# Any good diagnostic software for "sick" PCs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-diagnostic-software-for-sick-pcs/431562>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 29, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-diagnostic-software-for-sick-pcs/431562 "2007-12-29T03:18:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-diagnostic-software-for-sick-pcs/431562/1 "2007-12-29T03:18:39Z")

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My gaming buddy has been having some trouble with his machine lagging really bad and even freezing up at times during out sessions. What is the best (preferably freeware) diagnostic software tool out there, to see if the video card, processor and/or something else is not working as it should?

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-diagnostic-software-for-sick-pcs/431562/2 "2007-12-29T03:36:19Z")

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[SiSoft Sandra](http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/) is a good bet. There is a free Lite version that should do all the basic diagnostics and benchmarking. It won’t do much in the way of diagnosing OS problems though, and I’m not aware of any good Windows diagnostic programs that are free.