How can I thoroughly test all the hardware on my computer?

Here's what would be ideal:

A list of all the hardware components potentially found on one's computer
A method (or list of methods) for testing each of these
The accuracy of these methods

My personal requests are:

-How to test your motherboard
-How to test your wireless receiving apparatus
-How to test CD/DVD-RW drive
-How to test your laptop battery
-How to test your Heat sink(s)?
-How to test the effectiveness of your fan(s)

Favorite answers: OS-independent tests which GUARANTEE the concerned hardware works PERFECTLY

Shawn

Posted 2010-08-16T07:39:18.500

Reputation: 1 219

1No test can ever guarantee that anything works PERFECTLY... – Shinrai – 2010-08-16T14:40:30.927

Answers

No test suite can guarantee that anything works perfectly, they can only tell you if the computer passed the tests.

This Live-CD does some of it, I have never seen anyone test the CD/DVD or wifi. But any live-cd meant for ordinary use should allow you to test that manually.

StressLinux

StressLinux is a minimal linux distribution running from a bootable cdrom (LiveCD) or via PXE. Stresslinux is dedicated to users who want to test their system(s) entirely on high load and monitoring the health.

Features:

stress 0.18.1 (A tool to impose certain types of stress on a POSIX system.)

CPUBurn 1.4 (CPU maximum load (heat) stability test)

CPU Burn-In 1.00 (CPU burn-in test)

nbench 2.2.1 (CPU test suite)

iometer 2003.12.16 (I/O performance meter)

hddtemp 0.3beta11 (A program to display the temperature of your hard drive.)

lm_sensors 2.8.7 (LM78 and other hardware monitor drivers.)

busybox 1.0.0rc3 (Single small executable which contains common UNIX utilities)

lshw A.01.07 (Hardware lister)

bonnie++ 1.03a (Hard drive benchmark)

netio 1.23 (Network benchmark)

smartmontools 5.32 (S.M.A.R.T. drivetests)

x86info 1.12b (CPU information)

memtest86 3.1a (A stand-alone memory diagnostic)

memtest86+ 1.15 (An other stand-alone memory diagnostic)

Nifle

Posted 2010-08-16T07:39:18.500

Reputation: 31 337

actual homepage: http://www.stresslinux.org/sl/

– sml – 2010-08-16T10:50:06.907

@scott - updated url – Nifle – 2010-08-16T11:16:17.937

@Nifle Are there any risks to the hardware associated with using stresslinux? For example, could pushing my CPU to the limit possibly break the CPU or melt any surrounding part? – Shawn – 2010-08-16T20:44:31.397

@Shawn - No. What it can (in theory) do is push any partly defective part far enough so that it fails completely. It can't destroy or harm a functioning computer. – Nifle – 2010-08-17T16:05:21.547

@Nifle So if I suspect some parts of being defective, should I run the tests? – Shawn – 2010-08-17T21:24:37.900

@Shawn - That's what I'd do. What tests and for how long is up to you. I have only done a few hours test but If I was to sell the computer I'd probably do a more thorough test, perhaps run it over night or so. – Nifle – 2010-08-17T22:56:21.620

@Nifle - Is there a way to tell it to simply "run as many tests as possible and tell me about the results in the morning"? – Shawn – 2010-08-18T20:38:16.370

@Shawn - I have No idea. I have not done stuff like this for oh.... more than five years. Just download the iso, burn it and play around with it. It's not going to break anything. – Nifle – 2010-08-18T21:32:07.110

If money is no object the PC Doctor testing suite is pretty damned good. It's pretty damned expensive though...

Shinrai

Posted 2010-08-16T07:39:18.500

Reputation: 18 051

2If I had that much money, I would buy a new computer :D – Shawn – 2010-12-06T04:07:52.257

1@Shawn - No debate there. ;) – Shinrai – 2010-12-06T15:47:17.310

Or a very easy way: go to a computer store and pay a small sum, and they will do this test for you. If all else fails, download a simple tuning program which can typically give the computer a test.

If you have a HP computer they normally have a POST test and some diagnostic tools built-in to them, telling you if something fails. AKA the S.M.A.R.T test for hard drives.

Martin W

Posted 2010-08-16T07:39:18.500

Reputation: 36

POST and SMART are completely different things. The first is run only once at each startups (and takes seconds), the other is a monitoring performed during the whole lifetime of the HDD. – Dmitry Grigoryev – 2015-07-23T06:35:50.660