Hardware testing tools?

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chombee
Posts: 1327
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:01 pm

Hardware testing tools?

Post by chombee » Sun Jun 27, 2010 3:31 pm

I'm looking forward to trying to put together new PCs for the admin office and action room out of the ones we have lying around. Before I install Ubuntu on them and hand them over to people to use I want to be able to test these PCs so that I know they don't have any hardware problems. I'm looking for tools to do this. So far, Ultimate Boot CD looks pretty good. It has a lot of tools on it, including memtest86+, cpu burn-in, doesn't have smartmontools or badblocks but it has some other hard drive fitness test tools. Any alternative recommendations?
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swithun
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Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:24 pm

Re: Hardware testing tools?

Post by swithun » Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:49 pm

That CD does look aptly named.

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Martin
Posts: 1084
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:35 pm

Re: Hardware testing tools?

Post by Martin » Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:40 pm

If the plan is to install Ubuntu on them, just boot from the live CD and then use its own test system (System / Administration / System Testing). That way you can confirm that drivers etc. will work out of the box at the same time as checking the functionality of the hardware. And if you do it with an internet connection available, it can submit the test report to the Ubuntu database which will help with future development.

If it looks like everything basically works, you can then run the more tedious tests before committing to an install - memtest86, and badblocks in destructive read-write mode over the whole disk (which will serve the additional function of clearing off any sensitive data from the previous owner). I think both of those are also on the live CD.

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