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FUTILITY Version 2.6 Copyright 1988, 89, 90 Freewheelin' Enterprises LIMITS OF LIABILITY FUTILITY IS DISTRIBUTED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. THE AUTHOR WILL ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES EITHER FROM THE DIRECT USE OF THIS PRODUCT OR AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT. FUtility is a utility program written to analyze and report the system configuration of the computer it is run on. It makes extensive use of the BIOS interrupts and DOS services to make it's evaluations. FUtility is released as Shareware. It is NOT Public Domain. If you like the program and find it of use please send a donation to the address below. 50% of your donation will be given to the American Red Cross of Lebanon, OH. A minimum $10.00 donation is suggested. Thank you. FUtility was written in Turbo Pascal 5.5 and Turbo Assembler 1.0 by: Frank Allen 1356 Cook Road Lebanon, OH 45036 Files included: FUTILITY.EXE (main program) FU-READ .ME (this file) The information that FUtility provides will vary from system to system. The following is a summary of the most common information reported: SYSTEM HARDWARE Operating System. This will report the version of MS or PC- DOS that is installed on your system at boot up. To determine whether it is the MicroSoft or IBM version of DOS, FUtility utilizes MS-DOS function 30h to retrieve the OEM serial number. MS-DOS, normally, will return 0FFh while IBM returns 00h. However, some versions of MS-DOS also return 00h making this test not always accurate. Machine Type. FUtility reads the system model byte from a fixed address in memory. If an AT or PS/2 class system is detected, FUtility will then issue an interrupt to see if there is a sub-model byte. If a sub-model is found, FUtility will be able to narrow the type of machine down to a particular model such as PS/2 Model 50. These model and sub- model bytes are determined by the BIOS manufacturer. Most clones will report their IBM equivalents. For example, most 80286 machines are clones of the IBM PC/AT and, therefore, also identify themselves as PC/AT. Some 80386 machines (unless they utilize the micro-channel architecture) also identify themselves as a PC/AT, since that is the closest "standard" bus IBM equivalent. Other clone manufacturers may use a totally new code for their systems or may not use one at all. Floppy Drives. This is the physical number of floppy drives installed in your system. Older releases of FUtility used to use interrupt 11h to determine the number of floppy drives installed. Unfortunately, on PC & XT class machines this value was determined by switch settings on the mother board and did not accurately reflect any external drives that may be installed. FUtility now physically accesses each drive to determine if it is a floppy drive or hard drive. The method used to make this determination is dependent upon the version of DOS utilized. With DOS versions 3.0 or later FUtility will implement a DOS function to determine if the device is removable. If your system uses a DOS version prior to 3.0 it will access each drive and attempt to read the FAT in order to retrieve the descriptor byte. This process is slow and will take a few seconds longer if there is no diskette in the drives. There are pros and cons to this method. By physically accessing the drives, all external devices are counted. However, if the external device is a tape backup drive or CD-ROM, they will be counted as either floppy drives or hard drives. FUtility, at this time, does not know the difference. Physical/Logical Hard Drives. This reports the actual number of physical hard drives in your system. At times this will differ from the logical hard drives due to extended partitions and/or ram drives. CD-ROM Drives. If you have MS/PC-DOS 3.1 or later, FUtility will check to see how many CD-ROM drives are installed. Parallel/Serial Ports. This information is gathered by ROM BIOS interrupt 11h, the equipment list and displays the actual number of parallel and serial ports in your system. Game Adapter. FUtility attempts to detect the presence of a game adapter by one of two methods, dependent upon the system type. If you have a PC or XT class machine, the information is read with interrupt 11h, just as the parallel/serial port information. If you have an AT or PS/2 class system, FUtility attempts to read the switch settings of the joy stick. If the switch settings are zero (all open) FUtility assumes that no game adapter is present. Internal Modem. On PC & XT class systems FUtility will report whether or not an internal modem