diagnostic software

[tedkilroy]

Though software related, I have 2k Pro and Xp Pro and thought this was the best place to start. I am looking to get opinions on diagnostic software for a hodge podge of systems.

Looking to see if there is software that can be installed in the background of the OS and alarm me if the memory, cpu, maboard and even P/S or some sort of mixture of vital interrior hardware components that are failing. Any suggestions?

 

[PyroTyger]

If you're after monitoring hardware, Motherboard Monitor is a good free tool that runs in your system tray and keeps a track of voltages, temps, fan-speeds etc for CPU, RAM, case etc. However if you're looking to check for failing components it's hard to recommend anything, as nothing is foolproof. Try SiSoft Sandra for Windows - it has some stress-tests in there that will likely cause any dodgy components to wig-out.

 

[Santei]

have heard some positive comments about this for CPU and HD performance. it has free/trial version,
so u can check it out.

http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html

and here can be found free diagnostic utilities.

http://www.sofotex.com/download/PC_Utilities/Diagnostics/

 

[addy]

It's very hard to get software that will alert you if a piece of critical hardware is failing because in general, the failure will be instant, i.e. you won;t get a warning, you will simply get an error.

In terms of software to test your hardware, HDtach is a decent HDD tester, memtest86 can be used for your RAM and in addition to the software mentioned in previous posts, PCMark from Futuremark.com will test your system as a whole to see how it is performing.