It is difficult to understand exactly what is wrong with a Windows PC, especially if the symptoms are random and difficult to reproduce in front of the technician. If you are not afraid to diagnose and chew a little bit of computer science, there is no need to be an expert technician and you should be able to identify problems, at least in broad terms.
Unfortunately, however, finding out what is wrong with a malfunctioning computer is not as practical to do as checking car oil or tire wear.
Fortunately we can take advantage of both the tools made available by Windows (to perform a complete system diagnostics) and numerous free tools to test your hardware and check if any problems are related to viruses, broken pieces or errors in the operating system and programs .
In this great guide we will see how to find out most of the problems of the PC with Windows 10, so that you know exactly where to get your hands.
READ ALSO: How to use Windows troubleshooting tools
Find out what's wrong with the computer
If you have never opened your computer and you don't know what's inside, it will probably be difficult to start a diagnosis. However, if you have an idea of the computer made of processor, motherboard, disk, RAM and video card, fans and power supply, you can already start working. The important thing is to know that every piece of hardware is powered by electricity and generates heat. Some parts such as the disc and fans have moving parts and therefore tend to be easier to break.RAM also tends to fail often because it writes constantly, so it tends to get damaged over time.
Use the Security Center on Windows 10
Windows 10 has a tool called Windows Security, which can show most of the problems related to programs and device security. To open it, simply click on its icon at the bottom right or open the Start menu and search for the Windows Security app.
From this window we can check the progress of the antivirus integrated in Windows, monitor the security of the Microsoft account, check the conditions of the network, check the apps and browsers installed and check the security of the hardware functions and the integrity of the device.
To learn more, we recommend reading our guide Windows 10 Security Settings Guide .
Use the Security Center on Windows 10
Windows 10 has a tool called Windows Security, which can show most of the problems related to programs and device security. To open it, simply click on its icon at the bottom right or open the Start menu and search for the Windows Security app.From this window we can check the progress of the antivirus integrated in Windows, monitor the security of the Microsoft account, check the conditions of the network, check the apps and browsers installed and check the security of the hardware functions and the integrity of the device.
To learn more, we recommend reading our guide Windows 10 Security Settings Guide .
Use resource monitoring on Windows
On all Windows operating systems that are still supported, we can open the diagnostic tool called Resource Monitoring, which can be found directly from the Start menu.
In the go tab of the tool we can check the processes that keep the processor busy, how many processes are running in RAM, monitor how much data is exchanged by the processes with the disk or the SSD or monitor network traffic.
To generate a report that can be analyzed, press the Windows + R keys on the keyboard and type the perfmon / report command, so as to start the data collection for 1 minute, in which we advise you to do nothing (not even open or close programs).
In the new window that will open we will be able to observe a complete report on the health of our computer: the most important part are the Basic System Warnings and Checks, which will show dots in yellow, red or green depending on the severity of the problem ( green all OK, red danger or serious problem). Based on the report, we can therefore understand where Windows is slowing down or where the computer is not working properly.
Know the individual components of the PC
Whatever the result of the report, we will not go very far if we do not know the components of the computer; in this case we can know what's inside the computer using a free program like Speccy, available for free.
We will thus be able to know the make and model of each of our components and replace them, providing the technician with precise information on the problem that generated the slowdown or the freezing of Windows.
Other programs to check your computer hardware include:
- PC Wizard CPUID, a software that will tell you everything you want to know about your computer, from system configuration to hardware resources. With this tool you can have a historical view of how the hardware is going and understand if there has been a drop in performance over time.
- Sandra Lite SiSoftware, famous and historical control software.
- AIDA64: powerful tool to check every hardware component and not present on the computer.
Check the integrity of the individual hardware elements
The parts that require specific control in the event of slowdowns, bumps or performance problems are definitely the RAM memory and the hard disk / SSD.To verify that the RAM memory is intact and works well you can use a tool present in Windows and called Windows Memory Diagnostic, found in the Start menu.
A small window will open where we will be asked to restart the computer, so as to check if the RAM memory is healthy. The test is standard and there is nothing to configure except to follow the automatic procedure. Once the verification is done, Windows Memory Diagnostic will try to understand which memory module is causing the problem.
To find out more, we recommend you read our article Windows memory diagnostics for checking the RAM .
To check the integrity of the mechanical hard disk we can rely on the HD Tune Pro program, available for free for 15 days.
Thanks to this program we will be able to read the SMART data included in the disk and perform additional tests, so as to find out if the disk starts to lose blows and must be replaced before the total break. The program can also be used for SSDs, but for drives of this type it is preferable to read our guide on Programs to optimize SSDs (Samsung and others) and manage solid state drives .
Finally, from Device Manager you can check for any hardware errors. In this regard, we have seen a very detailed guide on error codes in Windows 10 Device Manager and solutions .
Other programs and guides for controls on Windows
To check the overall health of the computer, we can use the free Belarc Advisor program, which reviews the PC and diagnoses security problems.
Any other type of error of the programs and of the Windows operating system can be identified in the event log, which is not easy to read but can give some indication at least intuitive. In another article the guide showed you how to understand and correct Windows errors using the event log .
With the Kaspersky System Checker program it is possible to scan your computer and generate a report listing the detected problems.
Obviously all this is valid if you are sure that your computer is free from malware and viruses; in the event that our computer is infected or we suspect it may be, we advise you to read our article on how to recognize and remove all types of viruses and malware .
Conclusions
When we use a computer, every user must be able to diagnose problems, even if superficial, about what is wrong with the computer if it does not work as it should. In the end it is just a matter of performing automatic scans and checks and carefully reading the messages displayed on the screen when there are errors.Still on the subject, we can read our guides on hardware testing and diagnostics tools on PC
and Help to repair your computer without going to the technician .
To avoid problems, remember to do maintenance on your computer and fix Windows, so that you can prevent problems instead of treating them or go looking for problems that are difficult to find and solve.
