What’s really going on inside your PC? Jonathan Parkyn reveals how to scan your computer’s components to diagnose and fix your PC’s health
When we talk about fixing PC problems or extending its lifespan, the focus is often on software – removing junk files, uninstalling programs or using tools to clean up and speed up your computer. But that’s only half the story. The health of your computer’s hardware is just as fundamental to its smooth running and longevity. Physical hardware failures can make your PC behave erratically, slow it down or even stop it working altogether. If you check now that your PC’s components are fit and well, you can help your PC work well and run fast for years to come.
Component confusion
Unless you’re an IT expert, you may not know a great deal about your PC’s internal components and how they work. What type of processor does it have, for example? Is it running efficiently or is it on the brink of failing? How much memory is installed, and is it all working properly? What about your hard drive – is it performing to the best of its abilities and, if not, is there anything you can do about it?
But you don’t need to be a boffin to take care of your computer’s components. In this guide we’re going to explain how to lift the lid on your PC and find out exactly what it’s made of. We’ll show you how to check the status of all your computer’s hardware and explain what to do if you discover a problem.
CHECK YOUR PC’S PROCESSOR AND MEMORY
How does a processor work?
We often think of the processor (sometimes referred to as ‘CPU’) as the brain of a computer. What it actually does is process data, performing calculations to interpret everything from a simple mouse click to a complicated set of instructions from a program or an operating system (OS).
The speed at which it is able to do this is governed by a number of factors, chief among which is its clock speed, measured in GHz. The number of cores, the processor type and whether your PC is a 32bit or 64bit system can also play a role, as can the health and capabilities of other hardware, such as memory and cooling systems.
Lift the lid on your processor
You can open your PC’s built-in Device Manager (click Start, then right-click Computer or File Explorer and select Manage) for a list of your computer’s hardware components, including the processor. But, as it stands, Windows itself provides precious little information about the individual components that make up your PC. For more insight, you’ll need to download and install some free tools.
To get started, download the latest version of free tool Belarc Advisor (www.snipca.com/18328). After installing and launching it, click Yes when prompted to analyse your computer. It’ll then gather all the information it needs and present its findings in a browser window. Don’t worry – no private details about your PC are uploaded to the web.
Belarc Advisor provides a detailed profile of all your PC’s hardware and software – it’s worth printing a copy and keeping it handy for future reference.
There’s plenty of interesting information in the section headed ‘Processor’. If it says ‘64bit ready’, that means you can install a 64bit OS should you wish – you’ll see the benefit when using programs and apps that support 64bit systems.
Belarc will also tell you if your processor is multi-core and, if so, how many cores are present. Other useful information here relates to the size of the processor’s memory cache and whether or not it supports hyperthreading (a technology that allows a processor to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously).
Bench-test your processor
Another of our favourite free tools for “seeing inside” your PC is CPU-Z (www.snipca.com/18351). Like Belarc, it’s easy to install and there’s no added junk to worry about.
When you run CPU-Z, you’ll see a small tabbed window full of technical information. On the CPU tab, which is open by default, you can find out your processor’s type and clock speed. Make a note of the processor’s full name, code name and socket type (listed under Package) – these details can be very helpful if you need to research a potential problem online.
To save or print a copy of CPU-Z’s details for reference, click Tools, then ‘Save Report as .TXT’. In the latest version of the tool, you can also click the Bench tab, then click Bench CPU to get a performance score for your processor. The scores are pretty meaningless on their own, but you can select another processor model from the Reference dropdown menu to compare scores, or run a web search to see what scores other users of the same processor are logging.
Find out how well your processor is performing
Windows has some built-in tools for showing how hard your processor is working and how well it’s coping. Right-click the Taskbar and select Task Manager, then click ‘More details’ if shown. Click the Performance tab for a graph displaying various real-time details about your system status. The CPU graph, for example, will tell you how hard your PC’s processor is having to work. You can expect a few spikes as processes do their thing in the background. Try launching a program, for example. You should notice an increase in CPU usage. There’s no ‘normal’ usage – what you see here will depend on lots of factors, such as the type and speed of your processor, as well as what background activities are currently running. However, if your processor is regularly clocking 75-100 per cent during idle times, that could be a sign that there’s a problem.
For more details about system performance, click the Resource Monitor option at the bottom of the Task Manager window, then click the CPU tab of the window that opens. This will display graphical information about the usage of individual processor cores (if you have a multi-core system) and show real-time data about what processes and services are currently using up the most processing power.
Windows can also produce a useful PC health report. Press the Win+R, type perfmon /report and press Enter. This will take a snapshot of your computer’s performance, then generate a diagnostic report based on its findings. You can view a summary of its analysis under Basic Checks. You don’t need to worry about a green result, but red ones may need your urgent attention. Below you’ll find more details in individual categories.
Predictably, a lot of these list reams of unintelligible techno-twaddle, but click Performance for a general idea of how well your processor, memory and hard drive are performing – again, green is good. Click File, then Save As to save a copy of your report. If you need to contact your manufacturer or a support team at any point, you can email this report to them to help diagnose a problem.
Take your processor’s temperature
What Windows doesn’t do very well is provide you with any information about your computer’s operating temperature. Processors can get pretty hot. This is normal, but if your processor overheats, your PC can start to behave erratically or even suffer permanent damage, which is why your PC has a cooling system – fans, heatsinks, vents and so on – to keep temperatures down. All computers contain internal sensors that monitor various temperatures; you just need a tool that can tell you what they’re reading. One such tool is HWMonitor, free from the makers of CPU-Z (www.snipca.com/18352).
Install and run the tool. The main page displays information about the temperature of various components, as well as voltages, fan speeds and more. The Value column updates in real time. The Min and Max columns display the minimum and maximum values over the course of the period the tool has been running for.
Annoyingly, the application does little more than report its findings – it won’t warn you if it detects that a component is overheating. Instead you’ll need to do a little detective work of your own by searching online for your processor’s model number (as shown in CPU-Z). The website www.cpu-world.com, for example, lists minimum and maximum temperatures for hundreds of different processors. In general, if your processor is operating at anything between 30-50°C, it’s working normally. Anything over 60°C could be a cause for concern.
Check your PC’s memory usage
RAM (Random Access Memory) is your PC’s temporary storage space – it’s where all open files and running programs are held while your PC is switched on. Your processor will access data directly from the PC’s memory as required, so your RAM needs to be operating to the best of its ability. Many of the tools we’ve already mentioned can be used to monitor the health of other components, including your PC’s memory.
Windows Task Manager can give you an idea of how much memory is being used by your system at any time. Look at the Memory section of the Performance tab for a graph showing the percentage of your PC’s installed RAM that’s currently in use. The more programs and files you have open, the more memory will be used. Once all available memory has been used, your PC will automatically switch to using virtual memory – a portion of your hard drive dedicated to behaving like memory only when needed – and this will make it run much slower. For more details about RAM usage, check the Memory tab of Windows Resource Monitor – here you’ll find a useful per-megabyte breakdown of how your system’s physical memory is being used and how much is still free.
Run a memory diagnostic scan
Faulty memory can cause crashes and glitches, but there’s an easy way to check for these using Windows’ built-in Memory Diagnostics Tool. Click Start, type memory, then click the Windows Memory Diagnostic option shown. Next, click ‘Restart now and check for problems’. Your PC will reboot to the Memory Diagnostics screen. You can let the tool run automatically or, for a more thorough scan, press F1 as soon as the screen appears. Use your cursor keys to select the Extended option and press F10 to apply and run the test. Should any errors be discovered, you’ll see a notification when Windows starts.
If Task Manager and Resource Monitor show that your memory usage is regularly nudging 90 per cent or more, or if the Memory Diagnostics Tool keeps finding faults, then it may be time to consider adding more RAM or replacing faulty modules. You can find out how much you currently have installed, and which RAM slots are currently in use, from Belarc Advisor.
To find out what type of modules your PC uses, head to uk.crucial.com and click ‘scan your system’. Download and run this free tool to examine your system – a web page will show what type of memory modules you have installed, how much you have and how much more you can install. It will list modules compatible with your PC, but don’t feel obliged to buy memory from Crucial’s store.
LIFT THE LID ON YOUR HARD DRIVE
Check your hard drive for errors
Newer versions of Windows are configured to check your hard drive for errors and fragmentation automatically, but you should also check them yourself from time to time. Click Start, then Computer (Windows 7) or right-click Start, then File Explorer, then This PC (Windows 8.1 and 10). Right-click a drive and select Properties. In the window that opens, click the Tools tab. Here you can click Check, then ‘Scan drive’ (Windows 8.1 and 10) or click ‘Check now’ and tick the box ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors’, then click Start (Windows 7) to check your drive for errors and fix them.
