Recommended Burn In Software

PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
edited January 2007 in Hardware
Hi ya'll

Tomorrow (today), I need to burn in a system to make sure it's ok after replacing its HSA (heat sink assembly). The HSA fan locked up causing the CPU to over heat and the system to shut down. The user just kept turning the system back on and running it until it shut down again. I'm not sure at this point how long this was going on.

In addition, since fans don't typically die all of a sudden, I'm assuming the CPU was enduring higher than normal temperatures over a period of time (because of the failing fan) before the fan locked up completely.

Another tidbit... When I pulled the HSA, I saw that whoever built the system didn't put any heat sink compound between the CPU and the heat sink either. (It's an AMD Athlon XP 2200, I believe.) So, the CPU may have been experiencing higher than necessary temperatures from the beginning - when the system was built.

I'd like to test the sytem (esp CPU) after I replace the HSA. My question to you all is what software do you recommend as a good burn in utility? I had one I was using but didn't like it because as soon as it encountered an error it would lock up leaving no log file or anything. I wouldn't have any idea what caused the lock up or what failed.

Thank you in advance for your feed back

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Run Orthos at its default settings for 10-24 hours. That's considered the gold standard for stability.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    Thrax wrote:
    Run Orthos at its default settings for 10-24 hours. That's considered the gold standard for stability.

    Thank you Thrax. I'll check that out now.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    As a Fold@Home Junkie and Team Short-Media Committee Member....


    Fold@home can test the stability of the system. Not only that, but it helps find cures to diseases, like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and forms of cancer. Join Folding:D


    Nuff of my lobbying :D

    :fold::fold::fold:
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Yes, but a computer that's not stable will be crunching corrupt WUs and contributing nothing to the project.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Very true... But if the CPU or other components are bad, F@H will stress it out enough to throw errors. If it can handle F@H for a day or two, then you can be confident that the CPU and cooling aspect have been addressed and the research project receives several days of help.

    In this particular case, I would go with Orthos because of all the other things it tests.... :thumbsup:
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    Thanx ya'll. As it isn't my system, I'm not comfortable w/ installing F@H on it (though I do see your point). I do have F@H running 24/7 on my two desktop systems.

    In this case, I'd like to go w/ a utility whose purpose in life is to stress test the system and provide an intelligible report on the results.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Pterocarpous wrote:
    Thanx ya'll. As it isn't my system, I'm not comfortable w/ installing F@H on it (though I do see your point). I do have F@H running 24/7 on my two desktop systems.

    In this case, I'd like to go w/ a utility whose purpose in life is to stress test the system and provide an intelligible report on the results.
    Simple ...you can choose to have othos burn using the gromacs core. It will really get that cpu burning! Also good for a pre-F@h stability check without losing the wus.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    csimon wrote:
    Simple ...you can choose to have othos burn using the gromacs core. It will really get that cpu burning! Also good for a pre-F@h stability check without losing the wus.
    Thanx csimon. I have it running in "Blended" mode right now 'cause I wanted to test memory, too. It's been running for over 2.5hrs w/ no errors so far. Do you think it'd be better if I stop the current run and start the gromacs core test?

    On a side note, the OS (XP Home SP2) is a bit flakey. It hung up on me a few times b4 I got Orthos running. Windows explorer crashed, Display Properties applet locked up, something else, too but I forget what it was. Could be anything, though. Hard to tell 'till I get a closer look. I haven't serviced this system in a while.

    Didn't look into these problems yet as I wanted to test the hardware 1st.

    Thanx for the pic. It's helpful as this is the 1st time I've run this diag.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Blended is ok I'd just let it run through at least a cylce or two.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    csimon wrote:
    Blended is ok I'd just let it run through at least a cylce or two.

    Thankyou, csimon. Do you mean a cycle or two of the Blended mode?
    About how long do you think it'll take to get through a complete cycle?
    (AMD Athlon XP 2500 + 512K/768MB DDR333)
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Pterocarpous wrote:
    Thankyou, csimon. Do you mean a cycle or two of the Blended mode?
    About how long do you think it'll take to get through a complete cycle?
    (AMD Athlon XP 2500 + 512K/768MB DDR333)
    I meant Blended mode. They're all good.
    A cycle on my opteron 165 @ 2.8ghz takes about 3.5 hours. I usually let it run all night though.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    csimon wrote:
    I meant Blended mode. They're all good.
    A cycle on my opteron 165 @ 2.8ghz takes about 3.5 hours. I usually let it run all night though.

    Thankyou csimon. I'm letting it run overnight in Blended mode. Thanx for you help.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    No problem ...hope you get that stability thing worked out.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    csimon wrote:
    No problem ...hope you get that stability thing worked out.

    I'll tackle that once I know the HW's ok. No sense getting the cart b4 the horse, right?
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    I have a great test for you.... How about a bootable CD OS (Bart PC) with Orthos on it... that takes a potential OS problem and really just tests the hardware?
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Yeah to be on the safe side I'd run memtest86 before anything.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    QCH2002 wrote:
    I have a great test for you.... How about a bootable CD OS (Bart PC) with Orthos on it... that takes a potential OS problem and really just tests the hardware?
    Good idea QCH2002. You're right. The best way to isolate the OS from the HW is to boot to the HW diagnostics rather than run them w/in the OS.

    I've never worked w/ Bart PC b4. I believe I might have dowloaded it b4 but either never got around to putting it to bootable media or wasn't able to figure it out at the time..... I just can't remember! :scratch: I have a 200GB external (firewire) HDD (mirrored to a 2nd external (USB) HDD) dedicated to holding all the apps and utilities that I've run across over the years. I've probably forgotten at least half of them! :crazy:

    I've always run individual diagnostics/utilities for the most part. A suite of utilities that I could boot to would be nice. Are Bart PC and UBCD somehow related? How do these utilities work and where might I find them? They're free, yes?
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    csimon wrote:
    Yeah to be on the safe side I'd run memtest86 before anything.

    Thankyou csimon. I ran Orthos in Blended mode for > 15.5hrs. No errors. Do you think I still need to run MEMTEST86?
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    I NEVER hurts to run Memtest. Prime uses it when his car sputters, his dog yacks on the carpet, and when he looses power to his camera... He says "RUN MEMTEST". ;D

    Really, a few cycles of Memtest will GUARANTEE that the memory is stable. :thumbsup:
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