Hardware Diagnostic

[Klaatu]

Thanks in advance for any advise or help on the matter. I need advice regarding hardware diagnostic tools that are available either online or through downloads. Preferably free first, if none available that worth a damn, I'm willing to pay. I thought about taking my PC to BestBuy's Geek Squad, but those guys overcharge for a simple system scan. ($70 or more).

Just for reference, I clean my PC with compressed air once a month, at least. Do weekly defragments and daily virus scans (automatically set up). My PC isn't new, I've had it for 5-6 years, but I took good care of it. I had replaced mem chips, vid card, sound card and formatted HD at least 3 times. Also replaced CPU cooling fan, due to wear'n'tear on rotor insulation.

I understand there's all kinds of wear on HD, mobo and other components, but in the last 1-2 months I have noticed significant slowing down in OS and software running speed. Things like Windows Media Player and Firefox would freeze with [Not Responding] and shortly after would resume operating.

Anyway, any advice (other than "buy new computer") how I can figure out what's causing the problem so I can address the issue is appreciated.

[Isiolia]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ has a number of them all on one convenient ISO.

You may want to schedule a checkdisk scan for startup or the like as well. As you mentioned, HDD does have physical wear and tear, and every last drive will eventually fail. It's far from uncommon, but you can get a basic drive for $50-60 if necessary.

If it's not that, my guess would be more along the lines of a software problem. I would do a basic malware checkup (Combofix -> Malwarebytes or the like), and maybe look for startup items you could do without. Virus scans are all well and good, but most of the troublesome stuff out there now gets right by 'em.

[Killgannon]

I'll reply better when I get home but if you happen to live in Indiana I can come run diagnostics for free for you

edit: ok home

you will also want to check ram, it can cause the same kind of problems (use memtest86 here, it is included in the ubcd linked above) on the ubcd specifically it will have all the hdd manufacturers tests, find whoever made your hdd, and run it