Looks like I might be putting together a new PC by buying components from 
NewEgg instead of my normal build-to-order routine.

Does anybody know if there are any significant differences in hardware 
diagnostics that come with motherboards from different manufacturers? 
(Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc).

I'm thinking mostly about boot-from-CD diagnostics.   (Don't care about 
Windows troubleshooting and wouldn't expect that from a mobo company 
anyway).

Good diags can save a lot of hassle, for example when a PC crashes and one 
support person says it looks like Windows corruption, but memtest86 
(downloaded it because that box came with only lousy diags) says memory 
errors and the new memory they send fixes it.  Or when replacement memory 
doesn't fix a problem but good Dell-specific diags say "DMA error" and 
replacement mobo fixes it.

That's the kind of diagnostics I want.  But I'd rather they come with the 
hardware if possible, partly because I've had bad results with diags older 
than the machine, or diags intended for other machines, partly to save the 
hassle of downloading new diags, and partly because the only diags I have 
seen that could tell the difference between bad memory and bad DMA were 
machine-specific ones that came with the boxes. 

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *