Nice Firefox Themes

Nothing Technical for this entry

I will just be introducing some nice themes for Firefox

ANTHEM

Made by Wesley Hales

Download here

Office 2007 Black

Made by t-rane

Download here

HEAVEN.CUBE 1.43

Made by h3j4

Download here

Just Black (A Cylence theme for Firefox 3) 1.0.1

Made by Julien Saurin

Download here

These themes seriously makes IE, Safari and Opera look boring =P

All the themes mix very well with the default Vista themes.I like them because although they are black themes they are not too dark. Enjoy =)

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Power Savings With Power Plan

After using CPU-Z for a while you will notice that the CPU Core Voltage is actually not a constant value

For my AMD Turion X2 RM-72 Processor (Differs according to Processor Model)

P-State 1 is 2.100GHZ @ 1.100V
P-State 2 is 1.025GHZ @ 0.950V
P-State 3 is 0.525GHZ @ 0.800V

This is because when Clock Frequency is reduced Processor no longer requires more power to maintain stability. This is the main operating principal behind Quiet & Cool Technology

<--Credit to ComputerBase.de-->

If you check the diagram above you will notice while there are 3 P-States for RM & ZM Processors, there are only 2 available to QL & SI Processors.

Hence this indicates during idle RM & ZM Processors save more power than QL & SI Processors as they are able to go into deeper, more power saving P-States.

Hence if you are thinking about getting AMD Powered Laptop look out for ZM & RM Processors only and don't go for QL Processors since QL Processors are similarly priced for poorer Power Savings.

To take full advantage of the AMD Processor Power Saving Capability in Vista
You should create 3 Power Plans

Set Maximum Processor state to 100%, 50% and 25% for 3 different Power Plans
This will cap the Maximum CPU Voltage to 1.100V , 0.950V and 0.800V respectively
(This is for reference purposes only as different CPU has different Voltage Levels)

For example when you are surfing the internet while running on battery you might want to choose power plan that caps voltage at 0.800V to save more power.

You can argue that the processor is already doing the throttling automatically hence there is no need to interfere however, occasional CPU spikes can occur to push the frequency. Therefore by limiting max frequency you are limiting the power usage explicitly.

Another advantage you will get is that the CPU Core temperature will fall below 50 degrees if you HWMonitor it

You may think 500MHZ will lag your system, but remember this is 500MHZ Dual Core Turion Processor.
Moreover on Acer Aspire 4530, the Windows Vista Desktop rendering is offloaded to the Nvidia 9100M G GPU hence there is little or no load on Vista as compared to any Intel Graphics Solution.

However do note when running different Applications consider the Processing Power requirements. Otherwise you might encounter slow performance.
Streaming video like youtube requires higher performance or you will encounter frame skips on the videos.

The above is for Windows Vista which supports more flexible and advance Power Settings

For Windows Xp you will need a third party program Speedswitch XP as suggested by AMD Forumer Turion64Ultra

As the instructions on SpeedSwitch Xp is available on it homepage I will leave the exploration of this third party software to people who are interested

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Explaining Windows Xp/Vista Startup

Note: This is applicable to BOTH Windows Xp and Vista as msconfig is present in both OS

Another reason why Windows Boot are often very slow because Programs Add themselves to the startup automatically making Windows Start the Programs on EVERY boot whether you need it or not

Start>> Run>>Type "msconfig" >> Enter

You should see this

To disable a particular startup simply uncheck the box next to the entry

If you want to remove a particular entry from msconfig scroll to the left you should see the following

The box in Red indicates the location of the registry entry which the program you installed added in order to start automatically

To remove it

Start>> Run>> Type "regedit" >> Enter

Navigate to the location in Red

You should see something like this:

To remove the entry from msconfig simply delete it from here

• Always make sure the program you removed is non-essential otherwise certain important third party program will not run

An example from the above is "NvCplDaemon" which is actually Nvidia Graphics Control Panel

• Unless you really don't need it, it is safer to disable startup from msconfig rather than deleting the registry entry

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Upgrading your Nvidia Driver

Well, Why do you need to upgrade your Nvidia Driver?

