>At 02:57 PM 06/06/2000 Rob E. wrote:
> >
> >What do you folks use for diagnostic software when trying to
> >troubleshoot hardware problems?
>
For many of the same reasons others have stated, I don't find diagnostic
software very useful.  However, I do own and have found useful (several
times) a program called TuffTest (www.tufftest.com).  This is a stand-alone
diagnostic program that runs off a floppy disk with no dependence on any
other software.  The "light" version only costs $10 and they have a more
expensive "pro" version.  I have used it several times to help duplicate
intermittent problems, most recently a memory module that would fail a few
times a day during normal use (a problem that can often look like a
configuration or software problem) and a floppy drive that would sometimes
not allow being written to.  Using the diagnostic to find the failing memory
module makes it easier to find which one is failing and to make sure that
the problem moves with the module when switching them around to make sure
that the problem is really the module and not something else.  That said, I
can only recommend TuffTest because it is cheap.  It lacks a lot of features
and is not easy to use.  However, memory testing is the primary use of a
diagnostic as far as I am concerned and TuffTest is cheaper than a hardware
memory tester or full-featured diagnostics.
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