since in my mind this is already a dated OS. Sure, it’s more reliable than ever, given the seven or so years since its first release. But seven years? That’s old!

Ubuntu, meanwhile, is cool, but sometimes I still find the need to run Windows apps that simply cannot run on Wine. So this could perhaps be a hobby OS. I do run eeeXubuntu on my Asus Eee, though. And so my wife and I decided to go for Vista, so we can have some exposure to some new OS at home.

And so we bought a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium to go along with the laptop. The shop gave us a discount with an OEM package (I wonder if it’s legal to bundle a separate OEM package with a laptop sale, though). I also asked for a copy of the HP-Compaq drivers for the B1256TU, as I also read that while drivers are available from the HP site downloading can take some time.

Our home is now a multi-platform one, with a Mac that runs OS X Tiger, a notebook that dual-boots Windows XP and Ubuntu Feisty (due for upgrade soon), an Asus Eee that runs eeeXubuntu, and this new Presario that now runs Vista.

The Compaq came packaged with 1GB of memory, though, and from what I’ve read 1GB is inadequate for use with Vista. But the first few days I was using the laptop, it was responsive enough. I noticed a significant improvement when I plugged in a 4GB SDHC into the built-in card reader for use with ReadyBoost, which basically uses flash memory as cache. This is faster than having to access virtual memory from the hard drive, whenever physical RAM runs out.

But then I was planning to use this machine for photo manipulation and some video editing. So I replaced one of the 512MB RAM sticks with a 1GB one (not able to find a 2GB stick yet, and because the sales person mistakenly told me that Pentium Dual Core machines only supported up to 2GB RAM). Some improvement. And when I found a 2GB stick cheap enough (PhP 2,000 flat for a Kingston branded one), the laptop now runs on 3GB. Good thing I didn’t go for two 2GB sticks. I read you needed to run the 64-bit version of Vista to fully harness the extra gig. So it’s effectively a 3GB maximum for me!

The eye candy that comes default with Vista Home Premium (which Home Basic does not have) is both functional and aesthetically-pleasing. I’m a fan of OS X’s Expose, and Compiz Fusion’s scale, which make switching windows easy and intuitive. Vista doesn’t have that, but instead has Flip 3D. It’s not as intuitive as Expose, since you don’t get a full view of Windows thumbnails (just the top left edges), but it does its job fine.

SpeedStep Problem on Windows Vista

My only gripe with Vista so far is that it’s not able to adequately make Intel Speedstep work! I was wondering why the laptop got hot at the bottom, and the battery lasted only one hour. The Intel T2370 processor the B1200TU ran with was supposed to have SpeedStep. That meant the processor could run at low clock speeds when it didn’t need power, and could step up the speed (and voltage) when performance processing was needed. This translated to cooler operation and power savings.

And so I installed various CPU monitoring apps like CPU-Z and RightMark CPU Clock, and they all showed that the CPU speed was hovering somewhere between 1.72 and 1.73 GHz—hardly SpeedStep-like adjustments.

So I did some research and found out that a lot of other Windows Vista users had problems with SpeedStep on Intel dual core processors. These users had no problems with SpeedStep on XP or most Linux distros on the same machines, but Vista was simply unable to control SpeedStep. It’s a pity, since Vista does have a built-in way to define the speed ranges you wanted your processor to run on.

This was a really big speedbump in my book. Having the processor cores run at full speed all the time meant fast battery draining and a hot laptop, much like using Celeron-M processors.

With much tweaking, I discovered that on the Compaq B1256TU, the Processor will SpeedStep properly after waking from sleep. So after a cold boot, SpeedStep doesn’t work. After resume from hibernation, SpeedStep doesn’t work. It will only work after the computer has been awoken from standby state.

If you have a Pentium Dual Core machine running on Windows Vista, you can verify this by using CPU-Z or RM Clock. You can monitor the processor frequency adjusting from 0.7 GHz to 1.73 GHz according to CPU load. If you want to be able to customize this (such as by under-volting, or specifying which P-states or frequencies to use), you can use the “performance on demand” setting of RMClock.

Actually, this serves as a warning to people running Vista on their laptops. I know a few people whose laptops have been overheating for no apparent reason. I’ve even read reports that the Presario B1256TU was running at abnormally high temperatures out of the box. Now I know: it’s most likely that SpeedStep is not running properly. So this means the processor is always at full speed, and depending on the load, this likely causes high temperatures.

Does anyone else have similar experiences with Vista?

As for the notebook, I’ll post a more in-depth review soon. I paid in cash, btw, so I got it for less than the published PhP 35,950 price. With Vista Home Premium included, I paid just a bit over PhP 40k.

The last year has come and gone, and if you’re still in that holiday mood, I can sympathize with you. I hardly got any rest during the holidays because of all the traveling to and fro, and the events/parties here and there. It’s the second week of January and I feel like I still have a hangover. And I didn’t even drink that much!

