Is there diagnostic software that can check hardware?

[Wekiva]

About 2 weeks ago my computer started acting up. First my framerate went to heck in all the games I played...then I started getting randomly dropped from games and software back to the desktop. Then three days ago I started completly locking up. My computer would freeze and everything would stop working (no blue screen of death...just sudden freezing). Sometimes when this happens I can hit reset button and it comes back...other times I can keep hitting reset button and it will continue to freeze at some part of the start up process. When that happens I have to do complete shut down and then restart and then the computer will fun fine for 24 hours.

I am about to do a full format and reinstall (I was due for one anyway). But I'm wondering if there's something ailing my PC that a reinstall won't fix. Is there a way to test it's innards? Can any program test my ram...test my hard drive, test my cpu?

I was thinking Sandra did this but it seems to be more of a software checker than hardware (unless I'm not reading it's homepage right...of course it IS 3:14am)

Thanks

 

[imported_300ZX]

good post, I would like to know the answer to this also....

 

[aznbomber]

How long have you had this computer for? and have you recently done anything to it like install a new software or moved it to a new location?

It seems like a heating problem to me, but i can not be for sure until more information is given.

 

[funggorgor]

check the temperature of your cpu

 

[Ioo]

Originally posted by: Wekiva
I was thinking Sandra did this but it seems to be more of a software checker than hardware (unless I'm not reading it's homepage right...of course it IS 3:14am)

Sandra is mostly geared towards hardware diagnostics, and would be a good place to start.

 

[Wekiva]

Well overheating did come to mind. It's hard to say how long I've had this computer...it's been added to and tweaked a lot. I did upgrade to 3.2 chip about 2 months ago...about the same time I put my computer in an enclosed desk meant for CPU placement. But at that time I was concerned about temp problems and I had my friend who builds all my systems install the motherboard software that includes temp diagnostics. I now constantly have 2 readouts in my systray....system and cpu? cpu is usually around 50 (58 during gaming) and system is usually around 45. It seems that this isn't that high...but how reliable is a motherboard's thermometers?

Hmm....we also changed the fan speed about a month ago because the thing sounded like a helicopter taking off. My friend enabled the system's ability to change fan speed and so now when it's hot it speeds up and when it cools down the fans slow down.

 

[Ioo]

Originally posted by: Wekiva
Hmm....we also changed the fan speed about a month ago because the thing sounded like a helicopter taking off. My friend enabled the system's ability to change fan speed and so now when it's hot it speeds up and when it cools down the fans slow down.

Did he maybe also enable CPU speed throttling?

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Wekiva

I am about to do a full format and reinstall (I was due for one anyway). But I'm wondering if there's something ailing my PC that a reinstall won't fix. Is there a way to test it's innards? Can any program test my ram...test my hard drive, test my cpu?

I was thinking Sandra did this but it seems to be more of a software checker than hardware (unless I'm not reading it's homepage right...of course it IS 3:14am)

Thanks

Try Memtest86 for your ram, Prime95 for the cpu. Go HERE for a boat-load of free proggies for checking/diagnosing hardware and performance.

Fern