What's a good bootable CPU testing application?

I use the UBCD and bootable linux distros like DSL and Knoppix

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html (100mb)

http://damnsmalllinux.org/download.html (50Mb)

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.ht... (650Mb)

w/ UBCD just pick "mainboard tools" then select one of the CPU stress tests (I prefer Mersenne a.k.a. Prime95) and let it run. Great for single-core CPUs.

For dual-core, you are better off using the command line version of Mersenne / Prime95 via a bootable linux distro.

Quick howto:

-Boot up one of the above to either the GUI or command line.

-get the static-linked prime95 for linux from here (found using "prime95 download in search engine):

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

--example:

open a terminal session and type:

$ mkdir prime;cd prime

$ wget ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/sprime2414.tar.gz

(you should see some output and `sprime2414.tar.gz' saved)

$ tar xvzf sprime2414.tar.gz

(you should see some filenames as output )

$ ./mprime -t -d

(you will see some output of the prime95 test)

Open up another terminal and start another session similiar to above, so you have one session per cpu. For dual-core open up one session, for quad three more.

My quad-core has this output in a "top" session (running in a fifth terminal :)

top - 12:14:42 up 20:50, 7 users, load average: 3.89, 2.35, 1.01

Tasks: 110 total, 5 running, 105 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie

Cpu0 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 74.8%ni, 25.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st

Cpu1 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 75.1%ni, 24.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

Cpu2 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 75.0%ni, 25.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

Cpu3 : 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 75.1%ni, 24.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st

Mem: 1033560k total, 473860k used, 559700k free, 60604k buffers

Swap: 3096568k total, 0k used, 3096568k free, 297952k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND

7348 user 39 19 15164 10m 388 R 100 1.1 2:37.46 mprime

7345 user 39 19 15164 10m 384 R 100 1.1 2:37.42 mprime

7346 user 39 19 15164 10m 388 R 100 1.1 2:37.32 mprime

7347 user 39 19 15164 10m 388 R 100 1.1 2:37.24 mprime

Check the outputs after several mins and see if you have errors.

cheers

EDIT - since you're concerned w/ overheating, maybe use the linux distro to just connect to the network and use it as normal and check to see if you have the same problems. I think the other CPU tests also stress out so the temps will rise just the same. If the temps are suspect you can try and use a box fan and have it running blowing up, and put the laptop on it to keep it cool. If it works great, maybe have the heatsink replaced - otherwise the CPU may already be fried due to overheating. Removing the keyboard and all the panels may help getting the temps down.

Good luck!

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