Alternatively, click ‘Optimise and defragment drive’ (Windows 8.1 and 10) or Defragmentation (Windows 7) to open Windows’ drive-optimisation tool. Here you can check the fragmentation status of all your drives. Click a specific drive in the list, then click Analyse to see how badly fragmented the data is. If necessary, click Optimise (Windows 10) or ‘Defragment disk’ (Windows 7) to fix the problem.
Check your SMART status
Windows only goes so far in terms of providing details about your hard drive and its status. Belarc Advisor can give you a little more info – check under Drives in the report and you’ll find your hard drives (and CD/DVD drive) listed, along with their model number, capacity and free space. And, if your drive is partitioned, you’ll be able to see details of this under Local Drive Volumes. There’s one other useful nugget of information found under Drives, though: its SMART status.
SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. It comes built into all hard drives and SSDs and provides a quick way to see whether a drive is healthy or not. See below for more on SSDs.
Annoyingly, Windows doesn’t have a simple built-in way to check the SMART status of your drive. And even Belarc Advisor’s details are slim. Luckily, there are better dedicated tools available for free. One that’s worth getting hold of is CrystalDiskInfo. Head to www.snipca.com/18389 and download the Standard Edition of the tool – we recommend getting the one listed as ‘Portable w/o Ads’. The portable version can be run without the need to install anything. Just unzip the downloaded file and double click DiskInfo.exe (or DiskInfoX64.exe if you’re system is 64bit).
CrystalDiskInfo provides you with an overview of your drive’s health status and its temperature – overheating can be a problem here too. You also get a lot of detail about the drive’s specifications on the right-hand side, including its serial number and the firmware version it’s running. Below, you’ll find details on individual SMART attributes, such as its read-error rate and spin-up time. Again, don’t worry about wrapping your head around all the technicalities – CrystalDiskInfo will let you know if it spots anything wrong. It can be useful to save a snapshot of the tool’s findings, especially if you’re seeking help from a tech support representative or online forum. Click Edit, then Copy and open a blank document in a word processor – Word or WordPad, for example – then press Ctrl+V to paste the data into your document and save it.
Another useful hard-drive tool is HD Tune. Get the free version from www.snipca.com/18390. It lets you bench-test your drive to get an idea of its performance – click Start on the Benchmark tab. On the Info tab you can see which features your drive supports. SMART data is listed on the Health tab and you can run a check for damaged blocks on the Error Scan tab.
CHECK YOUR SSD
SSDs (solid state drives) don’t need to be defragmented, but things can still go wrong. CrystalDiskInfo and HD Tune can both check your SSD’s SMART status, temperature and performance. Also use the free portable version of SSD Life to get an inside on the drive’s health (www.snipca.com/18392).
Though faster than normal drives, SSDs have one weakness: longevity. You can only write to SSDs a finite number of times. SSD Life can examine your drive and give you an estimated lifespan and overall health score. It can also tell you if Trim – a technology for managing and protecting SSDs – is enabled.
LIFT THE LID ON YOUR PC’S PERIPHERALS
Check your display calibration
Whether you use a laptop or a desktop PC, screens can get pretty dirty – particularly ones with touch controls. If your display is suffering from a major health problem, you’ll probably be able to see evidence right away – the colours may look wrong or your display may show nothing at all. The most common cause of display problems is loose cables, so check that everything’s connected properly before you assume the worst.
Even if you’re not experiencing any obvious problems with your display, it’s worth checking your screen’s calibration. Windows has a built-in tool for this. Click Start, type calibrate, then click the ‘Calibrate display colour’ option that appears. Follow the on-screen prompts to make sure the screen is set up properly.
Older PC screens used to suffer from all kinds of health problems, including burn-in and flickering. Modern LCD screens are more robust, but one common problem is dead or stuck pixels. These are dots on the screen that no longer work properly. They’re often quite hard to spot, as they’re small and may only have trouble displaying a particular colour. There’s a brilliant free online test for dead pixels at www.snipca.com/18393. You don’t need to download anything – just click each of the options listed under Normal or Without JavaScript (depending which works best for you), then press F11 to switch to full screen. Check your screen closely for dead pixels, then press the ‘Bckspce’ key (below F2) to go back to the menu to try the next test on the list. Exit full-screen mode when you’ve finished by pressing F11 again.
