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HWiNFO for DOS resurrected !

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Reply 240 of 884, by feipoa

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I have tested the latest DOS revision for HWiNFO. I have had to create a custom boot diskette to load DOS and just HIMEM because some features of HWiNFO offer misleading information if EMM386 is loaded.

This is now shown:
CPU Stepping: 0, 5 Rev

I'd personally write it out: Step 0, Rev 5 so that people don't think "0, 5 Rev" is a 0.5 revision of the stepping.

Note that 0 , 5 Rev doesn't even show if using EMM386.

Under CPU Codename: M0.9/M1sc. What is the M0.9? An abandoned Cyrix codename?

HWiNFO now shows the IRQ's that are consumed, and for the most part, still shows the proper IRQ's if EMM386 is loaded, except that IRQ 9 doesn't show the Ethernet card, just shows "rerouted from IRQ 2" if EMM386 loaded

Its nice that HWiNFO can read the amount of RAM installed on the Creative AWE64 cards. I should try it with 28 MB to see if it can still read it.

It would be nice for ISA PnP cards to also show up under the ISA bus heading.

I'm curious, what criteria are used to determine if the motherboard has PCI revision 2.00 or 2.10?

I also found it interesting that HWiNFO is able to determine the made and model of my LCD monitor, as well as the manufacturing date. Pretty advanced for a DOS program.

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Reply 241 of 884, by Mumak

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feipoa wrote on 2020-04-17, 09:13:
I have tested the latest DOS revision for HWiNFO. I have had to create a custom boot diskette to load DOS and just HIMEM becaus […]
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I have tested the latest DOS revision for HWiNFO. I have had to create a custom boot diskette to load DOS and just HIMEM because some features of HWiNFO offer misleading information if EMM386 is loaded.

This is now shown:
CPU Stepping: 0, 5 Rev

I'd personally write it out: Step 0, Rev 5 so that people don't think "0, 5 Rev" is a 0.5 revision of the stepping.

Note that 0 , 5 Rev doesn't even show if using EMM386.

Under CPU Codename: M0.9/M1sc. What is the M0.9? An abandoned Cyrix codename?

HWiNFO now shows the IRQ's that are consumed, and for the most part, still shows the proper IRQ's if EMM386 is loaded, except that IRQ 9 doesn't show the Ethernet card, just shows "rerouted from IRQ 2" if EMM386 loaded

Its nice that HWiNFO can read the amount of RAM installed on the Creative AWE64 cards. I should try it with 28 MB to see if it can still read it.

It would be nice for ISA PnP cards to also show up under the ISA bus heading.

I'm curious, what criteria are used to determine if the motherboard has PCI revision 2.00 or 2.10?

I also found it interesting that HWiNFO is able to determine the made and model of my LCD monitor, as well as the manufacturing date. Pretty advanced for a DOS program.

Thanks for the results !
CPU Stepping is actually shown as "CPU Stepping: 0, rev 5", not sure if this is really misleading. Some documents were mentioning such combination as 0.5 indeed, but I guess this naming convention has never been something official.
The M0.9 codename I used comes from the "Cyrix5x86_-_CPU_Detection_Guide.pdf", have a look at the titles in the ID tables. "M1sc" is a designation that I found in some earlier sources, but I no longer recall where exactly.

I just realized that the Cyrix clock ratio reporting doesn't work when CPUID is not supported, I'm going to fix this now.

The AWE DRAM detection is not quite perfect as it seems to require a pretty heavy pre-init of the DSP/AWE engine. But it seems to be working well on many systems, some others might require loading the Creative drivers (at least the PnP init if the BIOS doesn't support PnP).

PCI revision is reported by the BIOS.

I saw that you posted some SXL2-50 results, could you please check that with HWiNFO or HWiNFO32 too ?

Reply 242 of 884, by feipoa

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I've seen M1sc and M9, but not M0.9. Here is a screenshot from a utility produced by IBM for the 5x86c. I'd call it M9 / M1sc. but it is up to you. Also on this screenshot, you can see what IBM is calling the stepping/revision. Perhaps:

Perhaps name it like this?
CPU STEPPING: LEVEL 0, REV 5

I can see how someone not familiar with computer hardware might be confused if there isn't some alphabetic characters before the 0, but after the : Again, up to you. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, I think its a good idea to take the multiplier information from DIR0. This is what Jan Steunebrink had to do as well with CHKCPU. If I recal right, if the user changes the multiplier in software (which we do on Vogons), then the multiplier as reported is messed up, as is the running speed. So, best take it from Device ID0 (DIR0).

Yes, I am going to send you SXL2-50 results. Typing, photos, attachments, configuring PC's is pretty slow going. I've already run HWiNFO32, but have a lot to report for bugs.

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Reply 243 of 884, by Mumak

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feipoa wrote on 2020-04-17, 09:44:
I've seen M1sc and M9, but not M0.9. Here is a screenshot from a utility produced by IBM for the 5x86c. I'd call it M9 / M1sc. […]
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I've seen M1sc and M9, but not M0.9. Here is a screenshot from a utility produced by IBM for the 5x86c. I'd call it M9 / M1sc. but it is up to you. Also on this screenshot, you can see what IBM is calling the stepping/revision. Perhaps:

Perhaps name it like this?
CPU STEPPING: LEVEL 0, REV 5

I can see how someone not familiar with computer hardware might be confused if there isn't some alphabetic characters before the 0, but after the : Again, up to you. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, I think its a good idea to take the multiplier information from DIR0. This is what Jan Steunebrink had to do as well with CHKCPU. If I recal right, if the user changes the multiplier in software (which we do on Vogons), then the multiplier as reported is messed up, as is the running speed. So, best take it from Device ID0 (DIR0).

Yes, I am going to send you SXL2-50 results. Typing, photos, attachments, configuring PC's is pretty slow going. I've already run HWiNFO32, but have a lot to report for bugs.
IBM_2.jpg

I will keep the M0.9 as this comes from an official Cyrix document and with simple math M0.9 < M1 (6x86) 😀 I will also update the stepping to show as "Level 0, Rev 5".
Will have a new build once I check the SXL2-50 results and what's needed to be updated there.

Reply 244 of 884, by feipoa

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SXL2-50 run in DOS version of HWiNFO. Comments in the photos. Main issue I noticed is that probing the CPU is resetting CCR0 bit 6, so the CPU is getting put into 1x mode instead of 2x.

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Reply 245 of 884, by Mumak

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feipoa wrote on 2020-04-17, 11:03:
SXL2-50 run in DOS version of HWiNFO. Comments in the photos. Main issue I noticed is that probing the CPU is resetting CCR0 bi […]
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SXL2-50 run in DOS version of HWiNFO. Comments in the photos. Main issue I noticed is that probing the CPU is resetting CCR0 bit 6, so the CPU is getting put into 1x mode instead of 2x.
SXL2_DOS_1.jpg
SXL2_DOS_2.jpg
SXL2_DOS_3.jpg
HWINFO.LOG

HWiNFO is not writing to CCR0, but I suppose this might be because of the RESET method attempted. Can you please try to disable all Method 1-3 to reset CPU in settings if that's causing it?

Reply 247 of 884, by Mumak

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And here a new DOS build to fix a new things on the TI. I haven't disabled the Reset methods by default, so this will need to be done manually.
[build pulled due to bug]

Last edited by Mumak on 2020-04-20, 10:59. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 249 of 884, by feipoa

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Took a quick peek. Returns this just after the welcome screen: Fatal Error - Cannot Continue - Quit. It lets me Quit though.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 251 of 884, by Mumak

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feipoa wrote on 2020-04-17, 13:09:

Took a quick peek. Returns this just after the welcome screen: Fatal Error - Cannot Continue - Quit. It lets me Quit though.

