[GTALUG] computer hardware testing tools.

[Don Tai]

If you live in an older house, older than a house built in the 1970s, then
you probably have fuses and not breakers. Older houses could have the
service panel upgraded to breakers, say from 100 amp to 200 amps. There is
a chance that someone could remove a fuse and not replace it immediately.
There are also blended cases where a panel can have fuses and some
breakers. A person that is not careful could touch the wrong place and
receive a nasty shock. I would not recommend you mess with your electrical
panel unless you are sure it is completely safe all the time.

On Thu, 13 Jul 2023 at 14:54, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> What exactly are the remaining problems that you can put your finger on?
>
> Laptops effectively have built-in UPSes.  They should not be affected by
> drooping voltage and a surge would have to be fairly large to harm it.  I
> would guess that the first thing to fail would be the power brick.  Have
> you tested the system with a different brick?
>
> A stereo that stops is an odd symptom.  What do you mean by "stop"?  What
> components do what?  (Many quite different constellations of devices are
> called stereos.)
>
> Do you have any remaining concrete problem with your computer? Wanting to
> run diagnostics is reasonable except that good broad spectrum tests are
> hard to find.  The best diagnostic seems to be running the computer on
> normal tasks.
>
> Diagnostics I use:
>  memtest86+ for RAM (stand-alone)
>  SMARTmon utilities for disks (Linux or Windows)
>  fsck for filesystems (Linux)
>
> | From: Karen Lewellen via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
> |
> | My explanation was not clear.
> | I believe the serge damaged the port  not the cable, which is why I am
> seeking
> | software to test the integrity of internal things like the motherboard.
> | My apartment is the upper basement of a house, where hydro is a part of
> my
> | rent.
> | However outlets on this floor seem to share circuits with other things
> both on
> | this floor and likely in the rest of the house which may not be wired
> well.
> | for example the fridge is on an outlet with other  items, so, at least
> | according to those who have already investigated a slight surge or
> feedback
> | may be being sent.
> | I suspect one of my older mac laptops has paid the price, my stereo
> which was
> | just refurbished will  stop, if something elsewhere int the house is
> turned on
> | those kinds of things.  Have to run extensions because the outlets are
> all
> | under the radiators etc.
> | The thing is though I cannot be sure  just what is damaged, without a
> tool to
> | test the internal  items like the board itself.  I only know the machine
> would
> | not speak, even though sighted help at the time indicated the software
> was
> | loading on the screen.
> | Kare
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