Do you get your game on via PC or console? Which is better? Which has better performance? This has long been argued by many gamers from different backgrounds. This Tech Tip will attempt to address both sides and determine which one is the best of the best!

Consoles

Today, gaming on a console brings many of us older gamers back to our roots. People (myself included) who grew up with the good ‘ol 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 will remember the simplicity and endless hours of fun with those gaming machines. Speaking of simplicity, this is a console’s greatest strength when it comes to its function. No fussy installations, hardware configurations and possible incompatibilities are involved. You just plug the cables into your television, plug the console’s power adapter in, insert the game and voila! Instant fun right in your living room.

Another blessing of console systems is the pricing. As of this writing, a Sony Playstation 3 runs for about $300, a Microsoft Xbox 360 systems and the Nintendo Wii start at $199 which is relatively cheaper than a gaming computer. In addition, the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSP provide a way to take the console fun on the go. Console gaming offers instant action at a relatively affordable price.

PC Gaming

At the other corner, we have the classic pc computer platform which many would argue has just as good, if not better benefits as its console counterparts. First, a computer can do everything a console can do but can also be used to check email, download music, write papers, do research, conduct business, and edit photos and much more. Hence, its utility is plenty for a consumer. Second, with the rapid spread of technology, a computer can be continuously upgraded with new hardware to accommodate new technologies and new games that take advantage of next-generation graphical eye candy (ahem, DirectX 11). In, addition, PC gamers have the option to overclock their computers in order to squeeze extra power from their systems; some also overclock and refrain from buying newer and more expensive hardware until prices come down in their favor. Regardless, the PC platform offers a wide range of utility and flexibility for the gamer.

Why Console over PC

Let’s face it, if you’re hosting a party, it would certainly increase your nerd stock to set up 4-5 computers in your living room for a fun and casual gaming atmosphere. Let’s not forget that most average people either don’t know or aren’t comfortable using a computer keyboard and mouse to play a video game. In addition, you have the Microsoft Kinect and Nintendo Wii systems that add a new level of interaction between the users and the gaming system. Thus, the console platform has something for everyone.

You also have the simplicity of a standard gaming platform. For example, the Microsoft Xbox 360 has the same setup and the same type of games as it did when it debuted in 2005. Therefore, there are no headaches and issues about compatibility on games and accessories.

Regarding games, the consoles excel at several genres which include (but not limited to) sports games, educational games and racing games. Even though Madden 2011 is available for PC, most sports fans would rather play it on an Xbox 360/PS3 because of the easier gamepad. Other games like Guitar Hero and Gran Turismo 5 would arguably be preferred on console systems. Furthermore, fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe are more socially preferred as everyone is usually huddled around a big-screen television.

Why PC over Console

What do the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii all have in common? If you crack open their cases, you’ll find a CPU, video card, sound card, hard drive, RAM, network adapter, optical drive and motherboard. Whoa? That’s the exact same thing one would find inside a computer. From a technical perspective, it is true that all consoles are computers since they share the same hardware. However, the biggest issue with consoles is their obsolescence. The hardware inside the Xbox 360 is from 2005 and the hardware inside the Sony PS3 is from 2007. Graphically, their performance is subpar relative to a current-generation gaming PC with 2010-11 hardware. For example, Activision’s newly-released game, Call of Duty Black Ops was a cross-platform release. In other words, it came out for PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 and Nintendo DS all together. However, if you examine the PC hardware requirements for the game, you’ll notice it requires Direct X 9. This graphics platform was released in 2002-2003; Meaning that the game was graphically “dumbed down” so the console platforms could support it. Also, PC gamers have the flexibility of graphically tweaking the game settings for optimal visual performance. For example, if you look closely at a television running Halo 3, you’ll see lots of “jaggies” or lines/edges with jagged textures which is a painful eyesore among PC gamers.

Console gamers also mock that PC gamers are uber-nerdy when they all get together and have LAN parties. That is, several PC gamers bring over their computers and set up a local area network (LAN) at someone’s home and play video games. So what do you call 8 people split between 2 connected Xbox 360s and 2 big-screen TVs playing Halo 3? It’s really the same thing except PC gamers each have their own monitors and don’t have to squint at a corner of the TV.

So Which is Better?

