CPU problems tend to reveal themselves when you’re running CPU-hungry applications such as code compilation or video encoding, and not during everyday tasks. Overheating CPUs can also cause system crashes. If you want to quit memtest86+ and restart your computer, just press Esc. Memory problems are usually tough to spot, so in order to be sure it’s better to leave memtest86+ running for a long period of time and complete at least 10 passes of the test. Pressing c shows the configuration menu, which you can use to select the test method, enter ECC mode (if your system uses that kind of RAM), restart the test, or refresh the screen however, most people should be fine with the defaults. ![]() The program is simple to use, since it starts testing memory by itself immediately. To run the program, boot your system with the GRML CD and enter memtest on the boot prompt. ![]() Memtest86+ is a boot image and thus is independent of an operating system. It is based on memtest86, but supports most modern hardware, including the AMD64 architecture, whereas memtest86 is strictly x86-based. Memtest86+ is an excellent utility for testing RAM. ![]() Next time you try to compile a program and the compilation fails, check your memory before sending any bug reports to the program’s authors. Other distributions also include some or all of these tools.īad memory can cause crashes that lead to system hard locks or even data corruption. For this purpose, my favorite live CD distribution is GRML, which bundles the tools we’re about to discuss, along with some other useful programs for both home users and veteran system administrators. ![]() In this article we will introduce you to some open source tools you can use to trace these problems, and thus save time, money, and headaches.Ī GNU/Linux live CD distribution can come handy for hardware diagnostics. Many common hardware problems are caused by bad RAM modules, overheated or broken CPUs, or bad sectors or clusters on hard disks. Like all pieces of electronic equipment, computers have a tendency to malfunction and break if you have never experienced kernel core dumps or unexpected crashes, consider yourself lucky.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |