Suggestion: System stability testing sticky

[malfunction]

As the title says really - I think it would be helpful to have a sticky in here detailing stability testing - things to test, programs to test the with etc. Unless I'm being blind I can't see anything like this here and though I know it's been covered a lot in individual threads here's my 2p:


There are two root causes of instability - hardware and software.

For software related problems this can be:

Bad / mis-configured drivers
Mis-configured OS
A virus

For hardware related problems this can be down to:

Faulty hardware (commonly RAM)
Overheating
Undervolting (i.e. PSUs output is low or has too much wobble in the lines under load)
Or (if overclocking) that you've simply reached the ceiling for that CPU / RAM without being able to provide more power and / or more cooling

Good programs to test if you system is stable are:

RAM:

memtest86 (bootable ISO available for burning onto CDR):

www.memtest86.com

Or memtest86+

www.memtest.org

DocMemory (can be put on a bootable floppy / run from DOS):

www.simmtester.com

CPU / RAM:

Prime 95:

www.mersenne.org

SuperPI:

www16.big.or.jp/~bunnywk/superpi.html

SiSoftware Sandra 2004:

www.sisoftware.net

GFX / CPU / RAM / system testing:

3DMark2001/2003, PCMark 2002, 2004:

www.futuremark.com

Aquamark:

www.aquamark3.com

Any more suggestions?

[bigZ]

Don't forget Sandra is very good for picking up problems with memory and CPU, using the burn in wizard... can I also recommend SuperPI for testing memory stability, the 32m test is a good stress period

[malfunction]

Don't forget Sandra is very good for picking up problems with memory and CPU, using the burn in wizard... can I also recommend SuperPI for testing memory stability, the 32m test is a good stress period

Thanks... I've added Sandra in... Just looking for the homepage for SuperPI

Edit - is this it?

http://www16.big.or.jp/~bunnywk/superpi.html

[bigZ]

http://www16.big.or.jp/~bunnywk/superpi.html

edit, yeah, u just beat me to it

[malfunction]

I've stuck SuperPI in the CPU / RAM section as it sounds more like Prime95 than a pure RAM tester like Memtest / DocMemory (both of which test every single bit of memory available in the system)

[bigZ]

yeah it is a bit of both, but in the 32M test, you'll see your CPU usage fluctuate quite a bit... the 1M test is pure CPU/MEM speed (inc timings)