Ultimately, it really comes down to preference. Neither PC nor console is superior but rather the choice comes down to what the gamer prefers. Are you the type of person who just wants to jump in, not worry about settings and wants to just enjoy the action? Or do you like playing in the living room in front of a big-screen TV with a simple gamepad?

Are you the type of person who enjoys long-hours of the MMORPG genre such as World of Warcraft? Do you fancy opening up your computer case and enjoy tinkering with BIOS settings, replacing parts and think FPS (first-person shooter) games are meant to be played via keyboard and mouse?

Regardless of your preference, just keep in mind several factors. First, know how much you want (and can afford) to spend before making a significant financial investment. Second, make sure the gaming platform you choose is aligned with your gaming interests and preference. Third, since technology moves so rapidly, keep the future in mind and consider changes/trends that might affect your future gaming purchases.

Remember, if you’re having trouble getting past a certain level, throw it into God mode and game on!

Tablet devices are bursting back onto the scene and stand to be on the most-wanted gadget list for many geeks in the near future. Rallied by the success of Apple’s iPad, manufacturers are charging back into the tablet form factor, offering both familiar and innovative ways for us to interact with our machines. In this TechTip, we’re talkin’ tablets!

What Makes a Tablet?

A tablet, more properly known as a tablet personal computer, is a medium-sized portable personal computer where a pen or touchscreen is used as the primary interface, as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. Some tablet PCs have a hardware keyboard attached while others feature touch-based interfaces and accomplish the task of character input with on-screen keyboard emulation or hand-writing recognition. Tablets are intended to be portable and mobile so they can be used in places where notebook and desktop PCs are impractical. To be portable, tablets are usually built with a wireless connection to provide local network access or an Internet connection. To stay portable, tablets require an internal battery and to make the most of their power source, are made with components that consume very little power compared to their bigger, more powerful brothers. Since power consumption is scaled back to maximize battery life, tablets often do not provide as much functionality as a notebook or desktop, but with their larger screen sizes, tablet PCs accomplish many tasks that handheld PCs cannot.

Back? What do you mean, “back?”

Tablets were first intended to be used to replace notepads or clipboards, so hand-writing recognition or sketching capability were key features. A few early ancestors of today’s tablets were introduced in the 1980s that offered hand-writing recognition, but things didn’t really take off until the early 1990s, when a company called the GO corporation announced PenPoint OS, the first operating system designed specifically for pen computers. Not to be outdone, Microsoft and Apple began to develop pen computing solutions of their own. This in turn, brought about IBM’s first ThinkPad, the 700T. A few other companies took their crack at tablets, but these products failed to sell well because of technological limitations of the time, causing the market to fade into nothing by 1995. Microsoft attempted to resurrect the tablet by creating their own Tablet PC specification, a pen computer prototype that would run a modified version of Windows XP, called the Tablet PC Edition. This brought pen computing back to life, but it only kept it on the fringe. Since it was a modified version of a desktop operating system, it wasn’t particularly well-suited to pen or touch interfaces.

The Perfect Tech-Storm

Tablets of today are almost a different kind of device entirely, and while they share similarities with their predecessors, they’ve evolved from a few different market conditions. The first condition, and I think the most important one, was the evolution of cheap cellphones into smartphones that became tiny computers all by themselves, complete with their own mobile operating systems. They became the hot new market in the tech industry. From there, smartphones began to integrate finger-based interfaces for touchscreens as the cost per inch of these screens, as well as the cost and size of flash memory,  was gradually reduced.  But even with all these pieces, nobody was in a hurry to pour money into a market that was littered with failures.

We have our notebook computers,  but they are still too cumbersome to use all the time, and we have our smartphones, but the screens are too small to use for extended periods of time. This left room for improvement, something that’s perfect for a short flight or keeping on the couch next to you for when you need to know where you’ve seen that character actor before. Enter the cheap netbook!  A netbook is a smaller notebook, usually with a 10-inch screen, a keyboard & touchpad, and a WiFi connection. They make use of low-power CPUs that are sufficient for most Internet-related activities. Most every PC manufacturer took notice that these little machines were flying out of their inventory in the past couple years. Unfortunately, most netbooks were made to run on light versions of Windows that provided a poor experience while suffering from poor performance with Adobe Flash.

The Modern Tablet

Today’s tablets are built with capacitive touchscreens and 3G of WiFi connections, but they also feature operating systems that were designed for mobile hardware, something most of their predecessors lacked. It’s no secret that the best in class tablet at the moment is the Apple iPad as many manufacturers have begun to copy its design, but it’s still not quite perfect. It was released back in April of 2010 and it’s beginning to show its age as a first generation device, plus, the rest of the industry is trying to catch up. But never fear, rumors are already swirling about what new features and improvements will be found in the “iPad 2”.

Everybody back in the water!

With the iPad’s success, due to its refined design and user experience, in what was a virtually uncontested market, it’s a race for everyone else to try and carve their piece of the pie. The iPad’s high price point along with its hardware and software restrictions leave more than enough room for innovation and competition. At CES 2011, it was obvious that manufacturers are aiming to do just that. This year’s mobile tablet offerings are going to include faster dual-core ARM processors, 3G or even 4G network connections with data plans, and will be thin and light while sporting high resolution screens. Google’s next Android OS firmware update, codenamed Honeycomb and expected to be released in Februrary, is going to be optimized for tablets, which will give software developers and manufacturers a great opportunity to get back into the tablet game. Last year, the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) purchased Palm, Inc., the makers of the Palm Pilot, after Palm announced they were developing a new mobile operating system called webOS. If that doesn’t make it clear that tablets are the new trend, Microsoft announced at CES 2011 that Windows 8 will run on ARM CPUs. Tablets are definitely on the way back, and this time, with the full force of the industry behind them!

Your printer's manufacturer doesn't want you to use your printer to just print and scan. They want to install bloated apps, eat memory, and to constantly nag you for more ink. Trim your printer setup to the minimum with this five-step guide.

Image via Kevin Cortopassi.

Mac owners and brave Linux adherents don't really need this guide. Oversized, heavily branded printer software does exist for Mac platforms, but you can use most any printer by simply plugging it in and hitting Command-P in an app. Linux, for the most part, works the same way, with the essential driver bits baked into the core of the system.

That leaves Windows. A hardware driver is supposed to be a simple, mostly hidden interface, but the majority of printer installation packages—whether installed off the CD in the box or from the printer maker's web site—want to do far more than just explain a printer's inner workings to your system.

When you're cleaning up a slow-going system, look in the system tray, or hit Ctrl+Shift+Esc. You'll likely find one or more apps running that do nothing more than wait for a printer or scanner to be connected, then somehow pop up and do, well, something. Some printer makers step a bit further, installing toolbars in your browser for supposed "smart printing," and installing a whole mess of software for image editing, photo retouching, project printing, and scanning that's far less useful than a lot of free software.

If you're the victim of a printer maker's overly ambitious plans, here's a sequential guide to getting rid of the bloat and reclaiming working memory, hard drive space, and some semblance of sanity in your printer setup.

Step One: Uninstall What You've Got

If it's a printer you're using at home, go ahead and wipe out whatever software you've got on your system associated with it. You don't want remnants of other drivers and software hanging around when you start over—trust me on that. Hit your Start menu, select the Control Panel, then click "Uninstall a program." Search for your printer maker in the upper-right corner ("HP," "Canon," "Lexmark," etc.). You might be surprised at all the stuff that's there.

Click each item, starting with the most primary-sounding item, and hit "Uninstall/Change." If you're lucky, you'll get a prompt from that main item to uninstall everything; otherwise you might have to doggedly detach each piece individually. You may also have to restart your system once or twice, too, and maybe immediately. When I was cleaning up my system's printer setup, HP's software didn't really give me a choice.

Note: If you're using Windows XP or a similarly older version, I recommend using Revo Uninstaller, especially its portable (a.k.a. no installation needed) version to do your wiping. It's not quite as necessary with Windows Vista/7, but it's still a pretty good app, despite how buried the free version is on Revo's web site these days.

Step Two: Try Windows Update First

Power up your printer and plug its USB cord into your computer while Windows is running. Microsoft has a pretty extensive library of printer drivers, especially for popular printers that aren't brand-new, and if your system is connected to the web, Windows might be able to automatically download and install a driver—possibly a smaller driver package than the manufacturer offers, too. It could just be the same kind of plus-sized installation, too, but installing through Windows gives you access to regular, automatic updates. If you luck out with Windows' automatic installation, skip ahead to the Cleaning Out Auto-Starters section.

