Using the WHATADAP.EXE Utility

The WHATADAP program interrogates any PCI, EISA, MCA, PCMCIA, or 'Plug and Play' adapters that it finds in a computer, and prints out information about each one. It tells you an adapter's bus type and bus identifier (plus other information, depending on the type of bus the adapter is for). And you can give these two pieces of information on the IFADAP command line when you specify the particular adapter that IFADAP is to search for. In other words, if you are using IFADAP to load drivers selectively, then WHATADAP gives you two more selection criteria to use: bus type (BUS=<bus type>) and bus identifier (BID=<an identificatory code number>).

Note: Note, however, that WHATADAP.EXE does not support CardBus adapters.

WHATADAP can detect any PCI, EISA, MCA, Plug and Play, or PCMCIA adapters, not just those produced by Madge. You must run the program from the DOS command-line or from a batch file.

The WHATADAP Options
WHATADAP Output

The WHATADAP Options

The only option supported by WHATADAP.EXE is /? which displays a short description of WHATADAP's function.

When you run WHATADAP.EXE without the /? option, it displays a one line description for every adapter card it finds in the computer. The amount of detail depends on the adapter's bus type. However, the description will always include at least a bus type and a bus identifier.

The WHATADAP Output

The output that WHATADAP.EXE displays for each adapter depends on the adapter's bus type. The general format is as follows, but note that the description is not always available: BUS=<bus type> BID=<bus identifier> [description]

where:

<bus type>  <bus identifier>
----------  ----------------
  MCA        AAAA/B          AAAA is the MCA POS ID data
                             B is a 1 digit MCA slot number

  EISA       AAAA/BBB/CC     AAAA is the EISA manufacturer's code
                             BBB is the product code number
                             CC is the EISA slot number 

  PCI        AAAA/BBBB       AAAA is the Vendor ID number
                             BBBB is the Device ID number

  PNP        AAAA/BBBB/C     AAAA is the manufacturer's code
                             BBBB is the logical device ID
                             C is the Card Select Number

  PCMCIA     AAAA/BBBB/CCCC  AAAA is the manufacturers ID
                             BBBB is the manufacturers info 
                             CCCC is the logical socket number

With some devices (for example, Plug And Play and PCMCIA devices) WHATADAP.EXE tries to provide the user with descriptive information about the adapter. It will, for example, try to make it clear which bus identifier belongs to which adapter. However, its success will depend on how closely the manufacturer has followed the specification for making available this type of information.

Example 1

On a computer with an internal PCI/ISA bus, WHATADAP.EXE reported:

BUS=PCI BID=8086/122d Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:Host/PCI bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/122e Class:Bridge Device, Subtype:PCI/ISA bridge
BUS=PCI BID=8086/1230 Class:Mass Storage, Subtype:IDE controller
BUS=PCI BID=5333/8811 Class:Display Adapter, Subtype:VGA/8514
BUS=PCI BID=10b6/2 Class:Network Adapter, Subtype:Token Ring
BUS=PNP BID=101/8734/1 Madge Smart 16/4 ISA Clnt. PnP Ringnode
BUS=PNP BID=0/4d24/2 IBM Auto 16/4 Token-Ring ISA Adapter
BUS=PNP BID=9550/6d50/3 3Com 3C509B EtherLink III

Lines 1, 2, and 3 are all describing a multifunction PCI/ISA bridge chip with an embedded IDE disk controller. Line 4 describes the VGA video adapter. Line 5 describes the Madge Token Ring network adapter. Line 6 describes a Plug and Play Madge Ringnode on the ISA bus. Line 7 describes an IBM Auto Plug and Play adapter on the ISA bus. Line 8 describes the motherboard embedded Plug and Play 3Com ethernet adapter.

Example2

On a portable computer with a PCMCIA socket:

BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0 MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE

The description ("MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE") of line 1 was read from the PCMCIA card configuration memory.

Example3

On a Microchannel bus machine:

BUS=MCA BID=74/1
BUS=MCA BID=74/2
BUS=MCA BID=eee7/5

Line 1 describes a Madge MC Ringnode in slot 1. Line 2 describes another MC Ringnode in slot 2. Line 3 describes an IBM video adapter in slot 5. Note that the MCA bus does not provide any extra descriptive information: such detail is not part of the MCA specification. If you are in any doubt about which line refers to which card on the MCA bus, remove and replace the adapters, running WHATADAP.EXE each time, and noting the information it reports.

Note that the extra data provided with the PCMCIA, PCI and Plug And Play buses is for your information only: you cannot use it as an argument to IFADAP.

Example of how to use WHATADAP to find out which arguments to give IFADAP

This example concerns a portable computer that uses one of two different network cards depending on whether it is in its docking station or not. To find out which arguments to pass to IFADAP, the user needs to run WHATADAP.EXE twice: once when the PC is in its docking station, and once when it is outside its docking station.

If the computer displays the following information when it is powered up in its docking station:

and it displays the following information when it is powered up outside its docking station:

BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0 MADGE SMART 16/4 PCMCIA RINGNODE

then the user will put the following lines into the PC's CONFIG.SYS:

IFADAP BUS=PCI BID=10b6/2 DD=<PCI device driver arguments>
IFADAP BUS=PCMCIA BID=141/1/0 DD=<PCMCIA device driver arguments>

In this way, the correct device driver will be loaded for whichever adapter the PC is using.