Situatie
Good troubleshooting is about evidence. Instead of guessing whether a PC has a CPU, memory, disk or network problem, use diagnostic tools to narrow down the cause.
Task Manager
Start with the tool already installed.
Task Manager can show:
- CPU utilization
- memory usage
- disk activity
- network activity
- startup applications
- running processes.
A consistently saturated resource often provides your first clue.
Resource Monitor
Resource Monitor offers more detail than Task Manager for certain workloads.
Search Windows for:
Resource Monitor
It is particularly useful for identifying which processes are generating disk or network activity.
Event Viewer
Event Viewer is one of Windows’ most powerful—and most misunderstood—diagnostic tools. Not every warning or error represents a serious problem. Instead of searching every event ID you see, correlate events with the exact time the failure occurred.
Reliability Monitor
Search for:
View reliability history
Reliability Monitor provides a timeline of application failures, Windows failures and other events. It is excellent when someone says, “The computer started crashing a few days ago”.
Windows Memory Diagnostic
Suspected RAM problems can be investigated using Windows Memory Diagnostic. For more demanding testing, specialized bootable memory-test utilities may provide deeper analysis.
PowerShell
PowerShell can retrieve enormous amounts of diagnostic information without installing anything.
Commands such as:
Get-ComputerInfo
Get-Process
Get-Service
Get-PhysicalDisk
Get-NetAdapter
can quickly reveal useful system state.
Vendor Hardware Tools
Do not overlook manufacturer diagnostics. Dell, Lenovo, HP and component manufacturers often provide tools specifically designed for their hardware. The same applies to SSD vendors.
Sysinternals
Microsoft’s Sysinternals utilities are invaluable for advanced Windows troubleshooting. Tools in the suite can help investigate processes, startup entries, file activity and deeper operating-system behavior.
Conclusion
You don’t need a folder containing 50 “PC repair” programs. Learn a small number of reliable tools and, more importantly, learn how to interpret the information they provide.
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