1. Better Performance (usually)
2. New Features (PhyX,CUDA,Ambient Occlusion)
3. Because you are using an Nvidia Card ! Those people using ATi Card will have to stare at your drivers which are more updated then theirs. They have to wait ... until their vendors release the drivers. Only Nvidia provide Mobile Driver support ATi passes on the responsibility to vendors
   

You don't have to worry about driver stability
In all my previous updates experience I didn't encounter any unstable Nvidia Drivers at all hence very unlikely

First Download GPUZ from the internet to determine your Device ID
You can also determine your Device ID by looking at the Device Manager but it is too tedious to write so I skipped it =)


Your Device ID is where I circled in RED

Next Download the New Drivers from LaptopVideo2Go here

Enter your Device ID as follows
Download any Driver they will all work but of course it is the later the better =)

Next go to Control Panel to remove the Nvidia Display Driver only

Reboot as your Computer tells you to

Then extract the New downloaded Driver
Double Click on Setup.exe
You will see some Driver Not WHQL Warning if you are installing Non WHQL Driver
Just ignore it
After installation you can delete the folder where you extracted the driver

After that check if PowerMizer is enabled here
Sometimes Beta Driver Releases leave out PowerMizer settings (Don't know why ) although all Nvidia Drivers support PowerMizer settings

Below are some new features highlights in my new 185.20 Driver




Thanks to LaptopVideo2go for providing the Drivers & GPUZ for the Wonderful Utility

Note:
Once you install certain drivers you might not be able to install driver version 185.20. This is probably due to incompatibilities in the Control Panel Version, I have yet to find a way to resolve it.

Edit:

The latest driver is no longer 185.20

For details on the latest Nvidia Released Driver click here

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Acer Aspire 4530 WEI

This is the Windows Experience Index score for my Acer Aspire 4530
Not bad for a value laptop =)
How about yours?

You should set Power Plans to High Performance to get a accurate score
You should also know the performance will vary according to RAM configurations as 9100M G is an integrated graphics which utilises System RAM

PS:To get higher WinSAT Scores Change the Windows Theme to Classic Theme and Rerun Windows System Assessment

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Firefox on steroids

Have you ever wondered why Firefox is so popular?

Firefox is fast BUT that is still not the fastest it can go

To put Firefox on steroids do the following:

Type in "about:config" in the URL box (This is the secret switch which allows you to ramp up firefox performance drastically)
Of Course I am assuming you have a excellent internet connection if you are on a 56kps Dial Up no way you will notice improvements

Right Click
Create a new Integer
Enter "nglayout.initialpaint.delay"
Enter "0"

Right Click
Create a new Integer
Enter "browser.cache.memory.capacity"
Enter "-1"

Filter "network.http.max-connections"
Change the value to "64"

Filter "network.http.max-connections-per-server"
Change the value to "32"

Filter "network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server"
Change the value to "24"

Filter "network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy"
Change the value to "16"

Filter "network.http.pipelining.maxrequest"
Change the value to "8"

Filter "network.http.pipelining"
Change the value to "true"

Right Click
Create a new Boolean
Enter "network.http.pipelining.firstrequest"
Choose "true"

Filter "network.http.pipelining.ssl"
Change the value to "true"

Filter "network.http.proxy.pipelining"
Change the value to "true"

Filter "network.http.redirection-limit"
Change the value to "32"

Filter "network.http.request.max-start-delay"
Change the value to "0"

Create a new Integer "ui.submenudelay"

Set value to "0"

Then RESTART Firefox

Edit: Sorry I forgot to add how to reset the values

First you sort the value by status
Then you right click and reset them


Or alternatively

Start Firefox in safe mode, in the dialog that appears select Reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults, then click Make Changes and Restart

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How to Use Modded Drivers for Atheros Wireless

OK I guess everyone must be thinking isn't the Microsoft Drivers for Atheros Good Enough
I guess posting a screenshot will change your minds

Take a look at the modded driver options below

To install this driver
Go to this website
Find the corresponding driver for your operating system
Download and extract to your folder

Next Go to the familar>> Control Panel>> System>> HardWare>> Device Manager

Method 1 (Not Recommended as it is difficult to do driver rollback take a look at Method 2 below instead)


Right click & uninstall the device driver repeatedly for the atheros network adapter until it no longer auto install the Microsoft Driver as shown below

For Windows Vista/7 remember to check delete the driver software for the device

Then right click on the unidentified Network Adapter and browse to the folder you extracted the modded driver to install it.

Method 2 (Recommended as it is easy to do rollback)

A more convenient way to "force" the installation is to

1. Right Click the adapter
2. Choose "Update driver"
3. Choose "Browse my Computer for driver software"
4. Choose "Let me pick from a list of device driver on my computer"
5. Choose "Have Disk"
6. Browse to the extracted folder containing the driver and choose the "netathrx.inf" for 64bit Windows or "netathr.inf" for 32bit Windows.
7. Select OK and you are done

Finally you will be able to enjoy the new driver options !!
If you are a wireless expert you will certainly like the new additional settings.
Also LaptopVideo2go claim there will be a performance boost with this driver.

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