Hopefully if I have time, I'll see what the other programs report concerning hardware information.

Attached is the report for for SXL2-66 system on the SCREAMER board. Report generation hangs when on Peripherals Information with error: Abnormal program termination Hardware Info Program.

If I run HWiNFO manually, the system hangs up on Peripherals Information and beeps continuously. I am able to view ISA and other devices fine now, but it only shows the 3Com 3C509 network card. the Adaptec 1540 SCSI controller and ESS sound card aren't seen. IRQ's 10, 11, and 12 show up as "free" still but are taken.

Mainboard Model shows "unknown", but it is an AMI Mark V Baby Screamer. Mainboard chipset comes up as "SCREAMER", but I think it is VLSI Topcat. I see visible on the motherboard: VL82C331 and VL82C332. I have always assumed that the AMI Megatrends MG-9275 is the VL82C330 system controller, but I'm not entirely certain. The VLSI 330 series is refered to as "VLSI Topcat". I have the datasheets if you think they will help.

Thanks. If you step manually into the Peripherals screen, can you see where exactly it hangs? What's the last entry shown and when it hangs does it show anything in the status bar like "Checking..." ?
Mainboard model will be fixed in the next build, I have the AMI ID string now.
I have removed Adaptec 1540 detection as it brought the card into some invalid state, so it doesn't show up anymore. Perhaps I could fix the code, but that might need too many tests, so it would be better to acquire one..
Detection of IRQ/DMA usage for ISA cards has similar rules like their detection - each needs dedicated support. Hence the missing entries for ISA cards, I can determine this usage only for some cards like SB.
Please send me the chipset datasheets and I'll have a look at that.

This is what the screen looks like at hang.

The Adaptec 154X is a pretty common card so they should be relatively easy to source.

They are too large to attach, but you should be able to find them here: https://www.datasheetarchive.com/VL82C330-datasheet.html

Hm, so if you step manually into the Peripherals screen it doesn't hang?
I think the problem with the ESS card not being detected is that it's PnP and your BIOS isn't. I have a similar situation with my SB32 AWE PnP - after reset it's in sleep state and doesn't appear in system unless the full PnP card isolation process is done. This is usually performed by the BIOS or Win9x during boot. Alternatively for example the SB has a CTCM tool which does similar. Once this PnP init is done, HWiNFO can recognize the card via PnP or standard resources. The problem here is that I'm really reluctant to perform this PnP init process as it might cause issues on some systems and result in hangs or crashes. I will think about this and perhaps implement this via a switch.
I have one idea for the AHA-1540, need to check some documentation and if it seems feasible, will give it another try.

Stepping manually into Peripherals still hangs AND it goes *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*... That screenshot I attached is from this event.

Would be nice to detect the ESS AudioDrive sound card. They are fairly popular.

You might find this interesting. If I boot to MS-DOS 6.22 and run the latest version of ASTRA for DOS (from Nov 2019), ASTRA loads fine until it checks for ASPI devices, then the system is hung. Perhaps ASTRA is having a similar problem as HWiNFO.

If I run ASTRA from the ASTRA boot diskette, the system does not hang, but it cannot find the the Adaptec SCSI host controller. It can, however, find the ESS ES1868 PnP AudioDrive and 3Com Etherlink III. ASTRA also says that the chipset ID is "SCREAMER"

Please try to disable the "Check Keyboard Controller and Super IO" option if that will solve the hang on Peripherals.
I'm checking the VLSI datasheet now to see if there's anything useful.. Have implemented some additional patch for the AHA-1540, so will post a new build soon.

Yes, if I disable 8042 detection in the ini file, I am able to view Peripherals Information without it beeping or hanging.

Here a new build with:
- Re-enabled test for AHA-1540 with some improvement. Let's see if this will now work without corrupting the controller.
- Added experimental VL82C330 chipset detection.
- Fixed reporting of the Diamond SpeedStar card name.
- Fixed reporting mainboard model.
[pulled, newer build available]

Do you want me to run this with the 8042 disabled still?

feipoa wrote on 2020-04-19, 10:50:

Do you want me to run this with the 8042 disabled still?

Yes. I guess the problem here is the SIO check, that board contains something that I don't have any info yet. Will have to add automatic exclusion of SIO check for this board similar to what I did in HWiNFO32. That will be in the next build.

As before, it shows the Adaptec AHA-1540C/1542C SCSI Host under ISA and other devices, but the HDD light stays light up and the HDD is no longer accessible.

Not sure if it matters, but I am using a SCSI2SD v6 unit as my hard drive. I have it setup with 4 physical hard drives - 8 GB, 8 GB, 18 GB, and 18 GB.

🙁 Did it identify the chipset now?

I'll have to check again to be 100% certain, but I think it identified the chipset as "SCREAMER". The motherboard name was correct though,.

Did you want a report for the last test?

EDIT: Yes, SCREAMER for Mainboard Chipset.

Yes, please. I want to check some other details.

report attached. Hangs on ISA and other devices.

EDIT: Should HWiNFO be identifying the FPU as well? I've a pretty rare oddball FPU in this system that CheckIt misidentifies. CheckIt also does not find the SCSI controller and says IRQ's 10 and 11 are free. It does find the ps/2 mouse on IRQ 12 and VESA on IRQ 9.

Yes, it should check the FPU, but I need first to enable the check for this CPU.
I'm wondering why it didn't identify the chipset, I added detection per the datasheet.
Could you please run a simple test - start the "debug" DOS tool and enter:

1o EC 0
2i ED

What does it return?

It returns:

1FF

Huh, according to the datasheet it should be F2-F3. Don't know what else to do to detect it if the result isn't as described.

Here a new build:
- Disabled AHA-1540 detection again.
- Automatic exclusion of SIO check for this board. You might test with 8042 and SIO check enabled
- Added FPU detection on Cyrix/TI systems without integrated FPU

[pulled, newer build available]

OK. This will be the last test for the day. I assume you want the report.

I was testing out dr hardware. The only version I could get to run was 5.0, which is odd because 3.7 hangs and 6.5 hangs. Lots was not found by the Dr.