Good Utility for Overall PC Health?

[Nehkara]

Hello CP Tech Talk!

I was wondering if anyone knows a good utility program for evaluating overall PC health. I have an oldish PC that has been giving me some trouble and I wanted to do some work on it. I was hoping to get a broad picture of how well the system is operating before I do this.

Thanks for any help!

[Rathji]

You mean like a benchmark program?

I use Passmark on the rare occasion that I do need to benchmark something

[Hack&Lube]

There's not really anything such as "PC health". On Vista/7 computers you could compare the experience index to previous runs. Unless you've run benchmarks in the past, you also have no benchmark against which you can tell how far your PC has degraded.

There's no software besides quack/useless/fake software that can tell you "how well" your PC is running besides benchmark programs but you would only find out how much slower you PC was compared to a previous benchmark. It won't tell you what needs to be fixed.

If you want to fix problems, just fix problems. What kind of troubles are you having? I'd run antivirus software first. Most issues with windows rot and PCs not working properly are due to malware/viruses/rootkits.

1. Antivirus/Antimalware (be comprehensive, use 2 or 3 like DrWeb + Malwarebytes + TDSS Killer, etc.)
2. Windows Updates
3. Uninstall unneeded/junk apps and windows components
4. run -> msconfig to see what else is loading at startup that you don't need or is junk
5. run -> services.msc to turn off unneeded services
6. Defragment harddrive

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

There's not really anything such as "PC health". On Vista/7 computers you could compare the experience index to previous runs. Unless you've run benchmarks in the past, you also have no benchmark against which you can tell how far your PC has degraded.

There's no software besides quack/useless/fake software that can tell you "how well" your PC is running besides benchmark programs but you would only find out how much slower you PC was compared to a previous benchmark. It won't tell you what needs to be fixed.

If you want to fix problems, just fix problems. What kind of troubles are you having? I'd run antivirus software first. Most issues with windows rot and PCs not working properly are due to malware/viruses/rootkits.

1. Antivirus/Antimalware (be comprehensive, use 2 or 3 like DrWeb + Malwarebytes + TDSS Killer, etc.)
2. Windows Updates
3. Uninstall unneeded/junk apps and windows components
4. run -> msconfig to see what else is loading at startup that you don't need or is junk
5. run -> services.msc to turn off unneeded services
6. Defragment harddrive

Sorry Rathji, Hack&Lube. Thanks for your replies, I did a pretty poor job of making myself understood in the OP.

Basically the computer is old and I was curious if there is an application that could evaluate how well the hardware is operating. For example, if there are bad sectors on the hard drive, errors in memory, or a faulty video card (which I already suspect).

Thanks for trying to help!

[Rathji]

HD tune (seatools for a seagate drive) will check your HDD

Memtest will check your RAM

HP has some decent diagnostic test stuff but never tried them on a non HP rig.

UBCD has a few utilities built in, including memtest and HDTune (or a similar program)

Passmark still might give you some indication if something is seriously wrong. I know they have a lot of benchmarks for common systems, so depending on your setup it might be useful.

[Henry Fool]

I'd say that if an old PC is slowing down, there's a good chance it's a hard drive issue. I recall using HD tune myself. Not necessarily just a fragmentation or bad sector problem, either, so make sure the disk is functioning at the speed it's supposed to overall as well.

[OilKiller]

Speccy is a decent little tool that is freeware. Perhaps try it out:

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Sorry Rathji, Hack&Lube. Thanks for your replies, I did a pretty poor job of making myself understood in the OP.

Basically the computer is old and I was curious if there is an application that could evaluate how well the hardware is operating. For example, if there are bad sectors on the hard drive, errors in memory, or a faulty video card (which I already suspect).

Thanks for trying to help!

Sorry, again the answer is not really. Fixing computers is a lot of looking at symptoms and guessing at what's wrong. Many times, there's no real way to see directly what is wrong without guesswork on your part. There's no universal app that can do these things. You basically have to stress each component and see if it fails basically.

For the harddrive, a much easier way than downloading a 3rd party or OEM app is to goto My Computer and goto the properties of the drive. Then goto tools and select Error Checking. Check off both options and let it go. You may be required to schedule the chkdsk on next boot if it is your primary C: as Windows will have files in use. This may take up to an hour. This is the same as running chkdsk /r on the drive and usually will take care of the majority of harddrive problems.

Memtest is pretty complicated for the average user. I would read up on it first. Select the right test for your situation and let it go. Optimally, you will also be required to install Memtest on a bootable CD/floppy/flashdrive, etc. and boot from it instead of your normal harddrive (check boot order in bios). It may take many passes over several hours to determine if there are memory errors.

