Dear Ask-a-nerd: Computer "check up" programs?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What's good and free, please?

[klr]

There are plenty of programs that meet the second of the criteria, but I don't know about the first to be honest. I tend to view most of them as being the software equivalent of snake oil.

My rule of thumb is that the more specific and targeted a program as, the more likely it is to be something actually useful. These general "fix everything" programs seem to be aimed at the unwary and the easy to spook.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There are plenty of programs that meet the second of the criteria, but I don't know about the first to be honest. I tend to view most of them as being the software equivalent of snake oil.

My rule of thumb is that the more specific and targeted a program as, the more likely it is to be something actually useful. These general "fix everything" programs seem to be aimed at the unwary and the easy to spook.

I'm mainly asking about personal experience. Google is useless since they started pushing the paid sites first.

[pErvinalia]

I had a great collection of freeware that was actually very useful. Unfortunately I lost it all when my second drive died. One that I remember get a bit of use out of was a thing called Glary Utilities. Heaps of handy maintenance utilities. I'm assuming this is what you mean by "check up" programs?

[klr]

I tend to focus on particular issues, and then search around on various software sites.

Apart from programs for:

* Antivirus
* File unlocking
* Detailed system information
* Advanced de-fragmentation

... I just tend not to use such programs. I suppose I could install some programs for finding duplicate files/DLLs, etc., but I don't seem to need them.

I had a great collection of freeware that was actually very useful. Unfortunately I lost it all when my second drive died. One that I remember get a bit of use out of was a thing called Glary Utilities. Heaps of handy maintenance utilities. I'm assuming this is what you mean by "check up" programs?

I've heard of it it, but never felt the need to look at it. I would have seen it listed on http://majorgeeks.com/, which tends to list a lot of security/diagnostic programs and updated.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thanks, FF. I'll check it out.

[klr]

My usual approach for improving the health of a PC is to find and disable/remove as many unnecessary programs and services as possible.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Did that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Looks like the Glary Utilities are doing what I already have a program for.

To clarify, I want a program that will check on all the hardware on the computer to make sure it's all working properly. I know that's broad, but I've exhausted the possibilities available through the control panel and still don't know what's causing my computer to freeze up every few minutes.

[pErvinalia]

try a memory checker. You could have faulty ram.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

try a memory checker. You could have faulty ram.

Control panel says no. I need something to test the "video adapter"?

[klr]

Looks like the Glary Utilities are doing what I already have a program for.

To clarify, I want a program that will check on all the hardware on the computer to make sure it's all working properly. I know that's broad, but I've exhausted the possibilities available through the control panel and still don't know what's causing my computer to freeze up every few minutes.

Eeek. That could be anything, including an honest-to-goodness hardware fault.

try a memory checker. You could have faulty ram.

Control panel says no. I need something to test the "video adapter"?

The Control Panel won't do that. You need a low-level boot utility like memtest. I used it track down a fault in a memory module, which I was then able to get replaced. Be advised though that thorough memory checking can take exhaustive repeated cycles running into days.

http://www.memtest.org/

Memtest is also included in other diagnostic boot utilities, as well as being stand-alone.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Okay, on it.

Glary is still running.

[pErvinalia]

try a memory checker. You could have faulty ram.

Control panel says no. I need something to test the "video adapter"?

Control panel doesn't know shit. It's worth testing your memory. It is a common cause of computers freezing up. I'm just looking through my discs of software to see if I can find the one I used (which work brilliantly). But before doing that, it could be worth opening the box up and just making sure the memory is still inserted in correctly and hasn't budged a bit loose.

edit: I see KLR beat me too it. Yeah, Memtest was one of the ones I used. Regarding the length of time to run it, I think mine took about an hour for 2Gb.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Control Panel won't do that. You need a low-level boot utility like memtest. I used it track down a fault in a memory module, which I was then able to get replaced. Be advised though that thorough memory checking can take exhaustive repeated cycles running into days.

http://www.memtest.org/

Memtest is also included in other diagnostic boot utilities, as well as being stand-alone.

What the fuck do I download?