demoydk@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Tommy) (12/11/90)
I might of asked this again but I need to know two things: 1) How can I speed up my Tandy 1000TL another 5-10% on both disk access (HD) and CPU processing? 2) I heard that the Tandy computers are brought up by Paradise chip sets. Can I use any other brand of boards? (i.e. ATI, AST, Orchid, Generic, C&T, or straight Western Digital). Thanks! *************************************************************************** Yung D. Kim "I like traffic lights" Illinois Institue of Technology "13:3 male to female ratio" Computer Science and Technologies "Where's my disk for my project?" WhateverNET (I forgot): demoydk@iitmax.iit.edu "The Encore/MADMAX/IITMAX" Another source <======> kimyung@harpo.iit.edu "The VAX Marx brothers" "This product has been prime coated and MUST be painted after installation. Avoid the use of latex base paint." ***************************************************************************
bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Bob Beauchaine) (12/12/90)
In article <4623@iitmax.IIT.EDU> demoydk@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Tommy) writes: >I might of asked this again but I need to know two things: > >1) How can I speed up my Tandy 1000TL another 5-10% on both disk access (HD) > and CPU processing? I have a 1000TX, which should in most respects be close enough to the TL for the following discussion to be valid. Hard drive disk access: While you almost always hear that disk caching is a Good Thing (TM), I have found exactly the opposite with my TX. I have tried several disk caching programs, including the one supplied by Tandy with my version of DOS (3.3), and have found that without an exception my hard drive performed slower with a cache in place. I tried several options of cache size and program, all with the same result. (My hard drive is a 30M Seagate hard card from Hard Drives International, with a Western Digital controller.) As a rule, I have been fairly unhappy with my hard drive performance. It seems to be one of the slowest I have ever encountered, but the drive specs didn't indicate so at the time I bought it. As for CPU speed, you can't directly speed up the processor (though I have toyed with the idea of bumping up my crystal a couple of Mhz, just to see what happens). One little program I have found that works wonders is a utility called Qfresh, which I downloaded from PC Magazine on Compuserve. This program resets the default memory refresh rate to a less frequent interval, giving your CPU more bus cycles between DMA refresh. You can play with the utility parameters to find the optimum speed increase without memory parity errors appearing. I got an extra 14% of CPU speed, as measure by the PC Tools. The results were noticeable. > >2) I heard that the Tandy computers are brought up by Paradise chip sets. > Can I use any other brand of boards? (i.e. ATI, AST, Orchid, Generic, > C&T, or straight Western Digital). > I have a NEC VGB card in my TX (800x600 Super VGA) with a Multi-Scan monitor. No problems to report, though I haven't had the combination long. The internal graphics card knows the VGA card is there, and I have seen no conflicts yet, except the board occassionally seems to be autodetected as an EGA by some programs. Bob Beauchaine bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM
ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Tim Takahashi) (12/12/90)
In article <6493@vice.ICO.TEK.COM> bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Bob Beauchaine) writes: >In article <4623@iitmax.IIT.EDU> demoydk@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Tommy) writes: >>I might of asked this again but I need to know two things: >> >>1) How can I speed up my Tandy 1000TL another 5-10% on both disk access (HD) >> and CPU processing? Check out your RAM chips (if they are 150ns chips as in my 1000SX) you can reduce the system from 1 wait state to 0 wait states by swapping in 100ns chips. You could also add an 8087 math coprocessor (if you use QuickBasic, QC, Lotus) The video ram uses the top 16k or 32k of the 640k ram. Either upgrading to 768k (not sure if possible on a 1000TL) or adding an EGA card (which will work with your existing tandy monitor - in 640x200 modes) will give you better graphics and another slight increase in speed (reduces wait states caused by the video controller accessing video ram). > I have a NEC VGB card in my TX (800x600 Super VGA) with a Multi-Scan > monitor. No problems to report, I had great luck with an Everex MicroEnhancer EGA card. tim
garee@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Scott Garee) (12/13/90)
>>1) How can I speed up my Tandy 1000TL another 5-10% on both disk access (HD) >> and CPU processing? > You should also try running a hard disk reformatter (SPINRITE or NORTON's 5.0) They will choose the optimum interleave for the drive, which is almost always different that the way it was formatted, and reformat it WITHOUT destroying any data. They will also tell tou all kinds of neat, useless things about your drive. Drive speed can often be increased by several hundred percent. -- +------------------------------------------------+ + Mail to: garee@evax.utarl.edu or call Scott at + + Radio Shack 01-8323 Arlington, TX 817-649-2518 + + If I can't help you, you're in it really deep! +
bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Bob Beauchaine) (12/14/90)
>You should also try running a hard disk reformatter (SPINRITE or >NORTON's 5.0) They will choose the optimum interleave for the drive, >which is almost always different that the way it was formatted, and >reformat it WITHOUT destroying any data. They will also tell tou all >kinds of neat, useless things about your drive. Drive speed can often >be increased by several hundred percent. > I've personally tried the latest version of Spinrite, with no success. While the program claims that it has been improved to handle RLL drives, it was still stumped by my hard drive configuration. (Western Digital controller w/30Mb Seagate disk). Does anyone know if this is a hard drive problem or a Tandy problem (i.e. bios, etc)? Haven't tried Norton (yet Bob Beauchaine bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM
garee@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Scott Garee) (12/17/90)
> I've personally tried the latest version of Spinrite, with no success. > While the program claims that it has been improved to handle RLL drives, > it was still stumped by my hard drive configuration. (Western Digital > controller w/30Mb Seagate disk). Does anyone know if this is a hard drive > problem or a Tandy problem (i.e. bios, etc)? Haven't tried Norton (yet What did it say when it was "stumped"? All of our controllers are WD's, so I don't think there is a problem there. I have had some problems with Seagate drives purchased from cut rate discounters. Evidently Seagate sells these guys drives from the bottom of the quality heap. But the problems were obvious media problems which showed up under normal use as well. Are you running a cache? SR doesn't like them much. I usually boot from a clean (no AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS) floppy before running ANY hardware utilities. An intersting note: I have seen Norton's 5.0 and SPINRITE return DIFFERENT optimum interleaves on the SAME drive! Just goes to show that all things ARE relative! -- +------------------------------------------------+ + Mail to: garee@evax.utarl.edu or call Scott at + + Radio Shack 01-8323 Arlington, TX 817-649-2518 + + If I can't help you, you're in it really deep! +