Showing posts with label optimize. Show all posts
Showing posts with label optimize. Show all posts

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Synaptic Driver Update Feature Must See!

Update to this Post
A new Synaptic Driver is out
Version 15.0.10
-New added Feature: Chiral Rotate
Looks like Synaptics IS adding legacy support to their drivers.
Download 15.0.10 from Driver Station

Amazingly this driver unlocks all multitouch gestures on all our touchpad.
Now I officially have multitouch on my Acer Aspire 4530!
You guys seriously must update to this driver. One Word: Awesome!
New Features:
-3 Fingers Application Launch
-2 Fingers Scrolling
-Flick Function
This also means that all touchpad produced by Synaptics are actually multi-touch capable, it is just Feature Lock down...
Please note the amount of feature unlocked by this driver may vary according to the touchpad version you own.

To install:

Continue to Click Yes when you see install messages.
Restart the Computer.
Next:
Double Click:

Continue to Click Yes to All Messages.
After that restart.

To Access The Configuration Utility:

Monday, November 30, 2009

K10STAT AMD Griffin Processor UnderVolting Guide


FAQ

Why UnderVolt?

Because if a lower voltage can sustain your clockspeed undervolting preserve battery life and reduce heat generated without affecting your CPU performance at all!!

0 performance handicap with less heat output and longer battery life!! (Your yield may vary)

If it is so great why manufacturers don't undervolt?

Because they create processors in bulk you can't expect them to test and undervolt every single processor!

So they simply take the a slightly higher approximate stable voltage and burn the same value into every chip of the same family!

Will it spoil my processor?

No it won't, because it doesn't involve making it hotter.
In non-biological system usually heat destroys and cold preserves.
During testing, BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) is common but after a restart the Processor Voltage is restored to original value.
After finalising the stable voltages then you set the program to run every startup.
I strongly recommend testing ALL THE P-STATES before setting up the final values so your computer will not crash when you are doing your important work (or in the middle of gaming).

Why don't you use Windows Startup to run it?

Microsoft seems to be encouraging running start-ups through Task Scheduler, not to mention Task Scheduler allows good control over program automated execution.

Which Processor is it for ?

AMD Griffin Series Processor, ZM,RM,QL,SI and the new M3XX, M5XX, M6X0 Turion II Processor series.

But I am using Intel Processors?

For Core 2 Duo Processor you can use RMClock, if you are using 64bit Operating System you might need to google for 64bit libraries to replace some of the 32bit libraries. You can google it up.
For Core i3/5/7 users, I haven’t heard of any undervolting tool but I personally seen in the BIOS/EFI ACPI P-State Control is Unlockable, so BIOS/EFI modding is a possible solution.

But I am using AMD TL Series and below Processors ?
Use RMClock as well refer to “But I am using Intel Processors”.

Getting Started


Firstly download K10STAT from here.
I Extracted it to C:\Program Files\K10STAT (K10STAT is 64bit and 32bit capable as well)
Configure K10STAT


When you run K10STAT you should see the menu above.
You can set a maximium of 5 Profiles.

FID: The multiplier for the Processor
(FID doesn't work in AMD Mobile Processors because they are multiplier-locked)

DID: The P-State of the Processor
Note all Processors supported by K10STAT uses K10 Power Design


CPU-Voltage

That is what we are interested in.
To set the voltage for P0 simply select P0 and select the corresponding voltage and apply.
Remember: Min 0.75 V Max 1.2 V!
Caspian CPUs maybe able to run lower than 0.75V
For me I tested -0.05 is the Max Stable voltage for each default state any higher it BSOD!

Up%:

This is the amount of CPU usage load before the processor increase P-State to meet the minmium load requirements.
Currently it is set at 60% meaning it will switch from P2 to P1 when processor detect 60% CPU load and the same applies from switching from P1 to P0.

Down%:

It is basically the opposite of Up %
This is the amount of CPU usage load before the processor decrease P-State to meet the minimum load requirements.

Up (milliseconds):

It is the time the processor takes to switch from one P-State to the next higher P-State.

Down (milliseconds):

It is basically the opposite of Up.
It is the time the processor takes to switch from one P-State to the next lower P-State.
After you have set suitable values (-0.05 recommended on first try).



