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SNOOPER.FAQ
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1995-07-17
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SNOOPER(tm)
Serious System Information
Copyright 1994-1995 Vias and Associates
FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS (AND ANSWERS) ABOUT SNOOPER
Table of Contents
Acquisition and Version Questions
How do I know if I have the latest version?
Where can I get the latest version?
Pricing and Payment Questions
How much does Snooper cost?
How do I register/order Snooper?
Technical Support Questions
Snooper goes bonkers under Microsoft Windows. Why?
Snooper locks my machine at the Main screen. What do I do?
Snooper locks my machine in the Diagnostics screen. What do I do?
I get erroneous results from Snooper. What's wrong?
Acquisition and Version Questions
How do I know if I have the latest version?
If the version you have is over six months old, there probably is
a newer version out. To know for sure, check the locations
mentioned in answer to the following question.
Where can I get the latest version?
See the first page of SNOOPER.DOC or Snooper's Ordering
Information help screen (in Snooper, press <F1>, then <O>) for
places to get Snooper. It is always available on CompuServe, in
the PC Hardware Forum (GO PCHW), General Hardware Library (4),
under the filename SNOOPR.ZIP (note there's no "E" in the
filename).
Pricing and Payment Questions
How much does Snooper cost?
Currently, Snooper costs $39 for a single user license. If you
plan to use Snooper to gather information across a network, or to
send out Snooper disks to clients or branch offices to gather
system info, or in any other way that might allow more than one
person to run it at the same time, you must purchase a site
license or distribution license. Pricing for multi-user licenses
is individualized for your situation, and surprisingly affordable.
Call us at the phone number listed both on the first page of
Snooper's manual and on Snooper's Ordering Information help screen
(in Snooper, press <F1>, then <O>).
How do I register/order Snooper?
Currently, we accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American
Express, by phone or fax. Of course, we accept checks and money
orders by mail, as well.
Technical Support Questions
First let us say technical support issues concerning Snooper are
relatively rare. True, like most programs, it won't work on every
single machine out there. There are simply too many combinations of
hardware and software products to make a product 100% compatible with
everything. That said, Snooper is very good at gathering system
information quickly and accurately without interfering with the
computer's operation. If you do have a problem running Snooper,
please read the following section. If, after trying these procedures,
you still can't get Snooper to run properly, please write or call our
technical support number (listed on the first page of Snooper's
manual). We'll do our best to help.
Snooper goes bonkers under Microsoft Windows. Why?
Snooper was not designed to run under Windows. Yes, we do supply
PIF and icon files for it, and many users can run at least the
Main screen but other screens may cause lockups or erroneous
results. The Benchmark screen, for example, wasn't designed to
work in a multitasking environment. And the Diagnostics screen
may cause a lockup when it checks serial port IRQs. If you need
this information, simply exit Windows completely and run Snooper
from the DOS prompt.
Snooper locks my machine at the Main screen. What do I do?
Sometimes, in Snooper's message box in the lower-right corner of
the screen, there will be a message such as "Use /t" or something
similar. This is a command line switch Snooper suggests you use
to avoid the lockup. If you see such a message, make a note of
the switch it mentions, reboot your machine and re-run Snooper
with the command line switch indicated. In the above example, you
would type "snooper /t" at the DOS prompt (without the quotes, of
course). This will often solve the problem. If you follow this
procedure and Snooper then mentions a different switch, re-run it
with both switches specified.
If there is no message in the message box, you'll have to do some
experimentation. Read the section of Snooper's manual that
discusses command line syntax and try all the switches together
that disable certain detection routines (e.g., /c /n /t /i). If
Snooper runs, eliminate one switch at a time until you find the
one (or two?) you need.
If the above techniques don't work, try bypassing your CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. With DOS 6.x, you can press a function
key to do so. (Enter "VER" at the DOS prompt to check your DOS
version.) With earlier DOS versions, load each file into a text
editor (e.g., the DOS EDIT program) and type "REM " (there's a
space after the REM) in front of every line. Then save the file
and reboot. This will cause DOS to ignore those lines,
effectively bypassing the file. If the above technique works,
remove the "REM " from one line at a time until you find the
program that's interfering with Snooper. If everything seems to
work OK for the next few weeks, you can probably do without that
program anyway.
And if none of the above works, it may just be that your system is
not compatible with Snooper. Sometimes a ROM BIOS or DOS version
will have a subtle bug, or the timing on the motherboard wasn't
perfect, or something in your system just wasn't designed to fully
implement an industry standard.
Snooper locks my machine in the Diagnostics screen. What do I do?
Chances are, if you specify the "/O" command line switch when you
invoke Snooper, it will work OK.
I get erroneous results from Snooper. What's wrong?
There are lots of things that can interfere with Snooper's ability
to gather accurate information. As we mentioned above, BIOS and
DOS bugs, motherboards not being designed quite right--and a host
of other possible problems. Also, some hardware tries to look
like other hardware. Most mice, for example, try their darndest
to look like Microsoft mice. So if you have a different brand of
mouse, and Snooper reports that you have a Microsoft mouse, well,
it was simply fooled. You can try following the procedures above
(under "Snooper locks my machine"). If you still have specific
questions about why Snooper is reporting what it is, you can call
us on our query line and ask (for the phone number, again, see the
first page of SNOOPER.DOC or Snooper's Ordering Information help
screen--press <F1>, then <O>). All this having been said, it is
still gratifying to hear many customers tell us Snooper is the
most accurate system information program they've seen.
Thank you for trying Snooper.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.