Step Three: Grab the Latest from the Web

If Windows can't fix up your printer automatically, head to your manufacturer's web page, then look at the top of the page for the "Support," "Support & Drivers," or "Support & Downloads" section. You'll be asked to enter in your model number, then likely pick which version of Windows you're running (Unsure? Click the second question here).

More than anything, be on the lookout for a more stripped-down version of your printer driver—one without all the extra software and "utilities." You'll know this by the smaller download size, which is usually listed. You may be out of luck, like me, and be stuck with a 200 MB download. Hold your nose, click to save it, and grab yourself a coffee while it downloads.

Step Four: Cut Down the Cruft

That coffee wasn't a cheap transition—well, that's not all it was. You'll want to be paying attention when you install your software. I've installed my own HP printer drivers at least a dozen times, and I just noticed for the first time that I could limit the software it installs. It's a blue link that looks like part of a license agreement (see in the image above). Those "Click here to customize" links are often pretty subtle and tucked away—printer makers want everything to be easy, and they also like the profits from "Buy supplies" links. Look for them and use them if you can, keeping only the most basic software. Hopefully they're labeled as such—driver software, printing functionality, and so on.

Check that your printer actually works: print a test page, if offered, or simply print out a simple document or web page. Now that we know it's installed and operational, let's scale things back.

Head first to your Startup folder in your Start menu (Programs/All Programs->Startup), which is the nicest way software can suggest you run something on your computer automatically. In my case, viagra joke my printer isn't always connected to my main laptop, and even if it was, I'm only scanning things occasionally. So I don't need a "Digital Imaging Monitor" running on my system at all times. Right-click on the entry in the Startup folder and hit Delete. You didn't delete the program, just the shortcut, so you can always add it back if it's useful.

Now we're going to check out what other goodies our printer people asked our system to automatically start each time. Open your Start menu and enter msconfig and press Enter (on Windows XP, enter msconfig into the "Run" item on the Start menu. Click on over to the Startup tab.

Look through this list for your printer's manufacturer. It's never good to make bold pronouncements about computer issues, but I can say that I've never encountered a situation where a computer needed some kind of auto-starting, printer-related app to print. When it's time to print, your app contacts the driver, which feeds the printer, and your paper comes off the roller. When you're done, hit "Apply." If one of your apps really was needed, you can always head back into msconfig and re-check the app, so experiment with a clear conscience.

Unsure of which apps you actually need? Note the name of the application, usually ending with ".exe," and enter it into the search box at Sysinfo.org's Startup List. You'll likely find it there, along with a letter-coded recommendation on whether you need to keep it running or not: N, U, and X are safe to un-check in your msconfig window.

Step Five: Install Great, Lightweight Alternatives for Scanning and Photo Editing

If you've installed the basic printer and scanner driver for your system, that's all you really need to actually print and scan. Printer makers offer you scanning apps, maybe the kind that auto-load when you lift your scanner cover, and image/photo editing tools, but you've probably never heard any tech blog rave about such an app's greatness.

Scanning (and Faxing)

I asked on Twitter for recommendations on alternative apps for scanning, and got quite a few responses. I'm also a little embarassed to admit that I didn't realize that Windows Fax and Scan was available in all versions of Windows 7, and the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. It's a pretty straightforward tool for simply grabbing a document from your scanner, saving it to your hard drive, and getting on with your life. It can also handle faxes, if your system is set up with a phone connection.

Twitter user hqraja suggested FreeKapture, as well. But the majority of respondents noted that their favorite image editing apps—Paint.net, Picasa, and more—offer their own scanner functionality, usually tucked into an "Import" function in the File menu.

Scan-to-Text OCR:

Need to convert text on paper to text on your screen? We like FreeOCR for its serious simplicity (Direct download link here). Readers also responded with suggestions for SimpleOCR.

Simple Image Editing Software

You can read up on our readers' general favorite picks for image editing, but they tend to be a bit more in-depth than the average user needs for simple touch-ups, light fixes, and cropping/resizing—except Picasa. Picasa is a great tool for editing, red-eye-reducing, cropping, and emailing or backing up photos, as we suggested in a feature on setting up your folks. If you wanted a more straight-ahead editing tool, Paint.net is the next level up.

With just your drivers installed, your auto-starting items reduced, and better scan and edit software installed, your system, and hopefully your workflow, is a bit cleaner and more agile. If you've done your own printer purge and have further tips, we'll gladly hear them in the comments.