Oh, I think I found the bug.. will upload a new build in a minute

Last edited by Mumak on 2020-04-17, 14:29. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 254 of 884, by schmatzler

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I just tried this out on my Stylistic 2300 tablet and almost everything seems to work.
Even the obscure NeoMagic 128XD graphics chip is correctly identified and the touchscreen shows up as an unidentified Fujitsu device. Nice.

It detects the audio chip as a SoundBlaster Pro (CT1335), although it really is an ES1879 sound chip.

It also says that there are no PCMCIA slots present, but there are two of them. The device makes a loud beep when they are initialized - that only happens in WIN98 and not in pure DOS mode, though. So they're probably just not activated in DOS and it's not HWInfo's fault.

Good job 😀

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"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 255 of 884, by Mumak

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schmatzler wrote on 2020-04-17, 22:59:
I just tried this out on my Stylistic 2300 tablet and almost everything seems to work. Even the obscure NeoMagic 128XD graphics […]
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I just tried this out on my Stylistic 2300 tablet and almost everything seems to work.
Even the obscure NeoMagic 128XD graphics chip is correctly identified and the touchscreen shows up as an unidentified Fujitsu device. Nice.

It detects the audio chip as a SoundBlaster Pro (CT1335), although it really is an ES1879 sound chip.

It also says that there are no PCMCIA slots present, but there are two of them. The device makes a loud beep when they are initialized - that only happens in WIN98 and not in pure DOS mode, though. So they're probably just not activated in DOS and it's not HWInfo's fault.

Good job 😀

stylistic-hwinfo.jpg

Thanks! Would be great if you could create a log file and post it here, so I can check all details and see what I can improve.

Reply 256 of 884, by schmatzler

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Mumak wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:09:

Thanks! Would be great if you could create a log file and post it here, so I can check all details and see what I can improve.

I've updated my post. 😀

"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 257 of 884, by Mumak

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schmatzler wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:11:
Mumak wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:09:

Thanks! Would be great if you could create a log file and post it here, so I can check all details and see what I can improve.

I've updated my post. 😀

Thanks! Is the ES1879 integrated on the mainboard? It should be PnP-capable, but doesn't respond as a PnP device.

Reply 258 of 884, by schmatzler

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Yes it's all integrated into the device.
I only have one USB 2.0 card connected to a PCMCIA slot.

I've also tried to run the latest version on my main retro rig which is a pretty basic machine:
- Abit VH6T with a Tualatin 1.4GHZ
- 3DFx Voodoo 2 and Radeon 9600XT graphics cards
- Audigy 2 ZS and OPTi 82C929A MAD16 Pro sound cards

It locks up on the system information screen and I need to reset the computer. The other tabs all work, but my Opti sound card is not listed, only the Audigy (drivers for the Opti are loaded).
Apart from those two problems, everything is detected fine. 😀

Since it hangs on the sysinfo screen I can't get a report file. 🙁

"Windows 98's natural state is locked up"

Reply 259 of 884, by Mumak

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schmatzler wrote on 2020-04-17, 23:32:
Yes it's all integrated into the device. I only have one USB 2.0 card connected to a PCMCIA slot. […]
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Yes it's all integrated into the device.
I only have one USB 2.0 card connected to a PCMCIA slot.

I've also tried to run the latest version on my main retro rig which is a pretty basic machine:
- Abit VH6T with a Tualatin 1.4GHZ
- 3DFx Voodoo 2 and Radeon 9600XT graphics cards
- Audigy 2 ZS and OPTi 82C929A MAD16 Pro sound cards

It locks up on the system information screen and I need to reset the computer. The other tabs all work, but my Opti sound card is not listed, only the Audigy (drivers for the Opti are loaded).
Apart from those two problems, everything is detected fine. 😀

Since it hangs on the sysinfo screen I can't get a report file. 🙁

Please try the latest build I posted here: Re: HWiNFO for DOS resurrected !
If it still hangs can you please take a picture so I can see where exactly it did ?