is installed. This information also comes from interrupt 11h. Serial Printer. The PCjr will display whether a serial printer is installed, as reported by interrupt 11h. Math Coprocessor. FUtility uses interrupt 11h to detect the presence of a math coprocessor and then attempts to identify it. Mouse Driver. FUtility looks to see if a mouse driver is installed and, if found, the number of buttons on the mouse. It then finds the mouse driver version number. Logitech drivers report the equivalent Microsoft version they emulate. For example, LogiTech Mouse Driver Version 3.42 is the equivalent of Microsoft Driver 6.02 and therefore 6.02 will be the version number displayed. FUtility will also determine the type of mouse installation (Serial, Bus, etc.). Direct Memory Access. This should indicate "Allowed" for most systems, except PCjr and compatibles. The Tandy 1000EX is another system that does not support Direct Memory Access. Keyboard. FUtility will determine if you have either an Extended or Standard Keyboard. Video Adapter. The type of display adapter card used to talk to your monitor. Video RAM. The amount of display memory on the Video Adapter (EGA & VGA systems only) up to a maximum of 256K. Some Super VGA systems may have more than this, however, at this time FUtility can not find it. Display. The actual type of monitor attached (Color, Monochrome, Analog, etc.) In laptops systems, it is not always possible to identify the type of display connected since they use a display adapter that is, in effect, CGA even though the display is black & white. Colors. This displays the default 16 colors available on your system only if a color adapter is found. RAM, ROM & CPU INFORMATION. Conventional Memory. Amount of standard memory installed & available up to the DOS limit of 640k. Extended Memory. The amount of memory above the 1 Meg address. This is available only in the protected mode of the 80286, 80386 & 80486 microprocessors. Extended Memory Driver (XMS). The eXtended Memory Specification (XMS) provides a means for 80286, 80386 & 80486 systems to utilize extended memory. This reports the Driver Version and XMS Version supported. Expanded Memory. The Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) provides a means for all IBM & compatible PC's to install and utilize additional memory, above 640k, by a "paging" technique. FUtility will report the EMS driver version number, the amount of memory installed and amount available. The amount of Expanded Memory Installed & Available is based on the number of pages found. It is assumed that the page size is 16k bytes. However, Version 4.0 of the Expanded Memory Specification allows the page size to be changed. Some Expanded Memory Managers are now taking advantage of this feature. Therefore, the amount reported in this version of FUtility may not be as accurate as I would like it to be. Future versions of FUtility will make an attempt at determining the page size prior to making this calculation. Processor. FUtility will determine the type of microprocessor installed in the system (8088, 80286, Etc). Bus. Whether you have a standard PC Bus or Micro Channel. ROM BIOS release date. The date stamped in your BIOS chip. BIOS Source. FUtility scans the BIOS for the source of the system BIOS and then for any extensions to the BIOS. READ BOOT RECORD. Every disk (or diskette) has a boot record which contains a significant amount of information about the disk. This option reads the boot record of the current disk and the following information is reported: DOS Formatted By. Usually this will be the version of DOS that was used to format the disk. However, if another utility was used it will display whatever format ID the utility places in the boot record. For example, PC-Tools places "PcTools" in this area. Bytes Per Sector. The number of bytes that make one sector on the disk. Sectors Per Cluster. The number of sectors that make one cluster on the disk. Reserved Sectors. This is the number of sectors that make up the reserved area. The reserved area contains the boot record. All diskettes have a reserved area of at least one sector, even if they aren't bootable. Number of FAT copies. The File Allocation Table (FAT) maps the usage of all the disk space in the files area of the disk. Each disk should have two identical copies of the FAT in case one becomes damaged. Maximum # Root Directory Files. The maximum number of files allowed in the root directory of the disk. This is determined by the format command. Sectors Per Disk. The total number of sectors that make up the disk. Media. The actual type of disk (or diskette). Sectors Per FAT. This