SNOOPER(TM) The System Checker Version 3.10 November 17, 1993 Copyright 1989-93 John Vias All rights reserved. Here's how to reach us: Mail: Vias & Associates P.O. Box 8234 Gainesville, FL 32605-8234 Phone: 800-332-8234 (orders only, please) 904-332-8234 (international orders, and tech support) Monday through Friday, 10AM to 8PM, Eastern time Compuserve: 72260,1601 (for E-mail inquiries) You can find the latest copy of Snooper (SNOOPR.ZIP) in the IBM Hardware Forum (GO IBMHW), General Hardware library (4) PCBoard BBS: A.C.C.U.G.* 904-335-7289 (V.32bis) Greg Barton, sysop *New BBS. Enter your real name and a password when prompted. Later in the logon procedure, you will be asked if you have called for Snooper support. Answer yes. You can find the newest version of Snooper, read and send us E-mail (to John Vias), and read the bulletins. Snooper is named SNOOPmnn.ZIP, where "mnn" is the version number (e.g., a hypothetical version 6.57 would be named SNOOP657.ZIP). The ACCUG BBS supports the Alachua County Computer Users Group and other PC enthusiasts. Give it a call! VIAS & ASSOCIATES This program and its documentation were created by Vias & Associates, a computer consulting, programming, and technical writing firm based in Gainesville, Florida. If you, or someone you know, needs software or documentation written, edited, or designed, please contact us. Do you need a customized system reporting program? Perhaps one that writes comma-delimited files? Call us! Our rates are affordable. Whether it's a computer program, a newsletter, software documentation, or anything in between, we look forward to working with you! ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS _______ ____|__ | (tm) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). The ASP wants to make sure the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, the ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a Compuserve message via Compuserve Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. TABLE OF CONTENTS VIAS & ASSOCIATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 WHAT IS SNOOPER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 WHO NEEDS SNOOPER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 FILES ON THIS DISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 DOS Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Windows Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Upgrading from a Previous Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SNOOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 LEGALITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Warranty, Copyright, Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 WHAT IS SHAREWARE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 REGISTRATION/ORDERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Registration Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How To Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 SYNTAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Help Switches (H|?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Black-and-white Mode Switch (B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Desqview Mode Switch (D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Non-interactive Mode Switch (N) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Quiet Mode Switch (Q) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Disk Drive Argument (D:) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chip Detection Bypass Switches (C, M) . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Configuration File (Sfilename]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Configuration File Environment Variable . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Logging Switch (L[filename]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Log File Environment Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT Switch (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Windows Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Exit Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Help Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Order/registration Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Consecutive Drive Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Drive Letter Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 File Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT Keys . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Edit SNOOPER.LOG Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Log Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Log to Printer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Log to Clipboard Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ERRORLEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 BUGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Known Bugs and Anomalies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 WISH LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 MAIN SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Advanced Power Management (APM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Central Processing Unit (CPU) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 CPU Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Virtual-86 Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Numeric Data Processor (NDP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Conventional Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Free Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Used Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Extended Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Ext Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 XMS Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 eXtended Memory Manager Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 High Memory Area (HMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 A20 Line Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Upper Memory Block (UMB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Enhanced Memory Specification Total . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Enhanced Memory Manager Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 EMS Memory Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Hard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Physical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Logical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Video Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 VGA Adapter Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 VESA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Monitor Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Video Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 4 Snooper, the system checker Serial Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Parallel Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Game Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Sound Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 ROM BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Plug-N-Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Brand and Driver Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Brand and Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Disk Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Disk Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Drive List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 IDE Drive Model/SCSI Host Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Drive Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 CMOS Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Sectors/cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Cylinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Sector Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Cluster Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Total Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Free Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Used Space (bytes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Used Space (%) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Used Space (bar graph) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 DIAGNOSTICS SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Serial Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 UART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 5 IRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Fax Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Parallel ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 IRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Sound Card Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Interrupt Request (IRQ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Direct Memory Access (DMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 BUS SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 NETWORK SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Network Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Network Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Node Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Socket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 User Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Network Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 CMOS SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 CMOS Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Floppy Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Coprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Saving Your Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 BENCHMARK SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 CPU Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Video Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Disk Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 SETUP SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Mono Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Desqview Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 License Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Saving Your Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 6 Snooper, the system checker A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S CREATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 7 WHAT IS SNOOPER? Snooper is a system information utility that "snoops around" your computer to report its configuration and operating characteristics. WHO NEEDS SNOOPER? You You can use Snooper to keep an eye on your memory and disk usage. Snooper also can help you when you are installing new peripherals or software. And when you are talking to technical support personnel, Snooper can help you answer many of their questions about your computer. MIS Managers/Network Administrators If you are in charge of keeping a large installation of PCs up and running, Snooper can lend a hand. For example, it's perfect for collecting hardware inventory information. Add Snooper to a user's login script with the right command line parameters, and it will collect information on that node into a file on the server. You can then assemble the files into a database of configuration information. Afterward, you can tell at a glance which users need DOS upgrades simply by referring to the database, without visiting each site or calling each user. Major corporations are already using this method to collect inventory data with Snooper. Also, we would be glad to create a customized version of Snooper to assemble all the information you need, and in the format you specify. Consultants, Technicians, Support Personnel You'll find Snooper helpful for showing at a glance what kind of machine you are dealing with when you must troubleshoot or upgrade it. Also, you can use Snooper to help you ensure the machine recognizes equipment you installed. If you installed a mouse, for example, ensure Snooper's display shows mouse information. If it doesn't, the mouse may not work. Snooper also can help you maintain a log of machines you've worked on. Then, the next time a customer calls, you already have a good idea of the configuration of that customer's computer. 8 Snooper, the system checker Hardware and Software Vendors, Programmers After you buy an appropriate license, you may give away copies of Snooper with each computer or software package you sell. You'll receive several benefits. First, Snooper will make troubleshooting over the telephone faster, easier, and less expensive. As you know, many computer problems are caused by incompatible DOS versions, incorrectly-installed hardware, and the like. You can find out much about a customer's system by asking her to run Snooper, then relay the relevant information. Also, because we can make your company's name appear on Snooper's screen, every time your customers run it, they will remember it was you who gave them this useful utility. Computer Dealers Snooper's display is useful in providing a continuous at-a-glance display for potential customers of a machine's specifications. No more scrambling to learn a machine's specs. Simply run Snooper. You also can determine easily the configuration of used computers you're considering buying. REQUIREMENTS You may want to postpone reading the rest of this manual to run Snooper. Go ahead! Snooper normally doesn't affect your computer in any way except to write a log file if you ask it. Here are its requirements: * IBM PC or 100% computer * 256K RAM * DOS 3.1 or higher * a video card In short, Snooper should run on your computer. Make sure Snooper is in your current directory or on your path. Then just enter "snooper" at the DOS prompt. See below for keystrokes you can use in the program. Press to exit Snooper. FILES ON THIS DISK All of the following files should be on this disk or in this compressed file. If any are missing, or if they don't all have the same date and time, please don't redistribute the remaining files. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 9 Contact one of the distribution points listed on the front page for a complete (and possibly newer) version. Filename Description SNOOPER.EXE Snooper, the system checker. To order, press , . SNOOPER.CFG Sample configuration file (not required to run Snooper) SNOOPER.DOC Snooper's main manual (this file) SNOOPER.HST Snooper's revision history SNOOPER.ICO Icon file for Windows 3.x SNOOPER.PIF PIF file for Windows 3.x VENDOR.DOC Information for disk vendors and sysops FILE_ID.DIZ Description file some BBSs will use automatically. Thanks for uploading! SNREAD.ME Brief quick-start material INSTALLATION DOS Installation Installation couldn't be easier. Simply copy all files to a subdirectory on your hard or floppy disk. Switch to that subdirectory. You can print this manual by copying it to your printer. The command: copy snooper.doc prn usually works, assuming SNOOPER.DOC is in the current directory and your printer is attached to your first parallel port. Of course, Snooper shows you how many parallel ports you have. My, what a useful utility! Windows Installation To use Snooper under Microsoft Windows, follow the instructions under "DOS Installation." When all files have been copied: 1. Invoke Windows. 2. In Program Manager, select an appropriate program group. 3. Select New from the File menu. 4. Click on New Program Item. 5. For Description, type "Snooper." 6. For Command Line, type Snooper's full path. For example, if Snooper resides on your C: drive in your "\UTILS" directory, use the command line "C:\UTILS\SNOOPER.EXE" here. (If you want to use the .PIF file, edit it with PIFEDIT to point to SNOOPER.EXE. Then follow these instructions but make Command Line point to the .PIF file instead.) 7. Click on Change Icon and enter the path to SNOOPER.ICO. 8. Last, click the OK buttons until you return to the Program Manager's main screen. 10 Snooper, the system checker Snooper's icon should appear in the selected program group. You're done! To run it, double click on its icon. Upgrading from a Previous Version If you are using an older version of Snooper, simply copy the new files over the old. Read the history file, SNOOPER.HST, to find out what has changed since the version you were using was released. If you need more details, refer to appropriate sections of this manual. Future configuration files are likely to be backward compatible with older ones. The documentation will state if they aren't. THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SNOOPER As we designed and wrote Snooper, we kept several design considerations in mind: * We wanted it to be useful to both beginners and experienced users, for the casual user and the technocrat. If you don't know what "NDP" means, don't worry. This manual will help you. * We wanted Snooper to run instantly, and to show everything it knows on one (well, maybe a few) screens. With Snooper, you needn't wait for lengthy searches and you needn't pull down six menus to find what you want. * We strived for accuracy in its reports. This fact sometimes can explain differences between Snooper's reports and those of similar but inferior programs. * We tried to make Snooper as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Too often an otherwise excellent program is ruined by a garish (and permanent) color scheme. Snooper's display is, we think, attractive and easy to read. If you don't like its color scheme, you can always change it. To reduce clutter, when the answer to a report would be zero, none, or not applicable, Snooper simply leaves that report area blank. * We wanted to make Snooper intuitive and easy to use. We made the keystrokes and command line switches similar to other programs so you wouldn't have to learn yet another interface. For example, typing "snooper/?" at the DOS prompt or pressing from the Main screen displays help screens, just as you'd expect. LEGALITIES Here's the nasty part. Please bear with us while we assault you with the usual barrage of disclaimers and legal mumbo-jumbo. It is an unfortunate but necessary addition to every software manual published in our litigious society. End of lecture. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 11 Warranty, Copyright, Liability * SNOOPER IS SUPPLIED AS-IS. IT IS NOT GUARANTEED FOR FITNESS OR SUITABILITY FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. * USE SNOOPER AT YOUR OWN RISK. NEITHER JOHN VIAS, NOR VIAS AND ASSOCIATES, WILL BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES--ACTUAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHERWISE--FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, SNOOPER, OR FOR ERRORS IN ITS DOCUMENTATION. * VIAS AND ASSOCIATES WARRANTS THE MEDIUM UPON WHICH WE DISTRIBUTE SNOOPER, IF GIVEN REASONABLE CARE, TO BE FREE OF DEFECTS IN MATERIALS AND WORKMANSHIP FOR AS LONG AS YOU USE THE PRODUCT. * ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE HEREBY EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMED. YOUR RIGHTS MAY VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. * SNOOPER, THE SYSTEM CHECKER, AND ITS DOCUMENTATION ARE COPYRIGHTED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. * THE BRAND NAMES USED IN THIS MANUAL ARE TRADEMARKS OR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE MANUFACTURERS. * ANY DISAGREEMENTS ABOUT SNOOPER WILL BE SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA. License We encourage individuals, user groups, shareware vendors, and others to use, copy, and distribute Snooper in compliance with the following restrictions: * You are hereby granted a limited license to use Snooper for an evaluation period not to exceed thirty (30) days. After that period, you must either discontinue use of Snooper or register with the author (see below). * You are encouraged to pass Snooper along, but please distribute the program and its related files together, intact and unmodified. * Don't reproduce the printed documentation in any way. * Don't distribute Snooper as part of any product or service without our prior written permission. Shareware vendors, rack vendors, CD-ROM and book publishers, and other businesses are also subject to the following restrictions: * Your advertisements, catalogs, and other literature must clearly explain that the user must pay the author for shareware he or she uses, and that the money paid the vendor for the disk does not satisfy the user's obligation to the author. * If the version you have is over six months old, please ensure that you have the most current version by finding Snooper on Compuserve or on its distribution BBS (see the first page of this manual for distribution points). * If we ask you to stop distributing Snooper, do so. OK, enough legal stuff. 12 Snooper, the system checker WHAT IS SHAREWARE? Snooper is distributed by a marketing method called shareware. Those of us who distribute software via this technique believe: * People should be able to evaluate a program in its actual operating environment, which a computer store is not; * They should have a reasonable time to evaluate it, which is longer than a computer salesperson's patience will allow (trust us, we know); * Users are honest enough to register the program with the author. The user not only will gain a clear conscience, but also will encourage the programmer to improve the software, which in turn is good for the user; * Commercial software is too often overpriced. Because many shareware authors don't have to pay for advertising, fancy packaging, toll-free numbers, and other commercial marketing necessities, we are able to keep costs down. Keep in mind that shareware is not free. We shareware authors expect those of you who use our programs to pay us for our efforts just as you pay writers of commercial software for theirs. We're just nicer about collecting it. REGISTRATION/ORDERING As stated above, you are granted a limited license to evaluate Snooper. If you continue to use Snooper after a 30-day evaluation period, you must pay the author for it. Although you may have paid a shareware vendor a few dollars for this disk, you should know the author gets none of that money. Just as you have to pay for commercial software you use, you must pay for shareware you use. This is called registration. You can think of it as ordering the registered version of the program. Volume discounts, and customized versions are available and encouraged. Please contact us for details. We will need to know how you wish to use or redistribute Snooper and how many copies you expect to use or distribute. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 13 Registration Benefits Your registration fee entitles you to: 1. A printed 60-page manual. 2. The most recent version of Snooper on disk. 3. Notification by mail of the next update. 4. Lifetime free technical support (see the first page of this manual for contact information). This is a toll call. 5. A license number to personalize your copy and prevent the Registration Reminder Screen from appearing. 6. The peace of mind in knowing you have legitimized your use of Snooper and supported the shareware concept. 7. Our undying gratitude. Pricing For pricing, please consult the following chart. You will receive one disk and one manual. Users Discount Price per user ----- -------- -------------- 1-9 $39.00 10-49 20% $31.20 50-99 40% $23.40 100-249 60% $15.60 250+ BIG call! If you need more disks or manuals, or you have some special need, please contact us for further information. Updates Updates are available to registered users for a significant discount. Currently, they are only $15 for the latest version on disk, and a printed manual. The disk also will include the history file, so you can see what changes have been made. You can order an upgrade any time, and a new version will be sent to you. We will delay shipment until the next release, if necessary. How To Order It's very quick and easy. You can order by phone with a credit card. Or send your registration in US funds drawn on a US bank with a business, personal, traveler's, or cashier's check; or a money order, Postal Money Order, or American Express International Money Order. You can send cash through the mail, but we can't guarantee we'll receive it. 14 Snooper, the system checker To pay by Visa or MasterCard, just call our tollfree order line (listed on the first page of this manual). If you prefer, you can have Snooper print an invoice (see below). Then fill it out and mail it. If you want Snooper to print an invoice for you, run Snooper and press for help, then for ordering information. Then press

and read the invoice-printing screen. Make sure your printer is ready. Finally, select the port you want Snooper to print the invoice to. You may print to any valid parallel or serial port, or to a file called SNOOPER.INV. (You can then edit SNOOPER.INV with a word processor and print it.) Make checks payable to "Vias and Associates." If you're ordering Snooper for a business, you can pay via a purchase order. Just send a copy of the invoice you just printed to your Purchasing department and have them forward a purchase order to us. When we receive the P.O., we'll send your manual, disk, and license number, and send an invoice to your Accounts Payable department. This is faster than having to contact us first to send you an invoice. Thank you for registering! We hope you enjoy and benefit from Snooper for years to come. SYNTAX There are several switches and options you can use to change Snooper's operation. Enter them after Snooper's name at the DOS prompt. They are all optional and all case-insensitive. You may preface them with hyphens or slashes if you wish. Some have long-name forms, so in a batch file, you can easily see what the switch is for. They all have single-letter forms, as well, for faster entry on the command line. In fact, Snooper only notices the first character (except where it expects filenames), so you can create your own long-name forms (e.g., "Black-and-White" instead of "B/W"). If you enter an invalid parameter, Snooper will display its first help screen (command line syntax), and show you the invalid characters. Here is a diagram of Snooper's command line options. All options are in brackets to indicate they are optional. Each is described fully in the following sections. SNOOPER [H(elp)/?] [B(/W)] [D(esqview)] [N(on-interactive)] [Q(uiet)] [D:] [C(PUSkip)] [M(athChipSkip)] [F] [C[file]] [L[file]] Help Switches (H|?) "H" and "?" are help switches. If a help switch is specified, Snooper displays help screens that show command line syntax and examples and keystrokes you can use while in the program. Press from a help screen to see registration information. Snooper ignores certain other command line switches when you specify a help switch. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 15 Black-and-white Mode Switch (B) Normally, Snooper senses if it is being run on a machine with a monochrome card and automatically uses its black-and-white background color. However, Snooper can't tell if your PC emulates a color card but has a monochrome, color composite, or LCD display, such as most laptops. If you use such a machine, you should try using the black-and-white switch. Usually, Snooper's display will be more legible, but it depends on the particular display. Also, you can configure Snooper's colors to create the most readable color scheme without using this switch (see Setup key, below). Desqview Mode Switch (D) Snooper automatically detects Desqview and uses the BIOS to write to the screen instead of writing directly to the video map. If you have an old CGA adapter (on which you may see "snow" when Snooper draws its screen) or if something interferes with Snooper's detection of Desqview, you may want to use this switch. Non-interactive Mode Switch (N) Use the non-interactive mode switch, "N," when you want to run Snooper from a batch file and don't want to have to press to exit. Snooper will get information from only one disk drive and return to DOS. This command is especially useful when combined with the logging switch (explained below). Quiet Mode Switch (Q) When Snooper runs in quiet mode, it suppresses its screen output, and returns the user to DOS (as if the N switch had been used). It will only gather information for the Main screen. The ERRORLEVEL variable and logging features operate as usual. ANSI detection is disabled. This mode is great for batch files, networks, software installation, and so on, when you don't want the user seeing Snooper's display. Disk Drive Argument (D:) D: represents a disk drive letter followed by a colon. Use it to specify the disk drive whose information you want to see first. You can, however, see information from each of your drives, explained under "keystrokes" below. If you don't specify a drive, or if you specify an invalid one, Snooper will use the current drive. 16 Snooper, the system checker Chip Detection Bypass Switches (C, M) A few machines lock up during Snooper's microprocessor or math coprocessor detection routines. When this happens, Snooper will draw its background and then stop. The message box in the lower right corner of the display will indicate which switch to use. If you have this problem, all you need to do is rerun Snooper, specifying one or both of the compatibility switches. The "C" switch prevents Snooper from checking the CPU (microprocessor) type (it also keeps Snooper from being able to determine certain computer types and other information). The "M" switch prevents Snooper from determining which math coprocessor your computer has. We hope these switches are now obsolete. Configuration File (Sfilename]) A configuration file contains options to be used for Snooper's defaults. Colors, license number, B/W mode--these options and others can be specified in the configuration file. To create one, see the instructions under Setup key, below. When it starts, Snooper looks for the environment variable SNOOPCFG (see below), which points to a configuration file. If SNOOPCFG hasn't been defined, Snooper looks in its home directory (i.e., the directory in which SNOOPER.EXE resides) for a file called SNOOPER.CFG. Use the Configuration File option to load a different configuration file, useful if you have multiple files, as on a network. Note that the filename is required if you use this switch. If Snooper can't find the file you specified, it will say so in the message box. Also, if the configuration file's size is incorrect (as may happen with an old configuration file and a new version of Snooper), it will report the file to be invalid. To maintain its integrity, don't attempt to modify the configuration file manually. Use the Setup screen. Configuration File Environment Variable Snooper searches the environment for a variable called SNOOPCFG. You can set the SNOOPCFG variable by typing: set snoopcfg=variable Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 17 at the DOS prompt. "Variable" can be any valid filename. Command line parameters that follow the specified configuration filename override the config file's options. Those that precede it are overridden by the config file's options. In the following example, Snooper would load a configuration file called C:\UTILS\SNOOPER.BOB. snooper /Sc:\utils\snooper.bob /b Despite its contents, Snooper would run in B/W mode because the B/W mode command line switch was specified after the configuration filename. Logging Switch (L[filename]) "L" is the logging switch. When you use the logging switch, Snooper copies its display to a file or port just before it terminates. The optional filename tells Snooper the file you want it to log to. The default is SNOOPER.LOG. Logging is especially handy to use in batch files for getting printouts of Snooper's output for later reference. If no log file exists, Snooper will create one. If one already exists, Snooper will append the new data to the end of the old file. In this way, you can create one file with system information for all the computers at your site. The log file grows by 2000 bytes each time Snooper copies a screen to it. Thus, you easily can tell by looking at the file's size how many screens you have already logged. For example, if the log file is 8000 bytes, you've logged four screens (8000/2000 = 4). Of course, if you use the Log System Files key, which copies the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to the log file, it will no longer follow this convention. The file is formatted to be easily readable with the DOS "TYPE" command, as in: type snooper.log Snooper first checks for a log filename on the command line. Simply type it immediately following the "L" like this: snooper /Lc:\files\snoop.dat If you want Snooper's output to go to your printer, just specify the port it's connected to (omit the trailing colon). So if your printer is on LPT1:, type: snooper -Llpt1 18 Snooper, the system checker Log File Environment Variable If you don't specify a log filename, Snooper searches the environment for a variable called SNOOPLOG. (This variable used to be called SNOOPER. In this release, you may still use the old name, which was retained for compatibility. However, it probably will not be recognized in future versions.) You can set the SNOOPLOG variable by typing: set snooplog=variable at the DOS prompt. "Variable" can be any valid filename or even a port, such as PRN. For example: set snooplog=prn If you don't specify a log file on the command line or with the SNOOPLOG variable, Snooper writes a file named SNOOPER.LOG in the current directory. Because not all printers can print line-drawing characters, Snooper translates its borders to ordinary (low ASCII) characters (hyphens, vertical bars, and plus signs). This way, virtually any printer can accurately reproduce Snooper's display. Therefore, you should use the logging keystroke or switch and not the key, which doesn't translate the line-drawing characters. NOTE: If you have an early Color Graphics Adapter, you may see "snow" (interference) on your monitor during the logging process. Don't be alarmed. This is normal and will not hurt your machine. NOTE: Snooper must find the screen buffer to log its display. It will find it even if it has been moved by a program adhering to the Relocatable Screen Interface Specification (e.g., Desqview, Topview, and Memory Commander). Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT Switch (F) Specify this switch and Snooper will, upon exit, copy your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to the log file, with headers and footers identifying the beginning and end of each. You can use this with the logging switch, above; it will use the same log file. Examples Some examples will help clarify Snooper's options. snooper /h Snooper will show its help screen and examples. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 19 snooper sd:\utils\snoop.cnf e: Snooper will load the configuration file named C:\UTILS\SNOOP.CNF, then show information from drive E: and wait for keystrokes. quits. snooper -B/W c: non-interactive log Snooper will use its monochrome display colors, get drive information from drive C:, write a log file named SNOOPER.LOG, and return to DOS. set snooplog=prn snooper -l\snoop.dat Snooper will show information for the current drive and wait for keystrokes. After you press , it will write a log file in the root directory of the current drive called SNOOP.DAT. Recall that a log filename on the command line overrides the SNOOPER environment variable, so Snooper does not log to "prn." There will be a quiz later. OPERATION After the following brief account of Snooper's operation, we will describe a few parts in greater detail. When you first invoke Snooper, it looks for its default configuration file and configures itself accordingly. Then it reads its command line, looking for switches. It loads a configuration file if you specified one. Recall that command line switches that follow a specified config file override that config file's options. Because of the EGA's notoriously buggy cursor routines, we thought it would be wise to leave the EGA cursor alone, so it stays on. On all other video systems, Snooper turns off the cursor to make the display a little cleaner. It then gets country-dependent information from DOS, based on the COUNTRY command in your CONFIG.SYS file. (You don't have to use it unless you live outside the U.S.) The information tells Snooper how to arrange and punctuate the date, time, and numbers. At the bottom of its display, Snooper shows the day, date, and time according to DOS. This feature comes in handy when you want to view a log file of Snooper's output and you wouldn't otherwise know when it was made. It also allows you to check your computer's date and time for accuracy (Some AT clocks run slow). After Snooper shows you its display, it awaits certain keystrokes. Invalid keystrokes may cause Snooper to beep. This feature, added partly to aid visually-impaired users, can be turned off via the Setup screen. When you press , Snooper writes a log file if you told it to, turns the cursor back on, sets the ERRORLEVEL batch file variable, may display its Registration Reminder screen if you haven't yet registered (and why not?), and returns you to DOS. 20 Snooper, the system checker Windows Operation Snooper performs somewhat differently under Windows. If Snooper is idle, it gives up its time slice immediately. What this means is Snooper won't slow down your other running programs. The only drawback is that the time display freezes. Just press the spacebar when Snooper's window is active to update the time. In Windows 386 enhanced mode, Snooper turns off IDE model checking, which interferes with 32-bit disk access. Also, if you invoke the Diagnostics screen (in Windows or any other detected multitasker or network), a message pops up warning you that what the Diagnostics screen must do may disrupt other currently running applications. You are given the option of continuing or returning to the Main screen. You can paste Snooper's display, as text, into the Clipboard (see Paste to Clipboard key, below). Keys Run without any options or switches, Snooper shows information from the default drive and continuously displays the current time and date at the bottom of its screen. While Snooper is running, it awaits certain keystrokes that affect its operation. On the last line of each of Snooper's displays, there is a list of available keystrokes to jog your memory. Note that on the Main screen, because of space limitations, not all the available keys are listed. However, they are all listed on the help screen (press from the Main screen to view it). Explanations of Snooper's secondary screens are given after those for the Main screen, below. Exit Key The key returns you to the Main screen if you're not already there. If you are, it exits Snooper and returns you to DOS. Help Key The key, when pressed from Snooper's Main screen, displays the second of two help screens: keys available while you're in Snooper. The first help screen, accessible with , , or , shows Snooper's command line syntax, just as if you had used Snooper's help switch at the DOS prompt. Press to see registration information: benefits of registration, prices, contact points, etc. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 21 Order/registration Key Pressing from either help screen takes you to Snooper's ordering information screen. Once there, if you'd like to print an invoice to fill out and send to us, press

. Along the bottom of your screen is listed every parallel and serial port in your system. You also may print to a disk file named SNOOPER.INV, which you can then print yourself. Press the corresponding number and Snooper will print an invoice to that port. Normally, you would type <1> for LPT1. This is an easy and fast way to register Snooper; we hope you find it convenient (soon!). Consecutive Drive Keys You can use the , , and keys to tell Snooper to get disk information for the next lower-lettered disk. For example, if you're looking at C:'s info, press to see drive B:. , , and do the opposite. takes you to drive A: and takes you to the last valid drive in your computer. The list at the top right of the display shows you which drives are available on your system, and which drive's info you are looking at. Drive Letter Keys Alternatively, you can press the letter corresponding to the drive you want to see. If you want the A: drive's data, for example, just press . If you press an invalid drive letter, Snooper will beep (if sound is enabled) and display a message in the message box. File Editing From the Main screen you can invoke a text editor to edit your CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and SNOOPER.LOG files. Snooper has a simple but capable editor built in. Press when you're in it to view a help screen of its keystrokes. The obvious advantage of using the internal editor is it's always available. If you wish, however, you can have Snooper load an external editor, perhaps one with special features you like. The Setup screen lets you choose which editor Snooper will use, internal or external. Whatever editor you choose, Snooper ensures the file you want to edit exists before attempting to load the editor. The message box will alert you if the file is missing. After you exit the editor, Snooper asks if you want it to reboot your computer, necessary for changes in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to take effect. If you choose to reboot, Snooper will delay a few seconds to ensure the file is actually written to the disk. Otherwise, a disk cache with write-delayed caching may not have time to save the edited file. 22 Snooper, the system checker If you don't wish to use the built-in editor, you may use one of your choosing. It must be named EDIT.COM, EDIT.EXE, or EDIT.BAT. It must be in the current directory or on the path. If it's not already named EDIT, you can simply rename it or create a batch file called EDIT.BAT that calls it. You can, of course, add other commands in the batch file. Use a replaceable parameter for the filename. Here's a sample EDIT.BAT file that would work for any of the three files Snooper lets you edit: echo off copy %1 c:\backups\%1 ed /r %1 In this example, the original file is copied to another directory for safe keeping. Also, a hypothetical switch (/r) is passed to an editor named ED. This should give you some ideas about what can be put in EDIT.BAT. Edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT Keys Press to edit CONFIG.SYS or to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT. Snooper looks for the file in the root directory of whatever drive you're looking at on its Main screen. So if you want to load C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT, ensure drive C:'s information is showing before you press . Check the highlighted letter in the drive list to be sure. Snooper will tell you if the file you want to edit doesn't exist in the root directory of the drive you're looking at. Edit SNOOPER.LOG Key From Snooper's Main screen press and Snooper will invoke an editor so you can edit an existing SNOOPER.LOG file. You may want to do this to compare earlier screen dumps with recent ones, or to add comments to the log file. See above for editor-naming conventions. Log Key Use to write a log file to disk or to a port, such as a printer port (see also Log to Printer key, below). You may log any screen with this key. It works similarly to the logging command line switch except that it works immediately, not after you exit. If you also specified the logging switch with a filename, it will use that filename (the display will be logged again when you exit). If not, it will use the SNOOPLOG environment variable if it exists; otherwise, SNOOPER.LOG. The information you're looking at when you press the logging key is the information that will be logged. Because of this, you can press in the Main screen, then ,, and so on until you have a log file containing snapshots of all the screens Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 23 you're interested in. This log file can be very useful when you need to remember what kind of computer someone has. Log to Printer Key will print the screen you're looking at and it works with all screens. It sends its output to PRN. If your printer is on LPT2:, simply set the SNOOPLOG environment variable to LPT2 and use . Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT Key Pressing causes Snooper to copy your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to the log file. Again, the files on the drive whose information you're viewing are the ones that will be added to the log file. The message line will tell you if neither file was found. If only one file is found, it will be logged. If no log file is found, it will be created. Log to Clipboard Key When Snooper is running under Windows, you can press to paste a copy of Snooper's display to the Windows Clipboard. (, the copy key, would have been more appropriate, but it's only available on enhanced keyboards.) Because many Windows fonts don't include high-ASCII characters, Snooper will translate its line-drawing characters into low-ASCII characters as usual. You can then paste the display into a Windows document. Of course, for the characters to align, you must use a monospaced font such as Courier or OEM. ERRORLEVEL If certain errors occur, upon exit Snooper sets the ERRORLEVEL batch file variable and shows the value of ERRORLEVEL on the screen in the message box. Here are the errors ERRORLEVEL reports: 24 Snooper, the system checker Errorlevel Explanation 0 Successful completion--there were no errors. 1 Drive door was open or there was no disk in a requested (or default) disk drive, or a disk was bad or unformatted. 2 User specified an invalid drive on the command line. 4 DOS version is older than 3.1. 8 Error occurred while Snooper was writing a log file. 16 User specified an invalid command line parameter. 32 Abnormal termination--Snooper encountered an unanticipated problem and terminated. Notice the numbers aren't consecutive. This numbering scheme allows Snooper to add the numbers to indicate multiple errors. For example, if you specified an invalid drive and Snooper encountered an error writing a log file, it would set ERRORLEVEL to ten, the sum of two and eight. The ERRORLEVEL variable can be tested in batch files; for example: if errorlevel 24 goto LOGERROR_DOOROPEN See your DOS manual for details of the ERRORLEVEL variable and how to use it. BUGS Snooper has been under development for over six years, but it may have a bug or two lurking in it. To debug Snooper thoroughly, we would need access to a huge array of computers and peripherals. We don't. We have tested it on over a hundred machines but such testing is never comprehensive. If you think you've found a bug, please let us know by sending the invoice with a specific description of the bug. Include a printed log file if you can. Of course, an inaccurate report may mean your hardware, BIOS, DOS, TSRs, or something else is incompatible or is interfering with Snooper, especially on older machines. We'd like to hear from you anyway. Known Bugs and Anomalies * A few machines lock up when running Snooper. The culprit is sometimes the CPU and/or NDP detection routines. Simply specify the "C" or "M" command line switch (the message box will tell you which, or try both). We've fixed this problem more than once but there's always one more machine out there. . . . Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 25 * Because of the way NDOS and 4DOS allocate memory in their non-swapping modes, Snooper can't find the environment, and will give an incorrect Environment report such as: Free 65,536 Total 0. WISH LIST Snooper will never be complete, of course. We have continually found new reports and features to add to make it an easy-to-use and powerful utility. There are a few things we still want from Snooper: * Brand detection of more non-Intel CPUs and NDPs * Detection of VL local bus * Detection of tape drives * Differentiation of ST506, IDE, ESDI, and SCSI hard drives * Lots of registration fees If you think you can help us with the above challenges, please call, write, or leave E-mail. With your help, Snooper can become an even more-powerful utility. Also, we're likely to make you a registered user for your help. We will at least mention your help in the acknowledgments (All together: "Oooh, aaah!"). MAIN SCREEN Following, roughly in the order they appear on-screen, is a detailed list of Snooper's Main screen reports, followed by the reports on the other screens. Computer The type of computer Snooper is being run on. On some XT and AT clones, Snooper can't tell if it's running on an actual IBM machine or a compatible, so it will report the IBM equivalent (e.g. "PC AT"). Snooper can recognize over 110 machines by name, including many IBMs, Dells, Toshibas, ATTs, and Olivettis. NOTE: If you are not skipping CPU detection and Snooper reports Computer Type as "Unknown ID: . . ." please drop us a note with the ID numbers, and the exact model and brand computer Snooper was running on. Thanks. 26 Snooper, the system checker Advanced Power Management (APM) If your computer implements the Advanced Power Management (APM) specification for conserving energy, Snooper will say so after the computer type. Central Processing Unit (CPU) The computer's microprocessor chip. Snooper can report the presence of: 8088/86, V20/V30, 80286, 80386SX, 80386DX, 80486SX, 80486DX, Pentium, and Hexium (or whatever they'll be called) CPUs. If you have a math coprocessor, and you disable CPU detection but leave math coprocessor detection on, Snooper will try to guess what CPU you have by the NDP type. NOTE: If Snooper reports "80386," it means your 386SX or 386DX CPU is in virtual-86 mode (explained below). Some operating environments and expanded memory managers (e.g. EMM386) would report an error if Snooper tried to determine which of the two chips is present. Instead, Snooper skips the determination and shows you have one of the two chips. If you unload the program that puts your CPU into virtual-86 mode, Snooper can then tell you which CPU you have. CPU Speed The number after the hyphen (e.g., the "16" in "80386SX-16") is an estimate of your computer's speed in Megahertz. This benchmark is very accurate, especially since it doesn't induce a noticeable delay in execution. Virtual-86 Mode If "V86" appears in the CPU report, your computer's CPU is operating in virtual-86 mode, instead of real mode (what DOS normally uses). The 80286 and newer microprocessors implement a protected mode, which is sometimes used by memory managers, multitaskers (including Microsoft Windows), and other software. Multitaskers which put the CPU in protected mode actually run the programs in virtual-86 mode, which lets each running program believe it has total access to the machine, when in fact the multitasker is controlling its access. Numeric Data Processor (NDP) The Numeric Data Processor (NDP), also called the math coprocessor, or Floating Point Unit (FPU). Math coprocessors significantly speed calculations involving floating point numbers (i.e., numbers with decimal portions). Snooper can detect 8087, 80287, 80387SX, 80387, and Weitek 1167 math chips. Snooper will report "internal" for Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 27 80486DX and better CPUs, since they have math coprocessors built into them. Some computers have a switch inside which the user sets to reflect the presence (or absence) of a math coprocessor. Because these switches are often set incorrectly, Snooper's report is not dependent on this switch setting. But Snooper does check the switch. If Snooper finds that its NDP report and the switch setting don't agree, it displays a check mark in the NDP report. This lets you know you should check (and reset) the switch (and/or system configuration, if you have an AT-class computer). If you don't see a check mark, the switch or configuration is set properly. Bus The architecture of the bus your computer uses. The bus is the part you plug expansion cards into--the slots. Most computers report "ISA," which stands for Industry Standard Architecture, the bus in PCs, XTs, ATs, and most clones. Most IBM PS/2 computers will report "MCA," or Micro Channel Architecture. The MCA is entirely different and cards based on it are incompatible with those for the ISA standard, but MCA does add features and increase performance in some cases. Some computers have both MCA and ISA buses, in which case Snooper reports "MCA+ISA." For a list of the Micro Channel adapter cards in your system, invoke the Bus screen by pressing . A consortium of companies worked out a different standard. It is called "EISA," (pronounced EES uh) meaning Enhanced ISA. It retains compatibility with the older ISA bus, but like the MCA, it adds features and power. Snooper can detect all three bus types. Memory Conventional Memory Bytes of conventional RAM (the infamous 640K) in your computer. NOTE: A few computers use more RAM than most for their video displays, so Snooper may not report all the memory the computer has (e.g., it may report 624K instead of 640K on some Tandys). Free Memory Bytes of conventional RAM still available for programs and data. This report allows you to see, for example, the effect of changing the BUFFERS statement in your CONFIG.SYS file, and loading and unloading memory resident programs. 28 Snooper, the system checker Used Memory Bytes of conventional memory DOS and memory resident programs are using (total minus free memory). Extended Memory Extended memory is available only on AT-type machines; that is, those with 80286 or newer microprocessors. (If you have an XT-type computer, this report will always be blank.) Programs written to do so can store data and programs in extended memory. This report shows the total amount of extended memory installed, despite how you've configured it. Even if a program is using it all, Snooper will still show the total amount installed. This report is taken from the CMOS. See the CMOS screen section below for an explanation of the CMOS. Ext Free This report shows how much extended memory you still have available. Snooper gets this report from the computer's BIOS. This memory is only available to mostly older programs that don't use the eXtended Memory Specification (see below). XMS Memory As we mentioned above, programs written to do so can store data and/or programs in extended memory. The trouble is, different programs handle extended memory differently. This is because until the eXtended Memory Specification (or "XMS"), there was no standard for accessing extended memory, and the computer's built-in facilities are crude at best. Some programs are polite enough to decrease the amount of extended memory they report to other programs by the amount they themselves are using. Some aren't so polite, leaving themselves open to having their memory overwritten by another program. As you might imagine, this leads to problems. If you have loaded an eXtended Memory Manager, or XMM (e.g., Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS)--that is, if you have XMS memory, Snooper will report how much is still available. eXtended Memory Manager Level The number displayed after "XMS" is the version of the eXtended Memory Specification the loaded XMM supports. This is different from the internal version number of the XMM program itself. Different versions support different features, so be sure you have an XMM that supports the program you want to run. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 29 High Memory Area (HMA) The high memory area is the 64K (less 16 bytes) block beginning at the one megabyte boundary, immediately above the ROM BIOS. It, like all types of extended memory, can only be used on AT-type computers, and only by programs written for it. This report shows if a HMA exists (you must have an XMM loaded to provide it), and if it is available for use ("free") or is in use by a program ("in use"). A20 Line Status Shown after "HMA," this report shows if the address line called A20 is enabled. Snooper shows "(A20)" is the A20 is enabled, nothing if it's not. Usually, the A20 is handled automatically by memory management software. At times, you may need to know the A20's status, perhaps while debugging your memory setup. Upper Memory Block (UMB) With DOS 5 and some third party memory managers, you can load most of your device drivers and memory resident programs above conventional memory, into what are called upper memory blocks. Snooper reports the largest available UMB. You must have the line "DOS=UMB" in your CONFIG.SYS file for this report to work. Enhanced Memory Specification Total The amount of enhanced memory (EMS) installed. Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft developed EMS to break DOS's 640K memory barrier (kind of). Some programs, which have been written to do so, can use EMS to store data. Not surprisingly, many spreadsheet programs use EMS. Unlike extended memory, EMS is available on XT and AT-class machines. Enhanced Memory Manager Level Shown after "EMS," the version of Enhanced Memory Specification the hardware and/or software is implementing. As of this writing, this report probably should be either 3.2 or 4.0. Some programs require EMS 4.0, which has enhanced capabilities. Like the XMM version, this reflects the specification version, not the EMM program's version. EMS Memory Free The amount of EMS still available for programs and data. 30 Snooper, the system checker Drives Floppy The number of floppy drives installed. Despite what some people believe, 3.5" diskettes are floppy disks, not hard disks, despite their hard plastic shells. Thus, they will be counted in this report. Hard The number of hard disks (also called fixed disks) installed. Each physical hard disk adds one to the total, regardless of its partitioning. That is, if you have one hard disk split into C: and D: drives, it will count as only one hard disk. Physical Simply the sum of floppy and hard disks. These are physical drives attached to your computer. Logical The total number of disk drives DOS recognizes. These include floppy, hard, RAM, CD-ROM, and network drives. Also included are simulated disk drives made with the DOS ASSIGN and SUBST commands, all hard disk partitions, and possibly other types. This report includes the drives identified in the Physical Drives report (above). Sometimes software splits a hard disk into two or more "partitions" (usually C: and D:), usually because the disk is bigger than 32M, a limit imposed by DOS versions before 4.0. A hard disk like this will count as two. If you have a single floppy disk drive, the number given will not include drive B:, as it's simply another name for drive A:. But every other available drive letter counts. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 31 Video Video Type The type of video adapter, and, mostly for VGAs, either the adapter brand or the type of monitor used. Snooper can detect: Report Video card MDA Monochrome Display Adapter, probably a text-only card (one that doesn't provide any graphics capability) Hercules Hercules Graphics Card (a monochrome card with graphics capability) or a Hercules-compatible; Snooper can detect Hercules Graphics, InColor, and Plus cards CGA Color Graphics Adapter EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter PGC Professional Graphics Controller MCGA Multi-Color Graphics Array VGA Video Graphics Array SVGA VGA card with more than 256K XGA(-2) eXtended Graphics Adapter, detected on Micro Channel systems VGA Adapter Brand Snooper recognizes several VGA cards by brand, and many specific models. VESA A few years ago, several video hardware manufacturers formed the Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA (pronounced "VEE suh" or "VEH suh"). Their purpose is to standardize the PC video marketplace, making recommendations for standardized resolutions, frequencies, and so on. If the Video report begins with "VESA," your VGA card seems to comply with their recommendations. Snooper also shows you the VESA specification version your card complies with. Monitor Type Snooper can sometimes tell what type of monitor you are using. If Snooper has room, it shows which of three kinds of monitor you have: monochrome (usually displays green or amber), color (digital with EGAs or analog with VGAs or MCGAs), or digital color (for some MCGAs). 32 Snooper, the system checker Video Memory On EGA and some VGA cards, Snooper reports how much video memory is installed on the card. EGAs can have 64K to 256K; VGA cards, 256K to 2.5M and beyond. The amount of video memory, the video card, and the monitor together determine the maximum resolution and colors you can see on your computer. With some VESA cards, Snooper may show a little less memory than is actually installed (e.g., 1.5M versus 2M). NOTE: There is no correlation between your video card's memory and your computer's memory, or RAM. You can have, for example, a 256K machine with a 2M VGA card, or a 4M machine with a 64K EGA card, or many other combinations. Ports Serial Ports The addresses of all serial, or RS-232, ports installed. Usually, you would use these ports for modems, pointing devices (such as mice), some printers, plotters, and a variety of less common equipment. More-advanced serial port information is available in the Diagnostics screen, accessible via . Parallel Ports The addresses of all parallel ports (also called printer ports) installed. Parallel ports are usually used for printers, occasionally for scanners or network adapters. More-advanced parallel port information is available in the Diagnostics screen, accessible via . NOTE: Novell networks trick software (including Snooper) into thinking there are more parallel ports than are actually present. If your system is part of a Novell LAN, don't be surprised to see three or more parallel ports, some with the same address. To find out how many parallel ports there really are, take your machine off the network and rerun Snooper. Game Port The presence of a game port, or joystick adapter. The word "Game" will appear next to "Ports" if Snooper detects a joystick. On AT and later computers, Snooper asks the BIOS if a joystick is present. On PCs and XTs, Snooper uses a different method. These methods seems to work well, but may not be perfect. Also, a joystick has to be plugged into the port for the report to work. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 33 Sound Cards The presence of Sound Blaster, Adlib, or Roland MPU-401 MIDI sound cards, or their compatibles, such as the Thunder Board. The Diagnostics screen will show the port address of some sound cards. Press for this screen. ROM BIOS Brand The brand (i.e., manufacturer) of the computer's ROM BIOS. Snooper can recognize several BIOS brands: American Megatrends, Inc. ("AMI"); Award; Chips and Technology ("C & T"), Compaq; DTK; IBM; Phoenix; and Zenith. How well the BIOS was written has much to do with how compatible your computer is. A poorly-written BIOS plagues its owner with compatibility problems: programs won't run or they lock up the computer, new hardware refuses to install properly, etc. A well-written BIOS is, of course, a joy to behold. Date The date stored in the ROM BIOS, which provides an indication of your computer's age. The computer was built since that date. Plug-N-Play With limited hardware resources such as IRQ lines and DMA channels (described in the Diagnostics screen section below) to go around, many users endure hours of configuration nightmares when installing a new adapter card. Although the Micro Channel and EISA buses solve this problem with semi-automatic configuration, nothing has helped the ISA bus. Plug-N-Play hopes to do just that. With Plug-N-Play extensions in your system's BIOS, your computer can arbitrate potential hardware conflicts for you, automatically. Ahhh! Extensions The segment addresses (places in memory) of any BIOS extensions in the computer. These extensions, which supplement the computer's built-in BIOS, are usually found on add-in cards. An EGA or VGA BIOS, for example, adds routines not found in the computer's own ROM BIOS video routines, and are often found at C000. An XT's hard drive BIOS is usually found at C800. Snooper searches for an extension every 256 bytes from C000 to FE00 (i.e., C000, C100, C200, etc.). This report comes in handy for telling your memory manager to avoid addresses used by adapter cards. 34 Snooper, the system checker Mouse Brand and Driver Version Shows what brand of mouse is installed (Microsoft, Logitech, Z-NIX, and Mouse Systems), and the driver version. A mouse usually requires a software-based driver (program). Its file is usually called MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS. If a driver is loaded, Snooper will report its version. This report is useful for debugging, because if you're having trouble with your mouse, you may find that a new driver solves the problem. Also, forcing the driver to load into conventional, and not high, memory also can solve other problems. Drivers are often available free or at low cost from the vendor. Some drivers, such as Genius and Logitech, report a Microsoft-equivalent version rather than their own internal version. Snooper can detect a Logitech mouse driver's true version. Port Possible reports are: "bus" (the mouse connects to an expansion card inside the computer), "Microsoft Inport" (a Microsoft-brand bus mouse), "serial" (the mouse plugs into a serial port), "Hewlett Packard," and "PS/2." If you have a serial mouse, Snooper tries to guess which serial port it is connected to by knowing what resources the mouse is using. If it isn't using IRQ4 (COM1 or COM 3) or IRQ3 (COM2 or COM4), Snooper displays which IRQ it is using. The Diagnostics screen shows which IRQ the mouse is using, and if it's a serial mouse, which port it's on. This can help in troubleshooting. Keyboard Present The first number in the Keyboard report. Shows what kind of keyboard you have attached to your machine. Possible answers are "84" (non- enhanced), "101" (enhanced), or, if your computer only supports 84-key keyboards, "N/A" (if your computer doesn't support enhanced keyboards, Snooper can't test for one). Support Reports what type of keyboard your computer's BIOS supports. If "101" appears after the keyboard type, your computer's ROM BIOS supports an enhanced keyboard, usually with function keys along the top and a separate cursor keypad. It will recognize the keys an enhanced keyboard adds to the standard (XT) keyboard, such as F11, F12 and certain cursor key combinations. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 35 Environment The "environment" is an area of memory in which DOS keeps certain information it needs to run. Some pieces of information in the environment are the format of the DOS prompt and the series of directories DOS searches for executable files. These are the PROMPT and PATH strings, and there are others. A string consists of the variable name (such as PATH), an equal sign, and the value of the string (often a path or list of paths such as C:\UTILS;C:\DOS;C:\). This sample PATH string looks like this: path=c:\utils;c:\dos;c:\ You can view and edit the environment with the SET command. Because of the way 4DOS and NDOS allocate memory for the environment in their non-swapping modes, the environment reports will be inaccurate when Snooper is run under those environments. Free The number of bytes available in the environment. To calculate this report, for each string, Snooper counts each character of the variable name (such as "PATH"), the equal sign, each character of the value (such as "C:\DOS;C:\"), and one extra character. Total The number of bytes of environment space allocated by DOS. You can change the amount of memory DOS allocates to the environment with the /E switch of the SHELL command in your CONFIG.SYS file. Different DOS versions use different memory units for the extra environment space. Check your DOS manual. DOS Brand and Version Snooper can detect: PC-DOS (from IBM), MS-DOS (from Microsoft, Phoenix, and others), DR DOS (from Digital Research), HP-DOS (from Hewlett Packard), DEC-DOS (from Digital Equipment Corp.), or Zen-DOS (no, not Eastern mysticism, just DOS from Zenith). Snooper also will report if it is running under OS/2 1.x or 2.x. The DOS version appears after the brand. Also, a letter appears after the version on systems running DOS 5.0 or newer. This is the DOS revision, a sub-version, so to speak. DOS 5.0 can load most of itself into the HMA, freeing the conventional memory it would normally use. If "HMA" appears after the 36 Snooper, the system checker DOS type, DOS is loaded there. If "ROM" appears, DOS is stored in the computer's ROM, as with some laptops. Shell A DOS shell is a program that either provides features DOS doesn't, or makes DOS easier to use. Snooper can report the presence of: Windows Real, Standard, or 386 Enhanced modes; Concurrent DOS; DoubleDOS; 4DOS and NDOS (only in swapping mode); Desqview; Taskview; Topview, DOS 5's task switcher, the Virtual Control Program Interface (VCPI), the DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI), and ANSI.SYS. It can often report the DOS shell's version number as well. If Snooper detects Desqview, it uses the BIOS to write to the screen. If Snooper detects 4DOS or NDOS, it tells what shell level it is running under. This kind of shell has a different meaning. When you shell from a program (it can be called something else, such as "DOS prompt"), you leave the program in memory but return to the DOS prompt. You type "exit" to return to your program. This is faster than exiting, then reloading the program, and lets you perform a simple task such as formatting a diskette. "Root" means you're not shelled out of a program; "1" means you've shelled out of one program; "2" means you shelled out of one program, loaded and shelled out of another; and so on. Snooper doesn't have a shell feature. Files The number of files DOS will allow to be open at once, as defined by the line "FILES=" in your CONFIG.SYS file. DOS always reserves some files for itself. Usually, your computing activity will require several files to be used at once, especially if you use a multitasking environment or a database. Most software vendors recommend you make at least 20 files available, requiring the line "FILES=20" to be in your CONFIG.SYS file. A few programs, notably Windows, may increase this number, so don't be surprised if the number is higher in Windows than in DOS. Buffers Number of buffers DOS uses for disk operations, as defined by the line "BUFFERS=" in the CONFIG.SYS file. When your computer requests data from a disk, DOS transfers the data from the disk into RAM, where the program can access it. Subsequent requests for the same data are read from RAM, not from the disk. The reason is simple: RAM is fast, the disk is comparatively slow, so disk operations are sped up. Snooper detects the number of primary and secondary buffers (if defined). Consult your DOS manual for more details. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 37 Break Break status (on or off). Pressing Ctrl-Break can force your computer to stop what it's doing in an emergency. Normally, DOS only checks for a Ctrl-Break keystroke when it's writing to the screen or reading from the keyboard. However, if break is on, DOS checks more often. Verify Disk verify status (on or off). If verify is on, DOS uses a checksum method to confirm (in theory) what it writes to a disk is valid. Of course, when verify is on, disk operations are a bit slower. Disk Cache Reports the presence of a disk cache, and often, its version. Recognized caches (and sources) include: Smartdrive (which comes with DOS and Windows); Norton Cache (Norton Utilities); PC-Cache 6.0 and above (PC Tools); Super PC-Kwik 3.20 and above, Hyperdisk, and QuickCache II (shareware products); and IBMCache (from you know who). NOTE: Because PC-Cache and Qualitas's QCache are versions of Super PC-Kwik, they respond to the same detection method and so may be reported as Super PC-Kwik. PC-Cache 5.1 would be reported as Super PC-Kwik 3.20, PC-Cache 5.5 as Super PC-Kwik 3.27. QCache 4.00 would be reported as Super PC-Kwik 4.00. Network A network is a combination of hardware and software that enables users to share peripherals and data. Snooper can detect several networks: Novell, LANtastic, Microsoft, Invisible, PC LAN, and Easy-Net. It also detects SHARE.EXE, which is often loaded in networking environments. Sometimes this report only tells you the computer has a LAN card, not that a network is up and running. On LANtastic, it also shows the version. For more information about your Novell network, invoke the Network screen by pressing . 38 Snooper, the system checker Disk Information Drive List Snooper reports the letters of all valid disk drives in the upper right corner of Snooper's display, enclosed in brackets. The current drive's letter is highlighted and capitalized. If you have a single-floppy system, the list will not include drive B:, as it merely references drive A:. If your system has at least 20 logical drives, Snooper will list them in two rows. Label The volume label of the current drive. You can change the label with the LABEL program, supplied with DOS. Directory Shows the default directory of the selected drive. If the first character shown is a plus sign, Snooper has omitted the first part of the directory to make it fit. IDE Drive Model/SCSI Host Adapter On most IDE hard drives, Snooper can report the model name. Sometimes you can clearly see the actual model, sometimes the brand. Occasionally, Snooper is fooled by a non-IDE drive and this report contains gibberish. This shouldn't happen often, though, and this report can save you the trouble of opening the computer to check the drive model. Recall that Snooper skips detection of the IDE model under Windows 386 Enhanced mode. Snooper also can recognize Adaptec SCSI host adapters, and will report the model number in this report. It also will report the slot the card resides in if it's an EISA adapter. NOTE: The next reports (Drive Type through Cylinders) concern the disk drive, and not the diskette in it, if it's a floppy drive. For example, if you have a 1.2M floppy disk drive and you have a double density (360K) diskette--or no diskette at all--in the drive, Snooper will report 15 Sectors Per Cylinder. That's because high density drives can handle disks with 15 sectors per cylinder, although 360K disks only have nine. The report works this way so you can tell if the drive is high density without needing a diskette to be in it. You can determine the total capacity of a diskette (and thus its type) from the Total Space report. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 39 Drive Type Reports what type of disk drive you're examining. Snooper usually bases this report on a BIOS report for the drive, but it also uses other methods. Snooper can detect the following capacities for 5.25" drives: 1.2M, 360K, 320K, 180K, and 160K. For 3.5" drives, it can detect: 2.88M, 1.44M, and 720K drives. Other possibilities are: "fixed disk" (probably a hard disk), "CD-ROM" (if it's local), "RAM disk," "Bernoulli," or "ID: nnh" (meaning Snooper doesn't recognize the disk type and shows the actual disk type byte instead). CMOS Type Snooper queries the CMOS to find out what hard drive type (expressed as a number), or what size and capacity floppy drive is installed. Status Shows if the disk is being compressed by DoubleSpace (available with MS-DOS 6.0) or Stacker. If Stacker is present, its version is reported. Other reports are "local" and "network." If the DOS commands SUBST or JOIN are affecting the disk, they are reported. Heads The number of heads a disk drive has. This number is often the same as the number of sides the disk has. Most floppy drives will report two; hard drives usually report several. Sectors/cylinder The number of sectors per cylinder on the disk drive. Sectors are "pie slices" of the disk; cylinders are concentric rings. Normally, floppy drives report 9, 15, 18, or 36; hard drives, 17, 26, or 34. Cylinders The number of cylinders on a disk drive. Cylinders are concentric rings on the disk. Typically, floppy drives report 40 or 80; hard drives, a few hundred to several hundred. NOTE: Original PCs and some XTs can't report heads, sectors/cylinder, and cylinders. Neither can simulated disk drives (that is, logical but not physical drives, such as RAM drives). If they can't, Snooper will usually leave the appropriate areas blank. 40 Snooper, the system checker For the following disk reports, if the drive is empty, if the disk is defective or unformatted, or the drive door isn't closed, Snooper will report "Drive not ready." Sector Size The number of bytes stored in each sector. This number is usually 512, although some hard disks may show higher numbers. Cluster Size The number of bytes in each cluster. Recent DOS versions call them "allocation units" (brevity takes a slap in the face). A cluster is the smallest space a file can take. Thus, even if "DIR" reports a file is only 256 bytes, if the disk's cluster size is 2048 bytes, the file will take 2048 bytes of disk space. A floppy disk may report 1024, an XT's hard disk usually 8192, an AT's hard disk usually 2048. Total Space The capacity of the disk in bytes. This includes all bytes, even if the FORMAT program has marked some areas unusable. Free Space The number of bytes still available for use. Used Space (bytes) The number of bytes in use by files, subdirectories, and any areas marked unusable. You can use this figure to compute how many floppy disks you will need to back up your hard disk (floppy disks needed = (used space / floppy disk capacity) + 1). Used Space (%) The percentage of disk space being used. Even on an empty disk, this number may not be zero because of bad sectors or empty directories. Used Space (bar graph) Provides an easily-absorbed way to see how much disk space is in use. The Used Space graph is one of Snooper's handiest features and provides a quick way to monitor disk use. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 41 DIAGNOSTICS SCREEN This screen, accessed via , shows you details about your computer's hardware status. It can help you diagnose interrupt conflicts and other problems. If you have a multitasker or network running, Snooper will pop up a warning and a prompt to continue before letting you into this screen. The reason is these routines may disrupt serial or parallel communications going on in other tasks. For example, if you were transferring a file in one window and Snooper is running in another and you tried to access the Diagnostics screen, Snooper would likely disrupt your transfer--or even hang up--forcing you to start over. None of us would want that. Also, networks and multitaskers sometimes can interfere with Snooper's ability to gather accurate information. Unload the network or multitasker and you may view the Diagnostics screen safely. In fact, this screen is most helpful when you boot your computer from plain DOS--no TSRs, no network. If you try the Diagnostics screen and your computer locks up, simply reboot with minimum CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and it should work fine. Serial Ports Address Here Snooper ensures that an actual serial port exists by testing the serial port chip (see UART, below). It doesn't just rely on a likely port address; it makes sure the address points to a working port. If fewer ports appear on this screen than on the main one, you may have a faulty port. UART The Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter chip handles the receiving and transmitting of data through the serial port. Snooper detects which model is in each serial port in your computer (you may have more than one kind). It detects the 8250 (found in most XTs), 16450 (found in many ATs), 16550 (found in early PS/2 models 50, 60, and 80), 16550A (necessary for high-speed communications), and Type 3 (supports DMA, found in latter PS/2s and others). The latter two chips add 16-byte first in, first out buffers (FIFOs) to store characters being sent or received from the serial port. These are necessary for high-speed communications at 9600 bits-per-second or faster. The 16550 had defective FIFOs, rendering the buffers useless. The problem was corrected in the 16550A. Internal modems provide their own serial ports, so if yours is internal, Snooper will tell you what UART is supplied by the modem itself. Snooper displays an asterisk next to the UART if the FIFO buffers are open, a condition which normally shouldn't occur. 42 Snooper, the system checker Speed Shows the speed at which the serial port has been initialized. This speed can differ from the speed of a modem that may be attached. Format Data bits: The number of bits (per byte) the port treats as a character. It can be 5, 7, or 8, with 8 being the most common. Transmitting 7 data bits means 7 of the 8 bits will be treated as a character; the eighth is ignored or treated as a parity bit. Parity: Parity provides a crude method of error-detection but is largely ignored today. Nearly all BBSs use No parity. Other reports are: Even, Odd, Mark, and Space. Stop bits: The stop bit or bits are sent after each character. NOTE: Although the values of the above parameters are important, even more important is that they be identical on both ends of the communications link (your modem and the one you're calling). IRQ Snooper performs a test to determine what IRQ (see Interrupt Request Lines, below) each serial port would use. These are not just the default values, but the actual IRQs the port would use. If software (e.g., a mouse driver) configured the port to respond with an interrupt upon, for example, receipt of data, Snooper displays just the IRQ number. If no interrupt would be triggered, Snooper displays the IRQ number in parentheses. This just means no program is loaded that uses the port. Occasionally, a port becomes dissociated from its usual IRQ, and Snooper can't tell what IRQ that port would use. In that case, Snooper leaves the IRQ report blank. Device Modems and mice are two common peripherals attached to serial ports. Snooper can usually detect the presence of Hayes-compatible modems and fax/modems, and fully Microsoft-compatible mice, and report which is connected to each port. It also can sometimes show if both are connected to one port (two ports sharing one address). If the modem is external, it must be turned on for this report to work. A mouse driver must be loaded for mouse detection to work. Fax Info If Snooper finds a fax/modem, it asks it what classes it supports. Classes are specifications that define what capabilities a fax/modem Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 43 has. Class 0 is simply a data modem. Class 1 adds fax capabilities. Classes are shown as a series of digits under the appropriate port (e.g., "0,1"). Snooper also will check for the presence of two fax interfaces, the Communicating Applications Specification (CAS) and FaxBIOS. If either of these is found to be active, Snooper will show its name and version on the line below Fax Info. Parallel ports Address The same as the addresses on Snooper's Main screen. IRQ Snooper does a live test to determine what IRQ (see Interrupt Request Lines, below) each parallel port would use. Again, these are the actual IRQs the port would use, not just defaults. If software (e.g., a print spooler) configured the port to respond with an interrupt when, for example, the printer is ready, Snooper displays just the IRQ number. If no interrupt would be triggered, Snooper displays the IRQ number in parentheses. Occasionally, a port becomes dissociated from its usual IRQ, and Snooper can't tell what IRQ that port would use. Also, unfortunately, many parallel ports don't generate interrupts correctly. In either case, Snooper leaves the IRQ report blank. NOTE: Your printer does not need to be on, or even attached, for this report to work. You may hear it make a noise when Snooper checks the port's IRQ. This is normal. Status Snooper also indicates the status of the parallel ports. The error conditions change with different printers, so little can be said about what each line really indicates. The only universal seems to be your printer is ready to print when only the Selected report is active. NOTE: To help you debug a printer problem quickly, the parallel port status is constantly monitored, so if, for example, you turn on your printer or press its On-line button, the status indicators will change. However, you should never plug in or unplug any peripheral until you have turned off power both to the system and peripheral. 44 Snooper, the system checker Sound Card Address Displays the sound card that appears on Snooper's Main screen, and may show the port address to aid in diagnosing port conflicts. For the following IRQ and DMA reports, "Available" will appear if the resource seems to be unused, "In use" if it has been reserved by a hardware device. Interrupt Request (IRQ) The right side of the Diagnostics screen shows which Interrupt Request lines are currently active (indicated by the asterisks). The PC had 8 IRQ lines, the AT has 15. These lines are used to get the CPU's attention when a hardware device needs servicing. Several devices have assigned IRQs. For example, COM1 can trigger IRQ4 when a character enters the port. Snooper displays these default assignments, although they may not coincide with your system's, which may be configured differently. Some hardware devices don't permanently reserve the IRQs they use. For example, you may have a scanner that uses IRQ 5, but only when you're scanning. Snooper has no way to know this because you're not likely to be scanning while Snooper is running. On the other hand, you may be trying to add a device that also doesn't permanently reserve its IRQ, and will never be used when the scanner is being used. Then it's all right to assign IRQ 5 to the new device. Use Snooper's IRQ list as a starting point in determining which IRQs are safe to use. If a mouse driver is loaded, "Mouse" appears in the IRQ list, indicating which IRQ your mouse is using. If your driver is new enough, Snooper also will tell you if the driver is a TSR loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file ("MOUSE.COM"), or a device driver loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file ("MOUSE.SYS"). Direct Memory Access (DMA) Next to the IRQ report is the Direct Memory Access report. DMA channels are used to transfer data without the aid of the CPU, speeding transfers. The PC had four DMA channels, AT-class computers have seven. Because Snooper can't accurately detect use of the upper channels on the AT, it only shows the first four channels. Snooper shows which DMA channels have been reserved by various hardware devices (again, the asterisks indicate the active channels). The original Sound Blaster, for example, uses DMA channel one, so if you have this card, and DMA use hasn't been disabled on the card, Snooper will show channel one is in use. What this report really shows is if the channel has been used since the machine was last turned on or reset, not necessarily if it is currently in use. Often, this is close enough. If, however, all DMA channels in your system seem to be in use, you may have to disregard Snooper's DMA report. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 45 BUS SCREEN With the Micro Channel bus architecture comes the ability to detect adapter cards by name. Snooper can recognize over 1,100 cards. Snooper will list slots zero through nine, and identify what cards are in which slots. A slot with no corresponding text is empty. If you see a message like "Unknown card, please contact author," please make a note of the four-digit number and the actual card installed (your Reference Diskette will tell you), and let us know. We'll add it to our Micro Channel adapter database. 46 Snooper, the system checker NETWORK SCREEN Press when you're running Snooper on a Novell network (we hope to add other network types), and the Network screen will show you several reports about your network. See your Netware documentation for more details about items Snooper reports on. Network Type This will remind you of the network type from Snooper's Main screen. Network Address The network address uniquely identifies the part of the network you're on. Node Address The node address uniquely identifies the workstation you're on. ARCnet cards need to have their node addresses set at installation, Ethernet cards come with a pre-defined node address. Usually, network cards in workstations cannot share the same address. Socket Users aren't typically aware of this low-level resource, but it may come in handy in troubleshooting network installations. User Name The name with which the user logged into the default server. Note you can log onto different servers with different names. Hardware Network Card Shows what network card is installed in your system if you have an ODI driver loaded. You do not need to be logged into the network. Snooper also shows hardware resources the network card is using: memory addresses, IRQ lines, port addresses, and DMA channels. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 47 Software These reports show version numbers, levels, and interrupts in use by drivers and other network software. Software listed in the second column are running on the server. Server Default The name of the default server. Connection The connection number the workstation is using to connect to the default server. Connections These reports show the maximum connections (users) allowed on the default server, the number of users currently logged in, and the most users connected at once since the server was last booted. 48 Snooper, the system checker CMOS SCREEN Every computer based on the PC-AT standard, i.e. all ATs, 386s, 486s, Pentiums, etc., have a small area of memory called the CMOS (pronounced SEE moss), used to store configuration information about your computer. The letters in "CMOS" stand for the material the configuration chip is made of (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, if that helps). CMOS memory is non-volatile, meaning its contents are retained even when the computer is turned off. This is accomplished with a battery that constantly supplies power to the CMOS chip. Each time the computer is booted, it checks that the CMOS configuration accurately reflects the actual configuration. If not, the computer warns you the configuration has changed. This may occur because the CMOS battery is dead, or (more rarely) a renegade program has wiped out the CMOS. Perhaps after replacing the failing battery with a fresh one, you are required to change the CMOS information to reflect the actual configuration. Snooper's CMOS screen lets you do just that. Most computers now come with a built-in setup facility, accessible with a keystroke when the system boots. So why duplicate that functionality in Snooper? First, Snooper's Setup screen is more friendly. Some built-in setup screens are user-hostile. For example, you may have to choose a drive type without knowing the drive parameters for that type. You would have to hunt down the computer's documentation, and hope the drive table was included and accurate. Snooper shows you the parameters for the drive type you are about to choose, and you can easily view each drive type to select the most appropriate one. Also, some built-in setup programs don't let you abandon your changes if you want to. Snooper does. Second, Snooper provides a fast, attractive, consistent way for technicians to edit CMOS data without having to learn each setup screen's user interface. You can use Snooper's screen with point-and- shoot ease, or press a single letter to quickly access the intended option. Some built-in setups make you change or confirm all the options at once, instead of letting you choose just the one you want. Third, you can log the CMOS data, along with Snooper's other screens, into a file for later reference. You can't do that with built-in setup programs. Navigating the CMOS Screen To move around this screen, press the highlighted letter for the option you want. Alternatively, you can use and or the arrow keys to move the highlight bar to the option. Press <+> and <-> or and to change the option. WARNING: Be very careful when editing CMOS data. You can render your system temporarily un-bootable by specifying the wrong drive type. If Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 49 you're not absolutely sure what you're doing, stop! Get help from a professional. CMOS Status Snooper will list up to seven errors that can occur with the CMOS. Most often, you'll see "Incorrect configuration" when you've added or removed a drive or some memory. "CMOS battery is dead" means you probably should replace it. If there are no CMOS errors, Snooper reports "OK." Date and Time These options change the date and time. To aid you in setting the date, the day of the week is also displayed, although you can't set it directly. NOTE: Unlike all other options on this screen, changing the date and time changes the real date and time as you press the <+> and <-> keys. Even if you escape from the CMOS screen without saving your other changes, the date and time will still reflect any changes you made to them. Memory Tells the computer how much conventional and extended memory is present. These options can be changed in 128K increments. Floppy Drives Tells the computer the capacity and size of the installed floppy drives. Choices range from the 360K floppy to the 2.88M. Take care that both the size and capacity you select match those of the installed drive. There is a rare 720K 5.25" drive. Hard Drives Here you are allowed to choose the hard drive types. Choose type zero if you have no drive, or if you have a SCSI drive. Otherwise, choose the type that matches the parameters of the hard drive you have. "Pre-comp" is short for Write Pre-Compensation, often abbreviated "WPC." "L-zone" is the landing zone, the cylinder the read/write heads will come to rest on when the system is turned off. Snooper finds the drive type parameters in your computer's ROM BIOS. Snooper can find the beginning of the table, but there's no fool-proof way to tell where it ends. In some computers, the table has as few as a couple dozen entries; in others, a couple hundred. If 50 Snooper, the system checker you see some strange drive types that don't make sense, you've gone past the end of the table. NOTE: Some memory managers have a feature that provides more upper memory block space by moving the ROM BIOS to another memory location. If this feature is in use on your system, Snooper may not be able to find your computer's hard drive table because the memory manager moved it. If so, disable the memory manager's feature or use your computer's built-in setup utility. If you see "User defined" after the drive type, it means Snooper has run out of pre-defined types and the type you're looking at can be defined by the user to fit a hard drive whose parameters don't appear in the list. If you need to define a custom drive type, you can't use Snooper to do so. You must use the computer's own setup program (often stored in the ROM BIOS and accessed via - or -, or with or during boot-up). BIOS makers haven't standardized on a way to store user-defined drive parameters in the CMOS, so Snooper wouldn't know where to put them. Display Here you indicate what kind of video adapter is installed. If you have a text-only monochrome or a Hercules Graphics monochrome adapter, select "monochrome." For CGA cards, you should choose "CGA 80 columns" (the normal number of columns). If you have an EGA, VGA, SVGA, XGA, or PGC card, choose "VGA and EGA." Coprocessor If your system has a math coprocessor, choose "Installed." Snooper's Main screen will tell you if your system has a math chip (or NDP), despite this setting. Saving Your Changes Press when you are finished with the CMOS screen. If you have made changes, Snooper will prompt you in the message box to save your changes permanently into the CMOS chip. If you want to abandon your changes, press , or . Or press to save them. For your changes to take full effect, you may have to reboot your computer. Snooper will do this for you, with your permission. If you pressed , Snooper will then ask if you want it to reboot your system. If so, press , and within a few seconds, your computer will reboot. NOTE: If you reboot, and you are using a multitasker such as Microsoft Windows, any unsaved work you may have been doing in another window will be lost. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 51 BENCHMARK SCREEN Snooper's Benchmark screen provides three speed indexes: CPU, Video, and Hard drive throughput. They are displayed as both numbers and horizontal bar graphs. The CPU benchmark is run continually when you're viewing this screen. Since the other benchmarks may take several seconds to run, they must be invoked by you by pressing a key. If you run benchmarks, then return to the Main screen, only to return to the Benchmark screen, the benchmark scores will reappear so you needn't run them again. You may, of course, run them as may times as you like. The scales for the bar graphs adjust automatically for different CPUs, and adjust themselves again if the score would exceed the default scale for that CPU (i.e., if the system were particularly fast for its CPU class). The default scales and graphs are displayed in green, in blue if the scales were adjusted again to accommodate fast hardware. Snooper's automatic scaling is effectively infinite. CPU Throughput This benchmark test is run continually, a fact you can demonstrate by switching your computer in and out of turbo mode. You will see the speed in Megahertz, and the benchmark score change. This test is an estimate of the speed at which an AT (e.g., a 286 computer) would have to run to be as fast as your computer. For example, if the CPU throughput score is 150, an AT would have to run at 150 Megahertz to keep up with your system. Also, during normal operation, you may see a slight fluctuation in speed as TSRs briefly gain control of your system (for example, a disk cache writing data to a hard drive). You can hold down a key and see the key repeat feature slow the system a bit. If you're running Snooper under a multitasker such as Microsoft Windows, you may see large fluctuations in speed as other programs gain control and Windows performs housekeeping functions. All this speed changing is normal, and doesn't indicate a problem. Video Throughput When you press the , Snooper performs a video benchmark test. The resulting figure shows how fast your computer can display text, in thousands of characters per second. This figure is heavily reliant on your system's CPU and its speed and the video card. Note this may have little correlation to how fast your system draws graphics, or how well it would perform under Microsoft Windows. It only measures text speed. Obviously, if you're measuring the speed of a system that is to be used mostly in DOS, this figure is quite relevant. 52 Snooper, the system checker Disk Throughput Press to perform the hard drive benchmark on drive one (normally C:). This test may take just a few seconds, or it may take a minute or more, depending on the hard drive's speed. If you have two hard drives, you can press <2> to test the second; its score will replace the first's. A number will appear at the left of the graph, showing which drive was last tested. Note you must have two separate hard drives, not just two partitions on the same drive (they would have the same score anyway). When discussing hard drive speed, much emphasis has been put on average access time--the time it takes for the read/write heads to reach a particular cylinder. But this measure is only part of the picture. Also important is the speed at which the computer can transfer data from the drive to system memory. Snooper's Disk Throughput report combines these measures into one. It transfers data from the drive into memory, choosing disk areas both randomly and sequentially, imitating your hard drive's normal operation. Note that for the safety of your data, this test never writes to your drive, it only reads, so there's virtually no chance of it damaging your data. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 53 SETUP SCREEN You may change Snooper's color scheme and other defaults by pressing from the Main screen. You will see the Setup screen options and a "fake" display to show you what Snooper will look like with a color scheme you specify. Navigating the Setup Screen To move around this screen, press the highlighted letter for the option you want. Or use and or the arrow keys to move the highlight bar. You may have to press the arrow key twice to get past the license number and config filename options. Press <+> and <-> or and to change the selected option. For the license number and filename options, type the text you want and press . Mono Mode You can force Snooper to use its black-and-white mode by using this option. Normally, Snooper will detect monochrome cards and set this default automatically. But you may have a reason to override the default. For example, you may have a laptop that emulates a VGA display (making Snooper think you have a color monitor) but the display is more readable with the black-and-white background. Set this option to Yes and Snooper will use its mono background color. The default is "Auto," meaning Snooper will try to determine if Mono mode is necessary. Desqview Mode Again, Snooper normally knows when to use Desqview mode, but you may have a reason to specify this option. For example, if you have an old CGA card and you see "snow" when Snooper draws its display. The default is "Auto," meaning Snooper decides if Desqview mode is needed. Editor This option tells Snooper if you want to use its internal editor or an external one called EDIT. The default is "Internal." 54 Snooper, the system checker Drive You may want Snooper to give you information about a certain drive first, without having to specify it on the command line. Perhaps you're a systems administrator and despite what drive your users are running Snooper from, you want it to show information for their C: drive. Use the default disk drive option to specify it. Snooper will cycle through all the letters of the alphabet and the word "default." Of course, once you're in Snooper, you can change to any drive in the system. If Snooper doesn't find the drive you specified when it's run, it will show information for the current drive. The default for this option is, of course, "Default." Sounds When you press a wrong key, try to select an invalid drive, or an error occurs, Snooper usually beeps. This option is on by default but you may turn off all sounds with this option. Allow CMOS Editing This invisible option allows you to toggle the function of the CMOS screen from editing to simply viewing. If you're a network administrator and you want to prevent non-technical users from editing their CMOS configurations, simply press ONCE and save the configuration file. Subsequent invocations of Snooper will provide a CMOS viewer--the CMOS screen will look almost identical, and it can be logged like all other screens, but no editing can be performed. To revert to CMOS editing mode, return to the Setup screen and press once again. Don't forget to save your changes. This option is invisible so users can't change the option themselves to use the editor. Be careful about letting them see this page of the manual. Colors You can change Snooper's colors to suit your taste. Snooper will cycle through the available colors. You can go through them in either order by using the <+> and <-> keys. Snooper's "fake" display will show you how the real display will look. Remember, you must save your changes, exit, then reinvoke Snooper for the changes to take effect. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 55 License Number To make that annoying Registration Reminder Screen (RRS) go away forever, press and enter the license number we sent you when you registered. Be sure to enter the number exactly as it appears or Snooper won't accept it (it's awfully picky). After you save your work (see below) and exit, Snooper will no longer show its RRS. Your license number is shown at the top of the order information screen (from the Main screen, press , ). NOTE: After you enter your license number, you probably should save your config file under the default name, so it always will be available to Snooper. Otherwise, the registration reminders might start popping up again. Eeek! It would be foolish, of course, to give your license number away to anyone--they should pay, too! Saving Your Changes If you want to quit and not save your changes, press and no new configuration file will be written. If you've made changes you want to keep, you must save them to a configuration file. The default configuration filename is always displayed. This is the file that was loaded when Snooper was invoked, or would have if it existed. To accept the default, simply press , then . To specify a new file, enter a new filename and press . Snooper will write a config file with the new options, overwriting any old file of the same name. To create multiple files, simply enter different names at the prompt. Snooper will report if the file was successfully saved, or show an error message if it wasn't. If the save is successful, the next time you run Snooper, the new options will take effect. That's all there is to it! When you're done with the Setup screen, press to return to the Main screen. 56 Snooper, the system checker A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S AUTHOR We'll take the liberty of assuming some of you want to know a little more about Snooper's author. We'll keep it short. The following paragraph was written by John Vias, Snooper's principle author. "I'm originally from Evanston, Illinois (suburban Chicago) but have lived most of my life in Florida. At the University of Florida, I earned a degree in English, a fact I hope is reflected in this manual. I now own a computer services and technical writing business called Vias and Associates (pretty catchy, huh?). Some day, Real Soon Now, I expect to move to the West Coast to write about computers, combining my favorite hobbies." A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S CREATION Snooper was developed over hundreds of hours when we probably should have been sleeping. Snooper began in February 1987 on an 8 MHz AT compatible, then moved on to a 386SX compatible (yuck!). It was tested along the way on hundreds of machines. It originally was written in Turbo Pascal version 3.01A, and has since been expanded under every version through 6.0. Its source code as of this writing consists of over 13,000 lines of Pascal, including some BASM assembler. Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 57 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Snooper was not created in a vacuum, of course, although John's head has been likened to one. Here are a few sources of information we used, and for which we are very grateful. We apologize to those we forgot to mention. Without them, Snooper would be only . . . well, we hate to think about it. PC Magazine (by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company) An invaluable source of information about the IBM PC family. A great deal about PCs can be learned from its pages. It has helped many a programmer. Turbo Pascal 6.0: Techniques and Utilities (by Neil J. Rubenking: Ziff-Davis Press, 1991) With the help of this book, Snooper's code grows better and more efficient by following Mr. Rubenking's advice. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to write Turbo Pascal programs. Advanced MS-DOS Programming (by Ray Duncan: MS Press, sec. ed., 1989) Written by one of PC Magazine's stable of PC wizards, this book was our source for documented BIOS and DOS calls. Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC (by Peter Norton: MS Press, 1985) The Programmer's Guide was an excellent reference in Snooper's early years. Eventually, we turned to more up-to-date works, but Mr. Norton's book did help at first. Ralf Brown (INTERvvx.ZIP) (The "vv" is the volume of release and the "x" is "A," "B," or "C." Ralf now distributes the list in three files.) An enormous list of DOS, BIOS, and program-specific interrupt calls, many otherwise undocumented. Quite simply, some of Snooper's reports wouldn't exist without it. Very useful in that it reports bugs and incompatibilities books rarely mention. And it's free! Be sure to check out the book Undocumented DOS, co-written by Ralf. Andrew Rossman (InfoPlus) Mr. Rossman maintains a multi-page system information utility. From it we got snippets of code and programming techniques. John Fox (EDIT2.PAS) Mr. Fox wrote the freeware editor whose source code Snooper uses in its internal editor. Thanks, John! Vernon E. Davis, Jr. (TPXMS101.ZIP) Author of a Turbo Pascal pre-6.0 unit for using an eXtended Memory Manager (e.g., HIMEM.SYS). Yuval Tal (TP6XMS.ZIP) Author of a Turbo Pascal 6.0 unit for using an XMM. 58 Snooper, the system checker Kenneth Morse He downloaded Snooper from Compuserve, read Snooper's wish list, and via E-mail, helped us figure out how to detect joysticks and RAM disks. Thanks, Kenneth. Greg Barton (sysop, ACCUG BBS) Special thanks to Greg Barton, who kindly set up a Snooper conference on his BBS, and on short notice. Greg Wrey Thanks to Greg Wrey, who beta-tested Snooper on his systems many times. Our friends (by their parents) Those with more patience than we deserved who helped debug Snooper. They ran it on their machines and told what happened right before it crashed. All those we forgot to mention Those folks who left E-mail or wrote letters, reporting we forgot something or shouldn't this be such-and-such. Snooper's Registered Users Without the encouragement and support of Snooper's registered users and site licensees, John would have given up in disgust and moved to a tiny cottage in the hills, forever writing programs for his own amusement. Occasionally, when registrations are slow, he still threatens to. . . . Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 59 INDEX A20 Line Status 30 Acknowledgements 58 Address, parallel port 44 Address, serial port 42 Address, sound card 45 Advanced Power Management (APM) 27 Association of Shareware Professionals 2 AUTOEXEC.BAT, editing 23 AUTOEXEC.BAT, logging 24 Benchmark screen 52 Black-and-white mode switch (B) 16 Brand, ROM BIOS 34 Break, DOS 38 Buffers, DOS 37 Bugs 25 Bus 28 Bus screen 46 Cache, disk 38 Central Processing Unit (CPU) 27 Chip detection bypass switches (C, M) 17 Clipboard, log to 24 Cluster size 41 CMOS drive type 40 CMOS screen 49 CMOS Status 50 Colors, Setup screen 55 Computer 26 CONFIG.SYS, editing 23 CONFIG.SYS, logging 24 Configuration file (Sfilename]) 17 Configuring Snooper 54 Connection 48 Connections 48 Consecutive Drive keys 22 Conventional memory 28 Conventional Memory, CMOS screen 50 Coprocessor, CMOS screen 51 Copyright 12 CPU speed 27 CPU Throughput 52 Current directory 39 Cylinders 40 Data bits 43 Date, ROM BIOS 34 Date/Time, CMOS screen 50 Default 48 Desqview mode switch (D) 16 Desqview Mode, Setup screen 54 Device, serial port 43 Diagnostics screen 42 60 Snooper, the system checker Direct Memory Access (DMA) 45 Directory, current 39 Disk cache 38 Disk drive argument (D:) 16 Disk information 39 Disk label 39 Disk Throughput 53 Display, CMOS screen 51 DMA 45 DOS 36 DOS brand 36 DOS break 38 DOS buffers 37 DOS files 37 DOS installation 10 DOS revision 36 DOS shell 37 DOS verify 38 DOS version 36 Drive letter keys 22 Drive list 39 Drive status 40 Drive type 40 Drive, Setup screen 55 Drives 31 Drives, floppy 31 Drives, hard 31 Drives, logical 31 Drives, physical 31 Edit CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT keys 23 Edit SNOOPER.LOG key 23 Editing AUTOEXEC.BAT 23 Editing CONFIG.SYS 23 Editor conventions 23 Editor, Setup screen 54 EMM level 30 EMS memory free 30 EMS total 30 Enhanced Memory Manager level 30 Enhanced Memory Specification total 30 Environment 36 Environment free 36 Environment total 36 Environment variable, logging 17 Errorlevel 24 Examples 19 Exit key 21 Ext free 29 Extended memory 29 EXtended Memory Manager level 29 Extended Memory, CMOS screen 50 Extensions, ROM BIOS 34 Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 61 Fax Info 43 File-editing 22 Files on this disk 9 Files, DOS 37 Floppy 31 Floppy Drives, CMOS screen 50 Format, serial port 43 Free memory 28 Free space 41 Free, environment 36 Game port 33 Hard 31 Hard Drives, CMOS screen 50 Hardware, network card 47 Heads 40 Help key 21 Help switches (H|?) 15 High Memory Area (HMA) 30 How to order 14 IDE drive model 39 Installation 10 Interrupt Request (IRQ) 45 IRQ 45 IRQ, parallel port 44 IRQ, serial port 43 Keyboard 35 Keyboard present 35 Keyboard support 35 Keystrokes 21 Known bugs and anomalies 25 Label, disk 39 Legalities 11 Liability 12 License 12 License Number, Setup screen 56 Little bit about myself 57 Little bit about Snooper's creation 57 Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT key 24 Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT switch (F) 19 Log file environment variable 19 Log key 23 Log to Clipboard key 24 Log to Printer key 24 Logging switch (L[filename]) 18 Logical 31 Main screen 26 Memory 28 Memory, A20 line status 30 Memory, CMOS screen 50 Memory, conventional 28 Memory, EMS free 30 Memory, extended 29 62 Snooper, the system checker Memory, extended free 29 Memory, free 28 Memory, HMA 30 Memory, UMB 30 Memory, used 29 Memory, video 33 Memory, XMS 29 Monitor type 32 Mono Mode, Setup screen 54 Mouse 35 Mouse brand, driver version 35 Mouse port 35 Network 38 Network address 47 Network card 47 Network screen 47 Network type 47 Node address 47 Non-interactive mode switch (N) 16 Numeric Data Processor (NDP) 27 Operation 20 Order/registration key 22 Ordering 13 Parallel port IRQ 44 Parallel ports 33 Parallel ports, Diags screen 44 Parity 43 Philosophy behind Snooper 11 Physical 31 Plug-N-Play 34 Port, game 33 Port, mouse 35 Ports 33 Ports, parallel 33 Ports, serial 33 Present, keyboard 35 Pricing 14 Quiet mode switch (Q) 16 Registration 13 Registration benefits 14 Requirements 9 ROM BIOS 34 ROM BIOS brand 34 ROM BIOS date 34 ROM BIOS extensions 34 Saving Your Changes, CMOS screen 51 Saving Your Changes, Setup screen 56 SCSI Host Adapter 39 Sector size 41 Sectors/cylinder 40 Serial port IRQ 43 Serial ports 33 Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 63 Serial ports, Diags screen 42 Server 48 Setup screen 54 Shell, DOS 37 Socket 47 Software, network 48 Sound card address 45 Sound cards 34 Sounds, Setup screen 55 Speed, serial port 43 Status, CMOS 50 Status, drive 40 Status, parallel port 44 Stop bits 43 Support, keyboard 35 Syntax 15 Total space 41 Total, environment 36 UART 42 Updates 14 Upgrading from a Previous Version 11 Upper Memory Block (UMB) 30 Used memory 29 Used space (%) 41 Used space (bar graph) 41 Used space (bytes) 41 User name 47 Verify, DOS 38 VESA 32 VGA adapter brand 32 Vias & Associates 2 Video 32 Video memory 33 Video Throughput 52 Video type 32 Virtual-86 mode 27 Warranty 12 What is shareware? 13 What is Snooper? 8 Who needs Snooper? 8 Windows installation 10 Windows Operation 21 Wish list 26 XMM level 29 XMS memory 29 64 Snooper, the system checker