Don’t Throw Away That Old PCs (Part 1)

26 Oct 2018

Note:  This Part 1 is for PCs that have Intel Rapid Storage Technology.  Part 2 for other PC  can be found here in this link

It can be salvaged for your kids to play computer games.

The kids’ games have become more sophisticated nowadays.  They used to be a few megabytes in size, then they grew to a few Gigabytes.  Nowadays, the games,  such as FiFa 19, are in the size of 50 Gigabytes and they demand faster disk drives and graphic cards too.

Why the Old PCs?

These old PCs such as those with Intel® Z68, Z87, Q87, H87, Z77, Q77 or H77 chipset has usually a small built in for SSD MSATA drive.  This little MSATA drive can be used as cache SSD drive to speed up the mechanical Hard Disk Drive (HDD) by about 2 to 3 times using Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) . 

Why Not use SSD Drive?

SSDs are still not cost effective.  The 1TB SSD will cost around  SGD$400/= whereas 1TB HDD cost less than SGD$60/=.   Moreover,  these SSDs consume more power than the MSATA SSD cache drives as HDD will not always be running full time and HDD  may be set to rest in the IRST mode . 

The Setup

This  old Z77 Gigabyte motherboard  being upgraded has an Intel I5 3570 CPU.  The board has already a 32G MSATA SSD installed.  The purpose of this article is to help those who wanted to install SSD cache drive to speed up the mechanical HDD. 

What is Pre-requisite?

1. The Motherboard must have 

a) Chipset  that supports Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) 

b) SATA controller that can be set to Raid mode (no arrays will be configured)

Older motherboard manufactured earlier like ASUS P5K would not be able to support ISRT.  

2. The PC or Laptop must have a SSD drive and a hard disk drive (HDD)

3. The software required are

a)  Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST)

b)  The F6  IRST drivers for the window OS

What is IRST and ISRT?

It is a technology invented by Intel to speed up HDD when SSD was expensive.  ISRT is one of the features in Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) that help users to store frequently used applications temporarily in SSD so as to improve the overall performance of the HDD. 

What are the other Requirements?

1. The SATA controller of the motherboard must be first set to RAID mode (no arrays need to be configured)

2. The Intel RST software can be installed after the OS has been installed.

Assumptions 

1. OS is Windows 7 though same could be applied to other OS 

2. SATA mode in existing BIOS is [AHCI] or [IDE];

3. Gigabyte Motherboard has a cache SSD drive and a HDD

What about ISRT in Other PCs like ASUS?

One can use also other brands of PCs that do not have in-built  slot for MSATA SSD drives provided they meet the pre-requisite requirement.  One can use another smaller SSD drive but the set up may be slightly different from those described here.

Is Re-installing the Windows OS A Must?

The recommended practice  is to start afresh by re-installing Windows OS as there are some modification to be made to the Windows OS.  However,  for newer Windows installations, especially Windows 7,  these standard modifications have already been added.    ISRT has been successfully installed in existing Windows 7 that have SATA disk formatted in  AHCI.

