PC Hardware Diagnostics

I’ve been in the PC Tech business for some time now, but I have always relied on the MFG’s diagnostic programs to troubleshoot PC’s and laptops. Unfortunatly I have found that these often just do not do the job, returning aeither no errors (common)or incorrect error messages.

Now that I’ve started a new PC Tech position, I am wanting to have a ready and _RELIABLE_ means of diagnosing problem PC’s, but after a lot of web browsing, I am still confused.

I’ve looked at both software andhardware solutions, but i can’t seem to figure out which is really the best on a cost/benefit solution. Has anyone out there gotten any of these programs/diagnostic systems (post boards)? What do you recommend?