PC Doctor

This is a full featured hardware testing suite that is commercially supported. We have one diagnostic kit in LT107 and one in James' filing cabinet (second drawer from the bottom).

Documentation

PC Doctor has extended documentation on it's Windows tools (Not the Windows PE boot environment, but the one that just runs in Windows) disc as PDFs.

Support

Many hardware testing questions will be answered within 4 hours via their support [[http://www.pcdoctor-community.com/forum/][forum].

Bootable USB

The bootable USB device is a quick way to load a DOS based testing environment. This is very low level hardware testing and is generally quick to load and can do many tests.

• The "Quick (no loopback)" test suite is generally appropriate for quick validation of suspect hardware. This will find major / obvious hardware issues with a minimum of testing time.
• The "extended memory test" is roughly equivalent to one pass of Memtest 86+.

Bootable WinPE CD

This boot CD requires the USB device be connected as a software dongle.

• This takes a while to load but is appropriate for stressing the hardware - DOS often will load when a full Windows or Linux environment would hit a problem.
• The BURN IN TEST is good for a 20 minute stress test. Repeating this test 3 times will usually be enough to find any overheating from heavy use issues.
• Part of the tests above, or selected individually is a Video test that will stress 3D rendering of the video card.

POST Card Testing

Sometimes a PC doesn't boot at all so none of the above tests can be done. In this case. you can use a PCI based (or mini-pci card for laptops) POST code reading card. www.bioscentral.com will help you understand the post code. The card will also show voltages out of nominal range on the PC.

PSU Testing

Sometimes a PC doesn't show any signs of power at all, in which case none of the above tests are possible. In this instance, you can use the power supply tester in the kit to see if the power supply works. This doesn't put a load on the power supply, but will let you know if it's outputting power on the appropriate pins. You can also test the power from the molex and sata power connectors.

Extended Testing

We don't usually do this for time reasons.

• You can test using loopback testing to validate serial, network, and USB ports, and can also extensively test a CD and DVD ROM via test discs in the KIT.