🚀 go-pugleaf

 slc@a2.cim.cdc.com (Steve Chesney x4662) writes:
>At my wife's job (a church) she is obligated to use a vintage IBM XT with
>a 10 meg hard disk, color display and IBM PC-DOS 2.10.  

>upgrade to MS-DOS 5.0
Bad move.  If necessary for software compatibility, upgrade to DOS
3.3.  On an XT, 5.0 will use more conventional memory.  There's no
appreciable speed gain from changing DOS versions, though, so if 2.10
runs all the software she needs to run, then leave 2.10 in place.

>use of a console driver like NANSI
If you need an ANSI driver, NANSI or something like that would speed
things up a bit.  But few programs actually require ANSI support --
and even a "fast" ANSI-replacement will be slower than no ANSI at all.
So try running without ANSI support; if all the software works leave
ANSI out of the picture.  Otherwise, use NANSI or somesuch.  DOS'
ANSI.SYS is a pig.

Display enhancers (like ANSI or Windows) should only be used when
specifically required by essential software.

>use of a disk cache
Will speed up disk access, at the expense of conventional memory.  You
didn't mention an EMS board, so I'm assuming the system doesn't have
one.  Remember you can't load anything into "high" memory on an XT!
In any case, unless your software is disk-intensive the speedup --
while dramatic -- will only affect certain operations.

>optimize the disk (with something PC TOols Optimize)
This one never hurts (provided you do a backup first!)  You will only
actually need to optimize your disk once or twice a year, if speed is
your only concern.  Most people optimize _way_ too often.

>check disk interleave and adjust (with SpinRite or PC Tools DiskFix)
This will help if the interleave is non-optimal.  Of course, you only
need to do it once in the life of the machine.  (Unless you make a
MAJOR change to the hardware!)

>Any other ideas? 
Replace the 8088 processor with an NEC V20.  This will speed things up
a little.  The cost is under $10 and it can be done by anyone brave
enough to open the machine -- it's just a chip swap.  (Also this is
one of those "MAJOR" changes -- see above :-)

You could also speed things up nicely by changing to a newer hard disk
(the XT drives have access times approaching 100 msec!) or dropping in
a 286 booster.  But if you have that kind of money available, you'd be
better off spending it on an actual 286 machine (Great deals these
days!) rather than kludging a 286 into an 8-bit machine.

In general, my upgrade philosophy is:
1- Don't fix what works.  ("First, cause no harm.")
2- Upgrade the hardware first, then the software.  The same old
   program on a faster machine is usually faster than the new version on
   tired old iron.
3- If the proposed "upgrade" costs more than 25% of the cost of a new
   machine, consider biting the bullet and replacing the machine.

-- 
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Gordon S. Hlavenka           cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Vote straight ticket Procrastination party Dec. 3rd!