[GTALUG] computer hardware testing tools.

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Jul 11, 2023 at 06:05:29PM -0400, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote:
> Hi folks,
> What I am seeking is an open source program that tests aspects of say your
> motherboard.  that the serial ports or parallel ports work, that the USB
> ports are sound etc.
> I am asking  because due to an as of yet not fixed hydro problem in my new
> apartment, the occasional power surges, even with machines attached to
> protectors, are causing slight damage to hardware.
> Need to know how much as I only have so many computers I can use.
> Any program ideas?
> Will be sharing suggestions with someone hopefully helping me troubleshoot.

I am not aware of anything that does that.  It gets complicated really fast.

You could have a loopback plug to test part of a serial port.  A better
test requires connecting two serial ports together and testing them with
each other (I used to work on a product where we did exactly that as
part of the manufacturing test of the product).  Parallel ports could
probably be done in a similar way, although something with a bit of
electronics on it you could do some latching on might make some of the
pins on the port easier to test.  It sure was simpler back when computers
had a fixed feature set and a test harness and software could be made
for it (lke the commodore 64 for example).

I have seen USB testers that you plug in and they have a display on them
that shows if the port is working correctly.  They very clearly assume
the user can visually detemine what it is doing unfortunately.

It seems for PCs people tend to assume it is working unless it obviously
isn't.  Not very convinient if you think there might be a problem and
would like to be sure.

-- 
Len Sorensen