Beginner and even more experienced users can diagnose problems on the PC only using some test and control tools, some external and others included in the operating system . Unless particular more hidden problems, these are free programs and very precise internal tools, capable of solving any problems detected automatically or in any case giving the necessary instructions to restore the correct functioning of the computer, perhaps identifying the part to be replaced if damaged . This means that there is no need to pay someone to understand the problem or, in any case, to speak competently with the technician who must repair or replace the damaged part. In this article, we therefore discover the most useful test and diagnostic tools on every computer with a Windows system .
READ ALSO: Find out what's wrong with your computer when it doesn't work well
1) General hardware troubleshooting
The first tool to check on possible computer hardware problems is included in Windows, it is found by writing, in the search box of the Start menu, the words "hardware problems" and is called " Find and solve device problems ".
This is one of the Windows troubleshooting tools that does it all by itself. To actually see what kind of control it does, you need to press Advanced on the first screen and remove the automatic recovery option.
2) Identify the computer hardware
There are many programs to get to know the hardware of the computer and individual pieces of the PC, and also an internal Windows tool to see the complete specifications of the computer, which can be used without downloading or installing anything.
NOTE: For system diagnostics and hardware verification it is worth using CPU-Z, a little gem of a program that allows you to scan the system to find out all its hardware configuration.
NOTE 2: In another article we have listed all the error codes in Windows 10 Device Manager and the solutions .
3) Performance Check
In each version of Windows it is possible to open the Performance Monitor tool, which can be launched by looking for the perfmon.exe command from the Start menu, in the search box and then pressing Performance Monitor on the left column. By default, the monitor only shows the " % Processor Time " counter, which is the amount of CPU used at any given time. To add other counters such as disk usage, energy used, paging file size, search index size and others, by right-clicking on the processor line at the bottom.
3) Monitoring reliability
Windows Reliability Monitor, of which I have already written a guide, is a very valuable tool that is launched by going to Control Panel> System and Security> Security and Maintenance> Maintenance> View reliability history . You will then see a history of events and errors that have occurred over a certain period of time on your computer. If there have been errors or freezes, you can start here.
4) Network diagnostics
Whether the computer is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, there are some internal tools to restore the network in case of problems and also some useful programs to be used to do analysis on the connection. In particular, we can use the internal tool to restore the network on Windows 10, 7 and 8.
In another article, there are programs for network analysis and diagnostics of connectivity problems, among which there are Fing and Networx, which are perfectly usable even by beginners and which provide a lot of valuable information to improve the network configuration.
WiFi Analyzer is one of the programs to discover the wireless channel with the most powerful signal, to be used if the quality of the connection is poor or intermittent.
Even with the Google Chrome browser you can understand what is wrong with the internet connection
5) Checking and testing the disc
To check the integrity of the hard disk inside the computer, which as we always remember is the most fragile and slow part of a PC, there are two types of tools to be used:
- Programs to check health, performance and disk speed, such as CrystalDiskInfo, which also works well with SSD and USB drives.
- Programs to see the space occupied by files and folders, such as Windirstat, which gives us a graphic indication to quickly locate the largest files.
Especially in the case of computers with mechanical hard drives, it is also important to check the task manager to find which Windows process uses the disk the most and therefore slows down the computer.
Yet another guide tells us what to do if the disc broke
6) Memory test and diagnostics
RAM is, after the hard disk, the hardware component most exposed to errors.
The typical symptom of a damaged RAM is the blue screen error, which mainly afflicted versions of Windows prior to Windows 7.
To verify and test the RAM, "Windows memory diagnostics" is used, the very reliable integrated tool described in another guide article.
7) Process control and use of hardware resources
On any Windows PC you can open the task manager to check how active processes use RAM memory, the CPU and the disk.
In other articles we have written the task manager guide in Windows 10 and 8 and also the best tricks for the Windows 7 task manager.
In addition, you can also install a program to improve the Windows task manager like Process Explorer, to get more details.
In Windows, then, you can also use a more graphic and more detailed hardware resource control tool called Resource Monitoring, which can be launched from the task manager or even as a stand-alone tool from the Start menu.
Resource monitoring is an advanced way to view active processes and how they use memory in real time, becoming valuable for diagnosing stability problems.
8) Screen diagnostics
Thanks to some tools, it is possible to check if the monitor works well, that is, if all the pixels are active and not blocked.
Tools like JScreenFix therefore serve to repair broken or stuck pixels in an LCD screen or monitor.
BONUS: The Kaspersky System Checker program is free and allows you to check for any type of problem on the Windows system, giving indications, if necessary, to solve them.
Finally, if the problems depend on Windows itself, we can refer the discussion to other guides including:
- How to repair the PC without going to the technician
- Find solutions to Windows errors with diagnostic startup
- Restore or reinstall Windows without losing personal data and settings
