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Improving Windows Vista Performance and Experience Score..Question?

post #1 of 20
3/17/07 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys...I am running Intel Pentium Dual Core T2060 1.6GHz with 1GB of ram on my gateway notebook...It was running good when I 1st got like a month or 2 back but now its using like 60% of my ram up and i'm only running firefox and windows sidebar at times...Could it be that windows vista sidebar is using up alot of resources or no..And I also cannot update my windows experience score and I dont know what the problem is...It says like windows accessment tool cannot complete because of new hardware,driver or something like that..Can anyone help me out to improve my performance...Thanks to anyone who replies nicely and doesnt flame lol...Peace
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post #2 of 20
3/17/07 at 1:09pm
Well... I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but when you cannot update your experience score it generally means you are using a hacked copy of Vista with the 2099 + timer stopper hack. Look at the time of your last test... if it shows the date being in the future, you won't be able to refresh the score. Also, Sidebar really doesn't use that much for resources. There are many things that could cause your system to slow down, but just because it says you are using 60% of your system RAM doesn't mean there is something wrong. My system uses 60% of my 2GB right now. All that means is that the Superfetch technology is working to cache all of your commonly used programs into system memory so that they run/launch faster. If you want to, there are ways to disable the superfetch deal - but you may actually end up hurting performance in the long term. Lots of people say that by disabling superfetch and search indexing that you gain a bit of system performance... how much though is specualtive. Just do a quick google search and you will find the answers you need if you want to shut them down..
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post #3 of 20
3/17/07 at 1:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
Well... I hate to be the one to point this out to you, but when you cannot update your experience score it generally means you are using a hacked copy of Vista with the 2099 + timer stopper hack. Look at the time of your last test... if it shows the date being in the future, you won't be able to refresh the score. Also, Sidebar really doesn't use that much for resources. There are many things that could cause your system to slow down, but just because it says you are using 60% of your system RAM doesn't mean there is something wrong. My system uses 60% of my 2GB right now. All that means is that the Superfetch technology is working to cache all of your commonly used programs into system memory so that they run/launch faster. If you want to, there are ways to disable the superfetch deal - but you may actually end up hurting performance in the long term. Lots of people say that by disabling superfetch and search indexing that you gain a bit of system performance... how much though is specualtive. Just do a quick google search and you will find the answers you need if you want to shut them down..
Im defnity not using hacked version..My notebook came with vista home premium...I bought it around January when vista came out..My last rating was 1/31/07...I dont know why it isnt working..
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post #4 of 20
3/17/07 at 3:08pm
Have you tried pushing the "Update My Score" button instead of the Refresh button?
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post #5 of 20
3/17/07 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
Have you tried pushing the "Update My Score" button instead of the Refresh button?
I just tried it and this is what I get..I dont know why its saying this...
LL
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post #6 of 20
3/17/07 at 3:28pm
Definetly sounds driver related what video card is on your system?
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post #7 of 20
3/17/07 at 3:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DELL-Machina
Definetly sounds driver related what video card is on your system?
I think its a ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Series...Thats what I see under device manager and display adapters..And my resources are being hogged I think..I have the vista gadget for the dual core and core 1 is at like 80-100% at times and core stays at like 10-20% or more...Is it that I am using azureus thats its using alot of resources..?
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post #8 of 20
3/17/07 at 6:32pm
Ok, lets try this... Go into file explorer and browse to

"%windir%\performance\winsat\" and post back here with the file winsat.log and also the latest dated file from "%windir%\performance\winsat\datastore\" which will be an XML file. If you can send me these two files, I can look through them and see what is halting the process... If you want to just email them to me, do it at Krayziepop@hotmail.com.

If you want to just make them publicly available, thats fine too.
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post #9 of 20
3/17/07 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
Ok, lets try this... Go into file explorer and browse to "%windir%\\performance\\winsat\\" and post back here with the file winsat.log and also the latest dated file from "%windir%\\performance\\winsat\\datastore\\" which will be an XML file. If you can send me these two files, I can look through them and see what is halting the process... If you want to just email them to me, do it at Krayziepop@hotmail.com. If you want to just make them publicly available, thats fine too.
Sent...What are you going to get from these 2 files...?..Hopefully you can help me..
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post #10 of 20
3/17/07 at 9:00pm
Ok next step...

From what I can see in the WinSat files you sent over, there is an issue with the media encoding strech of benchmarking. Sooo... I need you to run one more test. To do this, go to the search box at the base of your start menu and in it type 'cmd'. Above, at the top of the menu you will see the CMD file show up. Right click it and select "Run as Administrator". This will open up the command prompt with Admin access.

Now enter this into the command prompt ---> winsat formal -v >> c:\winsat.txt

Leave your system alone for a few minutes, because even though it looks like nothing is happening, its running the assessment again in Verbose mode. Let it complete (if it will) and afterwards send me the new Winsat file that is created on your C drive. This will be a more complete file than the one you have already sent me, and with it I should be able to narrow down what component is causing the issue. Ultimately it may end up being driver related, but looking back you have been having issues getting the experience score to refresh since the beginning of February, with the last successful refresh being back on January 31. I will be standing by.
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post #11 of 20
3/17/07 at 9:10pm
ACTUALLY, lets try one other thing also.

