Re: What PC hardware diagnostic stress-testing freeware can you recommend?

micky wrote:
> In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Fri, 04 Sep 2020 17:51:26 -0400, Paul
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> John McGaw wrote:
>>> On 9/4/2020 1:35 PM, Arlen Holder wrote:
>>>> What PC hardware diagnostic stress-testing freeware can you recommend?
>>>> ........
>>>>
>>>> If it's not the RAM, it's something else hardware related (the HDD has 
>>>> been
>>>> re-imaged multiple times in its entirety and all extraneous boards and
>>>> peripherals have been disconnected).
>>>>
>>>> What other hardware diagnostic stress-testing freeware can you further 
>>>> recommend?
>>>>
>>> Why settle on a hardware problem without proof? In my experience a bad 
>>> driver or glitched OS is equally likely if not more so. Try booting from 
>>> a Linux CD/DVD/STICK and run it for at least a few days and see what 
>>> happens.
>>>
>> You can run Prime95 from Linux. That's my favorite.
>>
>> Normally you'd do that to avoid corrupting the
>> registry on an (unstable) Windows install. You should
>> not run Windows or do Windowsy things, until
>> "proving it's a computer" first.
>>
>> The Linux ones are static. Which is what you want.
>> Nice and portable.
>>
>> https://www.mersenne.org/download/
>>
>> Make sure your CPU cooler works first, before
>> running that. Or, the power will go off on overheat
>> (THERMTRIP).
> 
> "We are not responsible for lost prize money, fame, credit, etc. should
> someone accidentally or maliciously test the number you
> are working on and find it to be prime.  "
> 
> Paul, if they are saying they're not responsible, who is?   Will you
> chip in if I lose the prize I should have won? 
>>    Paul
> 

It's a contest, if you snooze, you lose.

First person to evaluate a number and determine primality
claims the prize. Someone also duplicates the effort, as it
looks really bad if a prize is claimed for no reason.

I ported a piece of code using GMP (bignum package), and
it runs at a lethargic pace. Not with the speed of the
FFT method used by the "Prime Guy". However, if you use
Prime95, then the money you get is reduced, as it's
a pool of sorts.

If I used my home grown, slow as molasses program
(does math with 40 million digit numbers), and I happen
to finish first and notice a particular number is a
Mersenne Prime, then I don't share the money with the
"Prime Guy". Maybe I get the money and you don't. However,
i can only evaluate a single number, once in a blue moon,
so I'm not much of a threat. My computer can only do around
twenty 40 million digit calculations per second.

    Paul