What is a stress test?

A CPU load test overloads a computer’s processor by subjecting it to extreme usage. This measures the hardware’s performance by stressing it to the max, which helps you determine how much your system can handle. By using a computer stress test, you can determine the limits of your motherboard and other system components. Knowing these limits lets you use your PC to its fullest potential and prevents hardware overload by keeping your system from excessive stress.

How to perform a CPU stress test

To run a CPU check, follow these steps:

1. Reboot your computer and close all unnecessary applications. After that check your CPU temperature.
2. Choose one of the tools listed below, and then start your chosen stress-testing utility.
3. Observe the temperature of your hardware while the test is running, and be ready to stop the test if your PC overheats.

Performing a stress test on the PC allows you to get information about the general health, performance capacity, and stability of the computer, as well as any limitations or problems you need to know about. Unfortunately, this information needs to be more clearly presented, and in most cases, it will be necessary to deal with raw data. Understandable results will be available only after certain calculations. But overall, this operation is essential if you consider CPU overclocking or performing processor-intensive tasks.

How to prepare for a stress test

It is important to configure your computer correctly before stress testing the CPU. This includes setting up a controlled environment where background apps don’t interfere with the results. To set up and prepare your PC:

1. First, close all programs that are not essential to the computer’s operation. Right-click on anything on the taskbar that you don’t use frequently and select Close. Then open your task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Escape) and kill all non-critical processes (preferably without touching anything you don’t recognize).
2. Check the temperature of your CPU as a baseline before starting the test, and continue to monitor the temperature during the test to make sure that the processor does not heat up to a temperature limit.

How to start a CPU stress test

This is especially important if you’re buying a pre-built computer so you can understand how key components such as CPU, motherboard, and thermal controls work independently.

Tools you need to stress test your CPU

Below you can see some of the best stress testing software tools including Prime95, AIDA64, Intel BurnTest, and HeavyLoad. Don’t worry about which one offers the best CPU stress test, as they both give similar results. Here’s guide on how to use each of the most popular stress testing tools:

Prime95

Prime95 is an efficient utility that ensures that all components of your computer are functioning properly.

1. First of all you need to download the Prime95 and choose your operating system.
   The most popular system is Windows 64-bit.
   
2. Run the program and click Just stress testing. Choose the Blend option, which will test all computer components. Then press OK.
   
3. As soon as the test runs, everything will be up to 100%. And you will likely see a lot of noise and heat from your PC.
   
4. While paying attention to the temperature, the test is performed for about an hour.

AIDA64

AIDA64 is a mature testing and benchmarking tool with a free trial available. How to use it:

1. Download the free trial for AIDA64. Unarchive the zip file and run aida64.exe.



2. Tap Tools and choose System Stability Test. After that tap Start.



3. You can toggle from the results screen to see how each component responds to the test. For example, Sensor will show you temperature values for each internal hardware.

HeavyLoad

HeavyLoad is an easy-to-use program that covers all components of a computer, including the GPU. Just download the app, launch the tool, and check the boxes for the components you want to test. Then click the "Play" button – it’s that simple.

Intel BurnTest

Intel BurnTest was developed to push the most powerful computers to their limits. But to analyze real high-end hardware, Intel BurnTest is the way to go. When stress testing, make sure to monitor activity at all times.

Is stress testing safe?

Stress testing by itself is not harmful provided you use it correctly and monitor the results. The computers are designed to keep away from dangerous temperatures. Most CPUs can automatically shut down or cut the performance before the temperature threshold. But it will be good if you keep your computer from overloading and do not start the stress test without real reason and aforementioned preparations. With regular exposure to high temperatures, the life of your hardware components will be significantly reduced. That is exceptionally actual for laptops, as they do not have a lot of room inside of their body. A single overheating component may lead to overheating all other things on the motherboard.

Remember: The stress test of the CPU is needed within an hour or two, or rather until your PC starts to dangerously overheat. If your computer is running at this rate for 60 minutes without overheating or being forced to shut down, then it is in excellent condition.

Why might my CPU fail a stress test?

Stress test failure (i.e. unexpectedly poor results or inability to finish it) may be a sign of hardware problems. There are many reasons why this could happen. If your processor fails a stress test, you should get more specific information about what’s wrong. This may mean that you need to replace just one part or multiple components, or there is only a need to clean up your vents.

1. The fan isn’t doing its job.

Your computer needs fans to withdraw heat from the system unit. This is why fans can make a lot of noise once you expose your PC to some intensive tasks. If the fans groan loudly, but the processor is overheating, it may be the sign that the cooling system is not enough for your current PC setup. Alternatively, the fans can be corrupted – broken or unlubed bearings, or broken blades.

2. Poor airflow.

As powerful as the fans on your computer are, they won’t run properly without proper airflow. Clearing blocked air ducts and vents with a few bursts of compressed air can help your computer run like new again. Different tasks and programs on a computer age the hardware at different rates.

