RE: Hardware diagnostics

["David Christensen" <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com>]

Scott Gifford wrote:

> I suspect a hardware problem,
> Can anybody recommend a good hardware diagnostic or "burn-in" program?
> I have used memtest86

I also use and recommend memtest86.  It tests your CPU, memory, and
everything between them and your keyboard and display to a greater or
lesser degree.  It usually finds bad memory on the first pass, but I
once tested a machine (Intel D945GNTLKR) that was marginal and took many
hours to fail.

    http://www.memtest86.com/


You should download a bootable CD version of the diagnostic utility for
your system hard drive, burn it, and run it.  For example:

    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/

 
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&sid=30&lang=en


You should get yourself a power supply tester and use it.  I have this
one:

    http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=ODk=


I've used CPU burn-in to stress test CPU's and thermal solutions:

    http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/


You will need software to display the CPU temperature.  I use retail
motherboards, and they typically include a utility.  I've used
Motherboard Monitor in the past:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard_Monitor


If you have a bootable Windows partition/ drive, I've used SISoftware
Sandra to benchmark and burn-in entire machines:

    http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/


HTH,

David