Solution : Core SSD's freezing and stuttering(WinXP)

[geosoft]

It's so easy.

Force Windows XP to stop prefetching.

Applicable to AHCI mode and compatibility(IDE) mode.



How to disable WinXP prefetcher

- manually edit registry keys

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction]
"Enable"="N"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\OptimalLayout]
"EnableAutoLayout"=dword:00000000


- or download 'Disable WinXP Prefetcher(http://mampan.org/prefetch/Disable_Prefetcher.reg)' and double click.


Reboot and use your computer.

Freezing and stuttering did not completely disappear but 90%(?) of them disappeared for me and it's usable.


Good Luck!



How to re-enable WinXP prefetcher

- manually edit registry keys

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000003

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Schedule]
"Start"=dword:00000002

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction]
"Enable"="Y"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\OptimalLayout]
"EnableAutoLayout"=dword:00000001


- or download 'Enable WinXP Prefetcher(http://mampan.org/prefetch/Enable_Prefetcher.reg)' and double click.


Reboot.


Start -> Run : "rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks"

Stay and observe hard disk running about 10 minutes and verify 'layout.ini' file at 'C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\' folder.


Pretecher will be re-enabled.




I did'nt test with Vista but I expect will be aplicable to Vista.

Disable prefetching(same as WinXP) and disable Vista's Superfetching.


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnableSuperfetch"=dword:00000003

3 --> 0




I think Windows XP(Vista)'s prefetching is no need and rather harmful to SSD's(especially OCZ Core SSD's) because of SSD's wear-levelling.


What's Prefetch?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/ko-kr/maga...06(en-us).aspx


(....)

How does this scheme provide a performance benefit? The answer lies in the fact that during typical system boot or application startup, the order of faults is such that some pages are brought in from one part of a file, then from another part of the same file, then pages are read from a different file, then perhaps from a directory, and so on. This jumping around results in moving the heads around on the disk. Microsoft has learned through analysis that this slows boot and application startup times. By prefetching data from a file or directory all at once before accessing another one, this scattered seeking for data on the disk is greatly reduced or eliminated, thus improving the overall time for system and application startup.

To minimize seeking even further, every three days or so, during system idle periods, the Task Scheduler organizes a list of files and directories in the order that they are referenced during a boot or application start, and stores the list in a file named \Windows\Prefech\Layout.ini. Figure 1 shows the contents of a prefetch directory, highlighting the layout file. Then it launches the system defragmenter with a command-line option that tells the defragmenter to defragment based on the contents of the file instead of performing a full defrag. The defragmenter finds a contiguous area on each volume large enough to hold all the listed files and directories that reside on that volume and then moves them in their entirety into that area so that they are stored one after the other. Thus, future prefetch operations will even be more efficient because all the data to be read in is now stored physically on the disk in the order it will be read. Since the number of files defragmented for prefetching is usually only in the hundreds, this defragmentation is much faster than full defragmentations.



Do you understand my Konglish(korean-English)?




---------------------------

ThinkPad Z61P

945-PM, ICH7-M

WinXP SP3

Core V1 64GB SSD and Hitachi 7200RPM 200GB


.

[geosoft]

Change M$ OutLook data file(*.pst) folder out of SSD.

It's a known problem for any SSD's.(not for only OCZ Core SSD's)

[eva2000]

wow interesting info indeed!

strange i don't have any freezing/stuttering on WinXP SP2/SP3 on Gigabyte EP45 Extreme though with 4x32GB OCZ SSD Core on ICH10R

If it's prefetch that is part of the problem, then maybe whether or not a person's rig has issues may come down to what apps they have installed/use as well ??

[geosoft]

I think freezing and stuttering occur more frequently with notebook computers.

More drivers are loaded at boot time in notebook computers such as power manager, finger print driver, PCMCIA or CardBus driver, Touchpad or pointing stick driver, wireless LAN driver, ultra-red driver, Bluetooth driver, etc.

[CR2]

i didn't have freez problem on my samsung ssd with outlook, on the ocz this is freezing allways.

CR

[gdassieu]

Mmmmm.... I'll give this a try tonight in my X61 to see if it makes any difference.

[gdassieu]

Thanks for the info Geosoft, and happy it worked for you, but I am afraid to report that in my X61 it did not make the slightest difference. I'm gonna return the piece of junk and get my money back.

[jeff_rys]

Geosoft,

you say "Defragmentation will be activated", but this is not good for SSD's. So???? Explain please


thanks

Jeff

PS

as said in another post i followed your steps disabling "prefetch". Thanks

[Snitt]

On my Latitude E6500, it eliminated most of the stuttering issues. However, it still stutters when Outlook performs a send/receive. Since I can only have one hard drive, moving the PST to a non-SSD drive is not a solution.

[kensiko]

I think freezing and stuttering occur more frequently with notebook computers.

More drivers are loaded at boot time in notebook computers such as power manager, finger print driver, PCMCIA or CardBus driver, Touchpad or pointing stick driver, wireless LAN driver, ultra-red driver, Bluetooth driver, etc.

I have a fully loaded computer with Vista, I have a lot of software and drivers that loads at startup. Startup is slow, very slow, but it takes about 1 minute less for booting now with the OCZ SSD V1. Boot was taking 3 minutes to finish everything that needs to read from the disk on my SCSI 10krpm drives. Now it's 2 minutes.

So I don't find it logical to say that stuttering is caused by many drivers loaded on laptop.

[geosoft]

Geosoft,

you say "Defragmentation will be activated", but this is not good for SSD's. So???? Explain please

I Think....


