My original post was a little lacking in its verbosity wasn't it.
I am looking for a utility package (perhaps a software component and accompanying hardware component(s)) that one can use to diagnose hardware issues. Examples are Micro2000 Microscope, AMI Diag, PC-Certify etc.
I am sure someone has already performed an evaluation of these products and published their results on the internet, but as yet I have not found them.