Use Windows Processor Power Management to test different levels.

Use 4 Windows as shown above, to monitor all the P-States so it is more convenient to assess the values and monitor the states.

First remember to enable K10STAT Clock Control



To test simply click on the Core of the P-State immediately the Processor will assume the P-State.


Test each P-State by running Intel Burn In (Google and Download) or any suitable CPU loading tool.

For me the voltage values that passed Intel Burn In test are 1.075V, 0.850V and 0.750V.

At 1.025V, it BSOD after 2 mins.
At 1.0372V-1.050V it produced the wrong result.

Test all P-States you have modified so it won’t crash whenever the CPU switches to any of them.

To pass LinPack, the result calculated by the CPU must be consistent.
After you have affirmed the stable voltage values then you may proceed to set it to start automatically.

Setting K10STAT for StartUp

Open Task Scheduler by accessing Start Menu\All Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Task Scheduler

Create a Task



Alternatively you can make it run as a SYSTEM task (as shown below)


If you want the K10STAT icon to appear in the systray run the program under your username.
If you run it as SYSTEM account the program will run too but it will not be visible.
Click "Change User or Group" then Enter "System" then choose "Check Names" then select OK.


or you can create it as a startup process as shown below. (RECOMMENDED because it will run before a logon is required)


**Please note a file called K10stat.dat containing the undervolt settings will be created in the C:\Windows\System32 folder because it is the default path for admin rights unless you changed the "Start In (Optional)" parameters, the setting just under the "Add Arguments (Optional)" parameters as shown below.


The program will load the settings from K10STAT.dat so make sure all the changes are overwritten to the file. When you launch K10STAT manually a new K10STAT.dat will be created in C:\Program Files\K10STAT which Task Scheduler WILL NOT LOAD.
It will only load the K10STAT.dat in C:\Windows\System32 unless you change the "Start In" parameters to "C:\Program Files\K10STAT".

If you do not specify “Start In” parameters, the file “K10stat.dat” will be created in C:\Windows\System32 (Default Administrator Path) as shown below.


The following arguments are available (Source:http://dsus4.blog126.fc2.com/blog-entry-3.html)

Command Line Option
-lp:#(1-5) - load profile#(1-5) and write to MSR.

-nw - Start K10stat with No Window.

-ClkCtrl:#(0-4) - Enable Clock Control by K10stat.
0: No Control
1: Control clock of each core.
2: Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is most loaded core).
3: Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is average of all cores).
4: Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is least loaded core).
If you set -ClkCtrl:2 you get better performance at the expense of more power consumption.
Because Windows proceed on the assumption that cores are unganged by default.

AMD K10 Processors were designed originally to use unganged mode to conserve power.

-StayOnTray - use this option with -nw for Clock Control Mode.(Note after a sleep if the CPU registers are resetted, voltages will revert to default, hence you need -StayOnTray to ensure it is always running in the background)
e.g.Target:
"C:\Program Files\K10stat\K10STAT.exe" -lp:1 -ClkCtrl:2 -StayOnTray -nw



Finally you can Control your CPU using the K10STAT Systray if you enabled -StayOnTray manually as well.


-ClkCtrl:#(0-4) - Enable Clock Control by K10stat (Refer to above).
0:No Control

1:Control clock of each core.
UnGanged means each CPU Core #0 & #1 operates independently of each other so at any one time their frequency and DID could be different.(This is the original intent of the design of the Turion Chips as they are given different power planes.)

2:Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is most loaded core).
This means the CPU will raise/drop the DID of Core #0 & #1 together when it detects the one of higher Core has reached the criteria for a Frequency boost/Throttle Down.

3:Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is average of all cores).
This means the CPU will raise/drop the DID of Core #0 & #1 together when it detects the average of both core has reached the criteria for a Frequency boost/Throttle Down.

4:Control clock of all cores together (Criterion is least loaded core).
This means the CPU will raise/drop the DID of Core #0 & #1 together when it detects the one of lowest Core has reached the criteria for a Frequency boost/Throttle Down.


A new function called Lock-P-state is available in new versions of K10Stat.

It is another way you can lock the P-state for P-state testing again you should enable Clock Control before performing the P-State Testing.

Down Core refers to switching off 1 of the Cores either Core0 or Core1.

Testing

__________________________________________________________________



Original Factory Default Settings
_________________________________________________________________________


UnderVolted 1.075V
In Unganged Mode
__________________________________________________________________


UnderVolted 1.075V
In Ganged Mode (Based on highest core)
__________________________________________________________________

Thats All !

AMD Technical Documentation Regarding Turion Processors here

(Contains Temperature Limits P-States and Voltages)

Friday, November 6, 2009

ACPI DSDT Investigation

There has been this problem with Acer Aspire 4530.
When the temperature of the GPU hits 99 degrees the fans don't seemed to turn on to cool it.
Instead the GPU throttle down but without the active cooling the throttling doesn't help instead it stays around 95-99 cycling back and forth.
Therefore I investigated the ACPI configuration of the laptop.
Using Phoenix BIOS editor I extracted the AML file contain compiled ACPI instruction.
The AML file is actually the DSDT Table which Windows load from the BIOS
Using Microsoft ASL Compiler I decompiled the AML file to a notepad readable format.
After checking with ACPI specification PDF documentation I discovered a flaw in the coding.
According to the ACPI documentation as shown below
_PSV is supposed to be the temperature which it safe to do passive cooling meaning fan can turn off.
However Acer programmed the _PSV value to be 0x63 (hex) which is actually 99 degrees in Decimal.
Which means when the laptop reaches 99 degrees it is safe to turn off the fan which led to this situation.
Therefore I modded the DSDT changed it to 45 degrees and overload the table to Windows Registry.
Now the fan no longer stop working when the temperature reaches high levels.

Here I share with you the patched DSDT (actually you can patch the BIOS but I prefer not to do this)

To use the DSDT install Microsoft ASL Compiler, v. 3.0.1 [646 KB] from this page.

Copy and paste the patched DSDT to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASL Compiler v3.0"
Then open a Command Prompt Windows with Admin Permission then type
cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASL Compiler v3.0"
asl.exe /loadtable DSDT.AML
You should see "Table Overloading Succeeded".
Reboot.

I modified another value.
It is the return value for the THRM.
I modified the else condition to a higher hex value so the else condition will assume higher temperature.
I relink the link above to the newer file.

Hi guys sorry I promised there would be no changes to th Acer Aspire 4530 BIOS but I found some errors in the Acer Aspire 4530 DSDT code hence I had to recompile and replace the buggy DSDT code found originally in the Acer Aspire 4530 BIOS.

Here is an excerpt from the original buggy code.

I used IASL Compiler (Intel ASL Compiler) for this purpose as Microsoft ASL Compiler is non-standard(Doesn't guarantee Linux Compatibility), no optimization & buggy.

The new output after I corrected the DSDT:


As usual I always tested the new BIOS with my Aspire 4530 before releasing it so no worries.

Please refer here for the modified BIOS for Aspire 4530

**Note important!
I have removed the optimized DSDT as many seems to have issues with it.
If your Windows report error please flash from DOS (Read Instructions) because DOS doesn't require ACPI so it should be possible.

(Includes Win7 SLIC, Undervolted GPU & Corrected DSDT code)
I noticed things like Brightness Display during unplugging of Adapter and Battery is solved with this DSDT Code Correction.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Windows 7 Boot Optimization Error

I am not sure if you guys know you can manually invoke Windows 7 defragmentation Tool to do boot optimization by using the /b flag.

When you run defrag.exe, you get the following
Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Description:

Locates and consolidates fragmented files on local volumes to
improve system performance.

Syntax:

defrag | /C | /E [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /A [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /X [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag /T [/H] [/U] [/V]

Parameters:

Value Description

/A Perform analysis on the specified volumes.

/C Perform the operation on all volumes.

/E Perform the operation on all volumes except those specified.

/H Run the operation at normal priority (default is low).

/M Run the operation on each volume in parallel in the background.

/T Track an operation already in progress on the specified volume.

/U Print the progress of the operation on the screen.

/V Print verbose output containing the fragmentation statistics.

/X Perform free space consolidation on the specified volumes.

Examples:

defrag C: /U /V
defrag C: D: /M
defrag C:\mountpoint /A /U
defrag /C /H /V

Notice there is no /B flag but it is there.
However on a fresh Windows 7 installation when you try to do this with Administrative Permission in a Command Prompt Window.
C:\Windows\system32>defrag C: /B
You get some message saying it cannot be done like the following:
Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking boot optimization on (C:)...