3. Problems with the thermal interface.

Aside from fans, there is a system that delivers the heat from key components to the radiators, so the air flow can cool it. Those are the CPU fan and the thermal paste between it and the CPU cover. Dried-dust paste, improper placement of the fan, dust-choked radiator – all these things may lead to overheating and stress test failure.

4. Hardware that’s past its prime.

Seeing disappointing results may sometimes be not a sign of problems with your computer, but a sign of obsolescence. Computers are designed to last as long as they can, but at a certain point they lose the ability to withstand the modern loads. CPU that is over 10 years old may be overclocked to higher rates than modern-day processors – but that will not give him a larger cache size and the newest instruction sets.

5. You’re weighed down by junk.

Some systems may suffer not because of old or damaged hardware, but because of junk files and programs acting as ballast. Consider cleaning apps you haven’t been used for a long time, remove file remnants of the removed programs, and clean the registry.

The post How to Stress Test Your PC’s CPU appeared first on Gridinsoft Blog.

Why does my computer keep freezing?

There are some reasons why your computer keeps freezing or works poorly. Usually, it is a software problem, or too many apps are running on your computer simultaneously, which causes it to hang. We will not consider the option with weak hardware, where the system initially ran slowly. However, additional problems, such as a lack of hard disk space or issues with drivers, can also prevent it from working correctly. In this article, we will give you step-by-step instructions on what to do when you encounter the problem that Windows freezes randomly.

Check if your computer is entirely dead-locked

To understand if your computer is completely frozen, you can try to move the mouse cursor over the screen. If it doesn’t move, your PC is locked and requires a forced reboot. You can also try pressing the “Caps Lock” button on your keyboard, this is another possible solution to computer crash randomly problems. If the Caps Lock indicator lights up, it’s probably a software problem and can be solved with the Windows Task Manager. So, to do this, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select the frozen program, then press End Task. However, if the Caps Lock indicator doesn’t work, your computer is dead-locked, and you need to restart your computer. Desktop computers may be rebooted with a button on a system unit, perhaps this will help to avoid computer freezing completely.. If you have a laptop, press the power button for ~10 seconds, forcing your PC to shut down.

Software issues that make your computer keep freezing

Software issues are the most common cause of my PC freezing randomly. At some point, the software loses control of the application or tries to run the application in a way that the Windows operating system does not recognize. This often happens when trying to run old programs in new versions of Windows or vice versa. Updating the software and the OS usually corrects the PC freezing problem. However, in some cases, reinstalling the application is the most effective way to deal with occasional software-related hangs.

Sometimes errors in running programs cause memory leaks. This happens when objects in a heap are no longer used. However, the garbage collector cannot remove them from memory; thus, they remain there unnecessarily. A memory leak is not good because it blocks memory resources and reduces system performance over time.

Check for Malware and Viruses

Computer freezes and crashes can be signs that your computer is infected. In some cases, malware loads your system by running dozens of processes in the background, consuming your computer’s RAM and causing it to freeze. It is often coin miners’ work, as it is their typical behavior – overloading the system, leaving no resources for other applications. In contrast, viruses can corrupt system files, without which the system cannot work correctly. As a result, this can cause blue screens of death. If your PC keeps freezing after rebooting, we recommend checking it for viruses with a reliable security solution.

Processor overheating

Because computers are susceptible to heat, a room without air conditioning on a 90-degree day can negatively affect your computer’s performance. You can tell if your PC is overheating by listening to your laptop or desktop computer’s internal fans. Suppose the cooling is running too loud or louder than usual. In that case, you should dust your PC and replace the thermal paste on the processor.

However, there is the opposite situation when the processor is warm, and the cooling does not work, i.e. fans are silent. In this case, you should carefully inspect the coolers, maybe they are faulty, or contact is lost, listen further if your computer locks up randomly.. At best, the processor will start to throttle, and at worst, overheating can lead to a complete shutdown. Next, get some air circulation in the room and ensure the CPU vents are not clogged with dust. If the problem with the PC keeps freezing is gone, that was the reason for this issue.

Multitasking

Each program on your computer requires some internal and external (hardware) resources to run. If you run multiple programs simultaneously, your computer may need more memory or processing power. Therefore, run programs only as required to reduce the chance of being short on resources. We also recommend checking the program autorun settings and disabling the autorun of unnecessary applications. This will significantly speed up the startup of your laptop. To do this, run the task manager, go to the “startup applications” tab, and disable unnecessary applications.

Driver issues

Drivers directly affect the performance of your PC and can cause the computer to constantly freeze. If application drivers are corrupt or outdated, applications cannot appropriately interact with your hardware. Most modern operating systems get drivers from the Windows Update Center after installation, but drivers are rarely updated there. This is especially true for drivers for graphics adapters. For example, suppose your PC has powerful hardware but works slowly in graphics applications. In this case, we recommend downloading and installing the latest video driver from the manufacturer’s website. In most cases, this will solve the problem of poor performance in applications and the PC freezes for a few seconds.

