Snooper(TM), the System Checker Copyright 1992, 1993 John Vias SNOOPER'S REVISION HISTORY VERSION DATE REVISIONS 3.10* 11/17/93 Added Netware revision on network screen. It appears as a letter after the version. Also on the Network screen, fixed MLID version bug that would cause version 2.01 to appear as 2.1. 3.09 11/93 Added Current Directory report to Snooper's disk information. 3.08 11/93 Snooper will now accept long forms for its command line parameters and switches, making Snooper batch files self-documenting. It still accepts the single-letter abbreviations. Because of this change, you may no longer join command line switches. For example, "snooper -bq" is no longer acceptable; you would need to use "snooper -b q." See the manual and Snooper's first help screen for more details. 3.07 11/93 Fixed the problem that caused Micro Channel systems to lock up in the Diagnostics screen. 3.06 11/93 In the IDE Model report, if the drive is a Conner Peripherals, Snooper now removes the word "Peripherals" so the model name itself is visible in the report. 3.05 11/93 Fixed Pentium detection (it was reporting "Hexium"). Adjusted the Clock Speed report to better differentiate between 60- and 66-MHz Pentiums (Pentia?). For CPUs with integrated math coprocessors (i.e., the 486 and Pentium), Snooper now reports "internal" instead of "built in" for the NDP report. 3.04 10/93 Added detection of 400 more MicroChannel cards, bringing the total to over 1,100. 3.03 10/93 On the Diagnostics screen, in the IRQ and DMA lists, Snooper no longer reports "Reserved" for resources not assigned to a hardware device. If the resource doesn't appear to be reserved, Snooper reports "Available." If the resource has been reserved, Snooper reports "In use." Also, DMA channel four is no longer detected because it is used internally and isn't available for installable devices. 3.02 10/93 Removed CMOS checksum on the Main screen's Extended Memory report. The CMOS screen will tell you if there is an error. 3.01 10/93 Added differentiation of DOS versions 4.00 and 4.01. 3.00 10/93 Added detection of Plug-'n'-Play capability to the BIOS report. This specification allows P-n-P ISA cards to be automatically configured through software, like MCA and EISA cards are now. 2.99 10/93 Snooper will now report if the computer has both MicroChannel and ISA buses. 2.98 10/93 Added detection of several more computer types, bringing the total to over 110. 2.96 10/93 Added detection of several disk caches to the main screen. See the manual for details. Had to condense the Keyboard report slightly, with no loss of info. 2.86 10/93 Oops! For some reason we thought floppy drives used DMA channel three, when actually they use channel two. Snooper's display has been updated to reflect this revelation. 2.85 10/93 Added detection of XGA amd XGA-2 video to Video report. This will work on MicroChannel bus systems. 2.80 10/93 After exiting the built-in editor, Snooper will prompt the user to reboot only if changes were made and the file was successfully saved. Snooper will wait for a keypress if there was an error saving the file. Otherwise, Snooper will immediately return you to the Main Screen. If you choose to reboot, Snooper will pause in case write-delayed caching is enabled, to ensure the file is actually written to the disk. 2.78 9/93 Fixed an apparently long-standing bug that prevented Snooper from recognizing some older IBM models and others by name. 2.76 9/93 Snooper should less often report gibberish in the "IDE model" report. 2.75 9/93 Defined default scales for the graphs on the Benchmark screen, according to CPU type. So, for example, the default scales for a 486 machine would be higher than one for a 386. Now, when a machine is so fast it makes the graph change color, it means the machine is fast for its class. 2.70 9/93 Added reboot function to allow the user to reboot from within Snooper after changing the CMOS or CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. 2.68 9/93 Improved Snooper's disk benchmark, adding sequential reads to the random ones and computing a weighted score. 