Hardware Diagnostic Tool

Can somebody suggest me a good utility (even a shareware one), which tests all of the hardware components, to see if there are any problems with them.

The thing is that i have one of my pc's which yesterday when i turned it on, i tried playing an mp3, and after about 30 seconds, it suddenly restarted automatically. Apart from this lately i have noticed several other problems every now and then, for example the computer takes time to open a folder, and it displays the picture slowly (bit by bit). May i point out that this is definitely not some kind of spyware/virus/trojan etc ... this computer in question has never been connected to the Internet and a clean install of Win XP has been done. Moreover, a couple of times, i got an error message (the grey box with the message, if i would like to send it to microsoft). I remember once i was in Microsoft Access, and another time in Windows Explorer.

Basically, several things have come to my mind:

1. Overheating
2. Power Supply
3. Memory Module failure
4. Dust
5. I also remember myself, having problems formatting the hard drive (but the quick format worked)

Hence, i am looking for a good hardware diagnostic tool, which may help check if any of my hardware have problems.

Thanks

 

maxmangion--Do not know if these will provide all the info you want, but they will provide some
http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

 

Hi,

General diagnostics may not give you the detail you need.

Since the problems relate to different areas, I think you should concentrate on the harddrive. Run chkdisk (see Help and Support) and run the harddrive manufacturers utilities (seems like there may be a problem with the partitioning).

Have a look at the utilities at www.majorgeeks.com.

www.pcpitstop.com may give you some leads and give you some benchmarks, but it may not lead you directly to the cause.

Sandra in my signature has a few benchmarks. There is also the memory diagnostics.

Norton Utilities has been worth purchasing for me (comes in useful some times). Just don't let it do things "automatically ", check everything or just get it to make the changes that you want it to.

Temperature, use the readings in the BIOS settings as the "most correct ". (If you have not cleaned the inside of the case yet, do some searches of this forum for clean, cleaning, dust, etc.

Matt

 

Thank you for your replies. Luckily, i've managed to solve my problem. I've noticed that the HD Led was on most of the time, even when i was not using the pc so much, so i decided to take a look at the system info. I've realised that my 256MB Ram was not being detected, so my computer was only working with my other 64MB module ... hence why my win xp pro system, was going slow in opening folders, launch apps & crashes ... because it was only running on a 64MB only. Eventually, i've removed the memory module and replaced it in another Slot, and now the RAM has been successfully detected by the system, and it seems that now everything is back to normally (hopefully).

Thanks for your support.

 

...sounds like someone needs a new video-card - bet you $1.00.

 

SI software may be the answer

SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2005.SR1, a possible solution for you. They have benchmarks etc. This is shareware and I have used on 98SE for several years and 2 months on XP. Free download

Web site
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/


Download Site
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_3264&langx=en&a=