FS Autostart or Cacheman in FSX???

[JBaymore]

Nick I hope you are still around,.......

Please see two posts above yours..... that was only a couple of days ago.

best,

....................john

[larshall]

.. and be sure to make a complete back-up of your system. You may have to use it  :(
The O&O offline (i.e. boot) defragmentation procedure completely undid my system (probably the registry)  with an error message indicating that windows cannot start because the file:

\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

is missing or damaged. (And yes I did run Disk Check before this defrag. As I did follow every other part of the suggested procedure to the letter).
Something may have been seriously bad with my system in the first place, though I have no reason to believe so ..
But the result for me is a system that can no longer boot and leaves me with the choice of attempting some fairly arcane recovery procedures  

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

or reinstall everything from scratch  :-/

Neither of which appeals to me  :'(

So proceed with caution ...

Lars

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]Hi Nick;

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote].. and be sure to make a complete back-up of your system. You may have to use it

[larshall]

Thanks for replying - OS is (was) XP Home SP2 (Updated to SP2 from a Microsoft CD and fully updated from Microsoft Update), HD Seagate 200 GB ATA (3 partions none over 100 GB), with no previous history of bad sectors etc.
I'll give try out your suggestions when I get back from work ...
I've also made a support request to O&O - but given this was a trial version (with limited support) it may take a while for them to reply.
I'll keep you posted on that ...

Regards

Lars

[gilly_is_alive]

someone make this thread a sticky!!!!

hey nick, my laptop is in getting repaired at the minute but i may need to talk to you about a problem with the sound when it returns (hopefully within the week) as you seem to be pretty knowledgeable.    

cheers, gilly

[NicksFXHouse]

I would post this at the beginning of the thread if possible however I can not edit the first post at this time...


I wish to be quite clear that when you tweak a system you run the risk of forcing problems to the surface that otherwise may never be seen.

Furthermore, anyone who is tweaking a system while OVERCLOCKED is potentially playing Russian Roulette with their computer using a FULLY LOADED CHAMBER and doubles the risk of having stressed components either produce errors OR fail. Running overclocked is possible but ONLY if that overclock has been correctly set up by a professional who KNOWS what the system can and can not do in that state.


Taking information out of context or adding/changing what has been posted in this thread also runs the risk of potential issues. Adding tweaks from other sources to what was posted without knowing for sure what can happen AND without being experienced in order to reverse the changes, is dangerous and should never be attempted.


If you do, you assume the responsibility for such actions.


What I posted in this thread ARE THE ONLY TWEAKS I RECOMMEND ANYONE USE, are NOT designed for a Windows install that has undergone a massive set of tweaks prior to implementing what I posted.

THE SERVICES I LISTED ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE SAFE TO SHUT DOWN WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT IT IS YOU ARE DOING AND I AM VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT.

Past what I posted is specific to the system and the environment and should NEVER be attempted without direct professional assistance. THE SAME GOES FOR NOT KNOWING WHAT IT IS YOU ARE DOING: SEEK PROFESSIONAL SERVICES


Otherwise you assume the the risks.

If you accept those risks!!.... in the processes you CAN LEARN things however do not place responsibility on anyone else but the person hitting the keys. The user is the most dangerous thing a computer system has to deal with, including a professional. The difference is a professional knows what can go wrong and how to recover OR repair so it will not happen again.


=====================================================

This message was not prompted by anyone however since I am seeing advice, both posted and not posted in this thread, being spread around AND I am seeing evidence of people trying to take what I post and IMPROVE or ADD it I WITHOUT my input, I want to make it quite clear that doing such things are NOT ADVISED.


=====================================================

[Politically Incorrect]

I can confirm the not booting after running O&O.
This was before I knew about the SP2 and other problems or running a disc check.

I ran a name defrag on a XP system running SP1, a older model Dell. After the defrag run and offline defrag it would no longer boot.
After a re-install I tried again, same issue.
One more reformat and reinstall and ran O&O Space and only Space everything was fine.

I have never had a issue with it on my other newer pcs running name and offline.

And now after reading Nicks post above see what the issues were before.

[Mobius]

First off, I would like to say THANK YOU NICK! [smiley=thumbsup.gif] I used to get horrible disk errors and restarts whenever I would try to run check-disk or do a defrag until I followed your tips, and now I am defragged to the highest degree.

But, is there anyone out there that has done these tweaks with a Logitech G15 keyboard?  I did and now the CPU performance meter thingie on the LCD doesn't show up anymore.  I am eternally grateful for what the tweaks have done, and I wouldn't really miss this function that much, but I was just curious if anyone knew how to fix it.

Thanks again Nick.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]First off, I would like to say THANK YOU NICK! [smiley=thumbsup.gif] I used to get horrible disk errors and restarts whenever I would try to run check-disk or do a defrag until I followed your tips, and now I am defragged to the highest degree.