2.66 9/93 Snooper should be able to report more information about a second hard drive, if there is one. 2.65 9/93 Added detection of DOS 6's DoubleSpace drive compression, reported on the Disk Status line. 2.64 9/93 Added detection of Advanced Power Management (APM) and its version. It's reported after the computer type. 2.63 9/93 Added detection of the Communicating Applications Specification (CAS) and FaxBIOS, and their versions. They are reported on the Diagnostics screen under the COM port information. 2.62 8/93 Improved VESA video memory detection under VESA 1.0. Snooper can now report half-megabyte values (e.g., 1.5M, 2.5M). You may have a bit more memory than Snooper reports. For example, you may have 2M when Snooper reports 1.5M. Under newer versions of the VESA spec, Snooper should always report video memory accurately. 2.61 8/93 Snooper will now retore the cursor upon exit, and set ERRORLEVEL to at least 32, if a runtime error occurs (but that *never* happens!). 2.60 8/93 Added one to the Cylinders report for hard drives. This should now match what the CMOS reports. 2.59 8/93 Improved error-reporting while trying to save a .CFG file in Setup screen. Snooper will now report if the disk is full, an existing .CFG file is read-only, etc. 2.58 8/93 The benchmark graphs now change color if they change scale, so you can see at a distance that the scale is not the default. Also, the benchmark graphs are retained when you return to the main screen and then go back to the Benchmark screen. 2.57 8/93 Added detection of fax modems, and the classes they support, on the Diagnostics screen. The new report, "fax class," will display for example, "0,1" if your fax modem supports classes zero and one. 2.52 8/93 Removed detection and supression of "fake" Novell parallel ports on Diagnostics screen. Now you can see the port status that other programs see, even if these ports aren't physically present. Also, Snooper now only looks for three LPT ports, not four. 2.51 8/93 Removed detection of Ballpoint mice because there were too many false positives. 2.50 8/93 Added beeps to alert you to error conditions (e.g. invalid drive). This should be helpful especially to visually-impaired users. When you hear a beep, look at the message line in the lower right corner to see what the beep was for. The beeps can be toggled on and off via the Setup screen. 2.48 8/93 Added Benchmark screen, accessible with (hey, was already being used!), performs CPU, video, and hard disk benchmarks. 2.38 8/93 Added Adaptec SCSI host adapter identification. It is reported on the same line as IDE model would be. 2.37 8/93 Changed the log filename from SNOOPER to SNOOPLOG to make it consistent with the SNOOPCFG variable (see below). 2.36 8/93 You can now define a SNOOPCFG environment variable to designate the configuration file Snooper should read (e.g. "set snoopcfg=c:\control\johnv.cfg"). Very useful on networks when set in a login script or in AUTOEXEC.BAT (don't forget Alt-A will let you edit AUTOEXEC.BAT!). 2.35 8/93 Added help line on the bottom line of each screen; removed the much shorter help lines above the message boxes. 2.32 8/93 Changed the keystroke used to print an invoice from for Register to for Order, perhaps making it clearer for some of you. 2.31 7/93 Improved Setup screen's user interface to match that of the CMOS screen (see below). 2.30 7/93 Added field to allow or disallow CMOS editing. This feature is for network administrators who want to prevent knowledgable-enough-to-be-dangerous users from changing their computers' configurations. 2.29 7/93 Added CMOS configuration viewing/editing screen. Press from the main screen to see it. If CMOS editing is allowed (check the Setup screen), you can use the highlighted letters, and the arrow and Tab keys to move from one field to another. Once you're on the field you wish to change, press +/- or PgUp/PgDn to modify that field. If CMOS editing is disallowed, you will only be able to view the CMOS configuration. 2.19 7/93 Snooper now searches for ROM BIOS extensions every 256 bytes instead of every 2K, sniffing out more adapter cards. 2.18 7/93 Snooper can now differentiate between Dell 450DEs and 466DEs. Changed the order form into an invoice. Now business users can pay for Snooper on a purchase order and already have an invoice to send to Accounting. 