Diagnosing What’s Going On Inside

Have IBM-compatible personal computers gotten so complicated that you need special software just to tell what equipment is in your machine and how it is configured?

At least three publishers are betting that enough people will think so and buy their new system-diagnostic programs.

Control Room from Ashton-Tate, Check It from TouchStone Software and System Sleuth from Dariana Technology Group share some features, yet each is different.

Of the three, Control Room ($129) is most clearly aimed at the casual computer user. It writes an easily understood report about the computer and gives the user control of some system settings.

Check It ($150) performs elaborate tests of your hardware and would be most useful when searching out the cause of problems. It isn’t hard to use, but some of the information it imparts will be understood by only the more technically minded users.

System Sleuth ($149) doesn’t test things or control things. Instead, it does the deepest system analysis, revealing which of your memory-resident software programs are colliding with others, for instance, and giving exacting details of how your memory is being used.

Control Room features a menu of function choices across the top of the screen. You make your choice, and a screen full of information slides into position sideways across your monitor. It is easy to use, with extensive on-screen help available. That makes up for the slender manual accompanying it--which gives just a teaser of what the program does.

There is a “summary” screen that details facts about your computer’s hardware, the type and speed of its microprocessor and math co-processor, amount and type of memory, hard disk size and speed, size and presence of floppy disk drives, DOS version and serial and parallel ports.

A “memory” section tells you how your computer’s memory is being used. It shows, for instance, that Control Room, part of which is memory-resident, took up 7.1 of the 124 kilobytes being used in my 640-kilobyte computer before I ran my main application programs.

The “config” section shows you all of the utility programs and other instructions that get loaded at start-up into your computer from the “autoexec.bat” file. Without having to edit that complex file, you can tell Control Room which programs to turn off next time you start the machine.

Another section lets you set the speed at which keys will repeat, the number of keystrokes that can be typed ahead of the keyboard’s ability to process them (keyboard buffer size) and other factors. You can also create up to 60 macros in which a series of keystrokes--commands and text--are assigned to a key combination for playback at any time. The idea is to help speed up repeated tasks that you perform at your keyboard.

Under “tasks,” you can restore erased files or erase files to government standards so that no trace of the old data remains. You can encrypt files to keep them secret and scan diskettes for signs of viruses.

If you want to actually test your hardware instead of just identifying it, Check It is the program to choose. It analyzes your computer and, at your command, selectively tests virtually every component from memory chips to hard and floppy disks to the keyboard, serial and parallel ports and the monitor. Hard disk and memory testing is particularly rigorous.

One test even checks the second-by-second accuracy of the computer’s clock and calendar. Another will test your printer. Yet another tells whether your mouse is working properly, if you have one.

Some major-brand computers, such as IBM and Compaq, come with their own system diagnostic software that performs similar tests. But they don’t report the results as well. Many other computers do not include such software and the only way to test them has generally been to have the dealer do it. Check It changes that.

Another nice feature comes into play when a memory chip fails. There is a graphic depiction showing you which chips have died. That can save either you or your service person a lot of trial and error removing and replacing chips trying to find the right one.

All computers have places in their memory called interrupts and special channels for direct memory access. Check It tells you which are being used, and that simplifies the installation of network cards and other system expansion cards.

Check It’s manual is thorough and easily understood, providing an excellent tutorial on how your hardware works.

System Sleuth, for which version 2.1 is now available, takes a third approach to diagnoses. It delves deeper into the internal logic of your computer’s various components but doesn’t test them to the extent that Check It does.

The program has several uniquely useful features. One gives you a pictorial representation of how your computer believes its internal system switches are set. On older PC- and XT-style computers, such switches physically control the way the computer works and what equipment it can use. They are notoriously difficult to set properly, especially after you lose the book that shows how.

Newer computers don’t have as many switches, relying on special “setup” software to do the job. Either way, System Sleuth shows you what is going on.

While System Sleuth does not test the hard disk, it provides information different from the other two programs. All hard disks are assigned a “type” number, which you may need to know if you ever need to completely clean everything off the disk and prepare it all over again for use with new partitions and formatting. But unless you open up the computer, you seldom can find that information--and even then it may not be there. The sleuth reports the drive type number and also tells you exactly how your hard disk is partitioned--as one big drive or several smaller “logical” drives.

If your computer has a habit of locking up in the middle of running programs, it may mean that memory-resident programs are colliding with each other. System Sleuth will give you a map of exactly what system resources are being used by each such program loaded into your computer, and you can quickly see whether and where interferences are occurring.

The program also displays in great detail how system interrupts are assigned, as well as the uses of system memory. These are details that help resolve potential conflicts when installing network and other system expansion cards.

The depth of System Sleuth’s analysis makes it the most technical of the three programs and thus the least easily understood by casual users. Skilled technicians who are actively involved in configuring and trouble-shooting a variety of computers will find it most useful.

It seems that IBM-compatible computers are complicated enough to fool all three programs on occasion, however.

Control Room couldn’t figure out that I had a third floppy drive connected to one computer I tested. Check It thought part of the memory was bad on a Compaq 386S because a Compaq memory management program didn’t work the way it thought the program should. And System Sleuth died while trying to print a report on an AT clone because of interference with printer control software.

TRACKING PC PERFORMANCE

Control Room

A $129 program that describes the inner workings of the computer and controls some of its functions.

Features: Prepares a descriptive report putting your computer’s performance in perspective, gives control of keyboard features, stores macros, restores deleted files, encrypts sensitive data and wipes all traces of old data from your disks in accordance with government standards.

Requirements: IBM PC or compatible, 384 kilobytes of memory, at least two floppy drives, and DOS 3.0 or higher.

Publisher: Ashton-Tate, 20101 Hamilton Ave., Torrance, Calif. 90509. Phone: (213) 329-8000.

Check it

A $150 program that does extensive testing of your computer’s components.

Features: Thorough tests of memory, hard and floppy disks, keyboard, monitor, serial and printer ports and printers. Maps location of defective memory chips for easy replacement.

Requirements: Most IBM-compatible PCs--but does not work with Tandy 1000 or 2000 series computers because of their proprietary expansion slot design. DOS 2.11 or higher and at least two floppy drives.

Publisher: TouchStone Software Corp., 909 Electric Ave., Seal Beach, Calif. 90740. Phone:(213) 598-7746.

System Sleuth

A $149 program to do detailed analysis of computer systems and components.

Features: Maps system resources taken by memory-resident software, hard disk type, partitioning, and physical characteristics, memory configuration and usage, I/O port mapping, display adapter characteristics.

Requirements: IBM-compatible PC with at least one floppy drive and DOS 2.1 or higher.

Publisher: Dariana Technology Group Inc., 7439 La Palma Ave., Suite 278, Buena Park, Calif. 90620. Phone: (714) 994-7400.