Hello everyone

The (too) long intro

I'm a win7 user (nothing against linux, using MS-only software for work, still installed Mint on the kids' machine at home), and my old work PC is suddenly experiencing various freezes and a variety of BSODs. (5 yo machine, 2 yo win7, hardware of ages between 5 and 2 years of usage).

My usual suspects were proven innocent (RAM, mobo drivers, my old duo of death, haha), I have no spare video card.

And I suddenly wondered if I could use Linux to see if I could rule out (or not !) windows software and windows drivers issues.

My question

Please, if I install linux on my system disk...
If my hardware is faulty, whatever hardware it is....
Will linux also freeze and die, on the moment my hardware fails again ?

If YES, it would be sweet. Linux fails too = definitely a hardware issue = lots of testing time saved and less suspects.
If NO, damn you Linux , you rule too much.

Could you tell me, please, if I can trust linux to die from failing hardware ?

Thank you very much !!

I think there are too many variables to be certain if Linux will also be affected.

But running a live CD for a while would certainly be worth testing, and wont have any permanent affect on the system. There are also some useful Linux tools for hardware diagnostics (smartmontools, hdparm, memtester, etc), google will help with more.

Edit: I should also add the tool "stress" which can load the system to varying degrees, as a means to induce failure.