Safe Mode/High Priority

[A_Pryme]

Safe Mode/High Priority.

On a machine that is only running Prime95 would it help Prime95 any by running the program while the puter is in Safe Mode? No programs and only the bare essentials of Windows is running in Safe Mode.

I am doin Prime95 on a WinMe machine and WinMe is known for the BSOD (blue screen of death) even if for no other apparent reason than it got in the mood to take a break but it's not chronic, it's just WinMe. So since this puter will be running 24/7 I should take measures to cut down on BSOD incidents if possible.

So if Prime95 is running in Safe Mode and Windows programs are at a minimium, I am ASSUMING, that running it in Safe MOde would cut down on the BSOD maintanence should the BSOD appear. But all this only applies only if Prime95 will or will not run effectively in Safe MOde.

High Priority.

Since the puter is only running Prime95 would there be any added benefits by giving it a high priority setting? If so, will the program priority change if I set to a higher priority as the program is running tests or would I turn Prime95 off and then change its priority?

Either way it goes, that machine is sitting on a table in the corner of the spare room and dedicated to running Prime95 so I want it to run as effective and bug free as possible.

[Uncwilly]

Prime95 will run faster in safemode. I get about 7% more speed on mine (the on board sound card/modem sucks up a few cycles).


Prime95 will take all unused cycles, so if it is running by itself, priority will have no effect.

[Peter Nelson]

People have reported a slight improvement in throughput by running in safe mode. However if you have a hyperthreading P4 processor, it has been reported that safemode halves your performance (presumably doesn't engage the hyperthreading).

Check out your memory with memtest86 just to be sure you aren't blaming ME unfairly.

My own preference is I don't really like ME. Maybe consider upgrading to Win2000 or a version of Linux (no BSOD here).

As a compromise why not arrange for your machine to dual-boot and run it in linux for prime95 and anything like web browsing you can do in that. If you have some applications you need that run on Windows you could boot into that occasionally. It is possible to have an exponent in each OS if you use them often, I believe it is also possible to work on/continue the same exponent from both operating systems.

[moo]

better idea get linux....

[A_Pryme]

Originally Posted by Peter Nelson

People have reported a slight improvement in throughput by running in safe mode. However if you have a hyperthreading P4 processor

So I can't run two instances of Prime95 on this WinMe Intel Celeron processor because it does not have hyperthreading capabilities? but.....I can run two instances of Prime95 if I install Linux and dual boot?

My own preference is I don't really like ME. Maybe consider upgrading to Win2000 or a version of Linux (no BSOD here).

The OS stays on that system I'm using for this.

As a compromise why not arrange for your machine to dual-boot and run it in linux for prime95 and anything like web browsing you can do in that.

WinMe doesn't BSOD in safe mode so as long as Prime95 will work in safe Mode all the better.

[patrik]

Originally Posted by A_Pryme

So I can't run two instances of Prime95 on this WinMe Intel Celeron processor because it does not have hyperthreading capabilities? but.....I can run two instances of Prime95 if I install Linux and dual boot?

You can run any number of Prime95 on any machine, but it won't speed things up unless you have both processor and OS supporting hyperthreading. Even then running two primality tests on a hyperthreaded machine will probably slow it down. But if you run one trial factoring and one primality test, then you would get a speed increase. (People have been reporting speedups when running two primality tests on a HT processor, but I get a considerable slowdown.)

The dual boot is good when you wan to run both Linux and Windows. Then you could run the sane primality test from either Windows using Prime95 or Linux using mprime. The save files are compatible.

[Peter Nelson]

Originally Posted by moo

better idea get linux....

Moo, you're right, linux is far superior to ME, and is some 4 years more up to date.

I know that, you know that, but I was trying to WEAN HIM OFF the microsoft OS.

APryme:
You have a Celeron. No celerons have hyperthreading capability. Therefore you should only run one instance for best performance. Additionally, if you run your machine in safe mode you will probably gain a small increase in throughput. We confirm the software works fine in safe mode so do that if it aids your machine stability. You can start the client from safe or "un-safe" mode interchangeably, with no adverse effects. There may be some things like peripheral drivers which can't run in safe mode so you might need to logon as unsafe mode occasionally for using these. If you have an option, choose safe mode WITH networking enabled because the client uses the network to get work/submit results and progress from time to time.

I did not think you were ready to wipe ME to put linux on instead.
If it were my machine I would wipe ME ASAP, but I'm not you.
That is why I suggested in addition to keeping ME on there you could install Linux in another partition on the hard drive (or a second hard drive). As long as you have reasonable space free, some modern distros like Suse 9.2 have ability to resize your existing partition(s).
This installing of linux would give you the ability to work in either while you get used to the superior OS and spend more proportion of your time in it.

