Best hardware diagnostic tools?

J

jonwil

n00b
Joined
Dec 29, 2014
Messages
41
I have been having some instability as of late with the system sometimes just randomly freezing. I just installed The LEGO Movie 2 the Video Game and that just did it again.

Are there any diagnostic or stress test tools I can use to help narrow down what might be going on (e.g. is the GPU at fault? CPU? Something else?)

My hardware is a Core i5-6500, a Gigabyte H170M-D3H motherboard, 16GB (4 x 4GB sticks) of Kingston HyperX RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 750 and I am running Windows 7 as my OS (so my gear more than meets the minumum spec for the game and other than the Windows 10 suggestion and possibly the GPU I meet the recommended specs as well)

It would be kind of ironic if it turned out my GPU was dying since it was the first LEGO Movie video game back in 2014 that exposed the death of my previous video card and caused me to buy the GTX 750...
 
Best CPU stress testing tool is prime95 or IBT/Linpack
Best Ram stress testing tool is metest86 (make sure to pbott in uefi mode) and prime95
HDD: use the manufactors testing tool and Crystal disk info
GPU: Furmark
Entire GFxcard: I have no results on this yet but unigine and 3dmark would be good guesses
 
I think most of the above should more than handle what you are trying to do. However, just a warning - I've heard past versions of Furmark can be really hard on your system, i.e. it runs every setting up beyond what any actual app would run. Not sure if the latest versions still do that or not but worth reading up on before you load and run it just in case.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=can+furmark+damage+my+computer&t=ffab&ia=web
 
I'd be wary of running dedicated intensive GPU tests like Furmark. Graphics cards have a lifespan quite alot shorter than CPUs. Stressing a GPU will burn it out, certainly the memory before not too long if running synthetic tests that the cards simply aren't designed for.

I'm sure many have ironically burnt their cards out by relentlessly stress testing them to make sure it's ok.
 
if you card cant handle operation at 100% something is wrong with it.

All my systen get tested wit furmark +prime95 to ensure stability under load.
dont accpet crappy products and blame stress testing. they dont do anything that should amage the procut they simply use the products as they where sold at full.
if that is bad the product is bad
 
I ran furmark (current version) last night and it didn't cause the instability, none of the test I ran did. But playing the same game again just caused a BSOD (that said "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval" which I have never heard of). I don't overclock (not that you can on an i5-6500), my BIOS is the latest for my board and my OS and drivers are up to date (or at least they should be, Windows Update offers no updates, neither does NVIDIA GeForce Experience). Looks like the best way forward is to take it to the local repair shop and see what they can do.
 
After taking it to the local repair shop they replaced the dead dried out thermal compound, cleaned dust out of the PC and told me the power supply was on the way out. Just installed a new (and better) power supply and lets see if my system is stable again.
 
Well after the thermal compound was replaced, the dust cleaned out and a new power supply installed, my PC is running smoothly again. Haven't had a single system failure or BSOD or anything even though I have been playing The LEGO Movie 2 all day.
My guess is that the dried out dead thermal compound and the dust clogging the CPU cooler (which is the stock Intel cooler) caused the CPU to overheat under load to a point where it was unstable enough to cause Windows to freeze/crash/BSOD.
 
SvenBent said:
if you card cant handle operation at 100% something is wrong with it.

All my systen get tested wit furmark +prime95 to ensure stability under load.
dont accpet crappy products and blame stress testing. they dont do anything that should amage the procut they simply use the products as they where sold at full.
if that is bad the product is bad
Click to expand...
I don't have any links or references, but I feel like I've read quotes from actual hardware engineers who have said "Furmark is a virus". Maybe related to the space invaders, maybe related to AMD's performance inferiority complex, I dont recall. But absolutely stress testing with Prime 95 and Furmark can be potentially hazardous to the actual silicon.
 
jonwil said:
My guess is that the dried out dead thermal compound and the dust clogging the CPU cooler (which is the stock Intel cooler) caused the CPU to overheat under load to a point where it was unstable enough to cause Windows to freeze/crash/BSOD.
Click to expand...
That's why I use a ridiculously oversized heatsink with two fans, so I don't have to bother cleaning it out lol.
 
travm said:
I don't have any links or references, but I feel like I've read quotes from actual hardware engineers who have said "Furmark is a virus". Maybe related to the space invaders, maybe related to AMD's performance inferiority complex, I dont recall. But absolutely stress testing with Prime 95 and Furmark can be potentially hazardous to the actual silicon.
Click to expand...

