Hardware functionality test?

[bluhavoc13]

so im getting my parts for my comp tomorrow and i need to no how to run so hardware functionality tst to see if both rams sticks are working, or if one part of the pc isn't working which part is it and maybe the way to troubleshoot?

 

[nekulturny]

Well,, in order to know if something isn't working.. it has to not work first. lol.

To test the RAM, there is a program here http://www.memtest86.com/ you can download and burn to a bootable iso disk. You'd run the disk drive as primary boot and it comes on and runs.

You can test your RAM one at a time for best results. Then run it with all of the sticks in. Testing the RAM per-emptively in a new build is probably a good idea, one I neglected to do with my build.

 

[bluhavoc13]

i meant how could u tell which part is not working?

 

[nekulturny]

i meant how could u tell which part is not working?

Depends,, some problems can be caused by more than one kind of thing. Your motherboard owner's manual will have beep codes associated with it if it tries to boot up and gives you a series of beeps that usually will point you in the right direction, but its not perfect.

One thing thats really easy to screw up that I find, the little connectors to the power and reset button, Hard drive LEDs.. they're all little tiny things and its easy to put them in the wrong pins. Fear not, you can't damage anything if you mix em up, but it might make you panic if you push the power button and nothing happens.

I bring that one up, because in my PC repair class, we had lab partners and we were to deliberately screw up the hardware in the computer than switch stations and everyone takes turns trying to figure out what you did to "break it", and fix it. I switched those wires around, this one poor guy, his lab partner dropped the class, he couldn't figure out what I had done, he was even testing the wall electrical outlet to see if I disabled it somehow. lol

 

[shell shocke]

HAHAHA, HILARIOUS! Is that a college course class? I'd love to take a class like that.

 

[nekulturny]

HAHAHA, HILARIOUS! Is that a college course class? I'd love to take a class like that.

Yea. PC-Repair, IST-150 is the course code for my school (Hagerstown Community College), I don't know if the course number is different for other colleges or not. And I can't promise you'll have as interesting of a professor as I got. Every week of class, her student aids mess something up, so the computers we work with in lab are broken somehow, and we have to fix that before we can do the assigned lab work. Our final apparently is going to consist of being given a broken computer with 2 hardware problems and 2 bios problems with 90 minutes to make it live. I'm looking forward to it.