I think a good waker-upper would be a good spring cleaning—and for those of us whose work (and personal lives) revolves around the computer and getting online, that means starting fresh. Here are some things I’ll be doing to clean up that pile of mess on my desk, so to speak.

1. Restart the computer. I’m a sucker for hibernate and sleep whether for laptops or desktops. Both my PowerBook and Windows laptops have been up since late November (only sleeping or hibernating in between use), and my ongoing work is still cluttered across the machines’ respective screens. I wonder which is more productive—not having to reopen each and every document you need to work on every power cycle, or having too much stuff open it becomes information overload.


2. Clean up my email inbox. Gmail says I have 19,000 unread items on my inbox. Of course many of these are spam mail I just ignored over the course of two years since I got a Gmail account (too lazy to hit the “Report Spam” button!). I could probably just leave them in Inbox view and keep using my “For Reply” and “To Do” labels for those messages for urgent action. After all, that’s what Gmail’s threaded interface and almost-unlimited capacity are supposed to be about, right? On the other hand, it might be more sensible to send these all to Archive so I won’t have to feel overwhelmed everytime I look at a very full inbox view.



3. Work on those draft blog entries. My blog drafts area consists of unfinished blog posts, duplicate entries (WordPress saves renamed drafts as new entries altogether) and posts I finished but had second thoughts about publishing (due to various reasons). These are most likely to be outdated a few weeks or even days after being saved to drafts, so it’s time to purge the draft folder and start fresh.



4. Backup important files and delete unnecessary ones. It’s time to save those digital photos and iTunes libraries onto CD or some online-backup facility. You never know when things can screw up and you end up with a dead hard drive—arguably, the data is more valuable than the hardware itself. As for deleting unnecessary ones, files and documents tend to build up in the course of time, and these can fill up your hard drive pretty quickly. I usually fall victim to my own disorganized-ness, which usually leads to shortages in space and even virtual memory.



5. Run maintenance software on my computers. I recommend doing a virus-scan and spyware-scan, and all those other performance-enhancing clean-ups like clearing of caches, defragmenting (if that’s still applicable) and the like. I recommend Mac Janitor for OS X, which lets you manually start maintenance tasks that your Mac is supposed to do daily, weekly, and monthly.



6. Actually go clean up that pile of mess on my desk. Being online most of the time doesn’t mean my physical surroundings don’t affect my productivity. I have a ton of books, tools, wires and gadgetry on my desk that I can probably do without. The still-to-be-used stuff should go to the drawers (which need cleaning up themselves). And those for disposal go straight to the trash or recycling bin.

Of course, this mostly applies to me, and I’d appreciate a little help if you have something to pitch in.

Image source

According to my NetStat widget, my PowerBook has been online for 28 days, 6 hours and 13 minutes. And since that time, the notebook had been running without a hitch—perhaps save for some mishaps that caused Firefox to freeze up and require a restart (sometimes happens to such a memory hog like Firefox).

Meanwhile, my Windows-powered Compaq Presario has likewise been running for approximately that same duration. And I occasionally experience losing my wireless connection, and I sometimes get “virtual memory low” messages.

Of course, I don’t really have my laptops running powered on all the time. With the Mac, I close the lid and keep it in a sleep state. With the PC, I use hibernate. This way, I get to save on power and extend my computers’ lifetimes, without having to lose the state I’ve been in. Yes, sometimes I get back to a cluttered desktop, but hey, at least I don’t lose track.

Why do I hate Windows?

I don’t hate Windows per se. I know XP is a solid operating system (as solid as Swiss cheese!). But with OS X I seem to be able to do my work more efficiently. I feel more productive on the Mac than on the PC. This is simply because I don’t have to deal with the minor annoyances that usually come with running Windows, like:

• Antivirus programs popping up notifying me of updates.
• Antivirus programs suddenly running full tests in the background while I’m doing some important processor-intensive stuff (like copy CDs into my iTunes library!).
• Lag times due to the system accessing virtual memory.
• It takes an eternity to go into hibernate mode. It takes an even longer time to wake up from hibernatestate.
• It also takes forever to go to and wake up from standby mode.
• Some other stuff I can hardly remember but does happen.

Something tells me all my issues with Windows lie with the memory management. And to think my old PowerBook is still running on a G3 and has about 50% less system RAM than my Presario.

Sigh.

OSX86?

That’s why I wanted to install OS X 86 on my Presario—somewhere along the way, I felt it too tedious to have to backup all my important files (lotsa MP3s), resize the partition and install X 86. Oh, wait, I think I’ve already done that, up to the point of resizing the partition using PartitionMagic and activating the second partition for booting. Only my OS X 86 installer did not push through with the installation. Lucky me!

I’ll try again next time.

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to do a restart on my PowerBook. It does help to run the system from a fresh start once in a while. And it’s mostly to clear the desktop of all the clutter so I can move on with whatever work I’m doing (I’m too lazy to individually close everything!).