If you've got one of Canon's amazing video-capable DSLRs, you know you've got a powerful camera. What you may not know is that you can add some incredible features, for free, with an open-source firmware add-on called Magic Lantern. Here's how.

Photo remixed from originals by Miss Katrina Beers and Carole Smith

Note: if you've got a point and shoot camera, be sure to check out or guide on turning your point and shoot into a super camera. If you're simply new to DSLR video, you'll want to learn how to record great video with your DSLR.

What is Magic Lantern?

Magic Lantern probably best explained by its creators in the video above, but it is essentially an enhancement that works on top of Canon's firmware to provide great new features to your video-capable Canon DSLR that you'd expect to see on a professional video camera. For example, you have much finer control over audio, can overlay a zebra pattern to see overexposed areas of the frame, add custom crop marks for various aspect ratios (like 2.35:1), set up programmable focus, and more. It's incredibly easy to install (which we'll walk you through in a minute) and will let you do things with a DSLR that have generally only been possible with cameras that may cost more than your yearly wages. To get more information directly from the source, download the firmware; you can check compatibility with your particular Canon DSLR at the Magic Lantern Wiki. Now that you know what it's capable of and where to get it, let's dive into installing and using it.

How to Install Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern works on more than the Canon 5D Mark II, but since that was the first camera it was made for and it's the one that I've got, that's what we're going to use as a model. You should do the necessary research about your camera model and its compatibility before you begin this process. While nobody, to date, has broken their camera with Magic Lantern, it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Just be informed before you start playing with it.

Magic Lantern isn't a firmware upgrade or replacement, but rather software that runs alongside the installed firmware. This means it needs to be compatible with your camera's firmware version. In the 5D Mark II, Magic Lantern is compatible with firmware versions 1.0.7, 1.1.0, 2.0.3, 2.0.4 and 2.0.8, but you need to match up your camera's firmware version with the version of Magic Lantern that supports it. For example, Magic Lantern 0.1.6 only supports 5D Mark II Firmware 1.1.0. Later versions won't work and your camera will freeze up.

The Magic Lantern download page only has version 0.1.6, 0.1.5, and 0.1.4 available, so if your Canon firmware version is later than 1.1.0 you get the pleasure of trying to figure out where to download the latest version of Magic Lantern. To make things easy on yourself, updated your 5D Mark II to version 2.0.8 (which is the latest as of the time of this writing) and download version 0.1.9 via the Google Groups posting. If you ever want to find other versions of Magic Lantern, the Magic Lantern Google Group is your best place to look.

Once you've download version 0.1.9 (or the version you needed), you'll unzip the download and see these files:

Copy the magiclantern.fir file to the root of your CompactFlash (or, for some of you, SD) card and put it back into the camera. If you've upgraded your firmware on the 5D Mark II before (and chances are you have), this process should seem familiar. So should the next steps.

All you need to do is go into your settings where you upgrade your firmware (if you're using a 5D Mark II, it's the last option under the third yellow wrench as pictured above). That option should just be the version of your firmware. Select it, tell the camera you want to upgrade, and once you confirm it'll seem to reboot. If it's been more than 10 seconds, take your battery out and put it back in because you did something wrong. If the camera is functional again within a few seconds, congratulations! You just loaded up Magic Lantern.

How to Use Magic Lantern

The moment you go into Live View mode on your camera you should notice some changes (like audio signal meters along the top of the frame and zebra patterns on overexposed areas), but if you want to start messing around with the settings you need to press the Picture Style button to bring them up. Are you wondering which button that is? Me too. I just pushed a bunch of buttons until I found it, but here's a graphic to save you the trouble (unless you like pushing buttons):

On the 5D Mark II, it's the button below the MENU button. From there you'll have a whole bunch of settings to play with, and you can navigate through your options with your camera's joystick (and select by pressing in on the joystick). Let's take a look at them all from left to right.

Audio

The audio panel was one of the original reasons Magic Lantern was created in the first place: Canon didn't provide any control over audio levels. While better control came with firmware update 2.0.3, you still get much more control from Magic Lantern. You can set the output volume of the camera's audio, increase the gain to make the recorded sounds louder (which you can also do easily in post), and set the gain for the left and right channels viagra in uk of the audio input separately. You can also turn auto gain control (AGC) on or off. Turning it on will make the camera adjust the audio levels automatically based on the loudness of the audio coming into the camera. Finally, you can choose the source of the audio, which is essentially a toggle between the camera's internal microphone and the 1/8" external input source on the side of the camera. By default, Magic Lantern ignores the camera's internal microphone.