Important Note:-

1. Step 1 and 2 is a must;  otherwise,  there would be installation problem such as not able to find the hard disks.

Step by Step

Description	Action	Remark (Dbclcik to Enlarge Pictures)
1.  Set motherboard in RAID mode	Hit [Del] button at the start to get into the setup screen.  Navigate to [Peripheral]’s [SATA Mode Selection] and change the setting to [Raid],  leaving the rest setting and [Save and Exit] the setting.
2. Fire up the PC and one would be greeted by this screen showing the various drives after hitting [CTL-I] in the startup screen	Do nothing.  Just to  make sure the drive are all in [Non RAID] Disk.  Reset the drive mode to [Non RAID] if necessary	In this case,  there are 2 drive;  one 1TB HDD and 1 32GB LITEONIT SSD MSATA drive; Take particular note that the drives are shown as [Non RAID Disk].   If it is in other form such as [cache Disk] or otherwise,  change them to [Non RAID Disk] using [Reset Disk to Non RAID] option.
3  Prepare the F6 drivers	Download the F6 drivers and put them in a USB thumb drive	F6 drivers will be necessary when the drives and OS  does not comply to these requirement Download the F6 driver from here
4. Download IRST software	Download the IRST software from Intel Download Centre	Some newer versions of IRST might not work for older version of Windows OS such as Window 7.   Try downloading version 15.2.16.1060 or other version if necessary
5. Windows 7 OS Installation	1. DO Nothing if your existing SATA disk was formatted in  AHCI; Goto Step 4 2. Otherwise,  proceed to install the OS.	Important:  All data in the HDD will be wiped.    If one has set drive to [Non RAID],  one should see the drives in this picture;  otherwise, follow step 2. It is also time to install the F6 drivers prepared in step 3 by selecting [Load Driver]
6.  After Windows OS installation	Check that the F6 drivers have been installed by running [regedit]  as [run as Administrator] .  Navigate to [IaStorA] folder as shown.  If the [Start] is not set to (0),  change it to (0) as shown	Note:  [start] = 3 is AHCI mode and [start] =0 is RAID mode
7.  Install or update chipset drivers	Download the chipset drivers either from the motherboard’s website or from Intel website	Try using Intel’s driver and support assistance to check if there is a need to update the drivers
8. Setting up RAID cache in SSD	Fire up the ISRT software downloaded in step 4 Now press [Enable] as circled red to create the RAID cache drive	Take note that the drives should show up with HDD as system drive and SSD as ordinary drive.  Once [Enable] is pressed, the SSD will change to show as  RAID cache SSD drive
9  Accelerating HDD	Select [Performance] tab and in the [Acceleration Configuration] select enable	The screen will change to following Now we are ready to re-start the PC
10 Complete with a re-start	Re-start the PC	When this screen shown in Step 2 appears again,  notice that there is a green asterisk marked against the HDD indicating it has been accelerated. The PC will start in normal mode to re-configure set up to speed up HDD.   Re-start the PC  if prompted.

Results

HDD w/o IRST	HDD After IRST

 Common  Problems

Description	Action	Remarks
1.  Cannot find hard drives  when installing the OS or using Diskpart	Reset the disk drives as shown in Step 2.	If the disk drives are not correctly set,  the OS installer will not be able to find them.
2.  Cannot accelerate the HDD .. error code 0xA004 or 0xA005	Download older version of ISRT software and retry	The newer ISRT software is not compatible for use in older Windows
3. Cannot install ISRT software	Delete this key in [regedit]. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\products\	Some older version of software are in the way.

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Buying From TaoBao or TMall; Avoid being Cheated

23 October 2018

The Taobao’s stuff are cheap;  cheaper than AliExpress.  But one would have to manage the expectation especially for overseas residents.  Dishonest sellers will not only sell us imitated goods but also sell us broken or damaged goods.   This article intends to provide some information about  how to avoid being cheated.

How Do they Do it?

One common trick the dishonest sellers might  do when they know you are an overseas buyer is to sell damaged goods which are rejected or returned by the local residents.   The other ways they might do is to pretend that they never heard you properly and sell you out of date products or keep the free gifts for themselves.    They would appear to be very helpful promising everything under the sun and pretended to comply to your instructions which they might never honor.  

When the goods finally arrived,  you might find out that it not to the requirement,  they will tell you to return the goods for a refund,  fully knowing very well you would never do so because

1.  By the time you receive the goods,  the "7 days not question asked refunding period’  would have lapsed and insurance would have expired;

2.  The delivery fees for the return of goods will be so exorbitant high that they would never promise that you will get the delivery fees refunded.

They might engage with you the conversation about a resolution or refund  that you have proposed but they might never agree.   At the end,  they would insist that you return the goods to get the refund.

What could have been done to avoid?

1.  Never ever reveal where you are from

This is sometimes not possible because you will have to give them the local address of the container warehouse for the goods to be delivered.  The smarter and experienced ones will immediately spot you out;

2.   Check the reputation rating

This helps but not always because the rating of those nasty sellers can be surprisingly good;  some even have been rated above average;

3.   Check the reviews in their site

This again can be misleading although it is no harm checking through especially those remarks given by overseas buyers;   avoid those having little or no reviews.

