What's new

discuss todays updates?

OP
beman39

beman39

New Member
This morning I am actually getting faster online speed test results from my Surface than I am this desktop!!
The desktop is plugged into the modem but the Surface is running wireless.
I think some of the new drivers in Windows 8 downloads may have messed up the network adapter in the desktop and caused it to be slowwwww.
I've been trying to check into my router but the control software ( Cisco Connect ) does not work in Windows 8 and I can't get in directly because it is rejecting my passwords that I have written down. Something is certainly not right somewhere with my desktop though when the Surface gets faster results.

is this an old router or more recent? if it's old I think maybe it's time to buy a new router that will play nicer with win8
 

Telstar1948

Active Member
I freely admit to not being a techie, but I keep reading about other people finding out that anytime they disable or disconnect their bluetooth devices, their WiFi speeds appear to increase—is that possible?
 

Arizona Willie

Active Member
It is an older Linksys E2000.

I mis-spoke in earlier post. This desktop is plugged into the router, not the modem.
But the Surface was getting almost twice the speed as the desktop at speedtest.net and broadband.dsl.reports.
I tried to install a new driver for the Intel adapter in the desktop and it won't install. I downloaded it from ASUS support site for my motherboard but it says I have to remove the existing Intel Network Connections before I can install the new one.

Grrr, why doesn't the installation routine delete what needs to be deleted?
I can't figure out exactly what to delete.
I tried going into Device Manager and deleting the Intel Network Adapter but that didn't do the trick.
When I rebooted the old driver showed back up again.
I've sent a support request into ASUS.
Fat lot of good that will probably do :(

is this an old router or more recent? if it's old I think maybe it's time to buy a new router that will play nicer with win8
 

D1vad

New Member
I freely admit to not being a techie, but I keep reading about other people finding out that anytime they disable or disconnect their bluetooth devices, their WiFi speeds appear to increase—is that possible?

Yes it is a possibility. There are two possible reasons for this, one is direct RF interference with each other, I believe that is unlikely as they are made by the same company. The other possibility is they are all connected internally on the same USB bus. If that bus has timing issues it could be having issues when moving a large quantity of data. If it is a RF issue then connecting to a 5Ghz router should show no change by switching bluetooth on or off. Again an RF issue in my experience is likely to degrade communications in both directions. I've read a lot of people complaining about download speeds, but there upload speeds always seem to be the same or better.
 

FFX

Active Member
I'm thinking about upgrading to the Surface 2 from my old RT.
But I would like to know just how good the battery life is on the new generation? Microsoft have been pushing battery firmware updates on patch tuesday for the Surface 2. But has the battery improved, and is the Surface 2 optimized to use the fifth battery saving core of the Tegra 4?
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I'm thinking about upgrading to the Surface 2 from my old RT.
But I would like to know just how good the battery life is on the new generation? Microsoft have been pushing battery firmware updates on patch tuesday for the Surface 2. But has the battery improved, and is the Surface 2 optimized to use the fifth battery saving core of the Tegra 4?

With my Surface 2 (un-tweaked) I can get 9-14 hours of battery life. I haven't seen any evidence that the 5th Core is operational in the current configuration. My normal work flow on my Surface 2 is personal email, meetings where I don't need to ink, Lync Conference Calls, web research, twitter, Facebook, some videos and occasionally a game or two. I also use the news type Apps (Bing, Flipboard and CNET).
 

FFX

Active Member
That sounds great!
I think I read about the 5th Core being active in the Surface 2, but cant remember the source.. Nvidias homepage still says "** Windows RT support still under development" on the Tegra 3 page, but no such statement exists on the Tegra 4 page.
Tegra 4 Processors | NVIDIA
 

demandarin

Active Member
With my Surface 2 (un-tweaked) I can get 9-14 hours of battery life. I haven't seen any evidence that the 5th Core is operational in the current configuration. My normal work flow on my Surface 2 is personal email, meetings where I don't need to ink, Lync Conference Calls, web research, twitter, Facebook, some videos and occasionally a game or two. I also use the news type Apps (Bing, Flipboard and CNET).

I read somewhere, I think Anandtech review on surface 2, that this time around with tegra4, the Surface 2 actually does utilize the 5th power saving core. I'm pretty sure it was him who stated that.

I just checked and I'm right. AnandTech | Microsoft Surface 2 Review

"Internally, the upgrades are even more substantial. NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 is out of the picture, replaced by a far faster Tegra 4 SoC. That’s four ARM Cortex A15 cores running at up to 1.7GHz (1.9GHz with only one core active), as well as a fifth power saver core that actually sees some use this time (more on this later)."

"As with all modern Tegra SoCs there’s one extra “companion” core designed to be used for lower power/performance operation. Unlike under Android, there’s no hot plugging of CPU cores under Windows RT – there are always four Cortex A15s presented to the OS/scheduler, regardless of whether or not the companion core is active. Microsoft tells me the companion core is used on Surface 2 (unlike its predecessor), however specifics are tough to come by. Microsoft claims the companion core is used during full screen video playback. The only thing I can think of is that the hardware migrates the companion core in under certain circumstances, taking the place of one of the four A15s, and software specifically sets processor affinity in this case".
 
Top