What BurnIn Test does is thoroughly exercise the hardware in a PC in a short period of time, in the same way as normal applications use a PC over a long period of time. This takes advantage of the fact that computer hardware tends to fail either very early in its life or after many thousands of hours of use. Typically BurnInTest should be used before a PC is put into service, as the failure of a computer that isn’t being used for a critical application and doesn’t have any critical data is much less damaging, (especially if it is still under warranty).

BurnInTest will bring to surface intermittent or hidden problems so that after a successful check the computer can be used with much more confidence. BurnInTest can also be used by overclockers to verify system stability at high clock speeds.

BurnInTest tests the CPU via mathematical operations and SIMD calculations, hard drives, RAM, CD ROMs, CD burners, DVDs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphic, network connection, printers and video playback. This can all be done simultaneously as the application is multithreaded. The Professional version also has a number of additional features such as tape drive testing, USB port testing, USB 2.0 port testing, Serial and parallel port testing with the use of loop back plugs.