Resolved Hardware testing software...

I run a small computer repair shop and I am looking for a suite of hardware diagnostics software to assist with preliminary assessments. Something that I can perhaps one-click and have it test CPU, RAM and HDD for obvious faults. I say 'obvious' because I am a capable technician and don't require software to detect all hardware issues, in fact, most problems I come across are software. It would be nice to have a program to run on systems initially brought in to eliminate the probability of hardware faults. Something I can run for an hour or two as prep while I'm working on other PC's.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Kill9,

I've been looking for a decent suite of tools myself and ended up sticking with the individual tools. Memtest is still great for RAM, hard drive manufacturers own software for HDD's. Not sure what I would use to software test a CPU but benchmarking software pretty much checks every part of a CPU for performance... if it's not working it will either not switch on at all, produce a POST error or show up when benchmarking.

Just as an extra though, and I know this is a Windows forum but I always keep a copy of Trinity Linux to hand - good set of Windows tools in that distro. I don't want to assume anything or be patronising but you might also want to look at an Comptia A+ course if you haven't already got the cert. The Mike Meyers books have some good tips for sniffing out hardware problems without running specific software packages. Over time you just get a 'feel' for finding the problem.

Hope this helps

 

Appreciate the advice. I know some of the Geek Squad when they charge for a diagnostic, will put in a CD that runs a series of tests that checks various sub systems ( a least, that is what I heard ). I am A+ and Network + certified and I don't generally approve of slapping in a CD/DVD and having it tell you what it thinks the problem is, that smacks of amateur troubleshooting and is not always reliable. I was just looking for something that will allow me to initially rule out hardware and focus on the software issues a little quicker. I will look into that Trinity Linux though, always good to have a diverse arsenal.

Thanks again.