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 Post subject: StrongARM responsiveness
PostPosted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:43 am 
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I've just upgraded from SE to StrongARM / Adjust, and I'm finding that VRPC feels somewhat less responsive than it used to, on the same computer, using the same display settings. This appears to be something to do with the StrongARM emulation, because if I use the ARM 710 model it is as responsive as always (setup exactly the same otherwise). The unresponsiveness is largely apparent with the mouse pointer not moving as smoothly, and the flash you get when you click on a menu item is slower. It's running on a 1.7GHz Pentium M, with a GB of RAM, and I've not yet got around to changing the emulator from using 32MB.
Oh, and the StrongARM directory in "Models" appears to be called "StongARM ..." (first R missing).


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 3:31 pm 
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Working from the bottom upwards...
Yes, there is a spelling mistake in the model folder, I will fix this shortly. Not that it matters as the correct models are still shown on the startup panel.
With reference to the mouse, this is a bit odd. I haven't seen this problem happen on any of the test machines, or on the show machines that were in use at Wakefield. Since the Arm710 model is OK I can't see any point in messing with the config files to start with. My initial suggestion would be to try a different mouse, if the mouse is USB try a PS2 version. If PS2 try a USB one. Also make sure you aren't using a USB mouse with a PS2 adapter as I have seen wome weird things happening with these.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:35 pm 
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I don't have an alternative mouse, and there aren't any PS2 ports on this laptop in any case. I get the same behaviour from the laptop's touch pad.
I did notice this time that it doesn't begin to get sluggish until the Pinboard background appears, but dropping out of the desktop entirely or removing the backdrop makes no difference, nor does starting up with no backdrop at all.
Sometimes the degree of unresponsiveness varies, without any correlation with what's going on on the computer that I've been able to discern. At times it's bad enough to miss keypresses when I'm typing.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:54 pm 
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OK, try disabling the power management and see if that helps.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 16, 2006 9:34 pm 
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Unfortunately not.
I've also given the ARM7500 model a go, and it happens there too.


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 Post subject: Re: StrongARM responsiveness
PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2006 3:46 pm 
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Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 4:44 pm
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Location: Ripon, North Yorkshire
[quote="SimonC"]I've just upgraded from SE to StrongARM / Adjust, and I'm finding that VRPC feels somewhat less responsive than it used to, on the same computer, using the same display settings. This appears to be something to do with the StrongARM emulation, because if I use the ARM 710 model it is as responsive as always (setup exactly the same otherwise). ...
I too have upgraded this week. I agree generally with Simon's observations, but would say the jerkiness of the pointer is worst on the ARM7500 and best on ARM710. The jerkiness is so bad that precision or quick use of the mouse is impossible. It was fine with the previous incarnation of VirtualRPC adjust with the ARM710 processor.
I have tried reducing the 'speed' of the mouse pointer in both WindowsXP Control Panel and in RISC OS Config and the remarks above apply when the RISC OS mouse setting is at minimum.
My VirtualRPC is on an IPC Powernote X laptop, Windows XP (HE) SP2, AMD Mobile Sempron 1600MHz; The mouse is a Logitec cordless optical PS2 mouse which works beautifully smoothly in Windows and on my RiscPC with SA and Adjust.
I have tried the suggestions already in this thread but they have made no difference. I have tried also killing practically all applications and tasks but with no effect. I notice from Martin Avison's !TaskUsage that about 80% of processor usage is consumed by 3 'Red Squirrel Tools' but this is not affected by use of the mouse: I have no idea whether this has any significance.
Please help.


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 Post subject: Re: StrongARM responsiveness
PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2006 5:47 pm 
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Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 4:44 pm
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Location: Ripon, North Yorkshire
Postscript:
bric wrote:
I too have upgraded this week. I agree generally with Simon's observations, but would say the jerkiness of the pointer is worst on the ARM7500 and best on ARM710. The jerkiness is so bad that precision or quick use of the mouse is impossible. It was fine with the previous incarnation of VirtualRPC adjust with the ARM710 processor.

I have just been reading the articles about ISvPatch in another part of the forum, which concluded with Aaron saying a new version of the patch has been added to the latest versions of VitualRPC. Could this account for the poor mouse pointer performance?
I see also similar comment as here in the VirtualRPC-Adjust section.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2006 10:46 am 
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I've been having a look at this and I'm still a slittle bit stumped, however lets try a few things and see if the culprit can be identified.
Press F12 and type
*Unplug RSTools
Press Return twice to go back to the desktop. Is the mouse any better?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2006 11:56 am 
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Location: Ripon, North Yorkshire
Aaron wrote:
I've been having a look at this and I'm still a slittle bit stumped, however lets try a few things and see if the culprit can be identified.

Press F12 and type

*Unplug RSTools

Press Return twice to go back to the desktop. Is the mouse any better?

Done that in all 3 processors and the is no change.
Additional observation: the pointer is fairly smooth in the initial grey screen with the Adjust banner and in the final black screen with the green shutdown banner - all 3 processors.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2006 4:04 pm 
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OK, so it doesn't seem to be RSTools causing the problem. Try removing CallWin32 from the Plugins folder. Don't delete it, just move it elsewhere. Now try running VA with the StrongArm core again. Does this help?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue May 23, 2006 6:10 pm 
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Location: Ripon, North Yorkshire
Aaron wrote:
OK, so it doesn't seem to be RSTools causing the problem. Try removing CallWin32 from the Plugins folder. Don't delete it, just move it elsewhere. Now try running VA with the StrongArm core again. Does this help?

Bingo! Hiding the CallWin32 directory does the trick. With the A710 processor the pointer jerkiness is more or less as it was before the upgrade. With the StrongARM it is only fractionally poorer, though with the Arm7500 processor it is noticably poorer.
In other words, there is a deterioration in upgrading from Arm710 to StrongARM, even with CallWin32 removed, and the RISC OS pointer is less smooth than the Windows one (shown very clearly with fast circular mouse movements when both are visible). The pointer emulation is usable with CallWin32 removed though I would like to see it improved. Of course !WinClip won't run without it; anything else? (I notice the Red Squirrel Tools module is absent)
I put the CallWin32 back in Plugins and all the previously-reported behaviour returned. I can also additinally report delay in keyboard input into text windows, especially Taskwindow using !Edit, resulting in missed letters even though I am a slow typist. I think SimonC commented on this.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:06 pm 
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Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2004 3:34 am
Posts: 19
That helps here too. It looks and feels fine with that moved. Interesting comparison with the BogoMips results - about 270 on VA-SE, 255 on SA mode, and about 225 on ARM 710 mode (host processor speed manually set to the same value on both, just in case). The slowdown hadn't interefered with that.


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