Motherboard testing?

[Slurred]

I've been getting frequent crashes recently. The computer seems to work fine for long periods of time, but will then blue screen and restart over and over. Eventually I'll get back into windows and get a dialog stating that the system has recovered from a serious error. A webpage pops up and tells me to test my RAM, system board, CPU and PSU. I've tested my ram with no problems, my question is...How does one test their CPU or system board? I'm using an A8N sli-delux with an AMD64 3400+.

 

[Seekermeister]

If you find a way to test the motherboard directly, I would certainly be interested in how it is done. As far as I know, it's a matter of being a process elimination...as Sherlock Homes would have said, after eliminating all other possibilities, what's left (motherboard) is the answer.

 

[Nocturnal]

For testing your CPU, most people would stress test it with Prime95. If you can run the program for a few hours without your system blue screening or rebooting itself, then normally the CPU should be okay. How did you test your memory? Do you happen to know what the blue screens say? Most often than not, they include good clues as to what could be happening (which piece of hardware or software is causing it to blue screen). If you can't see it because it is rebooting immediately after the blue screen, if you go to My Computer, right click, Properties, and then go to Advanced tab, then click on the Startup and Recovery "Settings." Within there you will see "System Failure" and then underneath that a check box and next to it it will have the text: Automatically restart. Uncheck that and the next time your computer blue screens, you should be able to notate what the blue screen says.

 

[Slurred]

Thanks for both of the replies. I tested my RAM with my hard drive diagnostic utility, as it has an option to run a test on system memory. Is there another program I could be running for this? Also I'll try the Prime95 to see what it does and try to grab info from the next blue screen.

 

[Nocturnal]

Yes, most people use Memtest to test their memory. You can get the .ISO which is free from www.memtest.org (version 1.65), and burn it using Nero or Alcohol. Just boot from the CD and let it run a few passes. I normally run test #5 about 15-20 passes. I had a unit in the shop last week that only after 15 passes did it report errors.