2.17 6/93 Fixed detection of 2.8M drives. It should work now. 2.16* 6/26/93 Fixed minor cosmetic bug in drive list. Also, now you can press or when changing default disk drive in Setup screen. 2.15* 6/18/93 Fixed minor bug that prevented you from using cursor keys to switch from drive A: to the next drive in a system with one floppy and a hard or network drive. Snooper no longer displays the B: drive in its drive list if the system has no physical B: drive. 2.14 6/93 You can now print the display to PRN with . now logs the system files. still logs to a file. 2.13 6/93 Added detection of DOS revision level for versions 5 and up. It appears as a letter after the DOS version. 2.12 5/93 Snooper now more-vigorously checks the IDE model for garbage characters. This line should now be blank for non-IDE drives. 2.11 5/93 In the editor, you can now restore a deleted line with . To restore other deleted text (e.g. words), continue to use . 2.10 5/93 Added network information screen, accessible via . Currently, this screen provides info only on Novell networks. See the manual for more details. Removed the Western Digital network card detection routine, as it turned out to be the responsible for Snooper breaking the network connection. Now when you use the Diagnostics screen on a network, you usually stay connected. 2.09 5/93 Added detection of Pentium (tm) (and Hexium?) processors. 2.08 5/93 If your system has more than 19 logical drives, Snooper now displays them in two rows. Also, the end bracket immediately follows the last drive letter. 2.07 5/93 Now you can press to indicate "Yes" to "(Y/n)?" prompts in the editor (e.g. saving the file). 2.06 5/93 Added detection of over 700 MicroChannel adapter cards via the new Bus Screen. Access it with . See the manual for more details. 2.05 5/93 Improved detection of network drives. It's accurate now, but the minimum DOS version had to be raised to 3.10. This shouldn't cause a problem for most of you. 2.04 4/93 Added detection of Toshiba DOS and Olivetti DOS. 2.03 4/93 Added detection of several more Dell computers. 2.02 4/93 Added fifty new computer types, mostly IBMs. Snooper can now recognize over 100 computers by name. 2.01 4/93 Snooper can now distinguish between LANtastic and LAN Manager. Added report of PC LAN and LAN Manager versions. 2.00* 3/30/93 Improved VESA video memory detection. Snooper now retrieves the memory amount directly from the VESA BIOS if the VESA version is at least 1.01. Also fixed a bug that caused the VESA version to be reported incorrectly. 1.99 3/93 Added detection of a Logitech mouse driver's version. Also, in the IRQ list on the Diagnostics screen, if you have a new enough mouse driver, Snooper will report if it's a TSR loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file ("MOUSE.COM"), or a device driver loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file ("MOUSE.SYS"). 1.98 3/93 Added more rigorous testing to determine if a parallel port really exists before testing its IRQ and status. Rearranged Parallel Port Status reports. 1.97 3/93 Expanded configuration file with blank space so we can add more options in the future while maintaining backward compatibility with existing .CFG files. 1.96 3/93 Added report of parallel port IRQ. Keep in mind that many I/O cards with parallel ports do not generate the IRQ properly. This report uses parentheses like the COM port IRQ (see below). 1.95 3/93 Added indication of a COM port's IRQ being enabled. If the IRQ number does not appear in parentheses on the Diagnostics screen, that COM port's IRQ was already enabled before Snooper was run. If the IRQ is written in parentheses, the IRQ is not active on that port. Also, COM port info is centered now. 1.94 3/93 Added detection of the port address of Western Digital and compatible network cards, displayed on the Diagnostics screen. 1.93 3/93 Added an internal text editor for CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and SNOOPER.LOG files. Added configuration option for toggling between using the internal editor or an external one. 1.92 3/93 If you were using only a tiny percentage of a disk, Snooper may have shown an empty bar graph, perhaps misleading you into thinking the disk was empty. Now if any amount of disk space is being used, Snooper shows at least one block in the graph. 