How to Stress Test a Computer

Although many people think of a computer system as a single piece of machinery, your home computer actually has many different components that are all connected to a central motherboard. If your computer has been experiencing a sudden loss of speed or is shutting down unexpectedly you may have a hardware problem that needs to be tested. You can "stress test" your computer's components by using a type of software that makes your computer run at its fastest possible speed for an extended period of time and then checks for any errors that occur.

Things You'll Need

• Computer stress testing software

Instructions

1. Follow the link in Resources to Passmark BurnIn Test, which is a program that can stress test the different hardware components of your computer. Download the program and then run its installation file.

2. 

   Click on the "Configuration" button, located on the tool bar at the top end of the window. Scroll down through the drop-down menu that will appear and click on the "Test Preferences" option.

3. Navigate to the "Disk" tab. Click on the letter corresponding to the hard drive that you want to perform the stress test on. Click on the check box labeled "Test this Drive." Click on the check box labeled "Check All Drives" if you want to stress test every hard drive on your computer.

4. Navigate to the "Post Test" tab and click on the check box marked "Always Display Result Window" so that the program will display the results automatically once the test has finished.

5. 

   Click on the "Quick Test" button at the top of the window, then scroll down and click on "Local Disk Scan." Click on "OK" to start the scan. Wait for the scan to finish and then check the results in the new window that appears.

6. Return to the "Quick Test" button and click on any of the other devices you want to stress test, such as your CPU, RAM or video card.

Tips & Warnings

• The stress test software will give you a results page that will let you know if any of your computer's components are not operating properly. Depending on the results you receive you may find you need to reinstall your operating system or even replace a physical component such as a RAM module or hard drive.

• Make sure to shut down all other programs before starting the stress test and do not open anything while the test is running. The test purposefully makes your computer's hardware components work at their maximum capacity. It is possible to cause your computer to crash if you try opening any other software programs.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Read this Article in Spanish
• Download Passmark BurnIn Test