How can I thoroughly test all the hardware on my computer?

Question

Here's what would be ideal:

1. A list of all the hardware components potentially found in one's computer
2. A method (or list of methods) for testing each of these
3. The accuracy of these methods

My personal requests are:

-How to test your motherboard
-How to test your wireless receiving aperatus
-How to test CD/DVD RW drive
-How to test your laptop battery
-How to test your Heat sink(s) ?
-How to test the effectiveness of your fan(s)

Favorite answers: OS-independent tests which GUARANTEE the concerned hardware works PERFECTLY

Answer 1

No test suite can guarantee that anything works perfectly, they can only tell you if the computer passed the tests.

This Live-CD does some of it, I have never seen anyone test the CD/DVD or wifi. But any live-cd meant for ordinary use should allow you to test that manually.

StressLinux

StressLinux is a minimal linux distribution running from a bootable cdrom (LiveCD) or via PXE. Stresslinux is dedicated to users who want to test their system(s) entirely on high load and monitoring the health.

Features:

• stress 0.18.1 (A tool to impose certain types of stress on a POSIX system.)
• CPUBurn 1.4 (CPU maximum load (heat) stability test)
• CPU Burn-In 1.00 (CPU burn-in test)
• nbench 2.2.1 (CPU test suite)
• iometer 2003.12.16 (I/O performance meter)
• hddtemp 0.3beta11 (A program to display the temperature of your hard drive.)
• lm_sensors 2.8.7 (LM78 and other hardware monitor drivers.)
• busybox 1.0.0rc3 (Single small executable which contains common UNIX utilities)
• lshw A.01.07 (Hardware lister)
• bonnie++ 1.03a (Hard drive benchmark)
• netio 1.23 (Network benchmark)
• smartmontools 5.32 (S.M.A.R.T. drivetests)
• x86info 1.12b (CPU information)
• memtest86 3.1a (A stand-alone memory diagnostic)
• memtest86+ 1.15 (An other stand-alone memory diagnostic)

Answer 2

If money is no object the PC Doctor testing suite is pretty damned good. It's pretty damned expensive though...

Answer 3

Or a very easy way: go to a computer store and pay a small sum, and they will do this test for you. If all else fails, download a simple tuning program which can typically give the computer a test.

If you have a HP computer they normally have a POST test and some diagnostic tools built-in to them, telling you if something fails. AKA the S.M.A.R.T test for hard drives.