is the number of sectors used by each copy of the FAT. Sectors Per Track. The number of sectors that make up one track on the disk. Sides Per Disk. The number of physical sides on the disk. Floppies will normally be two (double sided). Hard drives have multiple platters and may report 4 or 6 sides. Hidden Sectors. This is the number of sectors that are used up by hidden files. That is, files that have their "Hide" attribute set. Disk Size. The actual size of the disk in bytes. Free Disk Space. The amount of space still available for use on the disk. ADDITIONAL DISK/DRIVE DATA. This option provides additional information about the current disk. Some of the information will vary depending on your particular system. Volume Label. This is the label assigned to the diskette with the "/V" option of the format command. It may also be placed on the disk with the DOS "LABEL" program. Number of Logical Drives. Logical drives include all physical floppy/hard drives, any extended partitions on hard drives and/or any RAM drives. Drive Type. The actual type of drive installed. This will only be displayed on PC/AT or PS/2 class systems. File Allocation Table Data. The File Allocation Table (FAT) provides additional information about your disk. This information, for the most part, duplicates that provided by the boot record. Media. The type of disk (or diskette). Total Clusters. The total number of clusters on the disk. Available Clusters. The number of clusters on the disk that are available for use. Bytes Per Sector. The number of bytes that make up one sector. Sectors Per Cluster. The number of sectors that make up one cluster. Disk Size. The formatted size of the disk in bytes. Free Disk Space. The amount of disk space, in bytes, that is available for use. Percentage Free. The percentage of space on the current disk that is unused and available for use. DOS ENVIRONMENT This option will display the system environment variables including COMSPEC, PATH, PROMPT, plus any others that you have defined either with your AUTOEXEC.BAT or via the SET statement. MEMORY MAP Option 6 displays a system Memory Map. This Memory Map lists the programs installed in memory, amount of memory used and their associated Memory Control Block & Program Segment Prefix addresses. The last line in the list is the actual amount of memory available for user programs. AMERICAN WAY & INFORMATION REQUEST Option number 7 from the main menu is a request for bucks and option 8 is a request for information. CHANGE DRIVE To change the current disk drive, use option 9 from the main menu and press the letter corresponding to the drive you want to look at. GENERAL This program has been tested on many models of PC, XT, AT, XT-286, PS/2 Models 25, 30, 50, 60, Tandy 1000/4000, NCR PC- 8, Wyse PC/XT-286, etc. with no problems. It also has been tested on different video configurations including: MDA, HGC, CGA, EGA, VGA, MCGA. The information is as up to date as possible, however new models are released every day. In addition, there are many "non-standard" systems on the market. Due to this the system ID byte may not necessarily be identified properly by FUtility (FUtility may call the system a generic AT or PC) but the program should still run with no difficulties. If your system displays the following: xx - PC/AT where xx is a two or three digit number, FUtility did not recognize the type reported by your system. If this number stays the same EVERY time you run FUtility, let me know. This may be an undocumented ID byte for your system. I will also need the specific name and model of your system. After verification this will be added to the machine types list. STARTUP To start the program type: FUTILITY and hit return. To bypass the opening screen, type: FUTILITY /B To turn the sound off, type: FUTILITY /S (use a capital "S" here). To turn off colors use: FUTILITY /BW If you have a mono screen and are having difficulties use: FUTILITY /M Or you can use any combination of the above. If you have any questions, suggestions or problems with the program feel free to write to me at the above address. Thanks for using FUtility! ...Frank CHANGES ****> This release fixes a few bugs reported in previous releases: Version 2.6: 1. Oops... I had the number of floppies and logical hard drives reversed in the last release. FIXED. 2. Option <3> now reads the boot record of non-standard external drives. Previous releases reported an error when attempting to read an external floppy drive that was in sequence after the hard drives. FUtility thought the external drive was a hard drive and, therefore, attempted to access it as such. This has been corrected.