Video

The video section gives you control over the zebra patterns. You can turn them on or off and set the threshold. You can also specify crop marks for different aspect ratios, but you need to create a BMP file and load it onto your CompactFlash card with the firmware. An example is included along with the firmware you downloaded. You can also toggle the histogram and waveform displays on and off from this panel.

Brack(et)

Bracketing is what you use to take multiple exposures with one shutter press. This is commonly used in HDR photograhy. By default, your camera will takes three exposures: one normal, one under-exposed, and one over-exposed. You can also specify how over- and under-exposed each of those shots will be by selecting a range. Magic Lantern takes this a bit further by letting you specify a much wider range between photos and also take more than three. Currently you can go all the way up to 13. I'm not sure why you'd need that many, but the option is there if you're in the mood.

Focus

What is probably my favorite part of Magic Lantern is the focusing features. What this feature does is rack focus mechanically. If you don't know, rack focusing is moving the lens' focus from one point of focus to another. Say if you're recording video of a person walking from one point in a room to another. Chances are they're not walking in a straight line and are coming closer to or moving farther away from the camera. You'll need to adjust focus as they walk and this can be difficult to track. The focus panel lets you set a start and end focus point and how long it should take to move from one point to the other. This way you can make the camera perform the rack focus operation for you. How you can do it is hard to explain but much easier to see, so take a look at the video below for detailed instructions:

Debug, Boot, and PTP

These last three sections are sections you can ignore. Unless you're participating in the development of Magic Lantern, stay out. Everything you want and need can be found to the left, although if you're curious about things like the temperature of your CMOS image sensor you can poke around in the debug menu for that and other neat information.

Most modern computers take advantage of the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard drive interface. There are plenty of reasons why this is so, and most administrators know that IDE is no longer considered a standard for hard drives. What many administrators do not know, however, is that for maximum compatibility, most PCs are set up to use the older IDE interface. Because of this, when you install Microsoft Windows on a machine it may recognize only the BIOS IDE setting and enable IDE-only at the registry level. This can, in some cases, decrease the performance of the PC.

Fortunately, there is a way around this that isn’t all that difficult, and it will not require you to reinstall Windows.

This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

First I want to make the usual disclaimer: You will be editing your registry and possibly changing your BIOS’s settings. As there is always a risk when making changes to either of these, please make sure you know what you are doing before you attempt this and make sure you have a solid backup of your system (just in case). With that said, let’s dig in.

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Edit the registry

Open up the Registry Editor by clicking Start | Run in Windows XP or by typing “regedit” in the Desktop search box in Windows Vista and 7, and then type or click regedit to open up the registry editor. When the registry editor is open, navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci

Once there (Figure A), you will see the Start key, which is the key you need to edit.

Figure A

Before you start modifying your registry, you might want to make a backup copy of that registry — just in case.

Right-click the Start key and select Modify. When you do this, another new window will open (Figure B). This new window contains all the data for the Start key. What you want to edit is the Value Data. Most likely your Value will be set to “3.” You want to change that to “0″ (no quotes).

Figure B

Make sure you change nothing but the Value Data.

Once you have made that change, click OK. You can now close the Registry Editor.

Reboot and BIOS

The next step is to reboot your machine and then enter into the BIOS. Since every BIOS is different, all I will say is that you need to enable the AHCI setting in your BIOS. When this is complete, allow your machine to reboot and hopefully you will enjoy a boost in performance. I say “hopefully” because not every machine will see a marked improvement.

What about RAID?

If your machine happens to use RAID, you need to repeat the same steps with only minor changes. During the Registry Editor phase, you want to look for either:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV

viagra in the uk

or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor

Once you have located either of the above, make the same change you did for the Start key and reboot your machine. You will still need to make the change in the BIOS as well, before the change will actually work.

Final thoughts

Hopefully you will find this gives your machine a performance boost. If the gains are minimal (or nonexistent), then no harm no foul. If you are unsure if any gains were made, put your machine through a test that pushes disk I/O to the limits and see if the performance has improved.