4.  Check for complaints in public domain

This is by far the better way to judge the reputation of the shops in Taobao.  If there are complaints written on the shop;  avoid by all means

5.   Others

Some buyers recommended 

1   To check the advertising materials in the Webpages;   usually,  the good ones will not "pirate" the materials

2.  To check the accumulated reviews and orders of the goods sold.    Usually,  the goods ones will have a lot of orders and reviews;   look for those repeated orders

3.  To avoid buying during peak period or during cheap sale period.  Orders can be easily mis-handled or missed out;

4.  Good things are not cheap and cheap things are not necessary good

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Fix Command Prompt (CMD) Open and Close Immediately

22 Oct 2018

Kids have been downloading games and their PCs were infected by a virus while installing a popular game.  It has the following symptoms

1.  The Command Prompt would open and close immediately and thereafter;

2.   The Windows will not start to show the usual Explorer windows but a Command Prompt window

 Step by Step

Description	Action	Remark (Double Click Video/Pic to enlarge)
1.  Fix CMD open and close immediately Symptom as shown in the video	1. Startup [regedit] and [Run as Administrator] in the Search box after pressing [Start] button 2. In the regedit window, navigate to  [HKEY_CURRENTUSER/Software/Microsoft/Command Processor] ,  one would find the [Autorun] key. 3. Right click mouse at [Autorun] and select to  delete the whole key.
2.  Fix Window Won’t open up Explorer at startup	a)  If only a [Command Prompt] is always shown;  otherwise,  goto step b) At the [Command Prompt],  key-in [Explorer],  the familiar Explorer screen would appear.  Alternatively,  One can type [Regedit] at the [Command Prompt],  the registry screen will show up. b) Following Action 1 above to open regedit window and in the regedit window,  navigate to [HKEY_CURRENTUSER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon],  one would find the [Shell] key.  The key should only contain [explorer.exe]

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How Do We Know What Mr. Market Was Thinking?

Update 21 Oct 2018

A month after XLY:XLP made its cross with S&P... let see how US markets are doing

 


20 Sep 2018
 

Introduction

They say,  “Mr.  Market is always right” and Mr. Market is referring to the investors. If there is a way to find out how Mr.  Market is thinking; then, it will help us to invest wisely  in the market.    This article will describe a way where we can find out how Mr. Market was thinking about the market.

How?

When market is good,  Mr. Market will have higher risk appetite and they will buy and keep counters with higher risk because these counter would bring higher returns.  On the other hand,  if the market is bad or going to be bad,  Mr.  Market will keep counters that are having relatively lower risk but lower returns. 

In the market,   there are always counters that have  higher risk and also those having lower risk.      If one can gather, collate  and  analyse these counters,  one would have a better feel on how Mr.  Market was thinking.
  
Fortunately,  S&P already has available  ETF counters that can track the movement of higher risk and lower risk counters.   They are named under XLY (Consumer Discretionary) and XLP (Consumer Staples).    Under the definition of S&P,  XLY tracks companies that are dealings with luxurious and non-essential items such as movies,  entertainment and speciality  items  etc which normally will bring higher returns.  On the other hand,  XLP tracks those that are dealing with essential items such as toilet papers, laundry detergents, beverage etc that are more stable but having lower returns.   . 

Companies in XLY are the consumer discretionary sectors,  such as  Comcast (CMCSK), Walt Disney (DIS), Amazon.com(AMZN), Home Depot (HD), and McDonald’s (MCD) while XLP are those consumer staple sectors,  such as Procter & Gamble (PG), Coca-Cola (KO), Philip Morris (PM), Wal-Mart (WMT), and CVS Caremark (CVS).

Therefore,  just by comparing the movements of these 2 ETF counters ,  one can roughly tell what Mr. Market was thinking about the market and if lucky, it can tell also the health of the economy.

Does it Work?

Lets examine the movement of XLY and XLP during the 2007-2009 recession period.  Prior to 2007,  XLY (the discretionary sectors) were the favourite counters. Their performance outshone XLP (the staple sectors) until May 2007 or about 5 months before the market crash begun around Oct 2007.  However,  it is interesting to note that the up-movement of XLP did not stop until Aug 2008 when the market crashed totally.  Further,  the market recovered  only when XLP rose subsequently and faster than XLY after July 2009.

How Reliable?  Does it Ever Fail to Tell?