1.91 3/93 Added logging of CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. From Snooper's main or Diagnostics screens with and from the command line, with the /P switch. This feature will copy the contents of both files to the log file. The switch can be used with or without the logging switch, /L. It will use the log filename specified with /L. 1.90 2/93 Changed format of configuration file. Config files made with earlier versions will be incompatible with future versions of Snooper, so just delete them and make new ones. 1.89 2/93 Instead of prohibiting you from invoking Snooper's Diagnostics screen under multitaskers and networks, now Snooper just warns about the dangers involved and asks if you wish to continue. 1.88 2/93 Fixed editor loading routine to correctly load a batch file called EDIT.BAT by loading a secondary command processor (e.g., COMMAND.COM, NDOS.COM). Snooper now ensures the relevant files exist before invoking the editor. Added a wait for keypress after editing before restoring Snooper's screen. 1.87 2/93 Reassigned editing keys: loads only CONFIG.SYS, and loads only AUTOEXEC.BAT. Using for this feature forced us to change the (Advanced) Diagnostics key to for Diagnostics. 1.86 2/93 Improved Setup screen's readability by aligning default options and changing the choices from Yes/No to Yes/Auto. 1.85 2/93 Reversed action of PgUp/PgDn, Up/Down, Left/Right in help screens and main screen to make those keystrokes more in line with convention. Pressing PgUp will now move you, for example, from page three to page two of the help screens, or from drive B: to drive C:. 1.84 2/93 Added logic to guess where a mouse is located even if the normal detection routine doesn't find it. 1.83 2/93 Redesigned Diagnostics screen, added message area and help line consistent with main screen. 1.82 2/93 Redesigned setup screen; added mono- and Desqview-mode, and default disk drive as setup options. 1.81 2/93 Improved detection of COM ports, COM port IRQs, and modems. 1.80 2/93 When the log file-viewing feature is invoked, it now checks for the existence of a log file before loading the editor. 1.79 2/93 Integrated SNCOLORS into SNOOPER.EXE. To change colors, enter a license number, etc., press in Snooper. Changes will take effect the next time you run Snooper. 1.78 1/93 Streamlined volume label detection. Reorganized DOS shell routines to make them more portable. 1.77 1/93 Corrected XMM detection bug present in version 1.76. 1.76 12/92 Added improved CPU speed benchmark. It should be much more accurate now. 1.75 11/92 Added (Advanced) Diagnostics screen via . The AD screen shows you: * Active IRQ levels (0-15) * Active DMA channels (0-3) * Sound card address * Parallel port addresses and status (busy, paper out, I/O error, selected) * Serial port addresses, UART (8250-16550A), FIFO buffer status (on or off), port speed, data bits, parity, stop bits, IRQ, and device attached (modem and/or mouse) 1.74 10/92 Added on-line viewing and editing of SNOOPER.LOG via external editor. To use this feature, press at Snooper's main screen. See editor-naming requirements below. 1.73 10/92 Added on-line editing of CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT via external editor. To use this feature, press at Snooper's main screen. The editor must be named EDIT.COM, EDIT.EXE, or EDIT.BAT, and it may reside in the current directory or on the path. "Ed-It!" version 3.0 (a public domain editor, included) will open both files at once in separate windows. Other editors may only open CONFIG.SYS. You can open AUTOEXEC.BAT with their editors' Open File command. 1.72 10/92 Added on-line registration feature. Press "F1" for help, then "R" to print an order form. You will be asked what port to print the form to. 1.71 10/92 Snooper now shows you all valid drive letters, right next to "Disk." The current drive letter is highlighted and capitalized. The Volume Label report was moved down; it's now the first disk report in the column. Due to limited screen space, the Total Clusters report was removed (CHKDSK can tell you if you really need it). 1.70 10/92 Added detection of Oak VGA cards. 