Analysis: 100% complete.

Some registry entries were missing from the boot optimization section of the reg
istry. (0x89000017)

How to resolve this?
The issue is the idle tasks Windows is scheduled to run hasn't run once yet hence it cannot initialize boot optimization.
So to resolve simply open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission again and run the following commands to invoke the idle task.
C:\Windows\system32>Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
After that the error message will be gone and you can run boot optimization manually.

Why doesn't this happen sometimes?
Because RunIdle task is scheduled to run eventually after sometime of idle usage
if you do boot defrag immmediately after installation,
RunIdle task hasn't got a chance to run at all so you have to invoke it manually
if you want to start the operation immediately.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Checking Battery Capacity in Windows 7

A new feature in Windows 7 is the ability to check battery capacity.
Take a look at the following:

Open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission
Enter:
powercfg /Energy

It will create a report in
C:\Windows\system32\energy-report.html

There is one line like this
Battery:Battery Information
Battery ID 11121SANYOAS07A31
Manufacturer SANYO
Serial Number 11121
Chemistry LION
Long Term 1
Design Capacity 48840
Last Full Charge 41214
The amount of battery life left can be calculated by
41214/48840*100
Which equates to 84.38% meaning my laptop battery has only 84.38% of charge left (because I didn't take good care of it. There was a few times when the battery was almost fully drain)

So make sure you switch off the laptop or connect it to an AC outlet when battery life reaches 10% and do not expose it to high temperatures.

Alternatively you can download the new HWMonitor as it reports the charge capacity directly.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Things To Do in Windows 7

Firstly set Control Panel to "View By Small Icons" as more options will show up.
1) Set System Restore Space
Location:
Control Panel >> Advance System Settings >> System Protection >>Configure
Set the System Restore to use less Disk Space so it will not "eat up" additional Harddisk Space as time passes.
You can also use this to set/delete restore points.


2) Set Performance Visual Options
Location:
Control Panel >> Advance System Settings >> Advance >> Performance Options
Uncheck the Options as shown below while leaving the rest untouched:

3)Uninstall Unused Features
Location:
Control Panel >> Program & Features >> Turn Windows Features On or Off
Uncheck unused Programs like "Tablet PC Components" and "Windows Media Centre"


4)Disable Unused Devices
Location:
Device Manager
Right Click and Disable rarely used Devices to reduce System Device Polling and conserve power.


5)Set Advance Power Options
Location:
Control Panel >> Power Options >> Edit Plan Settings
Customise Power Plan settings according to your preference


6)Defragment and Disk Clean Up

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Streaming Video Using VLC

Edit:

There is a new solution. Simply go to adobe labs and install the new Flash Plugins 10.1 instead of 10.0.
The new plugin promises to offload video processing to the GPU reducing the CPU load.
Please remember to uninstall the old plugin before installing the new plugin.

If you installed it correctly and ran GPU-Z while watching youtube you should see this.


Here is a alternative solution for people having problems streaming youtube.
As you know youtube uses CPU to render the video hence if your CPU is not powerful enough you may experience playback issues (eg. Aspire Timeline with SU2700 Processor).
All laptop comes with good enough Graphics Processor to handle flash videos actually however to make use of the GPU to render flash you need VLC to convert the flash to utilise Video Codecs so the GPU can decode it here is a step by step guide.

Firstly download and install VLC

Next set VLC to DirectX so GPU will be utilised by VLC for playback


Next Launch VLC and select "Open Network Stream"


Enter the URL Containing the Video

Select Play and you are done!

To prove that CPU utilisation is lower using VLC playback:



Note the CPU utilisation averages at about 30-40%

While using VLC (Note: using GPU rendering forces the computer to turn off Aero Glass)

CPU utilisation averages between 10-20%.
The initial CPU spike is due to launching VLC and Setting it to URL Stream Mode.

However I have yet to figure out how to change the URL to High Quality Mode.
Suggestion anybody?

Edit: I found out how just append &fmt=22 to the end of the URL

Monday, July 6, 2009

Optimize Windows Vista Boot

What you should do to conserve and optimize disk space and boot time.