Prefetch in Windows accompanying partial defragmentation and wear leveling in SSDs are dynamic.

But the directions of prefetch and wear leveling are not the same.

* prefech : gathering files or file fragments

* wear leveling : scattering

If prefetch will be on then needless repetition of gathering(defrag) and scattering(wear leveling) of files will occur every few boot processes.

[geosoft]

I have a fully loaded computer with Vista, I have a lot of software and drivers that loads at startup. Startup is slow, very slow, but it takes about 1 minute less for booting now with the OCZ SSD V1. Boot was taking 3 minutes to finish everything that needs to read from the disk on my SCSI 10krpm drives. Now it's 2 minutes.

So I don't find it logical to say that stuttering is caused by many drivers loaded on laptop.

I compared notebook computers booted from SSD with desktop computers booted from SSD at the point of prefetch.

notebook computer : more drivers loaded in booting process -> more complex prefetch process -> more frequent stuttering


Computers booted from mechanical drives(notebook computer or not) : no problem with prefetch process(irrespective of drive speed)

[D111]

Here is a list of tips to speed up SSDs --- including you tip of turning off the prefetch.

In my case, the other big slow down is Ariva Antivir checking on both read and write -- I changed it back to check only on read.

------------------------------




Optimizing Windows XP and Office 2003 for Solid State Drives on “Netbooks”

Asus eee PC 1000, 901, Acer Onennote, Lenovo Ideapad S10, SSD

Intel Atom 270, Diamondville, VIA C7, Celeron

Problem:

Slow access / program hang / freeze / stuttering / slow response time on Windows XP, especially with Microsoft Outlook 2003.

Solution:

Windows Tweaks:

- Upgrade DRAM memory to maximum allowed (2gb for Intel Atom based PCs)

- Make sure that XP system files are either less than 50% of SSD disk capacity (if your machine has more than 1 SSD), or are installed on the larger of the 2.

- Remove all unnecessary Windows components and leftovers following these directions:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=352761

Additional Tricks

- Turn off hibernation to save the 2gb space on the 8gb SSD (on E 1000)

- Turn off System Restore

- Turn off Windows Disk Caching and manually delete the cache files


Anti-Virus / Phishing / Spyware Programs

- These programs all use a lot of disk access and if at all possible, use the minimum and use an antivirus scanner that is small, compact, and runs relatively fast like Avira free-av.com

- In any case, the antivirus service should be set to optimize for speed rather than maximum security. For example, set the AV to check only selected lists of files (smart list on Avira), and only check it on READ, not read and write.




Speeding up specific applications:

Firefox, IE, etc.

- These programs cache a lot and should be installed on the larger SSD and then make sure that their cache files are on the larger disk

Special Instructions to speed up Microsoft Outlook 2003

Outlook 2003 is so slow as to be nearly unusable on the ASUS eee PC 1000, here are the tweaks I did:

- Turn off Windows Prefetch following these instructions.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=42487

- manually edit registry keys

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction]
"Enable"="N"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\OptimalLayout]
"EnableAutoLayout"=dword:00000000


- or download 'Disable WinXP Prefetcher

http://mampan.org/prefetch/Disable_Prefetcher.reg and double click.

Microsoft Windows / Office / Outlook is optimized for relatively slow hard drives and makes extensive use of caching. This is unnecessary with SSDs and only serve to slow things down.



Follow these directions, and my Windows XP and Outlook 2003 works pretty fast --- mail opens up instantly, and it is no different from running it on a hard drive.

[D111]

Using NTFS

1. If you have Partition Magic or a similar program:

Change the cluster size to 512K (smallest).

A smaller cluster makes for slower access on a hard drive, but on a solid state drive, that is an advantage because most solid state controllers have to erase an entire block before it can write to it (the bigger the block, the longer the erase). This is true even if you are writing 100 bytes of data to the block.

SSDs are optimized for fast random reads, not write / read cycles.


2. Open a DOS command window and use the FSUTIL command to do this:


A) Disable short file names to speed up Windows



One tweak that is mentioned fairly often disables the creation of short 8,3 format file names. By default both Windows XP (NTFS) and Vista create file names in the old 8.3 format for all files in addition to whatever the regular name is. This is to ensure compatibility with some programs that still linger and require the old file naming format from DOS days. If you are sure that you do not have any 16-bit programs or programs that require the old format, disabling this extra name creation can possibly speed up your system.

The command is:

fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

Note that the Windows XP environment variables %TEMP% and %TMP% typically use short names. Program installations sometimes use these variables If this change causes trouble and you need to restore the short name function, the command is fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 0




B) Disable timestamp for last access to a file to speed up Windows

Another frequently seen recommendation is to disable the setting that keeps track of the last time a file. was accessed. Removing the necessity for the system to keep reading and writing this information may speed up Windows Explorer.

The command is:

fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

Note that some backup programs may need this information. If you wish to restore the timestamp, the command is: fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 0


C) Turn off Indexing on All Drives


D) Then. Disable the NTFS Change Journal

The command is:

fsutil usn deletejournal /d


See this for additional info:


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr … 88042.aspx


and


http://commandwindows.com/fsutil.htm



With all these tricks, I have brought the performance of my Asus 1000 with XP Pro and Outlook 2003 to the level of a very good 7200 rpm hard drive at its worst, and better on things that a SSD is good at, like boot up.

The stuttering on Outlook is entirely gone.

[Tony]

Sticking this so the public can see the awesome work you guys have done.