Hardware Diagnostic Tools

[gtg93]

Hi All,

 

Just curious as to what people use to diagnose hardware faults on computers? I've got a few different tools that run in or out of an OS most of which are just old free things I've built up over time, but wondered if anyone had anything better...

 

Preferably something that boot from a memory stick and have a suite of checks on there for all things hardware (don't mind if it does other things too, but my main thoughts are for hardware).

 

Free or paid for, don't really mind, but want to hopefully find something reliable and without having to have 15 different tools. I'm sure there's something, but struggle to find something I trust whilst searching.

 

Cheers

 

I've seen things like this for sale:

QuickTech USB

Are they any good or do they just end up been rip-off... Freebies / exactly same as freebie software on a USB stick?

Edited May 26, 2016 by gtg93

[Fazza]

The best diagnostic tools I have ever used were when I worked in a College and we had Ultra-X stuff! We had a PCI card that had it's own RAM and Graphics Card so you only needed a working CPU for it to work and power on so you could let it run its onboard testing software to diagnose a faulty PC. As we had around 2,000 Desktop PCs these cards were a great time saver - at £900 each they are expensive in a small environment like a School with a couple of hundred PCs but at the College they saved us so much time and money messing about testing different components.

 

Ultra-X also did some StressTest software which was a couple of hundred quid at the time and was great for stressing out a computer to see if it was crashing or not when the RAM got full or the CPU ran high for a while.

 

Not sure if they're still going, but if they are then from my experience of using them a few years ago they're worth a look.

 

At the moment the only thing we use is our experience of being in IT Services/Support for a fair few years now! Any PITA faults I just pass down to one of our Technicians - that way I dont get a headache, they do!!!

[gtg93]

At the moment the only thing we use is our experience of being in IT Services/Support for a fair few years now! Any PITA faults I just pass down to one of our Technicians - that way I dont get a headache, they do!!!

 

This is essentially what I rely on, unfortunately, I have nobody to pass down to if I get any PITA faults Every know and then though it's nice to be able to get a second opinion from some diag tool when you're looking at one of two causes and don't have anything spare to test your theory.

[difinity]

I use a USB/CD with Hiren on, for testing hard drives and memory. I have a PSU tester for quickly checking power supplies. A multimeter is also handy.

With a known working stick of memory, CPU and graphics card, there isn't anything that can't be quickly diagnosed.

 

For diagnosing faults on motherboards I use a bench power supply and a multimeter, my stereo microsope also helps greatly. Access to schematics and/or the boardview helps.

 

Fixing broken/dead stuff gets me out of bed in the morning, it's my favourite part of IT.

[Danp]

These two normally point out most common issues.

 

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

 

CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World