My Digital Life

Improving Vista performance with ReadyBoost on my Lenovo X60

Have you ever seen your laptop's hard drive light on continuously and the system act as it was frozen? The problem is that Vista caches key operating system and application data to the hard disk. The solution; ReadyBoost, this is a little known feature in Vista which allows you to substantially improve performance by moving the cached data to faster flash memory found on USB 2.0 or card based flash memory. I finally decided to try this feature on my X60, and I can happily report that the performance increase is quite substantial, especially in three areas:

• Program loading and swapping when many applications are running
• Coming out of suspend
• Screen rotation to use the X60 as a tablet

If you have used a flash memory card or USB device, I am sure you have noticed the "Speed up my system" item in the AutoPlay pop up that is displayed when the system recognizes the device.

Every time I have clicked on the "Speed up my system" item in the past, I have been told that the device does not have the required performance. I performed some brief research on Tom Archer's Vista blog and found you need high speed flash memory. You need a device which supports 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes. The Lenovo X60 has an SD flash card slot, so I decided to use a SanDisk Extreme III card which boasts 20MB/sec read/write speeds. I could never find the basis for the published performance numbers, what block size they used and whether it was based on random or sequential operations. My suggestion is to go for the highest performing flash memory you can find. In the SanDisk product line, that would be the Extreme III. I found inexpensive ones on eBay, a 2GB Extreme III card can be had for less than $15 and 4GB for less $30. You should match the flash memory size to the amount of memory you have installed in your system. I just upgraded my X60 to 4GB of memory, so I purchased a brand new 4GB SanDisk Extreme III card for $26.

The ReadyBoost properties display for my SanDisk Extreme III card. I used the recommended 3780MB reserved space.

This is a simple and inexpensive to improve you Vista performance.

Tom Archer also has posted an FAQ of information he gathered from the Windows Client Performance team.

Office 2007 Word has been quietly updating the blogging feature. This is my first real post with it and it looks like we are at a point where it is really usable.

Ramblings for the week of May 26th in My Digital Life

Last week I signed up for the T-Mobile Family 4-Pack promotion and so far I think it will work out very nicely. Here is a summary of my observations:

• The selected 5 My Faves numbers are tied to the phone and not the account. The bottom line is that you can't share My Faves number across your Family plan (too bad).
• Once the My Faves numbers have been validated by the phone's My Faves application, you can swap your SIM card into a phone which does not have the My Faves application (like the iPhone). Your calls  to your My Faves numbers still count in you My Faves unlimited bucket.
• You can only modify My Faves numbers once a month. The message I received was that I could change them on June 1.

All in all this looks to be an excellent promotion...

With the official release of Windows Mobile 6.1 from HTC Europe for the TyTn II, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my AT&T Tilt this last weekend. After backing up my unit with Sunnysoft's Backup Manager, I decided to try Dutty's 6.1 test ROM from xda-developers. I was unable to restore my backup and the ROM had several issues, the most troublesome was that I could not get the GPS to work. I decided to try the official release of the HTC ROM, I had to download it via MoDaCo, since HTC won't allow the download to a non HTC branded device. At this point I decided not bother restoring and I installed all my applications from scratch. I will have to update my Windows Mobile application list with my current configuration. All seems to be working well, GPS included...

I received my Fujitsu U810 and so far I am very impressed with its build quality. It is not the fastest machine (it gets a 2.1 Vista processor score), but I think it works quite well for web, email and text processing. The tablet functionality works very well (this one area where Vista shines). The size and weight  are just about perfect for my shoulder bag. I will be traveling soon and will report back on how useful this little machine will be.