Many were predicting that there was a market crash coming on stream during 2015/16;  however,  such sign did not show up in the following XLY/XLP plot.

Unlike the 2007/08 chart,   the  2015/16 portion showed no divergence between XLY and XLP as both were rising although XLY went up steeper than XLP which also meant that Mr. Market was hopeful that market would recover from the slump. 

What about the Present?

The latest chart shows that Mr. Market has been careful about the market and keep more staple counters (XLP).  However,  both XLY and XLP grew at about the same pace until it was disrupted by the Trump's Trade War in early 2018.   Thereafter,  Mr. Market sold down XLP while keeping the XLY counters.  There was no sign of  Mr. Market worrying about the market.

Did this Sudden drop in XLP happened before?

Sudden drop in XLP did happen before but not as serious.   This drop may be caused by Trump's Trade War that kept investors thinking those XLP or staple counters will be seriously affected prices of essential goods from China would  increase in price.  On the other hand,  those investors holding XLY or the discretionary counters were hopeful that the market correction was only temporary and continue their buying spree.

What We Should be Looking for ?

A sudden drop in the XLY.  This is when Mr. market has lost confident in the market.  A market crash will follow if  both the XLY and the XLP counters fall steeply together thereafter.  Also look for the divergence between XLY and XLP as shown in the first chart.

What other similar Charts can help to monitor?

The free StockChart has a plot named XLY:XLP that tracks the ratio between XLY and XLP.  If this is plotted against DOW,  one would be able to track and monitor  the movement of XLY and XLP together.

The following chart clearly indicate that before DOW started to plunge for example in 2000 and 2008,  there is always a divergence of the trend between XLY:XLP plot and DOW (shown as red and blue line) in the following chart.
 

The latest XLY:XLP and DOW chart showed below indicated that there was also a divergence happening in period between June and August 2018 but this trend was broken  just before Sept 2018 with  XLY:XLP recovered above the red trend line.  This indicates that Mr. Market might not be  expecting  market to fall.  However,  it is not hard to notice that there is another divergence happening just after Sept 2018;  therefore,  a fall in the US market is definitely coming. Whether this divergence will develop into another market crash is everybody's guess.

Conclusion

XLY:XLP plot can be used  to find out what  Mr. Market was thinking and may be used to predict if a market plunge is coming soon.

Disclaimer:  This article is for information and  educational purposes.   Readers are advised to  conduct their own research and study to make their  own investment decisions.

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Speed up Firefox and its Video Performance

20 October 2018

Firefox is one of the very popular browsers.   Unfortunately,  it has set its browser performance for common notebook and PCs that usually have lower end CPU and  limited RAM capacity.   Nowadays,  many users have upgraded their notebook and PCs.  Faster notebook and PCs with bigger RAM capacity  is now a norm rather than an exception.  There is a need to release the power of Firefox for better performance.  This article will cover 2 improvements that will make Firefox run faster with better video performance. 

What are these 2 Improvements ?

1.  Making use of excessive RAMs to improve the speed and response;

2.  Making Firefox spending lesser time saving and storing its WebPages;  thus, improving the  response and video performance.

How?

Step by Step	Action	Click picture to enlarge
I)  Improve Firefox's Speed and response
1.  Opening up Firefox configuration panel	Type [about:config]  in the url box.  In the next screen click [I accept the risk]
2.  Search for keywords	Type [browser.cache.disk]  in the Search box and change the value of the item from [True]  to [False]
3. Search for keywords	Type  [browser.cache.memory] in Search box Check that   [memory.enable] is set to [True]
4.  Add new Preference Name	Right click mouse and select [New], Enter in the box [Integer]. In the [Preference Name box]  enter [browser.cache.memory.capacity] as shown.  After that change [0] to [<-1><-1>-1] which will allow PC to manage the memory capacity
II)  Improve Video Performance
1.  Search for keywords	Type [(browser.sessionstore.interval] in the search box and change Value from [<15000>15000] <15000> to [60000] to allow more time to save and store Webpages.   If needed be,  use [100000] if one does not have more webpages opened at the same time.<60000><60000>

Results

 1.  There is no test program or apps available to test the speed and response of the browser but one can notice that Firefox will open up the Google panel much faster

2.  As for the video performance,  the following is the test.  

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