PORTS and DEVICES, which should I switch off?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:54 am

Hello there... my MOBO ASUS P4PE gives me the opportunity to switch many things off and on. Some of them, I am not aware of, and I don't know what they are for. The manual does not explain what they are for either.

I am particularly refering to:

Onboard Serial Port 1 [2F8H/IRQ4]
Onboard Serial Port 2 [2F8H/IRQ3]
UART USE AS COM PORT
Parallel Port [378H/IRQ7]

I use a printer, a USB 1 connection for the internet, no firewire, no special USB 2 devices.

So, which ones should I switch off to have the maximum of free resurces? I would like to disable all that I'm not going to use, "before" installing XP. Thank you

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:20 am

If your printer is on the printer port, leave parallel port enabled. If it uses USB, you can disable the parallel port.
Serial ports can be disabled too (they are ports for example a mouse would connect to, years ago).

You can disable any of these and re-enable them later safely, in case it appears that you need them.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:35 am

Wow, that was fast, cheers....

Ok, so I will let port 1 for the printer, and period, there I go. Thank you

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:44 am

On 2005-04-11 09:35, Nestor wrote:
Wow, that was fast, cheers....

Ok, so I will let port 1 for the printer and will remouve all the rest, and period, there I go. If i ever need something, I undertand I can come back without problems, no need to trouble with XP. I guess it's all a mater of direct ports, without drivers between.
Thank you

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:18 am

While I admire the detail with which you're attempting to get a perfectly clean setup, I wonder whether you're trying too hard ?

By that I mean perhaps you are over-tweaking your machine and that's what causes problems - like a horse bred too finely that ends up just flightly, ill and neurotic.

I'm running two daws now. The second I just did a straight install of XP SP2, loaded all the music apps (and a few other things), did the usual XP audio tweaks (but nothing radical), and that was it. Ever since it runs like a charm.

I am a big fan of "dog standard" setups without too much fiddling...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2005-04-11 10:19 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:51 am

i'm with you spirit, although disabling his extra ports is no big deal and should be done........

EarlyFirst · Post by **EarlyFirst** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 12:05 pm

On 2005-04-11 10:18, Spirit wrote:
While I admire the detail with which you're attempting to get a perfectly clean setup, I wonder whether you're trying too hard ?

****** 1 you can never try to hard( with XP )

By that I mean perhaps you are over-tweaking your machine and that's what causes problems - like a horse bred too finely that ends up just flightly, ill and neurotic.

******* 2 you can never tweak too much ( with XP )

I'm running two daws now. The second I just did a straight install of XP SP2, loaded all the music apps (and a few other things), did the usual XP audio tweaks (but nothing radical), and that was it. Ever since it runs like a charm.

******** 3 give it afew weeks you will notice the sluggishness remember one of the biggest scams of XP is the fact that after you first install it, it feels faster....
malarky if you ask me.. sure it can boot in uner 45 sec's so did my tweaked ME
BTW for all of you who did use ME at some point I reinstalled it on one of my machines last week, if you are wondering why, it's because I LIKE to leave a project opened over a 1 month period without reboots....

I am a big fan of "dog standard" setups without too much fiddling...

******** most MAC guys in pro studios are running a tweaked OS for music/film

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Spirit on 2005-04-11 10:19 ]</font>

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:50 pm

I'm a bit perfectionist, but never too much Spirit. I just wanted to go a little step forward, as I've never done it before, and now that I know a little more, I do, but I agree with you about not too much.

Nevertheless, I use a double boot system, and in the Office side, I have everything as you do. In the Studio-Music side, I do all the tweaks I need, and XP is not larger than 600 Mb in all... he... there I fly.

Early, you are a real gury for us, I just want a stable system...

Cheers for your answers.