Open %systemroot%\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore and delete everything but the most recent file... then try doing the reassesement. With any luck this will allow you to move forward... Let me know.
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post #12 of 20
3/17/07 at 9:42pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
ACTUALLY, lets try one other thing also. Open %systemroot%\\Performance\\WinSAT\\DataStore and delete everything but the most recent file... then try doing the reassesement. With any luck this will allow you to move forward... Let me know.
Tried the 1st thing and an error came up..The 2nd thing which 1 do I delete the stuff in the folder or the single file...Look at the pic
LL
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post #13 of 20
3/17/07 at 10:00pm
Delete the two folders that are in that directory, they shouldn't be there. Leave the single XML file intact in there, and then try running the WEI again...
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post #14 of 20
3/17/07 at 10:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
Delete the two folders that are in that directory, they shouldn't be there. Leave the single XML file intact in there, and then try running the WEI again...
Didnt work..Same error..Cannot complete assessment...It has no windows experience score anymore..I dont know what to do...
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post #15 of 20
3/17/07 at 10:30pm
Ok... do you have either Yahoo or MSN messenger? If so, please contact me at Krayziepop@hotmail.com on MSN or as krayzie_trucker on Yahoo.. it will be much easier to troubleshoot if you can talk directly to me.
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post #16 of 20
3/17/07 at 10:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayziepop
Ok... do you have either Yahoo or MSN messenger? If so, please contact me at Krayziepop@hotmail.com on MSN or as krayzie_trucker on Yahoo.. it will be much easier to troubleshoot if you can talk directly to me.
Im getting windows live messenger now..I will be on shortly..
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post #17 of 20
3/18/07 at 2:39pm
Well, we didn't come up with a working solution yet so I will post up here the information I have picked apart here so maybe somebody else who has seen this issue can chime in... The error itself shows first in the contents of the WinSAT.log file as seen here (error in bold)
Code:
 
 
197328 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2295: --- START 2007\\3\\17 10:29:22 AM ---
198203 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2567: > IsFormal=TRUE  IsMoobe=FALSE.
198250 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1974: > DWM Running.
198734 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1987: > turning off DWM.
198796 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2051: > EMD device detected to be on.  EMD will be restored on exit.
198843 (3956) - mlib\\syspowertools.cpp:0872: > Read the active power scheme as '381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e'
198968 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2108: > power policy saved.
199984 (3956) - mlib\\syspowertools.cpp:0904: > Set the active power scheme to 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'
200046 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2120: > power policy set to maximum.
201000 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2756: > IsOfficial=TRUE  IsFormal=TRUE  IsMoobe=FALSE  RanOverTs=FALSE  RanOnbatteries=FALSE
201078 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: features ''
203625 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
203734 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: graphicsformal ' -wddm'
306546 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1390: > DWM Assessment completed
307421 (3956) - winsat\\processresults.cpp:2109: > Wrote video memory bandwidth to the registry 1066740
309218 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1408: > DWM Assessment results processing SUCCESS
309312 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
309406 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: media '-input {winsatencode.wmv} -encode {winsat.prx}'
475046 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1430: > Assessment FAILED due to an error
475765 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: moobego ''
475953 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: mfmedia '-input {winsat.wmv} -nopmp'
521734 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
522281 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: cpu '-encryption'
554640 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
555281 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: cpu '-compression'
566734 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
566906 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: cpu '-encryption2'
577515 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
577578 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: cpu '-compression2'
588000 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
588234 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: mem ''
593796 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
594078 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: disk '-seq -read -n 0'
746000 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
746093 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: disk '-flush -n 0'
756468 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
757109 (3956) - winsat\\processresults.cpp:0672: Total physical mem available to the OS : 957 MB (1,004,011,520 bytes)
758453 (3956) - mlib\\syspowertools.cpp:0904: > Set the active power scheme to 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e'
758578 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2155: > Power state restored.
758687 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2171: > Successfully reenabled EMD.
758796 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:2193: > Composition restarted
761296 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:3216: > exit value = 1.
Ok.. so its obviously a media encoding problem which diplomat has confirmed that the media encoding portion of the tests seem to hang for quite a while before continuing. So lets break down that bolded section...
Code:
 
309406 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: media '-input {winsatencode.wmv} -encode {winsat.prx}'
475046 (3956) - winsat\\main.cpp:1430: > Assessment FAILED due to an error
The first number there appears to be some kind of a system timestamp perhaps... not sure how its calculated though, as the numeric range changes drastically from test to test. The second number (in parenthesis) is the process ID currently used for the WinSAT testing executable. The string following is the command line string that initializes each command. The number following the main.cpp: seems to just point the app to the next test in the pool - though numbers like 1161 and 1430 are used repeatedly. 1430 seems to always indicate a PASSED test and 1161 seems to indicate the initialization of the next round. Anyway... The testing here shows that its running a media encoding test. The input file is winsatencode.wmv (which can be found in the C:\\Windows\\Performance\\WinSAT directory) Its a short video clip of some 'fountains and waterfalls'. The command "encode {winsat.prx}' tells the encoder to use the prx file to define the encoder's configuration. The .prx file is also located in the WinSAT directory. Here are the contents of the config file Winsat.prx
Code:
 