If linux runs stable then you know that your instability problems were caused by a lame OS. Maybe look in add/remove programs and see if you have lots of progs like games off magazine cover disks if so, be ruthless in your cleanup.

If you aren't yet convinced, play around with a linux livecd for a while - maybe try running mprime in torture test mode from a ramdisk or something.

Even I have to use some apps that only run on windows rather than Linux (yet) so I do have a minority of my machines running Windows OS like W2000,XP. So don't feel too bad about it.

[A_Pryme]

Originally Posted by Peter Nelson

If linux runs stable then you know that your instability problems were caused by a lame OS.

I would not dispose of the factory OS on the Win Me or split the current drive. On the contrary maintaining that system/OS was where I learned computers since I was on it 12 to 14 hours a day for two years. The two major problems with it was run32.dll and ypager.exe. Ypager won't cause any errors because YIM is not running and run32.dll is not being tapped by a bunch of programs.

The BSOD was not a daily occurance or chronic and I think I was the cause of most of it by pushing it the way that I did but Ypager.exe was never really compatible for some reason in Win Me so as long as the machine is running the way it is it will be in order.

I do have a spare hard drive in the desk drawer so if I really HAVE TO I can plug that into this superior machine, download and install Linux on that and then just add it to the other puter as a second drive or just switch drives.

Or, just pick up some hard drives at resales. I have always found that fun and interesting They are usually only a dollar or two and FREAK OUT, they have active OS's on them. Will people never learn? Drives like that can be stripped of resources and reused but if left intact just don't network it or go online with it.

That is why I like OEM, they come pre-loaded and it has much more for functions than Windows in the box because it installs, restore, formats, all compared to the two or three day job (and 2 or 3 hundred dollars) I commonly hear about that is required to install an OS by the average user.

[Peter Nelson]

Well, ok, keep ME on your main hard drive and put linux on another.

One way to do this and swap easily is to use a pair of those IDE caddys that plug in and out of the drive bay. To move files between OS you could use a usb flash memory key maybe.

Second (preferred) option is to have both hard drives connected simultaneously, maybe one as master one as slave on the ide bus or primary/secondary controller. You can either choose which to boot using the bios or (more convenient) by a menu in the boot loader.

However, if I understand you correctly, I think you suggest installing linux onto the drive using your OTHER machine then moving the hard drive. That is not the ideal solution as it will be harder to setup your dual booting. The easiest way is to install the linux using the machine you want to run it on. You are advised to take a backup of your drive contents just in case something goes wrong.

I do like OEM software (not just for price but often functionality as you say), but I hate when a vendor pre-installs the programs on the hardware and doesn't give you any cd/dvd media containing what they installed. One Packard Bell I supported came with media you could ONLY install on a PB machine. So you could not take the software you paid for onto another system if you had to retire it. No media is hopeless if you want something not part of the conventional install eg some admin resources, and even worse if your hard drive crashes because then you have nothing (but a paper license if you're lucky). You may even have to buy the software product again!

I like being able to recover from snapshot backups (eg using Norton Ghost) but where these are in hidden partitions or work in a proprietary undocumented way they are not worth the hassle to support.

You may well be able to live with a reasonably stable system in ME even if it crashes occasionally. Prime95 will just recover from its save files (you may lose say half an hour work but that's not fatal).

[A_Pryme]

Originally Posted by Peter Nelson

However, if I understand you correctly, I think you suggest installing linux onto the drive using your OTHER machine then moving the hard drive.

Yeah, something like that but I forgot what I meant. I think I could download Linux on this machine, save that file to the extra hard drive then put that in the other machine assuming I can boot from Windows to install that on the second hard drive, then switch my drive to boot from the freshly installed Linix drive then from there on with Linux after it boots to Linux OS.

I guess. Something along those lines.

That second hard drive needs formatting and partitioning? I deleted the OS that was on it from resales and reformatted it with this XP in order to put files on and make sure to get rod of the old junk.

No... Wrong... That drive has never been on this machine and was reformatted by the WinMe to savefiles on before it ended up in the desk drawer after I got this system so XP hasn't touched it.

[Peter Nelson]

Originally Posted by A_Pryme

. I think I could download Linux on this machine, save that file to the extra hard drive then put that in the other machine assuming I can boot from Windows to install that on the second hard drive, then switch my drive to boot from the freshly installed Linix drive then from there on with Linux after it boots to Linux OS.

Well if you have a cd or dvd burner, you could then download the linux, and put it on cd (an alternative is a mag cover cd). Then boot your machine from the cd with the blank hard drive (and ideally the windows drive as c/primary too). Then tell the linux install you want to install on the empty drive. Linux has its own formatting although you can format the new drive from windows if you really want to first.

After that you can load the linux version of prime95 (mprime) from the normal mersenne.org download page.