For the videocard, you will want to run a stability benchmark by stressing it out. Download Furmark or 3Dmark. What you will be looking for is your system locking up or graphical artifacts appearing. Usually this will look like corruption such as squares or flashing white dots.

For the overall system, the best tool for seeing if the CPU and RAM are stable together is Prime95. Select the smallFTT test to stress your CPU only. Select the blend test to test the CPU + RAM. This can be a good thing to run before memtest. Many people will run Prime95 for several hours to make sure the system is stable and the worker threads don't crash or the system doesn't lock up entirely.

If you have specific symptoms or problems with your computer that you can describe, it might be best to ask about them directly here instead of having to run hours of tests yourself.

[Nehkara]

Well, I can no longer run games on it (it used to be perfectly capable of playing games). I suspect this is the video card. When you try and run games you get graphical artifacts usually degenerating to whole system lockup.

Also, I am always nervous about restarting it because it frequently fails to boot into windows. This I am a little confused by as the "fix" for it has always been to just keep restarting it until it boots windows.

When I get home I will post system specs but it is running Windows Vista.

[Henry Fool]

For example, if there has been some kind of hard drive glitch, it's possible that the OS has downgraded the speed with which the disk interfaces with the rest of the system. Not sure if the windows checkdisk is enough for every issue. You have to test how fast the disk handles and transmits data.

EDIT: it's possible my memory is playing tricks on me, but I recall something like that happening to me with a healthy disk, on Win XP. Either way, I recommend testing the disk and comparing the results to what kind of performance you're supposed to get from the model. I think the HD tune website has results that you can use.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Henry Fool

For example, if there has been some kind of hard drive glitch, it's possible that the OS has downgraded the speed with which the disk interfaces with the rest of the system. Not sure if the windows checkdisk is enough for every issue. You have to test how fast the disk handles and transmits data.

EDIT: it's possible my memory is playing tricks on me, but I recall something like that happening to me with a healthy disk, on Win XP. Either way, I recommend testing the disk and comparing the results to what kind of performance you're supposed to get from the model. I think the HD tune website has results that you can use.

You're right. You're referring to Windows kicking the ATA controller from UltraDMA to PIO mode in the event that the system crashes too many times and it defaults to the failsafe PIO mode which is a POS superslow harddrive interface from the 1980s. IDE drives did this all the time and the hybrid IDE/SATA controllers too.

[aaronck]

I used to be a fan of Norton Utilities back in the Windows 95 days, worked pretty much like a large patch that MS should've released but didn't.

I recently got a demo of a program called Advanced System Optimizer-got great reviews on Cnet, and fixed a registry error I had on my old PC that I didn't want to reformat, as it's the one I hook my Iphone to for loading music and such.

[Tinordi]

CCleaner

[TylerSVT]

Norton 360, used to be horrible but i think the new build takes less resources.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

CCleaner

While I do think CCleaner has many (minor) benefits, I don't think it can fix what he is describing as his symptoms

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by aaronck

I recently got a demo of a program called Advanced System Optimizer-got great reviews on Cnet, and fixed a registry error I had on my old PC that I didn't want to reformat, as it's the one I hook my Iphone to for loading music and such.

Registry error fixing is actually usually fake. It doesn't do anything useful except cull links and associations that are nolonger there from stuff that has been deleted or uninstalled. There is actually nothing to speed up or optimized despite what all the registry fixing programs claim to do. Registry hives don't work that way. Most of these optimizer programs sadly don't do anything at all.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Nehkara

Well, I can no longer run games on it (it used to be perfectly capable of playing games). I suspect this is the video card. When you try and run games you get graphical artifacts usually degenerating to whole system lockup.

Also, I am always nervous about restarting it because it frequently fails to boot into windows. This I am a little confused by as the "fix" for it has always been to just keep restarting it until it boots windows.

When I get home I will post system specs but it is running Windows Vista.

Videocards dying is quite common. Easiest way to deal with this is to either underclock your videocard core and memory clocks to see if the games become stable and the artifacts go away, or try a different videocard. See if a friend has a spare to lend you.

What happens exactly when it fails to boot into windows?

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Videocards dying is quite common. Easiest way to deal with this is to either underclock your videocard core and memory clocks to see if the games become stable and the artifacts go away, or try a different videocard. See if a friend has a spare to lend you.

What happens exactly when it fails to boot into windows?

It just goes to a black screen and sits there.

[Nehkara]

System Specs:

MSI RD480 Neo2 motherboard (socket 939)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2 GB PC3200 DDR RAM
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256 MB video card
320 GB Seagate SATA HDD

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit

[calumniate]

Do you have files you need on it? Maybe try loading windows XP instead. Seems like 'decent' hardware, however Vista is a power monger and has / had all kinds of hardware compatibility issues.