What is the best hardware diagnostic for a PC

Question

Trying to help a friend with their PC and wondering what is the best suite of diagnostic software to run a PC through it's paces. Looking for hardware-related issues in this case (e.g. CPU, RAM, Video, Hard Drive, Network, USB).

Can boot into Windows, but want to be able to run a bevy of tests after that.

Answer 1

memtest and SMART additional to the default partition check tools should cover your needs. For testing CPU/GPU I can only think of stress-testing them. After that you're left with diagnosing the symptoms and maybe swap parts.

Answer 2

I prefer Everest Ultimate

EVEREST Ultimate Edition is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

Answer 3

If the PC is from a big name manufacturer, I would see if it already includes diagnostics on a hidden partition.

Most hardware diagnostics run outside the operating system because they need direct access to the underlying hardware.

If the computer didn't come with any diagnostics check out http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/. Its a free assortment of different diagnostics.

There are diagnostics designed to troubleshoot Windows itself that run on top of the OS such as Sysinternals from Microsoft.

If you suspect a particular hardware component. Post a question with the symptoms and someone hear is likely to give you an answer.

Answer 4

I like to use Sandra from SiSoftware. They have a free edition that is normally sufficient for my purposes. Not for specific error code diag type things, but for general identification and benchmarking.