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OTPERF.FAX
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1994-11-28
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General Maintenance and Performance 7/20/94
File:osotperf.fax 3/5/94
OS/2 2.XX Performance considerations.
---------------------------------------
Most performance problems can be classified in one of two
major areas: Hardware related or software related.
HARDWARE
---------
To determine that you have a hardware versus a software
problem, boot you system up with a plain copy of your
config.sys and no applications running. If the performance
of your system is not what you expect, more than likely you
are looking at a hardware related problem.
Memory
------
The memory that your system uses can affect performance.
Generally speaking, the more memory the system has, the
happier the operating system will be. Performance can
actually degrade if you add a memory expansion card to your
system (Non Micro-Channel). To access memory on the
expansion card, the signals will have to go through the
bus which in most cases run a lot slower than memory
accessed from SIMMS.
Performance problems on ISA systems after installing extra memory
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On several ISA systems, performance problems have been noted when
additional memory has been installed on the system. There are
several possible causes for this related to the hardware
configuration. The most common cause is relates to external
processor chache memory also referred to as level two or secondary
cache memory. The issues with these cache memories are as follows.
1. System board/BIOS does not support caching memory above
16M (or 64M in some cases). The only resolution is to
upgrade either the system board or the BIOS; whichever is the
limiting factor.
2. System board/BIOS does not support caching memory above
16M (or 64M in some cases) without the installation of
additional cache memory.
3. BIOS parameter must be updated to cache memory above 16M.
This is seen in some systems with AMI BIOS but is not
necessarily limited to that BIOS.
4. The cache was disabled when system setup updated the BIOS with
the new amount of memory installed.
Other less common reasons for upgrading memory causing performance
problems are as follows.
1. The new memory was put on an expansion card which is limited
to the speed of the system bus (8MHz on ISA systems) instead
of being placed on the planer (system board) where that
limitation does not exist.
2. Slower memory was added to the system.
Additional BIOS paramters to check
----------------------------------
On some systems there is a BIOS parameter for system speed.
Insure this is set to the fastest option. The "Wait States"
parameter in the BIOS Setup program was changed from the optimal
values and will need to be decreased.
Cache
-----
Internal and external cache should always be
enabled except during the installation of OS/2. If you
experience a problem with your cache enabled (I.E.: Traps etc.)
more that likely your external cache will need to be
replaced as it is probably bad.
SOFTWARE
---------
If your system performs as expected when just running
OS/2, then you possibly you have a software problem.
Device Drivers
--------------
Some device drivers might generate excessive interrupt
calls. These will slow down your system. To find out what
is causing the problem, start with a plain config.sys and
add a device driver one at a time. When your system's
performance degrades, the last device driver you added is
more than likely the culprit. Some device drivers might
also need to be upgraded. Contact the vendor of these
device driver for assistance.
Desktop
-------
By disabling the animation in the desktop
settings, desktop performance can be increased.
CHKDSK
------
Occasionally, the performance degradation of
your system can be attributed to problems on your
hard-drive. By running CHKDSK from the OS/2 diskettes as
discussed in the installation guide, the problems can
generally be fixed and performance on you system will
improve.
Applications
------------
Some applications require a lot of resources to run.
The vendor of the application might know how to make
their product run faster. Adding more memory to
your system might also solve the problem. For DOS
and windows performance problems see the performance
information for DOS applications.
Config.sys
----------
Set restartobjects=no - By adding this statement to
your config.sys, the system will startup without
running any applications except what is in your startup.cmd
file.
Diskcache - (FAT only) By changing the value in this
field, performance can be increased or decreased. The
specified value is dependent on the amount of available ram.
IFS - (HPFS only) The /CACHE:<value> determines the amount of
software cache available to any HPFS partitions installed.
Priority disk I/O - specifies the disk I/O priority for
applications running in the foreground. ON gives foreground
applications more CPU time.
MAXWAIT - By decreasing this value, a regular or server
process will have its priority increased at a faster rate.
TimeSlice - By changing these settings, the system will give
more/less time to a process of equal priority.
Threads - sets the maximum number of independent actions (threads)
for the system.
Note: See on-line help for additional information.
Utilities
---------
OS20MEMU.zip - available from the BSS (919-0517-0001).
This is a shareware utility that allows you to look at your
memory consumption. It is not a supported utility.
SPM/2 - System performance monitor/2. This application is
available from the order center. (800-3IBM-OS2). This
application is for sale separately of OS/2 and is supported.
12/31/99