Today is the second day of 'Five Days of Free Tools' and we are talking about the 'Hardware Testing' toolset today. Let's say that your computer has become extremely sluggish or 'glitchy' or even crashes with possible blue screens lately. There are many things that could possibly cause this and one of them is the Hardware. Specifically the CPU (Processor, Central Processing Unit), RAM (Memory, Random Access Memory), or HDD (Hard Disk Drive). This can be a difficult and expensive task to undertake but with this toolset you can potentially save yourself some money if it is put to use properly and do some diagnostics on your own before taking your system to a technician or potentially attempt the repairs yourself!
Note - I am not suggesting that you can determine with 100% accuracy the issue(s) of a system by utilizing only the tools provided here. However, they have been tools that I have used throughout my experiences to really lay the groundwork of the underlying issues of a system. They have helped me determine, quite accurately, which hardware components are potentially damaged, which suggests the next possible steps in resolving issues. **If you cannot determine without a doubt which hardware component(s) (if any) are damaged using these tools it would be in your best interest to either attempt using another tool that could verify your hypothesis of the failing component(s) or allow a technician to further troubleshoot your system with a wider array of tools than potentially you would have available.
Now, on to the toolset...HARDWARE TESTING
- Some of these tools must be downloaded and then burned using a program that can write ISO files to disk. ISO files are nothing more than a bit for bit representation of a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk. They must be burned onto the optical media in a specific fashion, not just burned on like a disk full of family vacation photos. A program called CDBurnerXP is my preference and is easy accessible here: http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home (we'll call this Tool #0.5 haha).
Tool #1 in Toolset #2 - Memory Stress Test - Memtest86
- Running Memtest86 will put the Memory (as well as other components) through a series of robust calculations in order to stress the memory to find if there are problems reading/writing to particular sectors however false readings are possible as a result of the CPU and L1 & L2 cache's (Processor and processor components) that could be the reason for the failure as well. It will run multiple 'passes' or 'completed cycles' in order to basically get the system warmed up before any errors would show up. Some users have run 1 pass and started receiving errors while others have performed 10 - 15 passes before getting any errors to show up.
- Your experience may vary but if you want to do some testing and possibly be able to save some time with your local technician you could explain that you've ran this test (although they may run it again) and explain that you feel led to believe your RAM or 'Memory' is failing. Or for the novice computer guy try replacing, swapping the RAM around to determine if only one of a set of memory modules is bad and/or replace the memory as needed on your own.
- Whatever your choice good luck!
Tool #2 in Toolset #2 - CPU & RAM Stress Test - Prime95
- Similar to Memtest86, this tool runs a series of calculations (mersenne prime numbers to be exact... learn more here: http://www.mersenne.org/) in order to cause the system to stumble or fail in an effort to determine which devices cannot 'handle the pressure.' Prime95 can be configured via the menu to lean more towards RAM or CPU to get the system to fail or stumble quicker dependent on which device is failing but this too can only give a slight picture into what could be wrong with the system. Even to do simple mathematical operations (albeit finding Mersenne Primes are anything but simple) take multiple components, each of which that are involved could the be breaking point and without more precise or even forensic diagnostic tools it could still be a toss-up over which components are failing.
- As stated though, these tools are to help you get a glimpse as to some potential issues and are probably leaning more towards the novice computer 'geek' who may have some spare parts laying around and could benefit more because they can swap in and out components from those they have as spares.
and last but not least,
Tool #3 in Toolset #2 - HDD Test - Hitachi Drive Fitness Test
- Hitachi Drive Fitness Test has been a tool that I've used for quite some time too. I have used Hitachi DFT quite more frequently than the previous other two tools but they come highly recommended all across the tech forums to perform the same exact functions as I've described above.
But, back to Hitachi...
- Once you've burned your disk it will boot-up and ask a few questions before it gets to the main application but if you just press enter on them the default options should work for a typical setup.
- Once the main screen is there it will ask if you believe the configuration shown is correct (it should be) and should show probably at least one optical drive and your hard drive (it is ok of your hard drive is not Hitachi brand, this test will work on any drive). Once you've ok'd through the verification you can select your drive and then perform an advanced test and let it run through. Obviously enough if it fails, bad HDD. If it passes, its not the HDD that's the issue.... If your computer crashes during the test... Try again or one of the other tools listed above if you ran them in a different order than described here.
- If you've already ran through the other tools it may be time to:
A. Do more research on your own to find a diagnostic utility that can help,
or
B. Employ a technician, BUT!, don't forget to let them know that you've tried these tools first and tell them how it turned out (crashing, errors, failures). It could save you time or they may just run the tools again, but it is always worth the shot.
Hope you have enjoyed Toolset #2, Day 2 of 'Five Days of Free Tools'. I'll be posting again tomorrow (duh!) and our toolset will be...'OFFENSIVE AGAINST VIRUSES & MALWARE'. You've used antivirus and you use a firewall but somehow you still got a virus, use these tools to start your offensive 'treatment' to remedy your infection! Stay Tuned!
~KHaleTech
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