best free softwares for testing and diagnose PC hardware components?

[genesicgaogaigar]

So what are the free softwares for testing and diagnose PC components? And/or how will you diagnose a component that can't be test by softwares?

 

CPU - ?

RAM - ?

Harddrive or SSD- ?

motherboard - ?

video card - ?

PSU - ?

[BroKenFingers]

Always a process of elimination...

The main types of software testing of computer hardware is RAM and HDD (hardrives).

This is a good memory ram tester: http://www.memtest86.com/   OR this : http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Newer MB and HDD's have the S.M.A.R.T features which will warn of failures. You can monitor your drives via a program. find it here : http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

There are programs which will stress the system..to find any weakness..these will only provoke a failure..not show you where to look..Prime95, FurMark, etc.

Hope that helps a bit..there is a bootable disk with some great freeware software which can aid you in narrowing down the search : http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Always remember to make a bootable repair disk for your OS..it has saved my butt many times over..

Good luck and have fun..!!

[genesicgaogaigar]

So CPU and Video card will only be able to do tests and diagnoses thru softwares like Prime95, and some GPU benchmarks? How about PSU, what are the ways to diagnose a PSU?

[BroKenFingers]

Well..you use testing software as a tool to check for stability,performance and efficiency. The answers they provide should indicate the health of your system as a whole.

What are you testing for ?

 

Thermaltake have a great  hand held PSU checker  http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00001777.

[genesicgaogaigar]

I'm building a new system now, and I want to see if there are any free software to test all the new components that I bought. Also, is there a software for testing monitors to see if there are any faults?

 

By the way, thanks for the replies.

[MiracleMan]

I test new systems with Prime95+Furmark 24 hours, puts load on CPU, RAM and GPU to see if everything is stable. 

 

But i see no sense in testing everything in every possible way if there is no issue. You can test your PSU with a multimeter, drives with programs like crystalmark. 

 

The only problems (except completely dead boards, but that is pretty obvious) that i had with motherboards were dead RAM/PCI(e) slots etc., you can check that by just trying different slots. 

[genesicgaogaigar]

Then how about montior? Is it possible to test it?

[BroKenFingers]

How about a try it for 30 days..http://www.passmark.com/products/monitortest.htm

[genesicgaogaigar]

Is there any other ways to determine if a monitor is faulty or not?

 

What is CrystalMark? What can it actually do to help me evaluate my drives? Because to me, it seems just like a normal benchmark for HDD to me  :huh: .

 

@MiracleMan When you test using Prime95+Furmark for 24 hrs, you use both of them at the same time, or one after the other?

[MiracleMan]

Well, if you look at the monitor, and the picture seems broken maybe the monitor is broken :D

 

CrystalMark is a Benchmark and it can show you the S.M.A.R.T data of your HDD. If everything is ok according to S.M.A.R.T your HDD is most likely fine. 

And if you see in the benchmark that the HDD runs as fast as it should everything is ok. 

 

Prime and Furmark at the same time, like that you can also tell if there is some power delivery issue (CPU and GPU use the most power) or some other wierd issues that only happen if they are running together. 

 

But you are really way too worried about that, if you dont have any problem imo Prime95+Furmark is more than enough to test your system. 

[genesicgaogaigar]

I had tried the Furmark, but the software itself doesn't seem run for 24hrs. So do I have to repeat the test manually each time is done for 24 hrs?

 

Or should I use some other Graphic card test software such as the Heavenbenchmark, or the one that comes from my graphic card manufacture? (my is from EVGA)

[BroKenFingers]

You should not run frumark for 24 hours..one pass is enough..try OCCT..it will test the system..again, you do not need to run it for long either..but they do provide options for 30 min. testing..

[IdeaStormer]

So what are the free softwares for testing and diagnose PC components? And/or how will you diagnose a component that can't be test by softwares?

 

Harddrive or SSD- ?

 

From another thread: Ref: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/24584-seagate-barracuda-st2000dm001-whirring-chirping-is-it-failing/#entry316177

 

 

Here is the most complete hard drive S.M.A.R.T Tools app, it is dos shell based but still produces all the numbers. Install it and let us know the numbers you get. All the tests are in their Examples folder (via the start menu)

 

http://sourceforge.n.../smartmontools/

[Blade of Grass]

Windows 7 (and I think 8) have a built in memory diagnostic utility (bet the majority of people didn't know that!). Just search for Windows Memory Diagnostic (or just memory, should be a top result)/ mdsched.exe.

Works kind of like memtest, when you use it, it will restart your computer into a DOS environment and starts testing. I haven't heard good or bad things about it.

[BroKenFingers]

On BOOT..After the POST beep..HIT F5 on Windows 7 and it will bring you to the memory diagnostic screen...

But these are a little better: http://www.memtest86.com/      http://www.memtest.org/