Some Notes on the Machines

Here is a really great page with all sorts of AT-related commands:

http://www.usr.com/support/3453/3453-command-ref/chap%204-modes%20of%20operation.htm

Here is a document from LSI which specifies best settings for LSI RAID:

http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/6Gbs_LSI_LRb.pdf

If a NIC disappears altogether, try an actual unplug of the PC for 10-15 seconds, and then fire it up again.  It worked for me, recommended by a vendor’s tech support.  Realtek gigabit NIC.  The recommended fix was to update all drivers.

An overview:

http://www.ervik.as/index.php/microsoft-mainmenu/terminal-server/1964-using-multiple-monitors-in-remote-desktop-session

Sometimes hidden devices can exist as objects in the Device Manager.  When these are NICs, and sometimes monitors and other things, problems can occur.  To see these, do this:

1. Open Command Prompt. Then enter:

2. set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

3. devmgmt.msc

4. When the Device Manager comes up as requested by #3, there will be a “View” menu.  Open the View menu, and choose “Show Hidden Devices”.

A very good place to get info on NASes:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews

Stress-testing hardware is a good idea where there is doubt.  Here is a tool which appear to do this quite well for GPU.

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100419/tool-furmark-1-8-2-available/

Somewhat mysteriously, performance of Intel software RAID appears to increase a lot if one restarts the service twice or more per day.  I am using these two commands:

NET STOP IAStorDataMgrSvc
NET START IAStorDataMgrSvc

The name of the service may need to be changed, depending on multiple factors.  The names can be obtained using the properties of the services within ‘services.msc’.

If you see Windows 7 slow or less reliable than it should be, go deep into the BIOS and see if you can find an “HPET” item.  It may need to be enabled.  HPET is an option which permits certain operating systems (not XP, I believe) to multitask hardware into much smaller increments, which ends up permitting much higher overall responsiveness.

The noteworthy Liz Landry contributes:

Just wanted to let you know that I found out this morning that the newer Nvidia drivers are having problems with Remote Desktop and causing the computer to lock up and have to be hard booted.  The fix is as follows:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Add a DWORD and call it:

SessionImageSize 

Set it to hex size 20.

Then reboot and use RDP.  There should no longer be problems with the computer locking up.