HW Diagnosis software recommendations

[Admiral Huddy]

Can anyone recommend a decent software package that can peform a series of hardware checks... Freeware would be even better as it will need to be installed and uninstalled on various PCs.

Thanks

[Daz]

I've never used such an application, but surely anything based purely on software must be completely unreliable. The only data available to it would be that which Windows has, so I cant imagine it wouldn't tell you anything more than what you see in device manager.

The 2 exceptions I can think of are manufacturer specific apps (in which case there would be no 1 magic application), or vendor specific systems management solutions (the likes of Dell and HP install in their systems).

Basically, if there was a magic application out there that would tell you what's wrong with your system, any system, surely everyone would know and use it?

[Admiral Huddy]

ah.. This is right .. i stumbled across HP PC doctor and wondered if there was a tool that just did a few basic checks that everything is working as expected... like HDDs, CPU motherboard.. I ran it on a PC this weekend just gone and it was quite comprehensive.

I just wondered if there was something I could introduce to the PC health check service as a basic check?

[Matblack]

I used to use Sisoft Sandra

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.ht...se&langx=en&a=

MB

[Dr. Z]

Running something like sisoft sandra would possibly flag up any errors or whatever?

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by DRZ

Running something like sisoft sandra would possibly flag up any errors or whatever?

You think?



MB

[Admiral Huddy]

it's been years since i've used that...
does it do any basic Hw checks?

this is the HP software I was using..

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00041380

[Matblack]

Originally Posted by Admiral Huddy

it's been years since i've used that...
does it do any basic Hw checks?

this is the HP software I was using..

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00041380

List of SiSoftware Sandra Modules
Here is a list of current modules.

• System Summary
• Mainboard/Chipset/System Monitors Info
• CPU/BIOS Info
• APM & ACPI (Advanced Power Management) Info
• PCI(e), AGP, CardBus, PCMCIA bus and devices Info
• Video Information (monitor, card, video bios, caps, etc.)
• OpenGL Information
• DirectX (DirectDraw, Direct3D, DirectSound (3D), DirectMusic, DirectPlay, DirectInput) Info
• Keyboard Info
• Mouse Info
• Sound Card (wave, midi, aux, mix) Info
• MCI Devices (mpeg, avi, seq, vcr, video-disc, wave) Info
• Joystick Info
• Printers Info
• Windows Memory Info
• Windows Info
• Font (Raster, Vector, TrueType, OpenType) Information
• Modem/ISDN TA Information
• Network Information*
• IP Network Information*
• WinSock & Internet Security Information
• Drives Information (Removable Hard Disks, CD-ROM/DVD, RamDrives, etc.)
• Ports (Serial/Parallel) Info
• Remote Access Service Connections (Dial-Up, Internet)*
• OLE objects/servers Info*
• Processes (Tasks) & Threads Info
• Modules (DLL, DRV) Info
• Services & Device Drivers (SYS) Info*
• SCSI Information*
• ATA/ATAPI Information
• Data Sources Information*
• CMOS/RTC Information*
• Smart Card & SIM Card Information*

• CPU Arithmetic Benchmark (MP/MT support)
• CPU Multi-Media Benchmark (including MMX, MMX Enh, 3DNow!, 3DNow! Enh, SSE(2)) (MP/MT support)
• File System (Removable, Hard Disks, Network, RamDrives) Benchmark
• Removable Storage/Flash Benchmark
• CD-ROM/DVD Benchmark
• Memory Bandwidth Benchmark (MP/MT support)
• Cache & Memory Bandwidth Benchmark (MP/MT support)
• Network/LAN Bandwidth Benchmark
• Internet/ISP Connection Benchmark
• Internet/ISP Peerage Benchmark

• Hardware Interrupts Usage*
• DMA Channel Usage*
• I/O Ports Usage*
• Memory Range Usage*
• Plug & Play Enumerator*
• Hardware registry settings
• Environment settings
• Registered File Types
• Key Applications* (web-browser, e-mail, news, anti-virus, firewall, etc.)
• Installed Applications*
• Installed Programs*
• Start Menu Applications*
• On-disk Programs & Libraries*
• Installed Web Packages* (ActiveX, Java classes)
• System Event Logs*

• Burn-in Wizard* (test computer stability)
• Connect Wizard (connect to remote computers, PDAs, Smart Phones and other devices)
• Combined Performance Index Wizard (overall computer performance score)
• Create a Report Wizard (save, print, fax or e-mail in CIM (SMS/DMI), HTML, XML, RPT or TEXT format)
• Performance Tune-Up Wizard (tune-up computer)
• Environment Monitor Wizard (temperatures, voltages, fans, CPU power, cooling solution thermal resistance, etc.)
• WebUpdate Wizard for automatic version updating

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[Admiral Huddy]

Oh ehh Mrs.. That looks pretty comprehensive.. will gave that a go tonight - Cheers

[Robert]

I'd just use:

Voltmeter
Everest
Orthos - run for around 8 - 12 hours
Memtest - run for a few hours
3dmark - loop it