CPU Stress Test

[Bolbi]

I'm troubleshooting a problem with my new build
It's come down to the problem being caused by the CPU, Mobo, or PSU, so I'm looking for a tool to help me test the CPU out and hopefully eliminate it as the culprit. (AMD Athlon II X3 435) I'm a little nervous about trying an extreme stress test like Prime95, especially since I'm only using the stock heatsink/fan. Any suggestions?

 

[sturm]

I just built a system with the same cpu and stock heatsink.
I ran Prime95 on it and the temp went to a max of 118 F. Idle temp was 61 F. I tested with two temp monitors and they reported the same think.

What problem are you having?

 

[Bolbi]

I just built a system with the same cpu and stock heatsink.
I ran Prime95 on it and the temp went to a max of 118 F. Idle temp was 61 F. I tested with two temp monitors and they reported the same think.

What problem are you having?

That's a little reassuring... So you recommend running a stress test? (I should mention that my case has only one 120mm fan, along with the PSU's 135mm.) If such a program exists, I'd prefer to run it in DOS, or at least some bootable format that doesn't require Windows to be up at the same time.
My problem is that the PC doesn't "wake up" from standby correctly. Monitor, card reader, DVD, and fans come back on just fine, but the power light on the case goes off and the monitor, while on, just shows a completely black picture. I have to hard shutdown and power reset to get it working again. I think the Mobo is most likely causing the problem, but when I go to request an RMA, I want to be able to say that I have tested every other component and know that they are not the problem.

 

[sturm]

So youre saying that it won't wake from hibernation or suspend mode? I personally never use those on my home computers as I have also not had much luck. I just set my monitor to shut off after 20 or 30 minutes and thats it. I turn mine off at night anyways.
Try turning off hibernation and set it to turn off monitor after 5 and hard disks after 10, just as a test. If it wakes up just fine with those power settings then reset them to a latter time and test it over a couple of days.
I would run the stress test. The comp I built for my dad only has a 120 fan and the power supply fan with the stock heatsink and the temps are running just fine. Get you a temp monitor program and run it at the same time your running prime95 so you can watch the temps. If they get too high then check your heatsink and make sure its installed correctly.

 

[C00lIT]

WINRAR
Tools
Benchmark hardware test

That will stress the cpu at 80 to 100%

 

[Bolbi]

Actually, I don't use hibernation either. It's the Start Menu's "Sleep" option under Win7 that I'm trying to get working. Hybrid Sleep is turned off (for troubleshooting; I'll re-enable it later when this is fixed), so right now it's just saving all active processes to RAM, and then pulling them out again when I wake it up (at least that's how things are supposed to work). I leave my normal power settings to shut off the HDD and monitor as well after a little while, but I like to use Sleep mode when I'm going to be away from my PC for awhile. Not that I'm a "save the polar bears" freak, but I don't mind cutting down on power consumption when it's convenient. So, for me, it's not just a problem I want to ignore.
Thanks for the info on your success with Prime95. I'll try it. How long should I let it run?
(Off-topic: I guess Prime95 is useful for us geeks to test our CPU/RAM, but does anyone know what the point is of trying to find Mersenne Prime numbers?)

@c00lit... Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd rather try Prime95 first since it's freeware instead of shareware. (I use 7-zip as my archiver/extractor.)

 

[Bolbi]

Thanks for the help guys. I ran OCCTPT's main test for 1 hour, and then Prime95 Small FFT for 7:43 (completed 8 passes each for 8k-32k in 2k increments). No errors or crashes in either one, so I think I can safely say my CPU is not the problem. BTW, the CPU only reached 55 celsius at its maximum (during Prime95), and most of the time for both tests stayed right around 52. The max temp is 71, so I had no reason to worry.