Your favorite HW diagnostic tools

[InfiniteNothing]

Hey guys, I've been getting BSODs and hardware lockups. So far it's memtested clean I was hoping there were more tools like memtest with a minimal boot and if it fails you know exactly what component failed (memory).

A test that requires an OS wouldn't work too well for me because I couldn't rule out some other hardware failing in the background while the test was running.

[InfiniteNothing]

Hmm, just found this
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
Will try it later!

[Devhux]

UBCD is great - I have it on a USB drive and use it quite regularly.

[Jeffbx]

UBCD FTW!

Also, if you have a brand name machine (Dell, Lenovo, whatever) - check on the website & interestingly, in BIOS for embedded diagnostics.

[cruelpupet]

its oldschool but sometimes googling the BSOD error codes can reveal what component cause the crash

[InfiniteNothing]

its oldschool but sometimes googling the BSOD error codes can reveal what component cause the crash

I swear it's always a different message and sometimes often it's no message, just a lockup. The crash does have a slight correlation with graphic rendering but I've tried two video cards. I'm thinking of giving up and calling it the motherboard's fault.

[Airencracken]

I swear it's always a different message and sometimes it's no message. Just a lockup. The crash does have a slight correlation with graphic rendering but I've tried two video cards. I'm thinking of giving up and calling it the motherboard's fault.

You have gotten a lot of use out of that particular set-up. I mean socket-A is pretty old dude.

However I can't fault you for wanting to fix it.

Could be the motherboard or the processor. Can't really say.

[InfiniteNothing]

You have gotten a lot of use out of that particular set-up. I mean socket-A is pretty old dude.

However I can't fault you for wanting to fix it.

Could be the motherboard or the processor. Can't really say.

It's just so close. The MTBF in windows is 1 hr ;)which of course makes diagnosing the problem all the more difficult.

As for my most recent tests:
I got through a 7 hour memtest with no errors.

I booted puppy linux and played a dvd all the way through (my best idea for a stability test in puppy) with out any problems.

The only things that are connected to my computer right now are:

4 drives, Mobo, RAM, CPU, Powersupply, Keyboard, Mouse, Video Card ...?

Probably not:
CPU
Memory

Unlikely:
Video card

Could still be:
Buggy windows (destabilized from previous crashes)
Hard drive related: (IDE port, ribbon cable, the drive)
Some mobo peripheral

Ideas for tests:
Swap drives
Install Ubuntu or a fresh copy of windows
Run more burn in tests

[Prngr44]

How hard is it to update the UBCD with current antivirus definitions etc?

[InfiniteNothing]

So, after some more testing, it failed an 8 hour memtest. And, I think I have it isolated. It seems to be upset when I use dual channel. If I move the ram such that there's no dual channel there's no error. Not sure I understand it though. It also might just be a bad ram socket.

Some of the hardware lockups might have been false positives caused by the burn in test. I'm not sure if the hardware was permanently locked up or if it was just still in the middle of the test.

[Airencracken]

RAM problems after all eh? Hmm, interesting, I suppose the slot could be bad, move them around and test that next I suppose, or just run without dual channel.