Hardware (RAM+HDD) diagnostics tool?

[capsule]

I have a question that hopefully someone can provide an answer for. Long ago I used to work at an OEM system builder and we used to use QAPLUS (long ago mind you!) to burn-in and test our systems. Well, a lot of time has passed since then and QAPLUS is quite outdated.

I just recently bought a new system and I notice that is doesn't seem to be behaving quite properly so I wanted to test the heck out of the RAM (2 x 256MB Samsung PC2700 DDR) and hard drive (maxtor 80GB 7200 RPM/8MB cache -6Y080P0). I downloaded the Maxtor tool from their site to test my drive but needless to say it will not work with my Nforce2 (A7N8X deluxe) motherboard as the controller chip is not recognized by Maxtor's application.

Can anyone recommend any good (preferably free!) tool/utility that runs either in DOS or windows that can run looping tests and stop on errors or atleast detect errors for both the HDD and RAM? Many thanks.

capsule

ps - on a side note I am using Windows XP professional and notice that it does not seem to want to install IE6.0 sp2 through WU. I will download and run the install but it won't take and when I run WU upon reboot there it is again as a downloadable option. What gives? Anyone else have this happen?

Thanks guys

 

[Bovinicus]

I like a program from Passmark software called Burn-In Test. You can adjust the load to various components in the system. Just set the loads to 100% for everything you want to test, and it runs tests on everything simultaneously. Network, 3D/2D, CPU, Memory, CD-ROMs, HDDs, you name it. Even running 3DMark 2001, Prime95/SETI, or some combination of those doesn't reveal the potential stability downfalls the BIT can reveal. I got a few errors copying from my CD-ROM one time while running all the tests for a while. I determined the memory speed was too high and this caused problems because of DMA and increased PCI bus clock.

If you want to test your memory all by iteslf, then Memtest86 is an excellent program. It takes several hours to totally cycle through, but it really stresses the memory. BIT runs a lot of different memory patterns too though. So it may not be necessary with BIT.

 

[Willoughbyva]

for memory you can try memtest86. it is freeware I think. Do a google search.

Don't know about hard drive utilities.

Will

 

[PreOmegaZero]

For HDD's I use IBM's Data Fitness test. It will detect errors on pretty much ANY IDE(and SCSI if you have the chipset supported) HD's:
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

and for Memory: Memtest86 like previously stated. Free and damn near the best Memory diagnostic tool (check reviews online).
http://www.memtest86.com/#download0

Once you are inside your OS (barring any errors detected), you can run Prime95 as a Burn-in/Stress tester:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

 

[RalfHutter]

capsule - PreOmegaZero hit the nail on the head. Use the DFT and Memtest86 run off of floppies to test yout HDD/RAM and once in Windows use Prime95 to test stability. People also like to use 3Dmark to test their video subsystem stability. This also runs in Windows.

 

[capsule]

I wanted to thank you all for your feedback, I have downloaded both tools. They are great! Thanks much. Any other cool diagnostics utilities you guys can suggest? Overall system, video, etc?
Many thanks again.