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I don't know about YOU but MY #1 complaintabout MWAVE has always been that while online C66 will tend to SLOWDOWN (almost to a STANDSTILL) whenever any SOUNDS
are accessed by the MWAVE card.
I have always HATED it when while trying to assist a fellow Aptiva owner by answering his/her email that I would lose as much as 10
to 15 seconds just so that AOL could announce that I "Gotmail"...
this annoyance was one reason I was thinking of DUMPING MWAVE
Well, thanks to some EXCELLENT new info I found on Mwave Overclocking located at Russ Norris's EXCELLENT Unofficial IBM Aptiva Hints Page I have been able to make a substantial improvement in my C66's performance :-)
Russ Reports:
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The Mwave card has an established number of resources at it's disposal. The Mwave software drivers tell the card exactly how many resources the card has at system startup, and the card operates within this boundary. If the software communicates too low of a number, the card may believe that it does not have enough resources to complete an instruction and it will slow down. If the number is too high, the card may loose information or crash the entire system.
Presumably out of interest in providing customers with a stable product, IBM shipped the Aptiva with the Mwave resources set at a very safe (and low) level. Unfortunately, the number is so low that the card has difficulty playing sounds and running the modem at 28800 connections without system slowdown. To remedy this situation, it is possible to tell the Mwave card that is has a higher number of resources available. This enables smoother online sessions, quicker wav file response, and clearer MIDI while online. It also allows for better use of Internet products that use streaming audio, such as RealAudio. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, if the resources are set too high the system may crash. It will not permanently damage the computer, but you will have to re-start.
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NOTE: This information applies to Aptivas with the MWAVE DOLPHIN
card. The IPS= setting on the MWAVE STINGRAY is set higher (33000000)
to begin with. While owners of this card will likely not have as many of the
issues that are inherant with the DOLPHIN this number can also be adjusted
upward slightly in an attempt to improve performance online.
- To overclock your Mwave card, follow these
steps carefully:
1. Use FIND to Search My Computer for MWAVE.INI
There should be at least TWO (2)
On my 2176-C66 there was one in C:\WINDOWS and one in C:\MWW
2. Click on the MWAVE file(s) listed in FIND or use Notepad or another
text editor to open these files.
3. Find the line reading: IPS=24900000.
This is the line that tells your MWAVE card how many resources are
available.
4. Change 24900000 to something between 25000000 and 30000000
5. In <russ's> experience, the most stable number to use is 27000000.
Anything closer to 30000000 and the system may crash.
6. Use SAVE AS to save your changes to MWAVE.INI
Answer YES to Replace Existing File with your changed MWAVE.INI
7. Restart your system. Your Mwave is now overclocked.
- Click here for OVERCLOCK.GIF
a .gif screenshot of the OVERCLOCK procedure
...and of course all the usual LEGAL STUFF :-( applies here.
This having being said now GO FOR IT~! This has made a MAJOR DIFFERENCE is helping me enjoy MY "online experience"...hope it helps YOU also~!
If you have any questions/suggestions/comments contact [email protected]
If you try it and it works well for you send your gratitude/praise to Russ Norris ([email protected])
