Hardware Diagnostics for whitebox PC's?

[TechCarnivore]

Hi Gang,
I have a few whitebox PC's that might be having hardware issues. For example 1 PC continues to turn itself off unexpectedly. I've scanned for viruses and spyware with multiple products and have not yet found anything.

I'd like to test the PC hardware (CPU Fan, Power Supply Etc.)
I've used the diagnostics from Dell or HP. Since these are whiteboxes what products are available to troubleshoot generic hardware?

 

[wahnula]

First, set up the PC for error logging:

Right-click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, under "Startup and Recovery", Settings, under "System Failure" un-check "Automatically Restart". You should now get an error message either on-screen or in the Event Log, Google the results.

If there's no error screen start with the obvious: change the power plug and outlet. Upon reboot, enter the BIOS and check CPU temp. The two things that cause random shutdowns the most are overheating and bad power.

Free diagnostics:

http://www.free.grisoft.com

http://www.spybot.com

http://www.lavasoft.com

http://www.memtest86.com

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com

http://www.belarc.com

plus all the free ones built into Windows: chkdsk, etc.

Tony

 

[pmonett]

For the discs, go to the manufacturer site and grab the diag tool. You should be able to reliably determine if the discs are good that way.

Pascal.


I've got nothing to hide, and I'd very much like to keep that away from prying eyes.

 

[kestrel1]

You could always get hold of AmiDiag:

http://www.amidiag.com/products/features.cfm

I haven't used the latest version, but I have used an older version. Works very well & will diagnose problems with much of the hardware.