PC Hardware Tests

Hi all

my current job role means that I have to prepare hardware internally for external projects now some of these computers originally appear to be working ok ( no faults )

My problem is that when I have bulit the hardware everything appears to be ok initially then when I get to roll out the hardware at projects wether it will a day later or week later I am met with complaints of hardware failing ( HDDs etc)

I work for a charity and the hardware we use is pretty old and has been donated to us

my question is what kinda hardware and reliabilty stress tests would be good to check the integrity of the computers I build.

So far I am only using Memtest I am currently in the process of drafting up more intense hardware tests for all built computers and need some help with this

Many Thanks

Ally

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Comments

JDMurray

I use Sandra for initial testing, stress testing, and burn-in for computers. There are other such utilities too and probably for free.

ally_uk

Can you recommend any free or open source software?

Plantwiz

ally_uk wrote:

Hi all

my current job role means that I have to prepare hardware internally for external projects now some of these computers originally appear to be working ok ( no faults )

My problem is that when I have bulit the hardware everything appears to be ok initially then when I get to roll out the hardware at projects wether it will a day later or week later I am met with complaints of hardware failing ( HDDs etc)

I work for a charity and the hardware we use is pretty old and has been donated to us

my question is what kinda hardware and reliabilty stress tests would be good to check the integrity of the computers I build.

So far I am only using Memtest I am currently in the process of drafting up more intense hardware tests for all built computers and need some help with this

Many Thanks

Ally

Depending on the age and previous use....Power Supplies do die so if you are looking at using a PC 3-4 years old already....plan on budgeting for new PS and early P4, PIII, PII systems you can find new PS that are around $20ish dollars (US). It's pretty tough to find something that will test your PS to evaluate remaining useful life. You could test it with a multimeter to see what your outputs are....but aside from if the fans are cooling it properly....not much available (cheap).

As far as HDDs dying....you should be able to 'hear' anything abnormal...high pitched sounds, cluncks and grinds go without saying (I'd think). The HDD MFG usually has a diagnostic you could run to see how the drive is 'today'....but again if you are looking at things that are 3-4+ years or older.....you'll likely be replacing HDDs too.

Look for bargins on bulk lots of PS and HDD, sometimes you can find these... pretty resonsible in the US, not sure what the UK offers.

When you get 'donated' goods, its a blessing and a curse. Nothing is 'free' so while it probably puts a PC infront of your members....and takes a large % of the cost burden off the organization....you'll still need to make some upgrades.

Memory shouldn't fail and most mfg's warranty it for its 'lifetime'. NICs, Modems, may have taken a surge and shorten their life and Drives, PS do expire due to moving components and heat. All the testing in the world won't give you the absolute answer, so I'd second the SiSandra and pad the budget a little for those items that do fail more frequently.

HTH

ally_uk

Thanks for the feedback

Hardware where I work is plentiful the annoyance of the situation is when we are given the task of implementing a external network for a company using our hardware.

All can be well for a few days then due to the nature and age of the hardware being used we usually encounter a few minor issues such as hdd's failing

I need a few tests to push the hardware intergrity

sprkymrk

This isn't free, but it is pretty cheap - $29.95:

http://www.tufftest.com/ttp01.htm

I used it for a while and it's not bad. It will test drives, memory, CPU, motherboard and com ports with a special loopback adapter. It's a nice generic vendor-neutral software diag program on a boot disk.