1) After download software like Firefox, after installation please delete the installer.

eg. Setup.exe

New Versions will come out and internet download speeds are so fast, so there is no point keeping it.

2) Do this weekly:
Start>> All Programs>> Accesories>> System Tools>> Disk Clean Up

Check Everything Except for Hibernation File.

Or download and install a autodiskcleanup script I created

CCleaner is a extra ware that does the same thing it uses System Resource hence I don't use this.

3) Open Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services
Disable "SuperFetch"
Stop "Superfetch"
Reason being Superfetch isn't very efficient, very often it overfetches Programs you rarely use, increasing boot time as a result.

4) Clean temporary Directories.
They are:
C:\Users\{Your User Name}\AppData\Local\Temp
C:\Windows\Temp
C:\Windows\Prefetch (Delete the ReadyBoot Contents before ReadyBoot folder)
I have created a batch file to kill superfetch.
Download and run with Administrator permission here (Superfetch Killer)
5) Here is a Windows Batch File that clears useless file recursively in all directories.
Batch file is provided by mydigitallife

Open in Notepad to see the script content.
To Run, Right Click "Run as Admin"

Next run sdelete to zero the harddisk space and return all unused space

Use the command:
sdelete -c
After that do a Disk Defragmentation and Reboot

Using this method my Acer Aspire 4530 now boots in 5 Rolling Bars instead of the previous 18 &
My 5 year old Desktop has the following specification:
Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHZ 512KB L2 Cache (NorthWood)
4GB DDR RAM 400MHZ
250GB WD 16MB Buffer Cache
875P Motherboard
Currently the dinosaur is running Windows Vista rather speedily so try it!


Tuesday, June 30, 2009

How To Clear Up your Disk on Windows Xp and Vista

To Clean up your Disk it is actually very simple
There are only a few place where the junk gather
  1. Take a Look at C:\
  • You should only see the following 3 folders
  1. Documents and Settings
  2. Program Files
  3. WINDOWS
The rest is either
Driver files loaded by OEM
Lazy users who refuse to save it to their home directory respectively
Programs which do not install by default to Program Files Directory (and the installer did not bother to redirect the program there he/she just keep clicking NEXT NEXT NEXT FINISH)

They are all deletable except for the Programs which is better to reinstall via Control Panel into the correct Program Files directory to keep it neat

For Windows Xp you can clear up on the following folders
You may encounter file in use because the operating system is currently using the caches so it is locked
If you encounter this you can just skip that particular file
  • C:\WINDOWS\Temp
I need to elaborate on Prefetch
Prefetch is a place where the system cache certain programs so it can run faster
The official stand is that it is a self managing folder where rarely used program will get cleaned up automatically however you can still clear it up once it a while
After you clear up the system will need to prefetch again however there is no harm or any sort done
Also you will notice the system boots faster immediately after you clear Prefetch because Prefetch is loaded on boot so when it is cleared up it boots faster
  • C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch
Next Open (Delete everything inside)
  • C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Temp
At the end of it there is already a tool to clean up your disk
It is called Disk Cleanup
It clears all the above mention folders except Prefetch.

The following is a disk cleanup script from mydigitallife for Windows Vista
@echo off
cls
TITLE Windows Vista System Junk Cleaner v1.0
echo.
echo Windows Vista System Junk Cleaner
echo Version 1.1
echo.
echo (C) 2007 My Digital Life (www.mydigitallife.info)
echo.
echo This batch script is provided as is without warranty.
pause
echo.
echo.
echo Start cleaning and deleting Vista system junk?
echo (Press Ctrl-C and answer Y to terminate)
pause
cls

del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.tmp
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*._mp
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.log
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.gid
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.chk
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%\*.old
del /f /s /q "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\cookies\*.*"
del /f /s /q "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.*"
del /f /s /q "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\*.*"
del /f /s /q "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*.*"
del /f /s /q %windir%\*.bak
del /f /s /q %windir%\prefetch\*.*
del /f /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\*.*
rd /s /q "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\" & md "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\"
rd /s /q %windir%\Temp & md %windir%\Temp

cls
echo.
echo Windows Vista System Junk Cleaner
echo Version 1.1
echo.
echo (C) 2007 My Digital Life (www.mydigitallife.info)
echo.
echo This batch script is provided as is without warranty.
echo.
echo.
echo Vista system junk cleaning and deleting completed.
echo.
echo Press any key to exit.
pause
Just copy the script onto notepad, save as diskcleanup.bat.
Run with admin permission.
As you can see the script is completely clean.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Crazy Stuff I Did To Lower The Temperature Of The Laptop

Here is the deal:
You have encounter high temperatures especially during gaming.
You contacted the Repair Centre.
They told you to update the BIOS (usually the fix include making the fan spin more often).
You have sent the laptop back and forth until you have given up.

