whole computer diagnostics tool

[AST]

I'm looking for a freebie that actually runs while your using the PC to see how everything is working i.e. hard drive,cpu,motherboard,video card,etc. It would have to run on XP. there is some out there that show the temperature of the hard drive,but i want to know if everything is working right. i think i have a hardware problem and i think it's the hard drive,but can't be sure.I have run all the typical virus and spyware programs there is and stopped all non essential things from running,but the PC is really slow.Any recommendations! Thanks!

[kendall]

Please check out this link:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ng-utility.htm

It covers hard drive monitors. I use the first one listed and really like it.

[deya]

It's just a thought, but have you used the tools that are built into XP ?.. the drive error checking tool and the defragmentation tool ? Have you defragged your hard drive ?

[AST]

Originally Posted by kendall

Please check out this link:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...ng-utility.htm

It covers hard drive monitors. I use the first one listed and really like it.

Thanks I'll check it out. I'm also wondering the condition of the CPU and other hardware on the computer.I'm not sure there is a tool to check the condition of everything inside the Tower!

[AST]

Originally Posted by deya

It's just a thought, but have you used the tools that are built into XP ?.. the drive error checking tool and the defragmentation tool ? Have you defragged your hard drive ?

Thanks. Yes I've done all that!

[J_L]

Try these: "Best Free Resource Meter", "Best Free System Information Utility", "Best Free Memory Testing Utility"

[Anupam]

As per my knowledge, I don't think there are any utilities which will tell you about the health of the CPU, video card, or the motherboard. If you feel that one of the hardware is failing, then you will have to diagnose it yourself.

There are utilities though for monitoring the health of a hard drive. Kendall has already given you the link for the article. HDD Health, and Active Disk Monitor can show you about the hard drive's status and health.

SpeedFan can show you about the temperatures of various zones like CPU, and hard drive. RealTemp can also show you CPU temperatures.

But to find out if the hardware like CPU, or video card, or motherboard, or power supply is failing, you will have to perform diagnostics other than softwares.

If the PC ran fine before, but runs slow now, I don't think it might be any hardware problem... it might be more of software problem. Please give more details about your PC... like the amount and type of RAM, CPU, OS, hard disk space with free space.

Did you run hard disk defrag? Have you checked if there are unnecessary startup items in the startup list? Have you checked if there are unnecessary processes running which can take up the memory? These things can make the PC slow too... other than virus/spyware infection.

What antivirus do you have? What all scans did you run on your PC... I mean what antispywares or other softwares you used for the scans?

[AST]

Originally Posted by Anupam

As per my knowledge, I don't think there are any utilities which will tell you about the health of the CPU, video card, or the motherboard. If you feel that one of the hardware is failing, then you will have to diagnose it yourself.

There are utilities though for monitoring the health of a hard drive. Kendall has already given you the link for the article. HDD Health, and Active Disk Monitor can show you about the hard drive's status and health.

SpeedFan can show you about the temperatures of various zones like CPU, and hard drive. RealTemp can also show you CPU temperatures.

But to find out if the hardware like CPU, or video card, or motherboard, or power supply is failing, you will have to perform diagnostics other than softwares.

If the PC ran fine before, but runs slow now, I don't think it might be any hardware problem... it might be more of software problem. Please give more details about your PC... like the amount and type of RAM, CPU, OS, hard disk space with free space.

Did you run hard disk defrag? Have you checked if there are unnecessary startup items in the startup list? Have you checked if there are unnecessary processes running which can take up the memory? These things can make the PC slow too... other than virus/spyware infection.

What antivirus do you have? What all scans did you run on your PC... I mean what antispywares or other softwares you used for the scans?

