Unfortunately, computer hardware can fail sooner or later, and because a PC is made up of several different hardware components, it is often difficult to diagnose what the problem is or which component is failing. Fortunately, there are several software solutions that can help us a lot in this area, and today we are going to detail how to use one of the most popular: OCCT.
OCCT is a free program that you can download from its website, although logically it has a paid version that is much more advanced and with more options, but in general for personal use the free version is enough (for example, we have a professional version with perpetual license because we use this software in our analyses, but that's another subject).
General considerations when using OCCT
OCCT is monitoring and diagnostic software, and the diagnosis is made through so-called torture tests. This means that it will put our hardware to the maximum of its possibilities, requesting it to the limit, and if the PC has it serious problem You might end up leaving some components unusable. This shouldn't happen, but the possibility exists and you should consider it. If you decide to use OCCT to diagnose PC problems, do it at your own risk.
In addition to torture tests, OCCT also offers other types of functions, such as a benchmark whose result can be uploaded to its database to compare it with other equipment, which they call “Certificate of Stability” which involves leaving the system at maximum for long periods of time to ensure it is completely stable, another section for simply monitoring the system and another section with technical information about our hardware.
We are going to focus on the options that this software offers us to diagnose system problems through torture tests, so let's get to it.
How to Diagnose PC Problems with OCCT
In this case, the section that interests us is “Stability Test”, in the left menu. Here you can see that there are several sections:
- Processor + RAM: This test will max out both CPU and memory, and is ideal if you have overclocked and your system is unstable to verify that indeed the problem is here. It is advisable to leave the settings at default, but we recommend changing the duration (it is in a drop-down box just above where it says CPU + RAM) to 30 minutes.
- Processor: This test is like the previous one but will only use the processor.
- Linpack: This test also concerns the processor, but using the veteran Linkpak benchmark, which makes very heavy use of floating point operations. It's currently not used much on home PCs, and not really used for diagnosing PC problems either.
- Memory: As the name suggests, it is all about maximizing RAM memory. We will have to select the amount of memory to use (the ideal is to mark 100% or the maximum that allows you (it is usually around 95%, since part of the memory is used by the system), if you suspect that the problem on your PC may be with the RAM) and run it for between 30 and 60 minutes.
- Standard 3D / Adaptive 3D: The next two tests concern the graphics card, but specifically the GPU. It will run the GPU at maximum to see if any artifacts appear, if it's too hot, or if it's causing issues. It is recommended to keep it for at least 10-15 minutes.
- VRAM: As the name suggests, this test will maximize your graphics memory. Here it is also advisable to set it to a duration of at least 30 minutes and select 100% memory, or the maximum allowed.
- Power: This is the most important and interesting test for us. It will maximize the CPU, graphics card, RAM and VRAM, which will allow the PC to maximize all means, showing you the maximum consumption. This test is ideal if you suspect there may be problems with the power supply.
- Monitoring only: Basically the only thing it does is monitor the system and it is designed so that you leave it in the background while you run another benchmark or game. This is very interesting when you have problems on your PC and you don't know where they come from, because then you can try to reproduce the problem (for example, a game that crashes by itself) and then switch to monitoring to see if there is a voltage problem that has become uncontrollable or the temperature is too high, For example.
- Combined: Here, as the name suggests, you can combine any tests you want from all of the above (except the power test, which already involves them all).
At the end of the tests, a report will appear like the one you can see above this paragraph, showing different graphs with information about voltages and temperatures, showing maximums, minimums and averages. With this data in hand, you will be able to draw your own conclusions to see what is wrong with your PC.