But, is there anyone out there that has done these tweaks with a Logitech G15 keyboard?

[Mobius]

You are very welcome


During tweaking you shut down the Windows performance counters. Those counters remove CPU cycles from the system. At this point you have to ask yourself what is more important, flashy lights? or the recovered cycles that are now going to processing your applications.

If you want the blinky lights back, start the software exctrlst.exe and restore the perfomance counters then turn the service back on.


CPU use can always be checked by starting the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL) and click on the performance tab. That meter will function with the perfomance counters on -OR- off.

That's what I thought, I think I'll go without the flashy lights.

Thanks again.

[larshall]

I'm sorry to report that running CHKDSK /R has not been able to resolve the issue of a corrupted registry following an offline defrag by O&O.
Seagate's Seatools gives the hard disc a clean bill of health as hardware but notes, that there are errors in the file structure - somehow that doesn't come as a surprise
O&O support has replied with a support ticket number - but no other comment or suggestion/solution. I'll give them a little time to see if they have anything to offer in terms of actual support. Though - as things are - I'm not quite ready to buy a program that broke my system to get access to their customer support

[robmw]

I'd like to add my personal experience to this list as I've just spent a somewhat traumatic two days trying this reconfiguration of my system.

Before I go further I'd like to add that it does seem to have made a difference - my machine boots faster, is generally more responsive and most importantly FS9 (which I'm still using for the time being for many and various reasons) loads faster and runs generally more smoothly. This is particularly the case with photographic sceneries of which I have many and using which I hoped to see a difference. I haven't tried to quantify the changes but my subjective experience is that of a significant improvement. My PC specs are at the end of this post.

Following the instructions required me to invest in Registry Mechanic and O&O Defrag, although I've used Diskeeper Pro for many years. I also performed the defrag and registry operations in Windows Safe Mode. The O&O Defrag part worked fine but I wasn't expecting problems here as I have performed boot defrags successfully many times with Diskeeper. My 200GB main disk is also partitioned such that each partition is a good deal smaller than 137GB. My Win XP install is an original which has had both SP1 and SP2 applied, but from full download packages rather than online via Windows Update.

What did cause me a problem was the registry compaction  :-?! I successfully repaired several 100 redundant entries but compaction hung and (presumably) as a result I found that my user hive was locked, forcing Windows to use the default profile on startup. I didn't find any way to rectify this (including using Windows System Restore) but fortunately I frequently backup my whole system using partition backup software and so could easily recover. I repeated this several times with the same result and a support ticket regarding the problem had the response that my registry may have some corruption but as nothing else appears to be broken I should just avoid doing compaction, advice I'm happy to take!

The longest part of the whole operation was the 'name' defrag which took 8+ hours, mainly because I have in excess of 700,000 photo scenery files on one drive.

My advice to anyone thinking of trying this (1) make sure you have tested backups just in case, and (2) have plenty of time on hand if you have anything more than a basic software and flight sim setup, which I guess not many of you will have .  ;)

And was it worth it? For me at least I'd say yes  :).

Rob W

Asus P4C800E-Dlx, P4 @ 3.1GHz, 2GB PC3500, ATI X800XL, IDE 200GB + 2*120Gb (no RAID).

[NicksFXHouse]

First, I think it is important to note the internet is not flooded with complaints about O&O or Registry Mechanic. If there were issues typical to the software, I think Google would be loaded with more than a few complaints.

It is always possible a glitch specific to a number of systems exists (for what reasons, we do not know) however the number of systems where no issues are found must far outweigh the minority. If it is found a system does not respond well to a software title then of course it is best to refrain from using it until such time as a solution is found or discovered which is specific to the system.

Typically, the software is not at fault but that is not always the case.

Software manufactures are well aware that every system is different and the number of factors that go into glitches, which may not be a fault of their product, can be staggering.

O&O has been on the market for years and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. I seriously doubt the software would be on the market if it was widely known for damaging systems, especially business servers.

There is another factor that can not be ignored. OEM WindowsXP disks. Some OEMs produce their own slipstreamed version of WindowsXP which may install their own features (including boot sectors) and may not contain the correct properties to ensure proper updates are applied via the internet -or- could display unfavorable results when exposed to a software title that expects to see the RIGHT files in place. When/where/how SP2 was obtained/installed is also a factor. I do know that if the original install of Windows does not incorporate certain NTFS system files, SP2 may not update them correctly leaving the system vulnerable to

[NicksFXHouse]

And one last thing before I head off to bed after going for 48 hours...  

Windows installs... How many times has it been reported an initial Windows install went bad and there is no indication of a hardware problem? More than I can count. Even more often Windows installs and runs but with greatly reduced performance due to a glitch during the installation process. Is this Microsoft