Diagnostic Software?

[green00guy]

I recently dropped my Dell Inspirion and it has been running very hot ever since, I think that I damaged the mother board, though it boots up fine, it just runs very sluggish....any way, can anyone suggest to me some diagnostic software that I can run on it before I order a new mother board. I would prefer free software

Thanks..

 

[uri]

It's not exactly for your situation but you could try running a stable test like Prime95. It will stress your system and report errors.

It usually used while OC to make sure you didn't go to far...

Hope I could help (not really sure it does )

 

[green00guy]

Thanks, I will give it a try tonight.

 

[techgeek]

Are you confident opening your laptop case? If you are I would check to see if you haven't jarred the TIM (thermal interface material) loose from the CPU/heatsink. Laptop quite often use a sticky pad. These become hard and dried out and when the laptop is jarred (as in your case) it breaks the mating surfaces apart. If you find this to be the cause, it's as simple as cleaning the remains of the pad (or other interface material) off both surfaces and applying some Arctic Silver or whatever your preferred brand of thermal paste is. Your laptop probably has just one heatsink/heatpipe arrangement for the CPU and GPU, so you'll have to apply the TIM to both (of course cleaning both beforehand). Another thing you might check is make sure all the fans are still working. If the fan connector has come loose or heaven forbid the fan is broken, it would cause your computer to run too hot. If you really believe that it is running hot and you don't already have monitoring software, try this LINK. It is a monitoring program that I have used with great success on various maker and models of laptops.

 

[green00guy]

That is a great suggestion!
I am not at all worried about opening it, Can you suggest a website that details opening it up ...like Ifixit for the Apples?


I am a Mac Person trying to help out my panicked friend...She does not have the money to take it in for repairs...I also am looking forward to the challenge.

Again thank you for your help....!

 

[techgeek]

You didn't mention which model of Inspirion, but I have had much success in finding such info using Google (IBM/Lenovo, and Toshiba). You shouldn't have much trouble finding this type of info. One place to start is www.notebookforums.com . You'll find all sorts of guides there. Good luck and let me know how you make out.

P.S. Try the monitoring utility, it'll show you if your assumption about overheating is correct. Also you could Google a utility for Dell users to control the fans of some models of their laptops.

 

[evongugg]

I suggest you run hard disk diagnostics also.
Dell usually has free diagnostics on their support website or at least used to.
If you know the manufacturer of the hard disk you can download their diagnostics and run them.