<profile version="589824" 
storageformat="1" 
name="WinSAT Test Profile" 
description="A test profile designed for use by WinSAT as part of formal assessments."> 
<streamconfig majortype="{73646976-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}" 
streamnumber="1" 
streamname="Video Stream" 
inputname="Video409" 
bitrate="2638200" 
bufferwindow="5000" 
reliabletransport="0" 
decodercomplexity="AU" 
rfc1766langid="en-us" 
> 
<videomediaprops maxkeyframespacing="50000000" 
quality="85"/> 
<wmmediatype subtype="{33564D57-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}" 
bfixedsizesamples="0" 
btemporalcompression="1" 
lsamplesize="0"> 
<videoinfoheader dwbitrate="2638200" 
dwbiterrorrate="0" 
avgtimeperframe="416666"> 
<rcsource left="0" 
top="0" 
right="1920" 
bottom="1080"/> 
<rctarget left="0" 
top="0" 
right="1920" 
bottom="1080"/> 
<bitmapinfoheader biwidth="1920" 
biheight="1080" 
biplanes="1" 
bibitcount="24" 
bicompression="WMV3" 
bisizeimage="0" 
bixpelspermeter="0" 
biypelspermeter="0" 
biclrused="0" 
biclrimportant="0"/> 
</videoinfoheader>
</wmmediatype>
</streamconfig>
</profile>
Ok... a lot of that looks like gibberish to most - but its just like setting up a Divx codec, the only difference is that the config file changes the settings automatically. If you look above you will see that the codec it attempts to use for compression is the WMV3 codec, which is also known as the "Windows Media Player 9 CODEC". This is the same codec Windows uses for WMVHD encoding and decoding. The above config file is setting up the WMV3 codec to create a 1080p movie out of the Winsatencode.wmv file. Now its my best guess that the installation of an aftermarket codec pack has somehow either corrupted or overwrote the WMV3 codec with a version different than the one Vista is expecting for the WEI scoring... Hmm.. maybe I just figured out the problem I guess I was too tired to evaluate all this info last night. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to restore the codec on a Vista system... there is a codec pack at this link here ---> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en that would have the required codec in it, but its not installable in a Vista system. Even if you force compatibility to XPSP2 and run as administrator - the system will issue a low level block on the file and it still refuses to install... I cannot find any Vista codec packs with the WMV3 codec included. So at this point, if anybody else has anything to add to this topic at hand please feel free to jump in. It seems as though there are many people posting about this problem in many other forums, so hopefully this research will help somebody solve their problem in the future. Thanks for any extra input!
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post #18 of 20
3/18/07 at 3:08pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks alot for the kraziepop...He stayed on msn to help me for hours and I appreciate it alot..He deserves hella props..Thanks again
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post #19 of 20
3/18/07 at 8:40pm
Thread Starter 
Wow guys...You wouldnt believe it..It worked..I guess it might have been something with a couple of programs I had or maybe it was my external dvd burner that I had to hook back up to the notebook pc..I got a base score of "2.3"...LoL...Not the best..But thanks again to kraziepop for helping..I will be getting a 2gb sd card for readyboost..Thanks alot..
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post #20 of 20
10/16/07 at 10:55pm
my monitor crashes when i do the test..it goes to standby..and keyboard becomes unresponsive..cant even turn caps nums lock on and off..heres the log on the crash
13862982 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2295: --- START 2007\10\16 18:31:49 PM ---
13863044 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2567: > IsFormal=TRUE IsMoobe=FALSE.
13863060 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1974: > DWM Running.
13863216 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1987: > turning off DWM.
13863231 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2051: > EMD device detected to be on. EMD will be restored on exit.
13863247 (0796) - mlib\syspowertools.cpp:0872: > Read the active power scheme as '8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'
13863247 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2108: > power policy saved.
13863387 (0796) - mlib\syspowertools.cpp:0904: > Set the active power scheme to 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c'
13863403 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2120: > power policy set to maximum.
13864214 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:2756: > IsOfficial=TRUE IsFormal=TRUE IsMoobe=FALSE RanOverTs=FALSE RanOnbatteries=FALSE
13864230 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: features ''
13866289 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
13866445 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: graphicsformal ' -wddm -v'
13931981 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1390: > DWM Assessment completed
13932012 (0796) - winsat\processresults.cpp:2109: > Wrote video memory bandwidth to the registry 7481570
13932059 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1408: > DWM Assessment results processing SUCCESS
13932074 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
13932090 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: media '-input {winsatencode.wmv} -encode {winsat.prx} -v'
13943478 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1436: > Assessment completed
13943525 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: moobego ' -v'
13943525 (0796) - winsat\main.cpp:1161: > Running Assessment: mfmedia '-input {winsat.wmv} -nopmp -v'

i have ati 2600xt 512mb..athlon x2 4400...

thnx i need help...might even be a codec..sometimes it crash on some avi movies..
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