Optimizing your laptop

[djsteve10]

I remember seeing a thread about this somewhere by Darren but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Basically I have just bought a new Sony Vaio laptop for Dj'in and I am wondering what you guys do to optimize it for dj'in.

If anybody could help that would be great.

[Vectis]

Take it back to the shop and ask them to change it for a Mac :D

Seriously, start by taking off (by deinstalling rather than deleting)

a) all the crapware that came with it
b) virus & spyware scanners
c) anything you're never going to use on a DJing machine, even stuff like games can be deinstalled

Then make sure that nothing's kicking in at startup that you don't actually need.

Disable wifi cards and bluetooth.

Then turn off windows update and any other automatic updating tools - you need to be in control of your build. Once you've got it working how you want it, NEVER connect it to a network and never update anything unless you're doing this in a controlled way.

[djsteve10]

Take it back to the shop and ask them to change it for a Mac :D

Seriously, start by taking off (by deinstalling rather than deleting)

a) all the crapware that came with it
b) virus & spyware scanners
c) anything you're never going to use on a DJing machine, even stuff like games can be deinstalled

Then make sure that nothing's kicking in at startup that you don't actually need.

Disable wifi cards and bluetooth.

Then turn off windows update and any other automatic updating tools - you need to be in control of your build. Once you've got it working how you want it, NEVER connect it to a network and never update anything unless you're doing this in a controlled way.

There is so much crap that comes with them it's unreal.

I have begun the process of removing all of the rubbish. Sony put so much of there utilites on it it fills half of the machine!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

steve are you planning to use this machine to buy your tunes off the net with?

[djsteve10]

steve are you planning to use this machine to buy your tunes off the net with?

No I will buy my tunes on this pc and then tag them up and put them on the hard drives rather than use the laptop for internet use.

[Mark Wild]

Disable wifi cards and bluetooth.



Before I did this I was getting a very annoying pop sound through VDJ which happened randomly, it wasn't perceivable to a crowd but was like chinese torture to me, took me a while to find out wtf it was too. My laptop is stripped right down of any bloatware also, as you say they fill them with so much crap it's not even funny.

[DJMaxG]

I'm kinda with Vectis here, but you're wasting money by paying for all those programs and not using them, although that's what 'off the shelf' units are all about.

Mainly, if you're using the in-built HDD for music/video storage, the most obvious check, is to ensure it is big enough the hold everything that you want on there.

Perhaps create a partition for media storage (not that this optimises it)

[Goodfellows Discos]

I'm kinda with Vectis here, but you're wasting money by paying for all those programs and not using them, although that's what 'off the shelf' units are all about.

Mainly, if you're using the in-built HDD for music/video storage, the most obvious check, is to ensure it is big enough the hold everything that you want on there.

Perhaps create a partition for media storage (not that this optimises it)

Good idea, but i'd probs go down the line of having everything on an EHD anyway... God forgive something happened to your HD with all your music on, at least you have a backup that can be transferred straight away.

[ultrasound disco]

Don't forget to stop your computer clock from updating as it can sometimes cause audio dropouts as it tries to connect to update itself.:Censored:

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I know the topic you mean I could'nt find it either.
I found it really helpful when I wanted to optimize the laptop that I use to make my own music on. It's more or less stripping it down from all the automatic stuff, start ups and rubbish. De-installing everything that you won't use is just the start of it!

[welby]

You also want to check your Audio latency - that's your pc's ability to handle audio streams effectively - you would be amazed how some of your hardware affects performace. The is a free audio latency checker - google for it.


here you go: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml