| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/15/2008 5:03:48 PM | My PC has been locking up/freezing and rebooting and coming up with all sorts of strange error messages and blue screens of death etc. Earlier it wouldn't even boot up!
I've run all the major anti-virus/anti-spyware/malware/trojans/greyware/vulnerabilities scans going, (the safe and trusted ones). The PC is free from nasties.
Must be something else.
Somethings on its way out or isn't right.
I've just removed the extra 256 meg stick of ram that I'd added the other day whilst case was off sorting out another issue of the PC trying to boot up off the wrong HDD first, which seems to have solved the problem for now, but some software that checks the hardware would be very handy indeed.
Do you know of one that comes recommended as a good tool for this task? | |
|
| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/15/2008 6:49:55 PM | Actually bad memory is the #1 cause of that behavior, number two is over heating. I don't know if the manufacturer of your PC makes any self test software.
There are memory testing programs.
Look for something to check "SMART" status of the drives.
There are also programs the report the temperature from all the little thermometers in the computer.
Been out of the PC hardware world to long to give you names. | |
|
| |
| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/15/2008 7:40:01 PM | does the fan come on regulary?
CPU Fan is always on and running without a prob. Same goes for PSU and case fans.
Did a console root check of the hard drives through the mmc command (using the snap in function) and shows both HDD's as healthy. | |
|
| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/15/2008 9:26:51 PM | "I've just removed the extra 256 meg stick of ram that I'd added the other day whilst case was off sorting out another issue of the PC trying to boot up off the wrong HDD first, which seems to have solved the problem for now, "
And so by the process of elimination, you have your answer already. As stated faulty ram does cause those types of seemingly unrelated, random errors, mass instability and boot issues, data loss and corruption, if you can boot it at all.
Could be that your new chip is not supported by the motherboard, or has been damaged via static, however it sounds like you 're upgrading an old computer and you should have cleaned that previously unused and dirty ram slot out extremely well with compressed air before putting a new stick in. Try cleaning it and reseating it several times, see if the problems persist after.
"Memtest" is a free app that is widely used for doing burn in type tests on the ram, look that up after you've done the above, and let it run overnight if you can. If it can loop at least a few times you should be OK.
In addition, since you more than likely do have a less than new computer or are trying to piece one together, make sure all the electrolytic caps on it look healthy, specifically those for the voltage regulators which you'll find around the CPU and also those around the ram slots themselves if any. The board surrounding them should be free of leakage/wet stains, if you see dirt glued that looks wet all around them, they've leaked out. They should not be swollen, and there should be no signs of corrosion or build up on the tops of them either. If you see any of that you'll either have to replace them, or the motherboard. This was a common problem in the ~256mb RAM sticks era.
Make sure your bios is setup appropriately as well, with correct clock multipliers et al. You'll get these same types of errors as well if you've overlocked it a little too much, are overheating for any reason, voltages' falling out of regulation (bad PSU, overloaded PSU, failing caps).... or are just silly enough to run windows ME, which in that case is just SNAFU. Could have also been a loose cable to the drives you were messing with, sometimes you pull on one end and the other pops out.
Have fun. | |
|
| |
| |
| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/21/2008 12:31:27 PM | The PC was OK after I'd taken out that ram I'd lobbed in but only for a day, and now the problems have come back and getting worse. Rebooting and freezing mid session more regularly/quickly after starting to do work on PC.
I've had to take my 2nd HDD out altogether just to guarantee the PC will be stable enough for me to come on here for a while without crashing.
One thing I've noticed is that it will work fine without the 2nd HDD plugged in.
So.. any hardware checking software out that will check my PC hardware for me? I've done scandisk on the 2nd HDD but it always freezes on phase 4 of the check.
*pulls hair out* | |
|
| Any good free safe trusted hardware diagnostic programs?
Posted: 5/23/2008 1:12:35 PM | Sounds like you had bad mem or Incompatibility mem with your MB
but for future ref heres a few good free apps
http://www.sisoftware.net/
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?id=7
and a pay Prof option I use
http://www.micro2000.co.uk/products/index.html
Hope this helps
JaY | |
|
Home
login 
