Motherboard diagnostics

[anf1984]

Hi Felllow Geeks

I am on a search for a good free program that will run diagnostics on any mother board and spit out a report advising of any faulty parts.

If this program also does harddrives and other PC parts that would be a bonus.

thanks

Ant

 

[paparazi]

Now that would be the Holy Grail of diagnostic tools
Component level diagnostics
All motherboards
And Free.................IF ONLY!

There are of course lots of tools capable of diagnosing individual components; hard drives, memory and general performance.
CPUZ
SISOFT SANDRA
etc
Maybe what you need is an Oscilloscope and a few years experience to learn how to use it.
Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[wahnula]

Nice to see you have not lost your sense of humour Martin

The only way to do what you ask is hardware, there are several PCI cards that do diagnostics, but they're anything but free.

This item looks interesting:

http://www.pc-diagnostics.com/pc_diagnostics_tools/flippost_isa_pci_bus.shtml

...but its quality is unknown to me. There's no substitute for common sense and experience when diagnosing a PC.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[kjv1611]

On the idea of testing things on your computer, anybody remember off hand an app for testing the power supply usage? It may not be possible, but I'd like to be able to test how much power the system is drawing, and then break that down by component.

That may be a piece of hardware, but I'm curious if anyone was able to do it in software.

Thanks for any thoughts..

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[edfair]

Gee, think of the hours and hours we could save with something like that.

Now if the manufacturers would come up with an onboard equivalent of the PCI post code diagnostic cards....

To Martin's suggestion of the o'scope I would add a logic probe and DVM.

There was a program that did some of what you want. Called "Check-It". Never have used it.

Common sense, Tony? Maybe you have hit on something.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[kjv1611]

Now if the manufacturers would come up with an onboard equivalent

My motherboard has something similar, perhaps not as detailed:
Abit AB9 Pro:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127004

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/abit_ab9pro/

But unfortunately, the latest news I heard was that Abit was officially moving out of the motherboard business.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[BadBigBen]

kjv1611 - not just ABit have those DEBUG LEDs, almost every major mainboard manufacturers have one or more in their line up...

e.g. TYAN Tiger i7505

http://www.tyan.com/archive/products/html/tigeri7505.html

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[gbaughma]

Now if the manufacturers would come up with an onboard equivalent of the PCI post code diagnostic cards....

Umm... Beep... beep... beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep?



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[kjv1611]

e.g. TYAN Tiger i7505

http://www.tyan.com/archive/products/html/tigeri7505.html

That's a server board, correct? I'm talking about "mainstream" "retail" boards. I've not noticed many on those type of boards. I'm sure there are others, I've just not seen many at all.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Of course, I happen to recall that Asus makes at least some boards - or did - that actually tell you in verbal English what's wrong - no beeps/codes needed.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[BadBigBen]

kjv1611 - yep that is a server board, and the ASUS mainboards did talk to you, annoying female voice I tell ya, turned it off on my A7N8X...

another example would be the LED's that turn from green to red, or the running lights (for no better word on the rows of LED's) on a Gigabyte mainboard (P35c-DSR3)...

and of course the Beeps... as astutely pointed out by gbaughma...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[KaiserA]

Try "the ultimate boot cd