Diagnostic tests

Hi all

Built a computer which is now giving me hassels with installing software on it.

I get mad blue screens, windows isntalls dont finish. Computer hangs etc etc.

I want to run some diagnostic tests to check all the components.

I got a seagate sata drive so I downloaded the seagate diagnostic tests. Burnt it to a cd. Dont know if it is bootable or not, going to try.

Most of the mobos here are intel boards. Is there an Intel diag test which will test the board as well as the memory installed. Pref somethign I can boot from instead of doing it through windows.

Any help appreciated.

Well, I don't know of a combined one but I do know of memtest86 that should help for the memory. :D

Test the memory first. Try memtest. It's on many bootable linux CD's,
including Ubuntu.

Tested with Seatools , found nothing. Havent used them before so dont know what exactly I am looking for. I booted from the memtest iso, it is doing the scans, what must i be looking for in memtest if the ram is faulty.

It wont flash, " YOUR RAM IS FAULTY" ? Will it ? :)

There are some links to diagnostic tools on this site:

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloa...ndra-lite-2005

Look down the bottom for some alternatives.

Memtest86 will produce error messages on a red background. IIRC they are the defective memory address blocks?

Are you getting any messages?

FYI AMI Tools was great if its still around and CheckIT makes a lot of gooo stuff too

Hey everyone. I stopped the memory tests around 50% with no error messages yet.

I took it back and it turned out to be a defective Memory stick ...

Thanks for the links. I will keep them for future purposes.

I assume it is just easier to swop out components to test them rather than waiting for tests.

The IT guy whom trouble shooted the machine said that diag tests take a few hours to run where as it takes 1 minute to swop out a ram stick ...

However at the office I dont have lots of machines to swop components so ill just keep the diag utilities everyone has posted.

Thanks :)

Well, I guess it is horses for courses.

Diagnostics are very useful if the item or component is still under warranty. For example the manufacturer's HDD tool will provide you with a RTB number.

Another area is when you are dealing with laptops, because there is so much integrated hardware involved, and not much you can swap, even if you had these components.

I believe that the AMI tools are now called AMIdiag. The CheckIT product used to come from TouchStone but seems to be from Smith Micro these days.

Thanks for the input guys :)