» Diagnostic, Testing and Repair Software Utilities «

Intro

UTILS & DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS
I should have done this page years ago I reckon given the amount of time I spend fixing systems but there you go. Basically I will put links and info on all the best tools and utils. Some will be freeware, others shareware, a few obsolete and a few more horrendously expensive options for the discerning resellers and technicians. Either here or, more likely, on another page I will make up a comprehensive guide to commercial diagnostic tools and equipment.
ASTRA - Advanced Sysinfo Tool and Reporting Assistant. This little util give a surprising amount of detail. Recommended! Publisher's Description: "This program performs computer configuration analysis. Provides detailed information (including undocumented) on CPU, mother board, hard disks, CD-ROM, memory modules, chipset, BIOS, PCI/AGP and PnP devices, monitor, video card, printer, sound card, network card, etc. Creates a file report, able to run in command line mode. New: added support of DMI/SMBIOS standard, including detection of system name, mother board model, mother board slots and ports information, detection of new processors, update database, some bugs fixed." PCI Tree If you repair or upgrade computers for a living this is near essential. Forget taking the cover off and removing cards to try and see just what the video card is and especially for modems which I consider a nightmare. Just run this tiny app in Windows 9xand it will give you a full rundown. Only wish they'd update it to support NT, Windows 2000 and XP... Altitech's AltiPCI For all it's brilliance, PCI Tree is a bit flaky with Windows NT and generally won't entertain it. This extra utility addresses that. Here's what the programmer says: "This spiffy GUI displays detailed PCI statistics of all devices in a Windows NT/2000/XP Pro X86 based system. A few features include GUI hex dump for each device, standard vendor, device, & class descriptions, multi-function device breakdown, general class descriptions for prototyping, easy device autoscroll buttons, subvendor & subsystem information and buttons to generate and save detailed reports of local PCI 2.3 devices." " Universal Boot Disk - A powerful utility disk More to follow it a bit... Paul (April 2003)

UTILS & DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS

I should have done this page years ago I reckon given the amount of time I spend fixing systems but there you go. Basically I will put links and info on all the best tools and utils. Some will be freeware, others shareware, a few obsolete and a few more horrendously expensive options for the discerning resellers and technicians.

Either here or, more likely, on another page I will make up a comprehensive guide to commercial diagnostic tools and equipment.

ASTRA - Advanced Sysinfo Tool and Reporting Assistant.
This little util give a surprising amount of detail. Recommended!

Publisher's Description:
"This program performs computer configuration analysis. Provides detailed information (including undocumented) on CPU, mother board, hard disks, CD-ROM, memory modules, chipset, BIOS, PCI/AGP and PnP devices, monitor, video card, printer, sound card, network card, etc. Creates a file report, able to run in command line mode. New: added support of DMI/SMBIOS standard, including detection of system name, mother board model, mother board slots and ports information, detection of new processors, update database, some bugs fixed."

PCI Tree
If you repair or upgrade computers for a living this is near essential. Forget taking the cover off and removing cards to try and see just what the video card is and especially for modems which I consider a nightmare. Just run this tiny app in Windows 9xand it will give you a full rundown.
Only wish they'd update it to support NT, Windows 2000 and XP...

Altitech's AltiPCI
For all it's brilliance, PCI Tree is a bit flaky with Windows NT and generally won't entertain it. This extra utility addresses that. Here's what the programmer says:

"This spiffy GUI displays detailed PCI statistics of all devices in a Windows NT/2000/XP Pro X86 based system. A few features include GUI hex dump for each device, standard vendor, device, & class descriptions, multi-function device breakdown, general class descriptions for prototyping, easy device autoscroll buttons, subvendor & subsystem information and buttons to generate and save detailed reports of local PCI 2.3 devices." "

Universal Boot Disk - A powerful utility disk

More to follow it a bit...

Paul (April 2003)