AMD tried to market it as a Power virus because a lot of the 4850 genration cards how sub par power delivery
Durmark doesn do anything the gpu is not designed for . it just havily optimzed and is not slowed down be memory access.

enver the less if a gpu is promissed to deliver somthing i expect it to be able to deliver its full potential not a secret limitation
 
The thing with Furmark is it places a load on the GPU way bigger than any game ever would. This is fine for graphics cards with over-engineered power delivery circuitry and cooling solutions, but these things cost money and most people buy graphics cards to just play games.
 
TheFlayedMan said:
The thing with Furmark is it places a load on the GPU way bigger than any game ever would. This is fine for graphics cards with over-engineered power delivery circuitry and cooling solutions, but these things cost money and most people buy graphics cards to just play games.
Click to expand...

overeneginered is being able to deliver poqwr that the GPU as its needed?
We had to disagree on that term.

The GPU can only deliver what it is designed for. beside overclocking software cant make a CPU/GPU run faster than what it does.
the fact that jus because its not a game it does not count, is a nothing but a personal opinion.
should a CPYU be crashing too when we run prime95 because it above gaming load?

if a GPU is built with X amount of resources and sold on x amount of resources.. X amount of resources should be able to be used if not. it not delivering what it is sold as and thereby crap. game load or not.
Don't make companies get away with promising X but not delivering because its not a "game load"
 
Do what you will with your own hardware, but I for one won't waste any time running Furmark on my hardware, even under water.

If you don't get why it's bad, then that's your problem.

It's like, you could drive your car around flat out in first gear. It's designed to do that right? So no harm in driving around all the time flat out in first gear then yeah? o_O

THAT'S why. ;)
 
SvenBent said:
AMD tried to market it as a Power virus because a lot of the 4850 genration cards how sub par power delivery
Durmark doesn do anything the gpu is not designed for . it just havily optimzed and is not slowed down be memory access.

enver the less if a gpu is promissed to deliver somthing i expect it to be able to deliver its full potential not a secret limitation
Click to expand...
I don't expect my car to be able to be jacked off the ground and a brick put on the gas pedal to see how fast the wheels turn.
 
SvenBent said:
overeneginered is being able to deliver poqwr that the GPU as its needed?
We had to disagree on that term.

The GPU can only deliver what it is designed for. beside overclocking software cant make a CPU/GPU run faster than what it does.
the fact that jus because its not a game it does not count, is a nothing but a personal opinion.
should a CPYU be crashing too when we run prime95 because it above gaming load?

if a GPU is built with X amount of resources and sold on x amount of resources.. X amount of resources should be able to be used if not. it not delivering what it is sold as and thereby crap. game load or not.
Don't make companies get away with promising X but not delivering because its not a "game load"
Click to expand...

Companies manufacturing graphics cards provide lots of choice for us consumers. We can pay less and buy a card with adequate cooling and power delivery, or we can pay more for fancy cooling and power delivery. This is generally a good thing. If you want a card so you can watch Furmark running all day there is one available for you to buy. If you want to pay less and play games that is also an option. The choice is yours.
 
Prime95 and furmark are the same in my books.
There was a time where cpu's didnt have the extensive overload/overtemp protections built in that you could very easily destroy your chip running this. It can be a useful testing tool for quickly stress testing, but not worth the risk for me. Overclocking lost its appeal for me years back though, so ymmv
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top