Software Vault: The Sapphire Collection/Software Vault (Sapphire Collection) (Digital Impact).ISO/cdr16/cyberr01.zip/CHECKIT

Text File | 1994-09-08 | 8KB | 136 lines

                            Checkit-Pro
                    Advanced Diagnostic Software
                          by Wayne MacLeod

        Check-It Pro ADS consists of two separate but complementary
packages, SysInfo and Test & Tools.  Between the two you can
identify the individual components of your system and perform
detailed diagnostic tests of those components.  It is the type of
software that many of us have on our to get list and everyone should
have.  It can be as useful to the novice, as to the power user, and
the rest of us in between.

        The installation program is smooth and straight forward and
makes no changes to any files on your system.  Earlier versions of
the software gave the choice of installing both programs or just one
of them, this version installs both only.  Both programs are started
separately and there is no real integration or info sharing.  A menu
to at least give the appearance of integration would be of benefit.
Both programs are DOS programs and can be run under MS Windows, but
this is not recommended.  It is also noted that there may be some
inconsistent results of testing a hard drive using disk compression
such as Stacker or DoubleSpace.

        SysInfo provides information about the hardware in your
machine as well as the operating system.  It also allows you to
generate and save reports about your system for future comparison,
use in upgrade decisions, determining incompatibilities or whatever
you choose.  It also offers a simple mechanism of editing
information in your primary DOS and Windows files as well as a
general text editor for other files.

         The system area gives you a breakdown of what you have in
your system, both graphically and in text format.  It had little
difficulty identifying the correct hardware and software versions on
my system, even determining that I have a CAS modem.  It did
incorrectly identify my Intel SatisFAXtion 400 modem as a US
Robotics 9600 and reported 16450 UARTs where there were 8250 UARTs,
but otherwise was flawless in this area.

        The Memory section gives a breakdown on the various types of
memory installed in your system.  It reports total amounts, amounts
in use, available, and even reports what programs are using what
address areas.  There is also a report of TSRs currently installed
and their usage and location in memory.

        The Setup section provides information such as your CMOS
data, also allowing you to edit the data in CMOS.  It reports dip
switch settings if appropriate, IRQ usage and interrupt vectors.  It
also gives a run down of the device drivers installed, BIOS data and
your hard drive table.  This area offers several "dangerous"
features, such as editing the CMOS and examining unknown I/O
addresses.  Users should use caution commensurate with their
knowledge and abilities.  These areas do present warnings to the
user before allowing you to perform the actual function.

        The DOS and Windows sections provide information about your
settings under those programs and allow for editing of the info in
your autoexec.bat, config.sys and major Windows initialization
files.

        The Performance section allows you to run tests on your
system in general, your hard drive and your video card.  There are
several comparison files provided for use in looking how your system
stacks up to some fairly generic systems.  You can also record your
own results to be used as a comparison when you make changes to your
system or problems arise

        The Help section provides detailed context sensitive help as
well as Tech Support info and a reference library that covers topics
from an ASCII character chart to installation tips to information on
Viruses identified by the Test & Tools software.

        Test & Tools provides for extensive testing of your hardware
and tools to repair or simplify recovery from a major crash.  The
test suite can be run all at once or as individual tests.  There is
also a quick test provision as well as a Burn-in test and
Certification test.  The "Test Everything" option runs diagnostic
tests on your memory, hard drive(s), floppy drives, system board,
serial ports, parallel ports, video, mouse and joystick.  To fully
test your memory, you must remove any memory manager and reboot your
system.  There is also provision for making, saving and printing
individual reports of test results.  A journal is kept of all
activity during the testing that can also be saved, displayed and or
printed.

        The Tools section provides options designed to prepare you
for a system crash and help recover from a disaster.  It allows low
level formatting of "more hard drives than any other formatter." I
did not test this ability.  Their is an included virus scanner that
provides for detection only, not cleaning of any detected virus.
This scanner is only as good as the information it has to work with
and will require supplemental updates to stay current.  There is the
ability to create a rescue disk that can be used to boot your system
in case of a hard drive crash and includes those files needed to get
you going after the disaster.  You can also save the drivers that
your system requires to start up to the rescue disk or to a separate
disk.  You can also save a record of your CMOS settings.  A rescue
disk and a copy of your CMOS settings are the minimum that anyone
should have available in case of trouble.

        Overall, Check-It pro is a very nice DOS program that does
all that it claims to do and does it well.  It is simple enough for
the new user, but powerful enough for the experienced user also.
One nice feature is the ability to use many of the individual
applets from Test and Tools as stand alone tests via batch files.
They can be used to create custom setup and testing situations.  The
only thing I found disappointing with Check-It Pro was its
unpredictability when run under MS Windows, though there is now a
Windows specific version with enhanced features.  If you don't do
Windows, this program should easily fill your needs.

                     TouchStone Software Corp.
                      2130 Main St., Suite 250
                     Huntington Beach, CA 92648
                           1-800-531-0450

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