Micro 2000 Universal
Diagnostic Toolkit
Reviewed by: Don Hughes
dahughes@dahughes.ca
The first time I saw a demonstration of
Micro2000 products was during the 1999 COMDEX trade show in
Toronto. I was fascinated by the
Universal Diagnostic Toolkit's power and
user-friendly interfaces. Easy as the program appeared on the
surface however, just like an iceberg the real power of the
program was not obvious during quick demonstrations at COMDEX.
The Micro 2000 booth staff superbly
explained the advantages of their products and did their very
best to convince me to buy. No doubt the product demo had
already sold me. I was salivating over the PC diagnostic tools
and the POST-Probe, but I left COMDEX without purchasing the
toolkit, deciding to make a considered decision later. As useful
as the product might be, I had managed to work without a
multifunction tool kit for several years and the question that
kept bothering me was whether or not the Micro 2000 utilities
could really save my company time and money when servicing PC
systems.
Micro2000's Universal Diagnostic Toolkit
consists of two powerful PC testing tools, Micro-Scope and
POST-Probe, packaged in a large, stylish, leather carrying case.
Micro-Scope is a universal PC diagnostic
that runs a proprietary OS, which eliminates DOS limitations and
inaccuracies and includes support for the latest processors from
Intel and AMD, CD-ROM testing without drivers, advanced memory
testing, and improved drive testing. POST-Probe is a universal
Power-On Self-Test (POST) reader for the "dead" PC.
I have methodically tested and used the
Micro-Scope PC Diagnostics software and the POST-Probe for
several months on just about every brand name PC and PC clone on
the market. The Micro-Scope software and the POST-Probe have
functioned flawlessly during diagnostic testing on various makes
of servers, desktops and laptops.
The Micro-Scope PC software comes with a 174
page, easy to read manual complete with well placed screen shots
of each diagnostic process. Using the software is easy - insert
the self-booting diskette into drive A, then turn on or reboot
the computer.
The Batch menu allows a user to select and
run combinations of hardware tests on various components, such
as the motherboard, hard drives IDE & SCSI, RAM, video memory,
serial and parallel ports. Users have the choice of running all
tests, single tests or combinations of tests. Users can select
many combinations of items to test motherboards, hard drive
controllers, base memory and can even set Pass Counts for
running burn-in tests on newly assembled computers.
Service companies can use Micro-Scope to
create printed reports which contain the date, customer
information and the results of all testing run on problem
computers. The Utilities menu in Micro-Scope provides access to
powerful tools including a floppy editor, fixed disk editor,
SCSI/ IDE device editor, benchmark tests, master boot sector
rebuilder, floppy head cleaner, debugging tools, and attribute
toggles. The Post-Probe tool diagnoses problem computers which
cannot successfully boot.
POST-Probe has a 13 LED pre-POST test,
2-digit POST code display and provides full PCI support. The kit
comes with loop back plugs for running external port tests. The
POST-Probe plugs into any available PCI or ISA, EISA slots on a
motherboard. The kit also contains an adapter for a Micro
Channel Slot.
Included with the Post-Probe is a
comprehensive, 189 page manual which contains BIOS post codes
for AMI, Award, AST, Compaq, Euro/Mylex, IBM, Microid Research,
Mr BIOS, Phillips, Phoenix ISA/ EISA/MCA, Phoenix 4.0, and
Quadtel. The Micro2000 POST-Probe is a state of the art
diagnostic tool, which has five LEDs to monitor power supply
voltages (+5vdc to -12vdc) plus the clock, oscillator, reset and
I/O monitor LEDs. In addition, the probe has two 7-segment
displays to monitor POST codes as a system attempts to boot up.
In the service business, time is money. The
Micro 2000 Universal Diagnostic Toolkit is worth its weight in
gold for any service company. The cost of the
product is quickly recovered because of faster turn around time
when fixing problem systems. The product also helps control
business costs simply because technicians are more accurately
diagnosing what parts they require for system repairs. Service
companies will avoid ordering the wrong parts then paying for
return shipments and restocking charges. Accurately diagnosing
problems the first time will definitely impress your clients
too.
The Micro2000 Universal Diagnostic Toolkit
has become a significant part of my field service diagnostic
kit.
Update October 11, 2005:
Nearly five years have passed since I wrote the article on
Micro2000’s Universal tool kit, and I still remember watching in
awe as the Micro 2000 booth staff-demonstrated the toolkit
during the Toronto COMDEX. Having purchased limited software
testing programs in the past I wondered if Micro 2000 Universal
tool kit would live up to the hype and really pay for its self
in a real world working environment. Thus when the opportunity
test and review the product I took up the challenge to both shop
and field test this "wonder kit."
The universal toolkit was a bit of a learning curve, and I
had some difficulty setting the jumpers on the post card.
However, thanks to Micro 2000’s super tech support staff help we
soon had the minor glitch corrected—it does pay to read the book
first. In the beginning I set out to prove that repair shops did
not need a toolkit to diagnose computer hardware problems.
It was not long until a PC with unusually printing problems
came into the shop; usually this is a software issue. But in
this case the problem was harder to diagnose and after a good
half hour the problem was not being pinpointed. The PC testing
software we used at the time detected no hardware errors. At
that point I decided this problem PC is an excellent test for
the Micro2000 universal tool Kit.
The Universal tool kit comes with loopback plugs for port
testing and I inserted the LPT plug into the PC printer port
LPT1 and put the diagnostic disk into drive A: and booted up the
PC. Once the Micro-Scope Universal Diagnostic software booted we
ran a test on the ports. Within seconds the software detected a
defective LPT1 port on the PC. From that point forward the
Micro2000 Universal Tool Kit has become our main PC testing
tool.
In years that have followed since my article the tool kit has
detected hundreds of faults in hard drives, motherboards, video
cards, sound cards, floppy disk, and memory chip errors etc. In
addition the tool kit can quickly and with precision locate
problems with partial or non booting motherboards.
There is no doubt in my mind the value of Micro2000 Universal
Toolkit for any service shop, technician or consultant who needs
to test computers in the shop or in the field. Testing is more
reliable and the Micro2000 Universal toolkit will pay for itself
just by time saved diagnosing hard to locate problems.
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