Finally the warranty run out and you can only depend on yourself.

Below are the following mods you can do.


For me I did the following:

Note: Most steps require dismantling of the system it will help with expert supervision and googling and down loading of service manual to dismantle it.

  • Throw away the thermal pad on the GPU and use Arctic Silver 5 instead
  • Remove the original CPU thermal paste and use Arctic Silver 5 instead.
Arctic Cooling MX-2
Arctic Silver 5

  • Remove and throw away the "air filter" below the Laptop bottom cover to allow better air flow (I decided to do this after realizing this is the only part you can feel that air actually goes into the laptop, hence obstructing it restricts air flow hence remove it)
  • Sand the surface of heatsink which comes into contact with the GPU or CPU chip, using FINE SILICON CARBIDE PAPER
  • Sharpen the edges of the air vent casing (I got this inspiration by observing other Acer Aspire Laptop (Aspire 4935G) models, I noticed their vent size is gigantic compared to the vent size of this particular model hence it could be one of the gaming overheating factors. The new Acer Aspire 4736ZG Series Air Vents actually have even bigger holes than 4935G!)
Original (Top view)

Modified (Shave the vent corners)(Top view)

Actually the best cutting should be a wing shape pointing into the chassis.
The smaller the air drag the better.



Not sure how much of this helps
But now my gaming temperatures fall below 90 degrees (around 85) and my idle temperature falls below 60 degrees (around 55) for the GPU.

Check out my recently modded laptop thermal exhaust:

Compare it to your original Aspire 4530 exhaust spot any difference?
Originally it has 16 dividers I cut out 8 of them so it looks like this.

5) I added Aluminium tape to bridge the laptop bottom chassis which is made out of metal to the heatsink.


Aluminium Tape

How I did it.

I rolled and flatten out one piece of Aluminium Tape to thicken it made sure it stucked in between the two interface without falling off (but not too tight).
Then I stick a tape over the heatsink and the chassis for better conduction.
The lowest temperature is now under 55 degrees hence it pretty much works.


7) Set the Graphics Mode to performance.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Tweak Firefox to return search in URL Bar

Tweak Firefox URL Bar to return search results

Most modern web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer (IE) is able to handle invalid URL or link location that user to type into address bar or location bar. The most typical option is automatically treat input as a query string or term, and search for it using default search engine.

Firefox takes “auto-correction” feature in address location bar a step further by automatically redirect user to a web page that it assumes user is looking for, much like Google’s “I am feeling lucky” feature. In fact, Firefox is using Google search engine to find possibly related or matching website and then direct Firefox to open the lucky first link returned by the Google.

For user who prefer to see a list of matching websites or search results instead of auto redirect to a web page when entering keywords in the Firefox’s link location bar, it’s possible to change the Firefox behavior by modifying its configuration using steps below.

  1. Run Firefox.
  2. Enter about:config into the address bar.
  3. Locate keyword.url or type keyword.url into “Filter” text box to search for it.
  4. Double click on the line of “keyword.url”.
  5. By default, the string value for “keyword.url” is “about:neterror?e=query&u=”. To display search results instead, replace the string with one of the following search statements, depending on the search engine you prefer:

    Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=
    Yahoo!: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=
    Windows Live Search: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=

    Change Firefox Add Bar Search URL

  6. Click OK when done.

To revert to existing behavior where best matching site will be shown immediately on any typo error or keywords and terms been entered, just set the “keyword.url” value back to “about:neterror?e=query&u=” (without quotes).

Source:http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/06/12/hack-to-modify-firefox-3-address-bar-to-return-search-results-when-query-or-invalid-url-is-entered/