This week:

• Working on a review of CellPoint's Flamingo Music earphones.
• Update my Windows Mobile application list

Ramblings for the week of May 19th in My Digital Life

Back in February I ranted about T-Mobile's lack of news and direction (link), however as comments pointed out they are tough to beat from a value perspective. This month they have again upped the ante on value with a special promotion through June 24 called the Family 4-Pack (link from tmonews.com). The Family 4-Pack adds:

• Unlimited HotSpot@Home
• Unlimited calling to each family members 5 favorite poeple
• Unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile
• Unlimited Nights and Weekend

All of this for $9.99 per month in addition to your base Family plan charge and since it is an option, it has no contractual commitment. I was paying $19.99 for the HotSpot@Home option, replacing it with the Family 4-Pack saves me $10 per month. Since I have 5 phones on our Family plan we can call up to 25 My Faves numbers for free (5 per phone which can be shared). In order to get this promotion T-Mobile checks to make sure that all of your phones are compatible with My Faves, they do not care so much if they are HotSpot@Home compatible. It was interesting to find out that they knew I had connected with my iPhone, Wing, and currently HTC Kaiser (aka AT&T Tilt). They were concerned that the HTC Kaiser did not have the My Faves application. I tried to explain that I could install the My Faves application on the Kaiser but they did not think it would work so I told them I would use the Wing. I downloaded the My Faves application from xda-developers (link), installed it and it works just fine. I have been wondering how My Faves works, at first I thought the software on the phone added a code to the number called, but I am thinking that it is the billing system that handles the matching of numbers so you do not get charged. The only function the software on the phone seems to do is activate the number in your account profile by sending SMS messages. Without the software on the phone the number does not get validated and it is not active as a My Faves number. I am assuming it only does this once when you initially enter or modify the number. I will have to test my theory with my iPhone. If I make a call to one of the activated My Faves number on the iPhone, it should show up as a V call (My Faves) in my account on the T-Mobile web site. Obviously I can't add or modify My Faves numbers with the iPhone since it has no application to validate the number. Maybe someone will write one...Bottom line, I think this is a great promotion and it will keep me as a T-Mobile customer. I am now just waiting for 3G. Also it seems you can only modify a My Faves number once a month which makes sense, since if you could change the numbers at will, the plan could be viewed as totally unlimited...

I have decided to try a UMPC this month, the Fujitsu U810 to see how it might fit in with my travel gadgets. It is a Tablet PC with Vista that has a 5.6" screen and weighs 1.56lbs. This would definitely solve my photo sharing dilemma since I could easily transfer files from my camera and upload them to the Kodak Gallery for sharing. Costco is currently selling the 40GB model with Vista Home for $849 and adds 1 year to the base 1 year warranty for free. It will be interesting to see how useful this UMPC is.

This week:

• My review of SBSH Mobile Software Facade application for pocketnow.com. should be published this week. This is a smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) today screen replacement.
• Finishing on a review of SBSH Mobile Software Pocket Weather.
• Working on a review of CellPoint's Flamingo Music earphones.
• Update my Windows Mobile application list

Another piece of the puzzle pointing to some type of MID computer by Apple

In my Monday ramblings I mentioned rumors I had read about the potential big announcement of a MID, UMPC or tablet style computer by Apple at their World Wide Developers Conference in June.

In macrumors: "but there have been rumors that Apple was developing a mini-tablet multitouch device for launch in 2008. This PDA-like device would reportedly have a higher screen resolution (720x480) and be about 1.5x the size of the existing iPhone." http://www.macrumors.com/2008/05/11/3g-iphone-in-may-another-device-at-wwdc/

In  I4U News: "Apple is rumored to be building a Mobile Internet Device (MID). The MIDs market is shaping up and with the Intel Atom chipset it might have a chance this time around - anybody remember UMPCs?" http://www.i4u.com/article17163.html

Now another piece to the puzzle. Intel is one of the primary sponsor of the BMW Formula One racing team; during a recent event at BMW new museum in Munich (BMW World) Intel's managing director was quoted in ZDnet Germany (thanks to Brandon at pocketnow.com for finding this one and translating it).

"As part of an Intel event for the 40th birthday of the semiconductor company at Munich’s BMW World, Germany managing director Hannes Schwaderer confirmed today what has long been a rumor on the Internet: namely, that there is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer said. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone."

The Atom chip is being used in many UMPCs including several  Fujitsu models (currently on sale at costco.com). The cost of systems with these chips seems to be around $1000.

 

Windows Vista SP1 Part 8 - X60 Success

I have  been running SP1 on the X60 now for over 12 hours without issues. All of the Lenovo custom on screen displays work. It seems a little zippier but that could just be my imagination. The Windows Experience Index is the same at 3.1 because of the poor graphics performance, this tablet was not built for graphic so it is not an issue.

The Windows Experience Index under computer properties.

The X60 detailed scores reveals that the 7200 RPM hard drive does the job with a score of 5.

The XPS 720 detailed scores are obviously much higher than the X60 with the Nvidia graphics being the star performers. The XPS 720 has been running fine with SP1 for almost a week now and the USB resume issue seems to be cleared up.

Windows Vista SP1 Part 7 - Windows Update offers up SP1

I am glad I did not have to time manually upgrade the X60 to SP1. This morning I brought up Windows Update and checked for updates. SP1 magically appeared.

I will  be applying the update today.

To recap, I had to install the new Intel Graphics driver pack version 1.58 (download link) in zip format (igdkmd32.sys version 7.14.10.1437) and the UPEK fingerprint reader driver pack version 2.9 (tcusb.sys version 1.9.2.111). I installed both drivers manually using update driver feature in the device manager (see my post here).

Thanks to Mark and Kevin for posting the links to the updated drivers.

Windows Vista SP1 Part 6 - the X60 saga continues

Thanks to Kevin, I was able to download the right UPEK driver (version 2.9). Not sure how I missed that one. I installed it last night using the device manager upgrade function. The tcusb.sys version is now 1.9.2.111. The fingerprint sensor seems to be much more responsive, especially when the system comes out of resume.

I tried to install the exe version of the Intel driver pack version 1.58, but it claimed that my system was not compatible. I then downloaded the .zip version of the driver pack (download link). Unzipped it and followed the manual update instructions for the graphics driver found here. I am now running version 7.14.10.1437 of the 945 graphics driver. Currently under Vista without SP1 my brightness bar does show up when I press fn + Home. 

I then ran Windows Update hoping to get the SP1 update to show up. It found a newer Intel graphics driver, when I went ahead and installed the driver I was reverted to 7.14.10.1329, so I went back and manually installed 7.14.10.1437. Re ran Windows Update, same message no SP1.

I then went back to the MS KB 948343 (link) to install and rerun CheckSUR to make sure that the Windows Update search is not corrupted. No errors were found. Re ran Windows Update, same optional update for the Intel Graphic driver. I wonder where they check for version since 7.14.10.1437 is clearly newer than 7.14.10.1329.

I may install the SP1 update manually tonight, if I have time.

Office 2007 OneNote missing virtual printer

I use OneNote regularly on my Lenovo X60 tablet as well my Dell XPS 720. OneNote has an excellent synchronization feature which allows you to sync notebooks between machines. In addition to note taking, OneNote is great way to store web content. You store web content by printing to the OneNote virtual printer. Last week I went to print a page to OneNote on my XPS 720 and found the virtual printer missing. After unsuccessfully trying to manually recreate the virtual printer, I started searching for a solution.

I found the solution in the comments attached to this post. I ran the Office diagnostics in the help menu. The function recreated my OneNote virtual printer driver automatically. No need to perform the other steps in the post. I love simple solutions...

Now; if the Office team could produce a decent Windows Mobile OneNote companion, life would be grand...

Windows Vista SP1 Part 5

I was happy to find the UPEK version 2.3 driver yesterday. Along with the Intel driver  I thought I had the pieces I needed to install SP1. Well the UPEK driver version 2.3 is not really 2.3. The tcusb.sys file for x86 Vista machines is version 1.9.2.71 which is actually older than the one provided by Lenovo. My tcusb.sys file on my X60 is 1.9.2.99. 

So for now SP1 is a no go since I don't want to loose the fingerprint reader functionality. I wish Lenovo would get their act together on this...

Windows Vista SP1 Part 4

My Dell XPS 720 is working fine since the SP1 upgrade and the USB drive issue (blue screen on S3 resume) seems to be fixed.

On the ThinkPad X60 front, Mark (comment from Part 2 post, thanks Mark) found the Intel driver for the 945 video chip set that is compatible with SP1, however the intensity display bar did not seem to work (probably a Lenovo customization) which is not a big deal.  Now all we need is the appropriate UPEK finger print reader driver and I will be ready to try it.

Update: I just did a search on UPEK driver and found a version 2.3 driver here. I am not sure whether it works on the X60 or not, but I may try tonight.