I ended up reloading the computer from scratch.It came with all the Disc's and it was simple.I even had Service pack 3 already downloaded so the rest of the updates didn't take long.The machine is running great now! I have a hunch the Registry was slightly corrupted.I'm an addict with trying out new software.Although I feel I uninstall things properly,(Revouninstaller)i think over time it still messes things up.Right now I'm choosing to use Avira antivir instead of AVG.I do have 512 ram.I did check the 80gig HD and it's at 63% good. I think I'm guilty of messing with the computer too much.I have a old 30 gig HD that i also swap with the 80gig one just for fun. I only use this machine for very basic things.All is running well right now.Thanks everyone!

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by AST

I ended up reloading the computer from scratch.It came with all the Disc's and it was simple.I even had Service pack 3 already downloaded so the rest of the updates didn't take long.The machine is running great now! I have a hunch the Registry was slightly corrupted.I'm an addict with trying out new software.Although I feel I uninstall things properly,(Revouninstaller)i think over time it still messes things up.Right now I'm choosing to use Avira antivir instead of AVG.I do have 512 ram.I did check the 80gig HD and it's at 63% good. I think I'm guilty of messing with the computer too much.I have a old 30 gig HD that i also swap with the 80gig one just for fun. I only use this machine for very basic things.All is running well right now.Thanks everyone!

Good to know that your problem is solved now. Sometimes, a format and fresh install can be good, if there are lots of problems, or you cannot figure things out.

Yes, sometimes trying out a lot of softwares can be a problem. One wrong software installation, or uninstallation, and things can go bad. I don't use Revo everytime. I use the normal uninstallation from the Add/Remove. If I get a problem, or a program is not getting uninstalled, then I turn to Revo with advanced options.

I think you should increase the RAM. Its quite less. You will see an improve in performance if you upgrade the RAM to 1 GB, or 2 GB, if you can.

If you frequently try out new softwares, you should defrag the hard disk once in a while... that will improve performance too.
Further, if you don't have CCleaner installed, then install it.. and use it regularly, or daily to clean the system of junk/temporary files. Just don't use its registry cleaner. Infact, don't use any registry cleaner at all.

I think you can use the 30 GB hard disk, as a test one, if you want to try out different softwares... so that even if you mess around with it... it won't be much of a problem... you just have to format it, and reinstall. Better make an image of the fresh install... and you can just write the image back, in case of a problem.

[AST]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Good to know that your problem is solved now. Sometimes, a format and fresh install can be good, if there are lots of problems, or you cannot figure things out.

Yes, sometimes trying out a lot of softwares can be a problem. One wrong software installation, or uninstallation, and things can go bad. I don't use Revo everytime. I use the normal uninstallation from the Add/Remove. If I get a problem, or a program is not getting uninstalled, then I turn to Revo with advanced options.

I think you should increase the RAM. Its quite less. You will see an improve in performance if you upgrade the RAM to 1 GB, or 2 GB, if you can.

If you frequently try out new softwares, you should defrag the hard disk once in a while... that will improve performance too.
Further, if you don't have CCleaner installed, then install it.. and use it regularly, or daily to clean the system of junk/temporary files. Just don't use its registry cleaner. Infact, don't use any registry cleaner at all.

I think you can use the 30 GB hard disk, as a test one, if you want to try out different softwares... so that even if you mess around with it... it won't be much of a problem... you just have to format it, and reinstall. Better make an image of the fresh install... and you can just write the image back, in case of a problem.

Yes i agree i need to get another 512gig of ram to increase to 1 gig.(i have two slots). I use Ccleaner daily and then some! I alway use the registry cleaner.You don't recommend that? I always defrag with the windows defrag and Auslogics defrag almost daily. I never trusted the regular add/remove from windows,but maybe i'll do that.I thought once you did that ,Revo couldn't find the software that was removed to use the advanced option.One thing i don't know how to do is to make an image back up.I've seen the software,but it looks too heavy for me to use. I always back up my Favorites,the programs i use,music,etc,so if i have to do a fresh install it's not a big deal to just upload those things. How do you go about the image back up? I have a Vista machine too and i also have the disk to reinstall,but i don't play much with that machine. Thanks.