1. My Dauphin is too slow! It doesn't even run Doom at a decent speed.

• Well, the Dauphin is slow because of several factors:
  • It uses a Cyrix chip, and Cyrix chips suck
    • Intel 486DX/33: 70 Cyrix 486SLC/25: 40 (Norton SI 8.0). 'Nuff said.
  • The CPU has 1K of cache, not the Intel 8K
  • The external bus is 16-bit, not 32-bit
  • It has an ISA classic bus video, not PCI or even VLB video
• So what can you do about this? Some no-cost speed enhancements I recommend are:
  • Make sure "turbo" is on
  • Remove EMM386 from your autoexec/config.sys, this really does help
    • It even improves the port speed
  • D/L the DRAM speedup program from Toby's page and include in your autoexec:
    • "C:\DRAM\DRAM.COM 200" (or wherever you put it)
    • This also improves battery life a bit
    • Speedup of about 5%
  • Defrag your hard drive
  • Up the disk spindown time in your BIOS setup
  • Run GEOS instead of Pen Windows, not nearly as many apps, but it sure is fast!
  • Use a disk cache (or for DOS/4GW protected mode apps, don't)
  • Gee, you couldn't of guessed this: upgrade the CPU!
    • Speedup: About 90%
    • New CPU: 486SXL/2 50mHz, TI chip with RISC microkernal and 8KB cache
    • Cost: $160 (plus shipping)
    • Who:
      • SHEX consulting & trading GmbH
        • Mr. Shervin Shoushtary
        • Tel. (011 - 49 4101) 372 021
        • Hempbergstr. 1
        • 25462 Rellingen
        • Germany
          
          
        • E-mail: shexcon@aol.com
    • Note: this upgrade increases battery life

2. The Dauphin's battery life... sucks.

• Hey, it uses DRAM, a hard drive, and a backlit display. But here are some things you can do to improve it:
  • In the BIOS, make sure power savings is enabled
  • Disable the 3.5" floppy drive (the circuity will be shut off then)
  • Turn disk spin-down to 10-30 (?) seconds
    • Low spin down time:
      • High wear
      • Uses lots of juice powering up again
    • High spin down time:
      • Not as much wear
      • Higher consumption when on, but doesn't use so much juice powering back up (15x(?))
  • Turn sleep/doze to 1 and 2, respectively
  • If you slow down the CPU to 8mHz to save batteries, make sure you enable the cache
    • Slow/turbo off disables the cache. Use LCD.EXE to turn it on, or:
      • Autoexec.bat: "C:\DAUPHIN\LCD CACHE ON"
    • The cache uses hardly any power (~0.025mA) because it's SRAM
  • Don't use modem.com in your autoexec, or power up the ethernet port on bootup
  • Use 2MB of cache in Pen Windows/DOS
    • Autoexec: "C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 2048"
  • Disable the swapfile in Pen Windows
  • OR
    • Toby Reed documents an unusual way of saving power with Windows:
      • Get Stacker 4.0
      • Make a 3.5-4MB RamDisk (remember to still have the disk cache)
      • Compress it with Stacker
      • Make Windows use this drive as it's swapfile
      • Doesn't seem to make it much slower
    • I think there are RAM compression programs that get the same effect
  • Get the CPU upgrade
  • Dim your screen brightness (contrast doesn't eat batteries, don't worry about that)
  • If you take the brightness down too low, it becomes hard to see the screen
    • Solution: invert the screen colors
    • How: AUTOEXEC.BAT:
      • "C:\DAUPHIN\LCD REVERSE GRAPHIC REVERSE"
  • Buy an extra battery pack
  • Buy the 8-hour battery pack ($400)
  • Make this:
    • Get 8 D-cell batteries and two D-cell holders at radio shack or somewhere
      • Note: Radio Shack alkalines suck!
    • Get a jack that'll fit into the Dauphin's power in
    • Wire it up, and make sure you get the polarity right
      • I'm in no way responsible if you fry your Dauphin
    • Now enjoy an incredible 25 hours of battery life
    • Weight: about 2.5 pounds
      • It may be possible to make a smaller device with less capacity if you step up the voltage
      • You get about three hours if you step up the voltage from only one D battery
      • NiCd's will work, as will Renewals, but the capacity will be severly diminished and you will need more cells to make 12 volts.