Not-so-obvious hardware installation failures

the_servicer

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What are the best ways to know if something goes wrong when installing new memory, storage, processor, etc? If the computer won't boot then it's pretty obvious. If it feels slower than expected then that's another clue. What are the most common problems that are not so obvious?
 
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Old BIOS. Old Drivers. Malware. Incompatible hardware because QVL.
 
The best way to know if something is wrong it to run diagnostics software on it. im not sure im understanding your question right but her goes


Ram: memtest86
CPU: Prime 95
HDD: find the manufacturers bootable test software

Personally i do an triple 8 hour test on a new system. that 8hours of prime 95. 8 hours of linpack. and 8 hours of memtest86.
you might not wanna do that much time but figure out yourself how much certainty you want on your system.
 
Thanks for the ideas.
Is it possible for any such test to cause any harm?

It is possible for a user to crank up voltages so high that running a stress test damages hardware, but that is the fault of the user, not the stress test.
 
Thanks for the ideas.
Is it possible for any such test to cause any harm?

Like evil sofa says. Within normal situatiosn No. but tere is always that one guy that once tried to run prime95 on a CPU without cooler before they had thermal shutdown etc etc.
The same can be said for any other use of the PC.
 
I think that the two most nefarious problems to deal with are heat and a bad power supply.

Heat is easy as long as you have software that can tell you the component temperatures installed, but most of the time people don't unless they're put on there as part of a diagnostic process. A slightly poorly mounted CPU heatsink, or evaporated thermal goop, or clogged up fans on the GPU or whatever can cause all manner of problems with no immediately visible cause nowadays because things thermally throttle themselves. Back in the day shit would just overheat and die, but now they'll limp along leaving you wondering why your shit is running so slow.

The worst is a power supply on the way out the door. Fluctuating voltage from the power supply can cause anything from phantom lockups to physical system damage. It's hard to diagnose as well, since most of the time you can only see the voltages from your power supply from within the system BIOS; a time when the system is at the lowest level of load possible. If your system is unstable but never seems to crash the same way twice, the power supply may be a component to try swapping out.
 
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