1.69 10/92 Improved detection of Genoa VGA cards; Snooper should now recognize more models. 1.68 10/92 Added detection of Logitech 6.10+, Mouse Systems, Genius 9.06, and Z-NIX 7.04d mice by name. These may work with earlier and/or later driver versions than are specified here. Rearranged Mouse report slightly. 1.67 10/92 Added ability to paste Snooper's display to the Windows clipboard using Shift-Delete. The display is pasted as text. 1.66 9/92 Snooper now gives up its timeslice under Windows, the DOS-5 task switcher, etc., instead of constantly updating its time display (just press the spacebar for an update). 1.65 9/92 Added timeout for IDE model routine to avoid locking system. Fixed bug that failed to report certain computer types by name. 1.64 9/92 Added detection of VESA version. Fixed bug that caused 256K VESA VGAs to report 3K. 1.63 9/92 Fixed bugs that caused lockups on 286s with math chips and possibly others (sorry about this one!). 1.62 9/92 Added Stacker detection and version to Disk Status report. 1.61 8/92 Added report of A20 status in HMA report. 1.60 8/92 Suppressed IDE model detection under Windows 386 enhanced mode (conflicts with 32-bit hard drive access). 1.59 7/92 Removed the necessity of having MSCDEX.EXE 2.x to detect CD-ROM drives. Now Snooper can detect CD-ROMs with any driver version. 1.58 5/92 Added detection of Tandy 1000s and Epsons 1.57 5/92 Added IDE Hard Drive Model report. 1.56 5/92 Added detection of DOS buffers, including look-ahead buffers. 1.55 5/92 Added detection of DOS files. 1.54 5/92 Removed registration reminder box in lower right corner, freeing screen space for more disk reports. Added space for messages such as "Invalid drive," "Writing log file," etc. 1.53 5/92 Added detection of CMOS hard drive type. 1.52 4/92 Changed the logging keystroke to Alt-L to allow you to access drive L: directly. 1.51 4/92 Replaced the Adlib detection routine with the official one, probably fixing the false detection bug. 1.50* 3/30/92 If Snooper detects that a VGA adapter has more than 256K of memory, it will report it as SVGA. 1.49 3/92 May have fixed UMB report under DR-DOS 6. 1.48 3/92 Implemented two-tiered shareware registration. 1.47 2/92 Added detection of PS/2 models 35, L40, 55LS, 57, M57, 65SX, 90, and 95 and of the PS/1 model 2121. 1.46 2/92 Fixed bug that caused incorrect used Conventional Memory report when Snooper is loaded into an UMB. 1.45 2/92 Removed detection of 80186/88 CPUs for greater stability. 1.44 2/92 Improved disk type checking; Snooper recognizes 2.88M floppy drives. Floppy drives with no disks in them will now report the drive type anyway. 1.43 2/92 Added ability of sequence keys to skip invalid drive letters. Now you can press to go from drive C: to drive E: if you have no drive D: (you used to have to use letter keys to access noncontiguous drives). 1.42 1/92 Added logic to detect invalid command line entries, which cause Snooper automatically to show the invalid characters on its syntax help screen. 1.41 1/92 Added Desqview mode switch, /D, to force Snooper to use the BIOS when writing to the screen. Snooper normally detects Desqview and switches to this mode automatically but some of you may want to use it for other environments. 1.40 1/92 Expanded Mouse report to always show serial plus the COM port or IRQ level. 1.39 1/92 Implemented better game port detection. It should work on AT class machines now. Also fixed minor bug that caused the 01/10/84 IBM PC-AT not to be reported by name. 1.38 1/92 Fixed minor bug involving incorrect IRQ levels reported by a certain mouse driver. Fixed minor bug that caused the mouse driver minor version to be reported incorrectly. 1.37 1/92 Expanded single help screen to three, to show command line syntax, keystrokes allowed in the program, and shareware information. 1.36 1/92 Fixed math coprocessor detection lockup bug. This may have been the lockup problem, even though we blamed the CPU detection routines. The /C and /M switches finally may be obsolete. (We hope, but let us know!) Implemented improved RAM disk detection logic. 1.35 1/92 Included Sncolors, a utility to change Snoopers colors, in shareware version. 1.34 1/92 Fixed display of percent of used disk space, which occasionally showed two decimal places. 1.33 12/91 Reduced memory use to 85K, making Snooper easier to shell to from another program under cramped memory conditions (aren't they all?). 1.32 11/91 Implemented detection of Sound Blaster, Adlib, and Roland MPU-401 sound cards. 1.31 11/91 Added shell version for Novell networks, version for Lantastic. 1.30 11/91 Added new switch, /M, which disables NDP (Math chip) detection. The /C compatibility switch now disables only CPU detection and may no longer be needed. If you are having lockup problems with Snooper, specify both of these switches, then one at a time, until you find the one that will avoid the lockup. Most of you needn't worry about this at all. 1.29 10/91 Added reports of serial and parallel port addresses. 1.28 10/91 Snooper will find its display (which it needs to in order to log it) even if it has been moved via the Relocatable Screen Interface Specification used by Desqview, Topview, and Memory Commander. 1.27 10/91 After Snooper runs, it should now reset the cursor to the same shape it was originally, not to a default shape. 1.26 10/91 Rewrote CPU and NDP detection routines in BASM (TP 6's built-in assembler), making them more stable. 1.25 10/91 Added detection of several more computers by name. Added report of DOS-5s location, if in HMA or ROM. 1.24 10/91 Fixed Windows 386 Enhanced mode detection. Problem was caused by the way Turbo Pascal calls interrupts (or not). 1.23 10/91 Command line arguments may now be combined (e.g., snooper -bc:n is OK). 1.22 10/91 Uses BIOS screen writes if it detects DESQview and also corrects a DESQview detection bug. 1.21 10/91 Implemented file sharing on networks. Added detection of several Dell computers by name. 1.20 10/91 Added detection of NDOS (and its version and shell depth), and of OS/2 1.x and 2.x. 1.19 9/91 Added report of largest UMB if EMM386.EXE is loaded and DOS=UMB is in CONFIG.SYS. 1.18 9/91 Added detection of DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI), Virtual Control Program Interface (VCPI), and ANSI device drivers. 1.17 9/91 Rewrote screen display routine to draw screen faster. Changed shareware offer and price. 1.16 9/91 Added detection of several VGA chipsets and, for some, VGA memory above 256K. 1.15 9/91 Added detection of virtual 86 mode, allowing us to remove the /3 compatibility switch (Snooper now automatically skips 386DX/SX detection if CPU is in virtual 86 mode, avoiding error messages and lockups). 1.14 8/91 Implemented detection of CD-ROM drives if you are running MSCDEX.EXE 2.x or higher. 1.13 8/91 Implemented improved disk type logic (Snooper now may recognize some RAM disks and Bernoulli drives). 1.12 8/91 Added detection of video memory installed on VESA cards. 1.11 8/91 Added check for CMOS validity before asking it for extended memory installed. Snooper shows a question mark if the CMOS appears invalid but shows extended memory reported by the CMOS anyway. 1.10 7/91 Added detection of several brands of ROM BIOS. 1.09 7/91 Employed BIOS date to help detect computer type so some IBM pre-1987 types, some Toshibas, more Olivettis, and a few others are identified explicitly. 1.08 7/91 Changed /C switch: /C(ompatibility mode) now disables all CPU/NDP detection routines. If Snooper locks up your machine, try using this switch. 1.07* 7/4/91 Added detection of VESA VGA cards and of highest drive letter on keystroke help line (instead of static A-Z). 1.06 6/91 Added report of extended memory installed according to CMOS; added recognition of DR DOS, the ATT 6300, several Olivetti models, and more PS/2s. Corrected logical bug that prevented several shells from being reported. (Oops!) 1.05 6/91 Added detection of Weitek 1167 math chip and HMA use. 1.04 5/91 Implemented Compatibility mode to avoid lock-ups on some PCs running under Windows 386 enhanced mode. Added logic to detect 486SX. 1.03 5/91 Fixed EISA detection bug. 1.02 5/91 Fixed 486 detection bug and 386/486 lockups; detects 80386SX. 1.01 4/91 Expanded mouse report to show COM port number if serial, based on default IRQs. 1.00* 3/30/91 First real shareware version. We released a pre-release version (1.01--Hmm) to a local BBS in February 1989. *Denotes publicly-released version