home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Bila Vrana
/
BILA_VRANA.iso
/
027A
/
HCSDIAGS.ZIP
/
HCSDIAGS.TXT
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-11-24
|
25KB
|
588 lines
HCSDiags Technical Manual
Compiled by Hong Chin Siong.
What is HCSDiags?
It is a free public domain simple disk diagnostics and system information
program written by Hong Chin Siong using Borland C++ 3.1 and inline Turbo
assembly langauge. The field covered are:
System information,
Joystick,
CMOS contents,
LIM EMS information, and
Based on many rare functions and interrupts, you may find many useful
information within. It is free, a gift from Singapore to computer owners
around the globe who want to know something about their computer. Enjoy,
make use of it and please pass it to people around you!
System Requirements
HCSDiags is a simple native DOS program, you need:
MS-DOS 3.30 and above (or equivalent),
128 KB of base memory minimum,
IDE/EIDE hard disk system,
AT 286 and above processor,
LIM EMS 4.0 or above for EMS reporting.
Please note that IBM PC-DOS 3.30 is NOT the same as MS-DOS 3.30, program not
tested on SCSI series of hard disk system yet. 286 Protected mode is utilized
and thus it is common sense to have at least a 286 processor. Not tested on
8088/8086 system yet because it is very difficult to find users using this
processor in this time.
I strongly recommend you run this program under the native DOS environment.
Running under OS/2 DOS session maybe fine (you maybe surprised that I wrote
the program under OS/2 DOS session environment), but no warranty. Running
under Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 3.11 for Workgroups may cause
nightmare. Tested on Windows 95 running on Compaq Deskpro XL566 (66 MHz
Pentium - my office machine) with 16MB Samsung FPM RAM, with no nightmare.
Not tested on Windows NT yet.
Installation
Installation is simple, simply create a directory and copy the decompress the
files to that directory.
About the author (Me?)
A computer loving guy from a small Southeast Asian country called Singapore.
I love to do computer programming and play flight simulation games and simple
arcade games like Pacman, Tetris, shoot-what-you-see type of arcade game,
etc. I love freewares written by honest programmers, and love to use advanced
operating system like the IBM OS/2. Anybody who wanted to share his / her
experience of OS/2 can write to my residential address below:
Hong Chin Siong
19 Marsiling Lane
#03-295
Singapore 730019
Republic of Singapore
Tel: 65-3684984
email: h3684984@singnet.com.sg
Homepage: http://www.singnet.com.sg/~h3684984
This file was originally produced using IBM Works Word Processor and was
later ported into Lotus AMI Pro for OS/2 3.0, and the module logos were
created using Aldus Type Twister version 1.0 for Windows, and manipulate
using Aldus Photostyler 2.0 SE, both running under OS/2 Warp's WIN-OS/2 full
screen.
Why is it free?
HCSDiags, together with all its modules (either incorporated into HCSDiags or
separate modules), are freewares. Why? Simple, because so that you can
distribute to people who want them without worrying about infringing the
copyright law, and partly because the programs does not have QC (Quality
Control), and the most important reason is you will only need System
Information / Disk Diagnostic tools occasionally. It will be unfair to ask
user to pay for something they seldom used.
YOU CAN FREELY DISTRIBUTE THIS PROGRAM PROVIDED YOU DID NOT
EARN ANY PROFIT FROM IT AND THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTATION (THIS
FILE) IS DISTRIBUTE WITH IT.
Why OS/2 is choosen as a development platform?
You may have seen reviews criticizing OS/2. My advice is don't believe until
you actually try your hands on it. OS/2 is sensitive, even mixing RAM can
cause problems, but so far, I have no problem.
HCSDiags was developed on a China Clone Intel 486DX2-66 system running
OS/2 Warp 3.0, Windows 3.1 and DOS (using only FAT file system and dual
boot of OS/2), and tested on the same system and Compaq Deskpro XL 566
with Pentium 66MHz processor (the machine on my office desk) running
Windows 95. The compiler was run on an OS/2 DOS session of course.
Why choose OS/2? Because:
1. OS/2 DOS session is very customizable. During the testing, I do not have
to reboot the system to create different testing conditions. I simply close
the DOS session, click the right mouse button to bring up the setting pages,
change settings like EMS, XMS, Base Memory, Lastdrive, etc., then restart the
DOS session.
2. The DOS session crashed so many times during development that the hard
disk run out of space because Borland C++ 3.1 create swap files for every
compilation and these files are to be erase after compiling, but was not
because of the improper termination of the compiler, thus accumulate to about
10MB total spaces. In native DOS, the reboots will create frustrations, but
in OS/2 DOS session, "reboot" is simply close the session and reopen it.
WARNING! PLEASE READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY:
I am not responsible for any inaccurate results, no warranty of any kind. You
are running the program at your own risk. You will not reverse engineered
(decompile, disassembled) or modified any part of this program, and you may
not include it with your application without my acknowledgement. If you want
to ensure you got an unmodified program, you can email to me and I will email
the program to you.
This is an independently developed program, Borland International, Inc and
other third parties or companies mentioned here are not responsible for the
program. The third parties are mentioned for information only.
All trademarks / registered trademarks belongs to respective companies.
SYSInfo Module
Overview
A simple and easy-understanding program written for the IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT
class. Written in Borland C++ version 3.1 and should run in any PC that is
about 100% compatible with the original IBM PC. Using mostly documented but
rare interrupts, this program should be informative enough to keep.
In summary, some of the useful features of this program:
It detects:
the manufacture of the Disk Operating System (DOS),
whether or not IBM OS/2 is running and its version,
free IRQs (not very good yet),
CD-ROM drives and drive letter assigned,
and of course, standard detection like base memory, display type, DOS
lastdrive, etc.
Limitations
This program has some limitations:
cannot detect and report your memory system,
CPU (Central Processing Unit) type,
cannot detect peripheral's address, and
DMA and memory maps.
They may be available in future updates.
Software used to develope this module
Borland C++ 3.10 with inline assembly. Developed in OS/2 Warp DOS session
and tested under MS-DOS 6.00 / Windows 3.10 ,OS/2 3.0 and Windows 95
environments.
Definitions
Using XXX DOS
Possible values for XXX: IBM DOS or PC-DOS, MS-DOS or Phoenix DOS, Embedded
DOS, DEC DOS, Compaq DOS, MS Packaged DOS, AT&T DOS, Zenith DOS, Hewlette
Packard DOS, Packard Bell DOS, Olivetti DOS, Toshba DOS, Novell - Win/386
dev. ID DOS, MS M-Media Sys. - Win/386 ID DOS, Hewlett Packard DOS,
PhysTechSoft - PTS DOS, DR-DOS, Novell DOS and lastly Unknown DOS.
These are the DOS that SYSInfo can detect. Note that OS/2 uses IBM DOS and
because PC-DOS is also manufactured by IBM, their DOS OEM number is the same
(please refer to DOS OEM number section).
Base memory
Possible values: 512 KB for older PCs , 640 KB for newer PCs, or other values
while running IBM OS/2 (depends on the DOS_RMSIZE in the DOS Session settings
notebook, this is one thing I like about OS/2, you can customize many
things!). This displays the amount of base memory (memory where application
programs are run without the need for third party memory manager). Resides
in the first 1MB of physical memory. For 640 KB systems, the 384 KB is
reserved by BIOS.
Microprocessor
Possible values: 8 or 16 bits, 32 bits or more.
This shows the data paths of your microprocessor. For 8088, 8086, 80186,
80286, it should be 8 or 16 bits. 80386SX, 80386DX, 80486SX, 80486DX,
80486DX2, 80486D