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#11
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
On 2010-09-19, John McGaw wrote:
If you want to stress the disk operations you can add on a batch file which copies files back and forth, zips them, unzips them, compares them, calculates MD5 codes or whatever your heart desires. Add sleep intervals as appropriate or let the drive(s) grind at full speed as seems appropriate. Simply using badblocks sounds a lot less complicated then all of that. |
#12
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
On 9/19/2010 6:39 PM, ShadowTek wrote:
On 2010-09-19, John wrote: If you want to stress the disk operations you can add on a batch file which copies files back and forth, zips them, unzips them, compares them, calculates MD5 codes or whatever your heart desires. Add sleep intervals as appropriate or let the drive(s) grind at full speed as seems appropriate. Simply using badblocks sounds a lot less complicated then all of that. It depends on what you want to test. Since badblocks is a Linux program and does a one-time scan of the drive it is hard to see how it is going to simulate a realistic system load for a week or more under Windows. As for complicated, writing a BAT file to do some disk activity on a continuing basis and exercise a system's drive(s) for a long period is pretty simple and non-threatening. |
#13
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
"PC Guy" wrote in message ... I've got a few motherboards that I need to determine their operational reliability / stability while running XP, so I'm wondering if there is any free software that can do stress testing or "burn-in" operations for one or two weeks continuously running under XP. Basically, any software that can keep a system busy doing stuff until (or if) the system crashes or locks up. Serial, parallel, network, audio and USB stress testing is not required. This is a bit strange. So you wanna test a motherboard, but you don't wanna test mouses, printers, networking/internet, soundblasters/audio chips. Then later on you describe an "average human being". An average human being uses all of these things which you think are not required for testing. To me it seems you testing idea/method is already flawed from the start. Bye, Skybuck. |
#14
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
Skybuck Flying wrote:
So you wanna test a motherboard, but you don't wanna test mouses, printers, networking/internet, soundblasters/audio chips. Then later on you describe an "average human being". An average human being uses all of these things which you think are not required for testing. To me it seems you testing idea/method is already flawed from the start. I'll give you some background: Our company has shipped a number of data acquisition computers based on the Soyo SY-P4I 845PE ISA (SY-845PEISA) and SY-P4I-845GVISA Plus motherboards over the past 5 to 6 years. http://www2.dealtime.com/xPF-Soyo-SO...ISA-DDR333-A-L The first of these boards that we used was the PE-ISA, which does not have on-board video but it does have an AGP slot. Starting about 3 years ago we started shipping systems based on the GV-ISA-Plus. These boards seem identical except that the GV has on-board video (Intel Extreme graphics or something like that - 8mb video ram) and no AGP slot. I'm sure that all of these boards (both types) were originally manufactured between 2003 and late 2005. Over the past year, we've had some of the GV boards fail in the field, exhibiting strange problems (some don't boot at all, some will partially boot XP and then just freeze, some will boot XP and run fine for 6 to 12 hours and then either spontaneously re-boot or just freeze/lock-up). It's likely that very few of these systems have printers attached to them, and probably half of them are not connected to a network. The problem does not seem to happen with the older PE motherboards (the boards that don't have on-board video but do have an AGP slot). We have some of these PE boards being used heavily in-house for the past 5 years and they work great - no problems ever. The systems that have failed have been working for at least 1 to 2 years, but the frequency of use of any given system is unknown. They all have socket 478 Intel Celeron CPU's, 2.6 ghz speed, stock Intel CPU cooler/fan, and either 512 mb or 1gb ram, 80 gb WD hard drive. We don't have that many of these boards left for use in new systems, and some of those that we do have seemed to have problems on the construction bench in the past and were not used for one reason or another. I'm aware of a massive problem with capacitors that really affected Dell around the same time that these boards would have been made, and we are experimentally taking a few boards and changing the electrolytic capacitors (1000 and 1500 uf) with new ones to see if that solves their problems with operational stability. Hence the reason for my original question, which was to seek software that simulates medium to heavy single-user load on systems running XP. We have to insure that these replacement systems can run for at least a week solid with no hint of trouble before we ship them back out. I am aware that Soyo went bankrupt or went out of business around May 2009, and I've seen some comments that they stopped making motherboards about 3 years before that. |
#15
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:48:04 -0400 PC Guy wrote in Message
id: : I'm aware of a massive problem with capacitors that really affected Dell around the same time that these boards would have been made, and we are experimentally taking a few boards and changing the electrolytic capacitors (1000 and 1500 uf) with new ones to see if that solves their problems with operational stability. I'll bet that fixes your problem. Not just Dell was affected, and electrolytic caps only have a lifetime of 2000 hours or so anyway. Make sure you get low ESR types for replacement. If the problem persists, try a new power supply as well. You could try this diagnostic, there's a 30 day evaluation: http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm If it does what you need it's pretty reasonable price-wise. |
#16
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
