[rescue] test old hardware

[Mike -- EMAIL IGNORED]

On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:27:56 -0800, Mr Ian Primus wrote:

[...]
> 
> Two excellent stress-tests for PC/Clones: DBAN and Memtest. Both are
> free programs that can be written to bootable disks.
> 
> DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke) is a hard drive wiping program. It WILL
> destroy all data on the hard drive if you tell it to. By doing a
> seven-pass overwrite on the drive, it'll keep the machine busy for a
> long time, and serves as a good 'stress test' for the drive itself. If
> the drive fails, makes funny sounds, or the program reports sector
> errors, then it's time to replace the hard drive.
> 
> Memtest is a memory test utility. It's totally harmless to the data on
> your system, it just exercises the RAM. Again, it keeps the computer
> busy, but it thoroughly tests all the RAM, and will do so contiuously.
> Leave it run overnight, and if it's still running with no errors in the
> morning, it should be good.
> 
> This machine might be of the proper vintage to have leaking motherboard
> capacitors. If you experience odd reboots, crashes, and trouble during
> POST (such as the processor being incorrectly detected), you might have
> bad filter capacitors for the CPU. Look at the board near the CPU
> socket, and examine the tops of the capacitors for bulging and leaking.
> While faulty capacitors don't always show, this is a good thing to check
> for anyway, because if they're leaking, they are on their way out, and
> should be replaced.
> 
> -Ian

memtest86+ stopped in the middle of pass 1 and
and said everything is OK.  Should I believe this?
Shouldn't it keep going? BTW, I am running with
the memtest86+ CD removed. OK?

Thanks,
Mike.