Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Free/User Supported Diagnostics
Numerous free or user supported diagnostic programs are available, covering everything
from processors to memory, disk drives, and virtually all other components in a PC. Over
the years, several people have collected and organized this software, creating compre-
hensive collections of tools that could be used to troubleshoot systems. The best of these
collections are Ultimate Boot CD (
http://ultimatebootcd.com
) and Ultimate Boot CD for
Windows
www.ubcd4win.com
).
These bootable CD collections of useful utilities include diagnostics, testing,
troubleshooting,andbenchmarkingsoftwarethatisidealfortestingbothnewandoldsys-
tems. A key feature of these discs is that they are bootable, meaning you can test a system
completelyindependentlyoftheexistingoperatingsystemanddrivers.Thisallowsyouto
more accurately and efficiently troubleshoot actual hardware problems.
When building a new system, it is desirable to test the system to see if it is working prop-
erly. The term
burn-in testing
is often used to describe running stress tests or diagnostics
on a new piece of equipment to screen for failures. The idea is to flush out early failures,
so burn-in tests are usually designed to be as stressful as possible. This usually means
running tests that are as hard as possible on the equipment, including running them under
maximum temperatures and loads. Two of the programs I recommend for burn-in testing
are GIMPS (
www.mersenne.org/freesoft
)
and OCCT (
www.ocbase.com
)
.
When you are running GIMPs (also known as Prime95), under the Options menu select
Torture Test. This causes the program to fully load all the processors and processor cores
in the system for maximum stress testing. While doing this, I also like to run the free
SpeedFan program (
http://almico.com/speedfan.php
)
to monitor the temperatures of the
processor and other components in the system. Stress testing like this is a good way to
ensure that everything is working properly in both new and old systems.
The Boot Process
The term
boot
comes from the word
bootstrap
and describes the method by which the PC
becomes operational. Just as you pull on a large boot by the small strap attached to the
back, a PC loads a large operating system by first loading a small program that can then
pull the operating system into memory. The chain of events begins with the application of
power and finally results in a fully functional computer system with software loaded and
running. Each event is triggered by the event before it and initiates the event after it.
Tracing the system boot process might help you find the location of a problem if you ex-
amine the error messages the system displays when the problem occurs. If you see an er-
ror message that is displayed by only a particular program, you can be sure the program