Lack of RAM

Lack of memory is often the cause of occasional freezes. Unfortunately, you cannot solve this issue programmatically. However, you can try increasing the memory dump. The easiest way to check for insufficient RAM is to run a Windows memory diagnostic. Below are the steps to update your RAM:

1. Open the Start menu and type in Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool in the search box.

2. Click on it. This will reboot your system and check out your memory. It will also notify you if it finds any problems.

If no errors are found, there is probably nothing wrong with the memory. Most likely, your system and applications don’t have enough RAM. Consider upgrading your PC. At the very least, try adding RAM to fix the problem. You can find out if your system has enough RAM by running Task Manager and opening the Performance tab. If your device’s RAM is more than 70% used, you should add RAM to your device.

If you have a desktop PC, everything is as simple as possible. You just need to find out what type of memory you have installed. To do this, you need to open Task Manager, go to the tab performance, and click on memory.

If your memory type is not displayed there, use special utilities, such as AIDA64.

If you have a laptop, google your model to find out what RAM it uses. However, not all laptops allow you to expand RAM because, in compact models, this memory is soldered onto the motherboard and is physically impossible to replace.

Hardware issues that lead to the computer freezing

A more severe problem is a hardware issue, where a particular computer component is not working correctly or is malfunctioning. This can happen for some reasons, such as overheating or excessive dust buildup on components inside the computer. For example, as trivial as it sounds, a mouse or keyboard cord can become damaged over time, and a wireless device can have a dead battery. For the past few years, all computers have been equipped with high-speed SSD drives, but older machines have obsolete hard disk drives. If your device has an older hard drive, we recommend replacing it with a faster SSD. This is guaranteed to give a significant performance boost to your PC. Although SSDs, if used correctly, can last quite a long time, and there will be no problems with their work if the SSD fails, it stops working completely.

Related Content for Users:
“Safari Can’t Establish a Secure Connection to the Server” – have you ever run into this problem? Very often it is the freezing of the computer that provokes this.

Tips to Prevent PC Freezes Randomly

Are you facing the problem that “my PC freezes randomly”? In addition to the tips above, you can apply some of the following valuable techniques to minimize the risk of your computer freezing frequently:

Clean up Windows temporary files

Microsoft Windows uses a cache to store temporary files to access them quickly. In addition to the fact that these files take up extra space, they can also interfere with Windows, causing performance issues. If you clear the cache folder, you can remove all unneeded files that may have been created in the past. And may have caused your OS to hang. To clear the Windows cache files, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+R and type or paste “%temp%” in the Run window to open the temporary cache folder.

2. Please select all the files with the CTRL+A key combination and then permanently delete them.

You can use the disk cleanup tool by clicking start and typing “disk cleanup” in the search box.

In the window that opens, select the drive where the OS is installed (by default, it’s the C drive). Then, choose the types of data you want to delete in the next window. If you have very little space, you can select all of them.

Check the hard disk for malfunctions that can make my computer keep freezing.

Suppose the hard drive’s response speed is not up to standard. In that case, Windows may not be able to access it at the necessary rate, and this causes the hard drive to freeze between access intervals. In addition, fragmentation errors may occur on the hard drive due to a PC crash or abnormal termination. Windows has a built-in tool to help you identify and fix disk problems. Another step that will help eliminate the problem is that my computer is hanging again and again. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click Start and select Terminal (Administrator).

2. Type or paste “chkdsk” at the command prompt and press Enter.

This will start checking your hard drive for malfunctions using the Windows command line. Sometimes Windows will need to reboot to complete the check. When the utility finishes, it will notify you of any disk errors.

Run Defragmentation

Defragmentation is reorganizing the data stored on your hard drive so that pieces of data line up continuously. It picks up all the parts of data that are scattered across your HDD and puts them back together in an orderly, neat, and clean fashion. To do so:

1. Open My Computer
2. Right-click on the desired drive and choose Properties.
   
3. Click the Tools tab.
4. Click Optimize
   
5. When the window appears, click Optimize.
   

As a result, defragmentation increases your computer’s performance by reducing the time it takes to access data and allows you to use your storage more efficiently.

Run the system file checker

Sometimes my Windows keeps freezing randomly due to corrupted or missing system files. Fortunately, the OS has a system file checker that should help you restore the original files. With any luck, it will automatically fix your problem. To use this tool, run the command line as administrator and type or paste the following command:

sfc /scannow

Windows will scan its files, and if it finds a corrupt or missing file, Windows will try to fix it automatically.

No matter how well you maintain your PC, all systems hang at some point. It could simply be a problem with the operating system, as happened with the 2017 Windows 10 update. However, understanding what causes your computer to hang can help you prevent problems and troubleshoot problems in the future. We hope that the methods described above have helped you to solve the Windows freeze problem so that you can get back to using your device comfortably. Suppose none of the above solutions did help to solve the problem with your PC freezing. In that case, your computer likely has a hardware problem that requires further investigation. In this case, you can apply to the service center, where qualified specialists will be able to find and fix the problem.

The post Why Does My PC Keep Freezing and How to Fix It appeared first on Gridinsoft Blog.