DOS ain't dead

Hello,
I'm an author of ASTRA - Advanced System Information Tool for DOS.




This program performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics. It gives detailed information about your computer hardware and devices operational modes, including undocumented information. A unique quick HDD Health Status checker is included. It provides information on CPU, motherboard, hard disks, S.M.A.R.T., CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, memory modules, chipset, BIOS, PCI/AGP, ISA/PnP and PnP devices, monitor, video card, sound card, network card, printer, etc. This program also creates a report file in plain text, INI, HTML, XML and CSV format, and is able to run in batch mode. Bootable ISO and floppy images are also available.

This program FREE for non-commercial purposes.

URL: http://www.sysinfolab.com

Windows version also available.

Please, send all your questions, suggestions, comments and bug reports.
If you want to help with the development of this program, please send the report from your system.

ASTRA is a good job... congratulations...

I am an enthusiast of the configuration, analysis and diagnostics software for DOS.

See:

http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board_entry.php?id=16853




I present to you some suggestions, based on some programs similar to ASTRA for DOS.


1) In the old and good NSSI - Navrátil Software System Information V0.60.45 for DOS (2010-09-09):

https://www.navsoft.cz/products.htm

There is an item that allows you to do basic performance tests of CPU/FPU, which allow you to compare different CPUs


2) In the old and good HWiNFO V.5.5.5 for DOS (2014-07-03):

https://www.sac.sk/download/utildiag/hwinf555.zip

There is an item that allows you to determine the status of the voltage, speed fan and temperature sensors.



I think it would be good for these functionalities to be incorporated into ASTRA for DOS

> I am an enthusiast of the configuration, analysis and diagnostics software
> for DOS.

Thank you for your feedback.
I love DOS diagnostic tools too
I have a large collection (350 MB) of DOS diagnostic tools including NSSI and HWiNFO.

> There is an item that allows you to do basic performance tests of CPU/FPU,
> which allow you to compare different CPUs

I don't like synthetic benchmarks.

> There is an item that allows you to determine the status of the voltage,
> speed fan and temperature sensors.

It is very difficult. Maybe later.

ASTRA detects CPU temperature and core voltage (since Intel Core and AMD Athlon 64).

P.S. Hardware monitoring via SuperIO chip has been removed from the latest version of HWiNFO due to memory requirements (?).

ASTRA 7.10 beta has been released.

New in this beta:

Added detailed information about NVIDIA TNT-GTX200 family videochips (architecture, core and memory clocks, memory type and width, temperature etc). GPU-Z for DOS
Added detailed information about AMD Ryzen memory controller (supported and current memory types and clocks, controller mode, timings, etc)
Added detailed information about Intel 810/815 chipset
Added detailed information about Intel E7500, E7501, E7505, E7205 chipset
Added detailed information about Intel Atom Cedarview SOC (Atom D2xx, N2xx)
Added detailed information about Intel UL11L/US15x chipset
Added detection of core and memory clock of S3 videochips
Added MSR Walker tool (searching valid CPU MSR registers)
Improved support of Intel Meteor Lake family processors

ASTRA 7.10 beta:
http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 AGP screenshots:

> ASTRA 7.10 beta has been released.
>
> New in this beta:
>
> GPU-Z for DOS

does it work with old ISA display cards?

BTW can it tell user if CPU is not possible to be detected using CPUID?

> > GPU-Z for DOS
>
> does it work with old ISA display cards?

ASTRA detects most of ISA/VLB videochips.

Trident TVGA 9000C:

  Video
    Video Chip Vendor:                 Trident Microsystems
    Video Chip:                        Trident TVGA9000C
    Video Memory Size:                 512 kB
    RAMDAC Type:                       Trident TKD8001 24-bit True Color
    Video BIOS Version:                TRIDENT TVGA BIOS C4.3 (24)
    Video BIOS Date:                   07/12/93
    BIOS Copyright:                    Copyright 1988-1991 TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS INC.
    BIOS Copyright:                    Copyright 1987-1990 Quadtel Corp.
    BIOS Size:                         32 kB
    Bus Type:                          ISA
    Maximum Resolution:                1024x768 16 Colors
    Maximum Colors:                    320x200 16M Colors
    VESA OEM String:                   Copyright 1988-1991 TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS INC.
    VESA Version:                      1.2


> BTW can it tell user if CPU is not possible to be detected using CPUID?

ASTRA detects processors without CPUID since Intel 8086/8088

I noticed that the ASTRA.OVR file is large. Are you planning to use RJCRUSH to compress ASTRA for DOS? Thanks to it, at a low cost, you can reduce the size of the overlay file (Borland Turbo Pascal OVR file) by up to 60 percent. The program must be compiled with the -GD option to generate the MAP file needed for compression.
Try it.

https://www.sac.sk/download/pack/rjcru110.zip

> I noticed that the ASTRA.OVR file is large. Are you planning to use RJCRUSH
> to compress ASTRA for DOS?

Thank you.
I tried RJCRUSH.
After starting ASTRA hangs on OvrInitCompress.

Map file is generated by -GD option.

> After starting ASTRA hangs on OvrInitCompress.

Are you sure you ran OvrInitCompress() in the correct order?

OvrInit(<overlay-file-name>);     
if OvrResult<>ovrOk then           
begin                             
  {Handle initialisation error}   
  Halt;                           
end;                               
OvrInitCompress;                   
OvrSetBuf(<new-buffer-size-value>);

You can also try the beta version.

https://www.sac.sk/download/pack/rjc-beta.zip

Do you think about making ASTRA open source (although only the DOS version)?

> > After starting ASTRA hangs on OvrInitCompress.
>
> Are you sure you ran OvrInitCompress() in the correct order?

I have created a simple application with overlay. It also hangs.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Simple application source code

> Do you think about making ASTRA open source (although only the DOS
> version)?

Sorry, ASTRA32 for Windows and ASTRA for DOS compiled from a single source.

> > Do you think about making ASTRA open source (although only the DOS
> > version)?

OvrInitCompress() has a small stack frame bug that can be successfully worked around.

Please see worked code.

https://megawrzuta.pl/download/1e688650cda74399244746e514b79d19.html

> Sorry, ASTRA32 for Windows and ASTRA for DOS compiled from a single source.

Understandable. But please consider releasing it when the commercial phase is over. There are very few large TV applications with source out there.

P.s. what is the 32/64-bit Windows version compiled with? VP, Delphi or FPC ?

> OvrInitCompress() has a small stack frame bug that can be successfully
> worked around.
>
> Please see worked code.

Thank you.
Test application works fine but ASTRA doesn't

OvrInitCompress passed, all units were successfully initialized.
After this ASTRA hangs.

Perhaps ASTRA is too complex for rjcrush. ASTRA contains 52 overlay units.

> P.s. what is the 32/64-bit Windows version compiled with? VP, Delphi or FPC
> ?

Delphi

> Perhaps ASTRA is too complex for rjcrush. ASTRA contains 52 overlay units.

Too bad it doesn't work. I tested it successfully with DN (Dos Navigator) which has 141 overlays.

> > P.s. what is the 32/64-bit Windows version compiled with? VP, Delphi or
> FPC
> > ?
>
> Delphi

Interesting. What is the origin of your TV codebase on Delphi.

(full disclosure: FPC core developer by night, Delphi programmer by day)

> > Perhaps ASTRA is too complex for rjcrush. ASTRA contains 52 overlay
> units.
>
> Too bad it doesn't work. I tested it successfully with DN (Dos Navigator)
> which has 141 overlays.

Are you author of Necromancer DOS Navigator?
I used the original DN and DN OSP for a long time.
I sent you a PM.

> Interesting. What is the origin of your TV codebase on Delphi.

DOS version (Turbo Vision) is compiled by Borland Pascal, Windows version is compiled by Delphi from a single source using IFDEF ELSE END.

Thanks to this, the DOS version still exists. All changes apply to the DOS version at no cost.

> Added detailed information about NVIDIA TNT-GTX200 family videochips
> (architecture, core and memory clocks, memory type and width, temperature
> etc). GPU-Z for DOS

Test stand for AGP video cards (Gigabyte 6IEM, Intel 815E, universal AGP):



Set of 30 AGP video cards for debugging (Riva TNT - GeForce 6600 AGP):

> Set of 30 AGP video cards for debugging (Riva TNT - GeForce 6600 AGP):
>
>

Wow, impresive collection of cards. :)

I'm still sad I had to get rid of my old PC hardware collection because of the lack of the space few years ago. :/

> > Interesting. What is the origin of your TV codebase on Delphi.
>
> DOS version (Turbo Vision) is compiled by Borland Pascal, Windows version
> is compiled by Delphi from a single source using IFDEF ELSE END.

Ah ok, so the Delphi one is not TV. That was my point of interest, since while theoretical possible, there are not many TV initiatives on Delphi.

DOS32 version of NDN in not compiled by FreePascal but by VirtualPascal.

---
DOS-u-akbar!

Version 7.10 of the ASTRA has been released

Download URL: http://www.sysinfolab.com/download.htm





New in the version 7.10:

Added detection of Infinity Fabric Clock (FCLK), Memory Controller Clock (UCLK), SMU Firmware Version, Power Limit, Core Voltage (SVI2 TFN), SoC Voltage (SVI2 TFN), Current Package Power, Max Turbo Freq, TDP Limit for AMD Ryzen processors
Added detection of Thermal Design Current (TDC), Electrical Design Current (EDC), CCD Temperature, SoC Temperature, L3 Cache Temperature, Cores Power, SoC Power, VDDIO Mem Power, VDD18 Power for AMD Ryzen processors
Added detailed information about AMD Ryzen processor memory controller (supported and current memory types and clocks, memory controller mode, timings, etc)
Added detection of Intel processors Cores Power, Memory Controller Power, Platform Power
Added detection of Intel integrated graphics processors (IGP) Power
Added support of AMD Running Average Power Limit (RAPL)
Added detailed information about NVIDIA TNT-GTX200 family videochips (architecture, core and memory clocks, memory type and width, temperature, etc)
Added support of big (more 4 TB) disks
Added detailed information about Intel Meteor Lake family processor memory controller (supported and current memory types and clocks, memory controller mode, timings, etc)
Added detailed information about Intel Atom Cedarview SOC
Added detailed information about Intel 810/815 chipset
Added detailed information about Intel UL11L/US15x (Poulsbo) chipset
Added detailed information about Intel E7500, E7501, E7505, E7205 chipset
Added detailed information about Intel ICH4, ICH4-L, ICH4-M southbridges
Added detection of GPU and memory clock of S3 videocards
Added support of Fujitsu BIOS
Added MSR Walker Tool - scan all valid MSR registers
Improved support for multiple sound cards
Improved support of Intel Meteor Lake-U/H/PS family processors
Improved support of Intel Emerald Rapids family processors
Improved support of Transmeta processors
Added detection of
Intel Core Ultra 9 Mobile (Meteor Lake-H)
Intel Core Ultra 7 Mobile (Meteor Lake-H)
Intel Core Ultra 5 Mobile (Meteor Lake-H)
Intel Core Ultra 7 Mobile (Meteor Lake-U)
Intel Core Ultra 5 Mobile (Meteor Lake-U)
Intel Core Ultra 7 (Meteor Lake-PS)
Intel Core Ultra 5 (Meteor Lake-PS)
Intel Core Ultra 3 (Meteor Lake-PS)
Intel Core i9 Mobile (Raptor Lake-HX Refresh)
Intel Core i7 Mobile (Raptor Lake-HX Refresh)
Intel Core i5 Mobile (Raptor Lake-HX Refresh)
Intel Core 7 Mobile (Raptor Lake-U Refresh)
Intel Core 5 Mobile (Raptor Lake-U Refresh)
Intel Core 3 Mobile (Raptor Lake-U Refresh)
Intel Xeon (Raptor Lake-E)
Intel Xeon (Emerald Rapids-SP)
AMD Ryzen 9 (Granite Ridge)
AMD Ryzen 7 (Granite Ridge)
AMD Ryzen 5 (Granite Ridge)
AMD Ryzen AI 9 (Strix Point)
AMD Ryzen 7 (Hawk Point)
AMD Ryzen 5 (Hawk Point)
AMD Ryzen 3 (Hawk Point)
AMD Ryzen Embedded (Raphael)
Added preliminary support of
Intel Arrow Lake Refresh family processors
AMD EPYC Zen 5c processor family
AMD Krackan Point processor family
AMD Strix Halo processor family
Fixed a program crush on the unreleased Intel Timna processor family
Fixed detection of used resources on some ISA/PnP cards
Fixed Gravis Ultrasound memory size detection
Some minor bugs fixed
Updated program database

ASTRA 7.11 beta has been released.

New in this beta:

- Added detailed information about VLSI VL82C480/VL82C481 chipset (memory controller mode, timings, L2 cache size and type, etc)
- Added detection of temperature of DDR5 memory modules
- Fixed detection of DDR5 memory modules

ASTRA 7.11 beta:
http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip

VLSI VL82C480/VL82C481 chipset screenshots:

New ASTRA 7.11 beta has been released.

New in this beta:

- Added support for EISA devices (detailed information about EISA motherboard and external devices)

DEC PRIORIS MTE:





ASTRA 7.11 beta:
http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip

New ASTRA 7.11 beta has been released.

New in this beta:

- Added support for SiS 85C411 EISA chipset (memory controller mode, ISA and EISA bus speed, L2 cache size and type, etc)








ASTRA 7.11 beta:
http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip

New ASTRA 7.11 beta has been released.

New in this beta:

- Added detection of motherboard model by BIOS ID for AMI and Award BIOS motherboards.
See the Board Model (BIOS ID) field in the screenshot.



ASTRA 7.11 beta download link:
http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip

> New ASTRA 7.11 beta has been released.
>
> New in this beta:
>
> - Added detection of motherboard model by BIOS ID for AMI and Award BIOS
> motherboards.
> See the Board Model (BIOS ID) field in the screenshot.
>
>
>
> ASTRA 7.11 beta download link:
> http://www.sysinfolab.com/files/beta/astrabet.zip
Immediately upon execution at the DOS prompt 7.11 beta completely freezes on two of my laptops, while 7.10 and previous versions worked fine. It may be an XMS or memory problem, as these systems both contain 8GB of memory. I'm using it on pure DOS of course, MS-DOS 7.1

Even decompressing the executable doesn't fix the problem. Strange problem.