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nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

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nudone:
I'll have a look at what diagnostic downloads Crucial and ASUS have - in a few days time and run the checks then. If there's anything bad, then I'll report back. Until then I'll be enjoying the machine (I hope).

mouser:
Someone who has some experience with "Burn In" tools should tell us a good free program for doing this.

Here's an example of a payware one:
http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

What BurnInTest does is thoroughly exercise the hardware in a PC in a short period of time, in the same way as normal applications use a PC over a long period of time. This takes advantage of the fact that computer hardware tends to fail either very early in its life or after many thousands of hours of use. Typically BurnInTest should be used before a PC is put into service, as the failure of a computer that isn’t being used for a critical application and doesn’t have any critical data is much less damaging, (especially if it is still under warranty).

BurnInTest will bring intermittent or hidden problems to the surface so that after a successfully run the computer can be used with a much higher level of confidence. BurnInTest can also be used by overclockers to verify system stability at high clock speeds.

BurnInTest tests the CPU, hard drives, RAM, CD-ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphic, network connection, etc.
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Shades:
@nudone:
Investing in diagnostic software does seem a bit overkill for your situation. And as the market for such software is limited, expect a high price for it as well.

My (rather Cheap) Asus motherboard came with some diagnostic software in its BIOS. The reported diagnostics are not relevant to your particular case, but I know that the BIOS from high end (Asus) motherboards contain all kinds of extra software for overclocking, benchmarking and what not.

Find out if the BIOS on your motherboard has benchmarking tools and use that first for some (very basic) hardware diagnostics. Find out what the I/O throughput is from the manufacturer's website/decent hardware sites and check if the benchmark values from your hardware come close.

If that is not the case, then it might prove useful to buy hardware diagnostic software. Else I think you can take 'the leap of faith' and start using the system.    

nudone:
I can't say for sure but I'm assuming it's not too good an idea to stress test an ssd. I say that simply because I've read that defragging them isn't a good idea (or even necessary), so stressing them like a normal drive probably isn't good either. But, I certainly don't know for sure.

I'll run the diagnostic tools and that will be enough for my curiousity.

Maybe if I start a bit of overclocking I'll do some relevant stress tests.




Shades, I've definitely gone beyond the the leap of faith stage. As mentioned before, the data is the important bit for me. I'm going to concentrate on that - the machine will work until it doesn't.

westom:
Investing in diagnostic software does seem a bit overkill for your situation. And as the market for such software is limited, expect a high price for it as well.
-Shades (July 04, 2011, 06:13 PM)
--- End quote ---
Wow! Do you do this stuff? Disk drive manufacturers provide diagnostics for free - for decades.  Anyone who knows computers would know that.  Better computer manufacturers provide comprehensive diagnostics also for free on the drive, on a provided CD, and on the web site.

  BIOS does not do diagnostics.  All BIOS (even in the original IBM PC) provided error codes.  Error codes only report confronted problems.  A diagnostic tests every function in a machine or subsystem - including many functions that the OS and BIOS might not use.

  True computer users execute these diagnostics before failure happens.  To learn how it works and how to load it.  Diagnostics are also executed when a room is over 100 degree F.  Did this on a Dell to discover a defective memory location in the video controller.  An error that was detected before its warranty expired.  And that would have otherwise resulted in video problems maybe years later.  Another reason why diagnostics are something completely different and unknown to many computer users.

But most important, learn what exists and read what was already posted.  Your story is why better manufacturers provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics for free.
--- End quote ---
 Why would anyone *invest* in diagnostics?  Because so few know these diagnostics exist or what diagnostics really do.

  So much time and labor in this thread could have been quickly eliminated by diagnostics.  But so many do not even know what diagnostics are.

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