Diagnostic Software for Teching

[R4_M9]

I cant remember if i have asked this before but heres it goes again if i did. I am looking for some good and cheap if not free Diagnostic software for diagnosing old compaq computers also to inventory thier innards(<--hehe). So that i can detect problems with Ram, HDD, IRQ conflicts, so on and so forth. I have been looking into tufftest, but cant find anyone who uses it for work. Anyone have any ideas.

Part two of the question would be do you remember the MSD command for DOS. WHere it would come up to that screen with all that great info and had the option of printing it. THats what i am looking for. Why cant they include it with windows 98se or xp for that matter.

[korky45]

What operating system are you talking about, and what's MSD? I thought I new all the popular DOS commands but I don't know that one!

Thanks:)

[Sylvander]

I have TuffTest Lite and suggest its use quite often.
It’s not as good as the software that came with my PC though.
That is PC-Check by Eurosoft.
Home page here http://www.eurosoft-uk.com/

I had a faint recollection of MSD and eventually found it on my Windows 95 CD at
“F:\Eng_CDFull\Other\Msd\Msd.exe”.
Copied it to the C: drive, and ran it [inside Windows], and it reminded me that it is best run from outside of Windows, from a boot floppy.
I copied it to a boot disk [that had an old copy of “MemMaker.exe” on it] and ran MSD and it appeared to be working well. MemMaker ran automatically, by the way, and reported it had just optimised my conventional memory. I checked and Config.sys, Autoexec.bat & System.ini were unchanged, so no problem. I had used MemMaker a long time back to do that job and it’s changes remain to this day, but have been incorporated into the registry.

Unfortunately, they are presently asking £150 for the PC-Check software that I was given free with my PC.

[R4_M9]

korky45

MSD allows you to examine technical information about your computer in two different formats. You can use the MSD interface or you can create a report. MSD provides detailed information about your computer`s model and processor, memory, video adapter, version of MS-DOS, mouse, other adapters, disk drives, LPT ports, COM ports IRQ status, terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs and device drivers will be provided.

[R4_M9]

Sylvander

I have tufftest lite as well. I really like it as it is really simple to use. I was just wondering how much better tufftest pro is than tufftest lite. I was also looking into PCcertify but the price is not really in my range.

[classicsoftware]

This (http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1&subpage=2) will put MSD where it belongs, dead and buried with DOS or WIN95

[R4_M9]

classicsoftware

Thanks for that everest link, i had never heard of that before. But i liked MSD very easy to use and it was free:D

[korky45]

classicsoftware is right

put MSD where it belongs, dead and buried with DOS or WIN95

There is lots of utility software around that will give you the information you are looking for from you PC and in a much more acceptable format than DOS.

Many are free, Everest included has a free home user version. I use Aida and Sandra (although Aida is no longer updated) but there is no shortage of free utilities that will analyise your entire computer system and setup, along with advice for those who wish to take it.

MSD may have been nice at the time but there is much better around now.
Download a couple and try them out.

Thanks :)

[classicsoftware]

The everest software is also free and I dinf it very easy to use..

[R4_M9]

Thanks everyone. I downloaded everest, which is real cool and super easy to use. I'm gonna try out a couple of more. If anyone has any other ones that are free or cheap post them please. Thanks again

[malcore]

PCWizard (http://www.cpuid.com/pcw.php)

Fresh Diagnose (http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html)

Most "free" diagnostic software are very similar.

Edit - You might want to take a look at BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) also. Seems complicated to get set up, but it's not really. Great utility, can add so much to it. Must have for techies.