In Windows 10 build 1803, Microsoft made some kernel changes related to hardware timers that broke a lot of device drivers and caused high latency on many systems. Ever since then, Sound Blaster Z / Zx / ZxR series are plagued with issues such as audio stuttering, crackling, popping, and sudden channel swapping.

It’s been 2 years and Creative Labs hasn’t done enough to fix these issues. And therefore, the old house of ngohq.com is proud to introduce a modified driver based on the official software release from September 2019 and and unofficial driver release from May 2020. This release is intended to solve issues and will not bring any new features.

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In early 2018, security researchers discovered several security vulnerabilities affecting all processors: Meltdown and Spectre. These vulnerabilities allow speculative execution side-channel attacks (CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5754). While Meltdown was resolved with an OS patch, Spectre required a microcode update.

Since the microcode is stored and automatically loaded by the BIOS/UEFI, motherboard manufacturers required to issue an update. However, manufacturers normally release firmware updates only for their newest products. Plenty of motherboards still remain vulnerable until this very day.

Intel Microcode Boot Loader is a workaround for the microcode problem on Intel-based motherboards. It updates the microcode every time the system is booted. Based on Intel BIOS Implementation Test Suite (BITS), users no longer need to modify BIOS/UEFI ROMs to stay protected from security vulnerabilities, bugs and erratas.

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Stress testing unstable PCs from within Windows always posed a risk of corruption to the OS registry and files. But now, thanks to Linpack Xtreme for Linux and the lightweight Porteus Linux, you can stress test without those worries anymore. The bootable version of Linpack Xtreme integrated on Porteus Linux is just 320MB in size to fit on CD/DVD/USB.

Porteus is a lightweight and portable implementation of the Slackware Linux operating system that can be installed on a CD/DVD, MMC/SD card, USB flash drive or hard drive. Once installed on the storage media of your choice, it can be run on almost any PC, giving you the power and freedom of Linux anywhere you go.

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Linpack Xtreme is a console front-end with the latest build of Linpack (Intel Math Kernel Library Benchmarks 2018.3.011). Linpack is a benchmark and the most aggressive stress testing software available today. Best used to test stability of overclocked PCs. Linpack tends to crash unstable PCs in a shorter period of time compared to other stress testing applications.

Linpack solves a dense (real*8) system of linear equations (Ax=b), measures the amount of time it takes to factor and solve the system, converts that time into a performance rate, and tests the results for accuracy. The generalization is in the number of equations (N) it can solve, which is not limited to 1000. Linpack uses partial pivoting to assure the accuracy of the results.

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Linked below is a database of modified BIOSes for X58 motherboards patched with the latest microcode (0×1F for Westmere, 0×1D for Bloomfield) against Meltdown and all variants of Spectre. Make sure the operating system is also updated to be fully protected from speculative execution side-channel vulnerabilities (CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5754).

While most of Nehalem CPUs received a new microcode from Intel, there is an early stepping (C0) that hasn’t and therefore still vulnerable at the moment. However, these very few CPUs will also benefit from increased security and stability due to more recent microcode. In addition, the ROMs feature TRIM support for SSDs in RAID0 and extended CPU compatibility table for all motherboards.

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Firehawk WebSuite is an optimized stack of Apache, MySQL and PHP. The goal is to provide high performance, easy-to-deploy and stable web server environment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. While the original developers are officially supporting Windows, webmasters and web developers have to deal with many problems such as installation errors, poor performance, compatibility issues and poor stability. Firehawk WebSuite is the solution! Webmasters and web developers can now run heavily loaded websites on Microsoft Windows-based servers.

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NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a modified version of ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. NGO ATI Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.

This release is based on ATI Catalyst 7.3 and the main change is the drastic performance improvement in the latest versions of ATI Catalyst Control Center. Because of the improvements, we have decided to include it and the old Control Panel. Users have now the option to choose their own ATI control panel environment. Be advised that Catalyst Control Center requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher to operate.

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NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of Nvidia ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage. This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience.

This driver includes Nvidia’s new Control Panel. We’ve preferred to include the new Control Panel over the old one due to flexibility and stability reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards - including mobile series (Go) as well. This driver has a special compatibility mode option that provides better stability, and workaround for some known bugs.

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Driver signature enforcement in Windows Vista and later versions requires all kernel-mode drivers to be signed with a digital certificate. Plenty of 3rd party applications that rely on such drivers can no longer function since most software developers are simple individuals and code signing certificate is expensive. Officially, there is only a temporary solution to disable driver signature enforcement (to press F8 during system startup). Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider is a permanent solution to load unsigned kernel-mode drivers by using TESTSIGNING mode with a test-signed digital certificate.

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