On 21 Sep, 10:30, JW wrote:
I'll bet that fixes your problem. Not just Dell was affected, and electrolytic caps only have a lifetime of 2000 hours or so anyway. Make sure you get low ESR types for replacement. If the problem persists, try a new power supply as well. That life span sounds like it is straight from a device data sheet without considering what that data sheet actually says: it is easy to come up with misleading conclusions as a consequence. 2000 hours is less than a quarter, and even the majority of cheap tat on sale today lasts longer than that. The quoted lifespan is usually quoted at the device's maximum temperature which is going to be 85C even for the lowest grade caps. For every 10C under the limit capacitor life slightly more than doubles. Reduce the temeperature down to a typical working temeprature - say 30C - and that 2000 hour capacitor can be expected to last a decade of 24/7 operation. The more common 105C caps would be good for 40 years. Soundly made electrolytics last a long time in conservative operating conditions. -- Andrew Smallshaw |
#17
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
JW wrote:
On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:48:04 -0400 PC Guy wrote in Message id: : I'm aware of a massive problem with capacitors that really affected Dell around the same time that these boards would have been made, and we are experimentally taking a few boards and changing the electrolytic capacitors (1000 and 1500 uf) with new ones to see if that solves their problems with operational stability. I'll bet that fixes your problem. Not just Dell was affected, and electrolytic caps only have a lifetime of 2000 hours or so anyway. Make sure you get low ESR types for replacement. If the problem persists, try a new power supply as well. You could try this diagnostic, there's a 30 day evaluation: http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm If it does what you need it's pretty reasonable price-wise. Look for information on "modified Arrhenius equation". It's the equation you use, to convert the "2000 hours", into the real life span. Arrhenius is a chemistry equation, related to reaction rate. It's something like "reaction rate doubles for each 7C rise in temperature". It is used to model how reaction kinetics change with temperature. Electrolytic capacitor reliability, is "curve fitted" to the Arrhenius equation. But the exponent in the equation doesn't use 7C. It is a different value, specific to each product. Curve fitting reveals the characteristic value. Say the capacitor is rated 2000 hours at 110C, and the inside of the computer is 35C air temperature. The temperature difference is 75C between spec point and application temperature. Lets say the curve fitted Arrhenius factor is a doubling per 15C. The temperature difference leaves room for five doublings or a factor of 2**5 or 32. The predicted lifespan of the capacitor would be 64000 hours at 35C. If the equation pops out an answer higher than 15 years, then the assumption is, the rubber bung on the bottom of the cap fails. Early in the life of the cap, the "chemistry equation" applies. Later in life, the packaging falls apart, and that is the proposed failure mechanism above 15 years. (Once the rubber plug fails, it allows the capacitor to dry out. Ozone will attack the rubber.) When replacing caps, I would replace "like with like", in the sense that I wouldn't change the class of capacitor used. If a "switching power supply grade" electrolytic cap is used in the Vcore circuit, I would select a similar type as a substitute. If I were to place an OSCON or a polymer cap in there, then re-evaluating the equations in the Vcore design datasheet would be required. The following is an example of a Vcore datasheet, with maths. Each datasheet will have different kinds of advice, particular to the circuit and its requirements. If you don't wish to use one of these, then select caps from a "like" family, to what you find on the motherboard. (See, for example, page 14 "Cout Selection") http://web.archive.org/web/200403310...5ADP3180_0.pdf Paul |
#18
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
On Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:36:50 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote: "PC Guy" wrote in message ... I've got a few motherboards that I need to determine their operational reliability / stability while running XP, so I'm wondering if there is any free software that can do stress testing or "burn-in" operations for one or two weeks continuously running under XP. Basically, any software that can keep a system busy doing stuff until (or if) the system crashes or locks up. Serial, parallel, network, audio and USB stress testing is not required. This is a bit strange. So you wanna test a motherboard, but you don't wanna test mouses, printers, networking/internet, soundblasters/audio chips. Then later on you describe an "average human being". An average human being uses all of these things which you think are not required for testing. To me it seems you testing idea/method is already flawed from the start. Bye, Skybuck. Coming from a world class nitwit like you, I find your comments friggin' hilarious. |
#19
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Looking for system stress / burn-in software
"John McGaw" wrote in message ... On 9/18/2010 10:31 PM, PC Guy wrote: I've got a few motherboards that I need to determine their operational reliability / stability while running XP, so I'm wondering if there is any free software that can do stress testing or "burn-in" operations for one or two weeks continuously running under XP. Basically, any software that can keep a system busy doing stuff until (or if) the system crashes or locks up. Serial, parallel, network, audio and USB stress testing is not required. Anyone know of any such software? Any software which runs the CPU(s) at 100% and uses a lot of memory bandwidth will do what you describe and there are many ways to do it. One of the simplest, and thus the most popular, programs that fills the bill is Prime95. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime95 Interesting. |
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