Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Diagnostic Tools for Testing 2nd Hand Machines?

Posted by Cliff on from the run-it-thru-its-paces-before-you-buy-it dept.

tom asks: "Buying second hand computers you always run a risk. I was wondering if the slashdot readers could suggest a toolbox of (preferably small) tools that you could take along with you on one or two floppy's so you could run some diagnostics on machines you would consider buying. I'm thinking of the checkdisks, benchmark programs, soundcard checks, USB checks etc."

2 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well.... by Nynaeve · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hard drive testing programs:
    IBM -- Drive Fitness Test
    Maxtor -- Powermax
    Western Digital -- Data Lifeguard Tools Utilities: DLGDIAG
    Seagate -- SeaTools
    Fujitsu -- Diagnostic Tool
    NOTE: Some of these tools may work with all drives, but this (free) collection should cover quite a few drives.

  2. Re:SETI@home by Fweeky · · Score: 4, Informative
    SETI will bring the CPU to the limit. If it's overclocked and/or badly cooled or otherwise unstable, you'll see that quickly.
    Better to use a dedicated util for this, like CPUBurn, which will exercise the CPU as much as possible to generate heat and verify everything's still working.

    Just because SETI/RC5/etc push CPU usage to 100%, doesn't mean they fully exercise all the various units on the CPU, or even that they'll notice if a bit flips here or there.