Solved: hardware scanners/testers

[ribald]

does anyone know of any programs that will test ALL the hardware in my computer for errors or faults? i am running windows2000

 

[lotuseclat79]

does anyone know of any programs that will test ALL the hardware in my computer for errors or faults? i am running windows2000

First, the mfg of your computer cobbles together components: mobo, memory, devices, etc. from different suppliers, so unless they have home grown software that does what you are asking, I doubt that any one software package exists - I could be wrong.

Next, the BIOS does a power-on self test (POST) that checks the DMI data pool which is a data base of your hardware. If the computer boots up without any nasty messages - then your hardware has not reached its end-of-life. This of course does not tell you how close any one hardware component it is to failing or about to fail. Each component has its own inherent hardware reliability derived from each component's hardware items that comprise it.

In order to answer your question, first a software would have to know what to test and then know how to test each component in your system.

If you do not know exactly what hardware your system has, a good first step is to download Everest Free (Home Edition freeware) from http://www.lavalys.com

It will tell you the SMART status of your disks which is desireable to know. It also monitors your system, cpu and aux temperatures - also, good to know. And it monitors cooling fan rpms, and voltage values for your system.

A good memory test package is memtest86 which you can google for and download from several websites, install and run in order to check your memory.

Another good idea is to download the disk diagnostic software from your hard drive mfgr website (its free).

Other than that, there is a website known as: The Ultimate Boot CD at: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com which has many utilities to checkout your system - or go to the Windows version link at the top of the webpage here: http://www.ubcd4win.com

-- Tom

 

[ribald]

i have a nasty message at startup which means i can only run in safemode, but any hardware i have scanned comes up clean

 

[lotuseclat79]

i have a nasty message at startup which means i can only run in safemode, but any hardware i have scanned comes up clean

Hi ribald,

What does the nasty message at startup say?

-- Tom

 

[ribald]

there are 3
kmode exception not handled 0x00000001e

page fault in non paged area 0x00000050

driver attempting to access memory after it has been freed 0x000000d5

it seemed to be a ram problem but i changed the ram stick and no difference, i ran memory tests and it didnt find any problems, then i thought a hard disk problem but again no problems, thats why i want something to scan the whole computer

 

[lotuseclat79]

there are 3
kmode exception not handled 0x00000001e

page fault in non paged area 0x00000050

driver attempting to access memory after it has been freed 0x000000d5

it seemed to be a ram problem but i changed the ram stick and no difference, i ran memory tests and it didnt find any problems, then i thought a hard disk problem but again no problems, thats why i want something to scan the whole computer

For each 0x........ value, go to http://support.microsoft.com and insert only the exact hex value, i.e. 0x........, one at a time to search for information on that kind of exception. BTW, your 0x00000001e has 9 hex digits after the 0x and it should only have 8.

-- Tom

 

[ribald]

already did that, and they where no help whatsoever, i even tried searching for the other codes which came with the errors and microsoft dont appear to have heard of them

 

[lotuseclat79]

How old is your system? How long have you been experiencing this problem? What downloads/installations/new hardware/system software occured just before you began to experience the problem? What Service Pack for Windows 2000 are you running?

When you say the webpages at Microsoft were no help whatsoever, do you mean that you do not understand what they are saying, or are you just looking for a quick fix? Are you unfamiliar with diagnostic troubleshooting?

What we need to identify is the context information regarding each error message that can help isolate the problem and give us some guidance in figuring out what to do to correct the problem.

Can you duplicate the nasty messages and record the entire Stop message with all of the text in the 2-4 lines from each of the error messages?

If so, post them here.

Turn off Automatic Restart: Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced tab->Startup and Recovery Settings button, then uncheck Automatically Restart - this should allow you to collect the information regarding the Stop messages. Make sure the other 2 boxes are checked and we are able to collect a Minidump file and event log file.

-- Tom

P.S. I had no problems finding all kinds of information at the Microsoft support website regarding each of the 3 codes you indicated - however, now we need the context information I mentioned above to whittle down the cause; note that the first one was inaccurate: i.e. 9 instead of 8 digits. - too many zeroes in the middle of the error code.

 

[ribald]

ok. been goin om for two weeks. the night before there was some very heavy thunder. next day turned on computer, everything fine, norton asked me to update the subscription, having done that it asked that i restart the computer, i did and the messages began. i uninstalled all norton orientated software but that made no difference. microsft didnt have those errors in the context that i was experiencing them, and when i did try what they said it didnt change anything.service pack 4 and another update, something about rollup service pack i think. the zeroes were a typing error on my part. sorry. it has something in the event viewer about event id 7026. can u tell me how to copy that whole thing in here? also i ran a different hard drive scanner and 1 bad block was found on one of the drives, but not the boot drive. it has event id 7. and finally i dont really know much about diagnostic trouble shooting. if u give me about 15 minutes i can get what all the lines are.

 

[ribald]

ok, page fault error says: check to make sure any new hardware or sofware is properly installed.

kmode error says: check to be sure you have adequate disk space. if a driver is indentified in the stop message disable the driver or check with manufacturer for driver updates. try changing video adapters.

both go on to say: disable bios options such as caching or shadowing.

i have no new installed, and havent any new software either. i have about 20gb free overall and all drivers have since been updated. i have three separate video cards and i get the same thing happening with all three

 

[lotuseclat79]

Ok, first a few simple questions:

1) do you have any surge protection for your computer - e.g. I have a Tripp Lite isobar touch master plus good for 1500 jules of surge suppression - good to have when lightening strikes.

2) is the building where your computer resides grounded? My house just got grounded with two copper rods after my galvanized iron water service line was replaced with plastic line. Also, good to have when lightening strikes.

I wanted the exact complete Stop error message text for each Stop error that the system spits out - not what you describe it says.

I assume the third Stop error message did not reoccur?

Can you get into the BIOS and disable caching (L1 and L2) and shadowing if there are any entries for either - and duplicate again?

Also, can you get into Safe Mode and turn off all the items in your Startup?

-- Tom

 

[ribald]

u want all the codes then not the words?

i can get into several kinds of safemode, the one im in is called directory services repair mode. everything works fine in it. how do i turn off all the items in startup, and to the best of my knoiwledge the house is grounded, but no surge protection im afraid. no the other message never appeared after 12 tries?

 

[lotuseclat79]

u want all the codes then not the words?

i can get into several kinds of safemode, the one im in is called directory services repair mode. everything works fine in it. how do i turn off all the items in startup, and to the best of my knoiwledge the house is grounded, but no surge protection im afraid. no the other message never appeared after 12 tries?

Both the codes and the words - everything on the screen.
In Safe Mode, run msconfig.exe and click on the Startup tab, then uncheck everything.

Ok, 1 error message down, two to go - get some surge protection at your local Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.

-- Tom

 

[ribald]

i ran a search but couldnt find msconfig.exe. where do i get it?

 

[ribald]

doesnt matter i found it. tried the bios thing but no difference sort of: 2 caching options, both disabled computer hangs when stop message would normally appear, level1 on it goes to the stop message, level2 only and it hangs again. these are the exact codes of in the stop messages:
page fault: 0x00000050 (0xd0eb41b1 0x00000001 0xeb51271b 0x00000000)

kmode: 0x000000d5 (0xb0eb41b1 0x00000001 0xeb51671b 0x00000000)

the other thing on the screen apart from what i already said was about referring to the manual for troubleshooting stop errors, but i dont have a manual, or know where it is. hope this helps