Orthos Stress Prime 2004

I assembled a computer recently and ran a few apps to test the stability of the new system. One of the stress apps recommended by various overclocking guides and forums is Prime 95. Prime95 features a torture test to stress the CPU and RAM.

My typical usage of Prime95 was:

• Start the torture test in blend mode.
• Watch the test for a few minutes. If no errors occurred within a few minutes...
• I turned off the monitor and walked away to do some other stuff.
• Every few hours, I'd return to the computer and check on the status of the test.

Prime95 seemed to do a good job of stress-testing the CPU and RAM, however Prime95's feedback during the stress test was lacking.

I encountered the following problems with Prime95:

• No easily-visible test status. It is hard to determine the current status of the stress test at a glance. The user has to scan the log text to determine if there is an error or notice if the Prime95 icon is red or yellow.
• No time-related test status. There's no display of when the test started, and during the test, there's no display of how long the test has run.
• Read-only log window. The user can't copy the logged text from the main Prime95 window.Solution

  I could have modified the logged text in Prime95 to improve the first two problems within the Prime95 codebase. But if I could go beyond a text-only solution, I could have greater improvements.

  So I created a WTL dialog app named SP2004.exe which fixes the above problems.

  SP2004 uses a redesigned user interface that calls Version 23 Prime95's torture test code. This should provide the same results as Prime95, just displayed in a different manner.

  SP2004 provides:

• Easily-visible test status. SP2004 displays the current status of the app in a large font on an appropriate background colour. When an error occurs during the test, SP2004 will also:
  • flash the dialog window
  • play a sound named fail.wav or a beep if a WAV file of that name doesn't exist
  • flash the scroll lock key LED
  • change the app icon from a 'dormant volcano on a sunny day' to an 'erupting volcano on an overcast day'
  • SP2004's tray icon displays a tooltip window that shows the current test status
• Time-related test status. SP2004 displays the test start time and how much time has elapsed.
• Log window text that can be copied.