Computer Burn-in Howto

(05/01/00)

WHO? This document is primarily for those who wish to stress test their computers, custom built or otherwise.

WHAT? Burn-in or stress testing is a process by which you subject your computer to heavy usage, simulated or otherwise.

WHEN? When you first built a system or if you're experiencing a lot of system crashes, this may also help you narrow down your problem.

WHY? The burn-in process can be used twofold. The primary reason to stress test a machine is to ensure its stability under extreme circumstances (e.g. that really important Quake3 Arena deathmatch). Sometimes, there's also a burn-in effect whereby a machine actually becomes more stable after being subjected to prolonged stress testing. I've personally witnessed this effect on several machines that I've built in the past. Initially, the machines would be unstable when overclocked to certain speeds, needing additional cooling or voltage to achieve marginal stability. After strenuously stress testing the machines for several days (or sometimes weeks), the machine can become stable at its stock voltage without extreme cooling. 

HOW? There are several ways that I like to do this. They're mutually exclusive tests. You don't need to run all the tests, but it doesn't hurt. Which tests you run depends entirely on your own discretion. You can also run some of these tests simultaneously if you have dual CPU setups, particularly test two, four, and five.

Test one: memtest86 

I like this test because its requirements are very simple. As the name suggests, it aggressively tests all of your system memory to make sure that there are no defects with your RAM. This is primarily a way to determine if you have sketchy RAM. Its use as a burn-in tool is simply a side bonus. Since it boots off a floppy and contains everything it needs, you don't even need to set up an operating system to run it.

The homepage is at http://www.memtest86.com where you can find the documentation and bootable floppy image (or source code if you're into that kind of thing). Some people also use memtester to do this. Unfortunately, you need to be running Linux to use memtester.

Test two: Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search

As the computational demands of distributed projects tend to be quite high, this is a great way to burn-in your machine, plus it lends a helping hand to humanity's quest for knowledge. I prefer this over distributed.net because I feel that this actually aids research. Alternatively, there's also PiHex, the distributed Pi project. The multiperfect number's project is also something I find worthy of donating idle computing time. If you're interested in other distributed computing projects, please take a look at mersenne.org. Without getting too deep into the aims of the individual projects, the primary commonality of all these projects is that they use your computer's idle time in order to calculate something that otherwise would not be possible given their budget.

Test three: Quake3 Arena demo loop

This particular test will heavily stress your CPU as well as your video card. Please note that you have to have a OpenGL compliant videocard and drivers for this to work.

1. Enter the console window by hitting the tilda key (~).
2. Type (on three separate lines):
   set demo1 "demo demo001; set nextdemo vstr demo2"
   set demo2 "demo demo002; set nextdemo vstr demo1"
   vstr demo1

Test four: Before Sunrise DVD test

I choose this particular DVD because it's a movie I happen to like a lot and own, and because of it's ability to loop itself without any outside help. Feel free to substitute this with other DVDs, but I don't know any other DVDs that'll play itself over and over again without some sort of user intervention. The software DVD player that I use is PowerDVD 2.55. Out of all of the software DVD players I've tested, the visual quality of the PowerDVD player is simply not matched by others. WinDVD2000 came the closest in terms of quality. Depending on the speed of your system, this is probably a good burn-in test when used in conjunction with test two.

Test five: cpuburn

It's a set of utilities specifically written to heavily stress your machine. While this is generally harmless, the following warning is from the author:

*** WARNING ***    These program is designed to heavily load CPU chips.
Undercooled, overclocked or otherwise weak systems may fail causing data
loss (filesystem corruption) and possibly permanent damage to electronic
components.  Nor will it catch all flaws.   *** USE AT YOUR OWN RISK ***

I can personally attest that my personal workstation has NEVER ran as hot as it did when I ran cpuburn.