You could also try going to www.snipca.com/18394 and clicking each of the colours listed. Your screen should automatically switch to full-screen mode in each case. Press ‘Bckspce’ and try each one in turn. If you find any dead pixels you may be able to revive them by clicking Fix My Screen – the flickering pattern will attempt to ‘massage’ the pixel back to life. But if there’s an underlying hardware problem, this may not work.
Test your keyboard
Keys that refuse to work or a mouse pointer that gets stuck as you try to move it around the screen can be infuriating. For starters, you can use a free online tool to test that all your keys are working properly. Go to www.keyboardtester.com and click ‘Launch the Tester’. A window will open with a diagram of a keyboard layout. Now press each key in turn to see if it’s registered by the tool.
Clean your keyboard by turning it upside down over some kitchen roll and giving it a good shake. Use a can of compressed air to blow out muck from between the keys, then clean with an antibacterial wipe.
Check external drives and USB sticks
The health of external hard drives can be tested using many of the same tools used for internal ones. In CrystalDiskInfo, you can select an external drive from the Disk menu. In HD Tune, select the drive you want to test from the main dropdown menu.
USB sticks (‘flash drives’) and SD and CF memory cards are a different proposition. You don’t need to check these for fragmentation, for example, but you can test a USB stick’s status and performance levels using a dedicated tool, such as Check Flash (free from www.snipca.com/18397). Download and unzip the file, then, with the USB stick you want to test plugged into your PC, run the ChkFlsh program. Select your stick from the dropdown menu, leave the other settings as they are then click Start. Once the test is complete, you’ll see a summary of the drive’s read and write speeds below, along with a drive map on the right, which will display any physical or data errors found – check the Legend tab to see what the colour coding means.
Fake USB sticks and SD cards are a big problem. They might look like the real thing, but don’t feature the full capacity advertised and can even corrupt your files. Luckily, there’s a free tool that can quickly establish whether or not a drive is as large as it claims to be. Go to www.snipca.com/18398 and scroll down to FakeFlashTest. Download version 1.0.9 and unzip the file. Run the tool and select your drive from the dropdown menu. The test will wipe the entire contents of your drive, so make sure you’ve copied everything off it before clicking Quick Size Test. After you get your result, you’ll need to reformat the drive. Right-click it in an Explorer window and select Format, then Start.
Check your printer
Printers have a lot of working parts, so there’s plenty that can go wrong. Most printer manufacturers are sensible enough to include diagnostic and maintenance tools as part of the device’s driver. These will vary from device to device, but in most cases you can get to the tools you need by clicking Start, typing printers and clicking the ‘Devices and Printers’ link that appears. Scroll down to your printer, then right-click it and select Printer Properties. This will open a tabbed window of settings and options.
On the General tab, you can click Print Test Page to get an instant idea of how well (or badly) your printer is performing. Most printer drivers will offer a Maintenance (or similar) tab here with further ways to check your device’s health. In the case of our Canon MP630, for example, there are options to check and clean nozzles, re-align print heads and more. Clicking View Printer Status allows you to see how full the ink cartridges are. Other printers and manufacturers may work in a slightly different way, but should provide you with similar tools and information.
Check your router
Different routers use different systems, but green (or blue) lights are usually good, while amber or red lights mean that something needs your attention.
Further details about your router’s status can be uncovered by visiting its configuration utility. In most cases, accessing this involves entering a specific name or IP address into a web browser and then logging in with an admin username and password – check the instructions that came with your device. There should be a status section, where you can view all the devices currently connected to your network, along with the status of the internet and wireless connections.
Your tablet and phone can help you test the strength and speed of your router’s Wi-Fi or broadband. Download the free app WiFi SweetSpots (Android www.snipca.com/18400, iOS www.snipca.com/18401), position yourself where you want to test your Wi-Fi, then tap Start. To check broadband download and upload speeds, get the free Speedtest.net app (Android www.snipca.com/18402, iOS www.snipca.com/18403), then stand near your router and tap Begin Test.
MONITOR YOUR LAPTOP’S BATTERY
Laptop owners have an extra hardware component to check – the battery. Like all components, battery performance can decline for a variety of reasons, including age, usage and temperature. Batteries are often expensive to replace, too, so it’s a good idea to try to keep an eye on its health. A useful tool to have in your arsenal is NirSoft’s BatteryInfoView (free from www.snipca.com/18363), which MONITOR YOUR LAPTOP’S BATTERY can monitor and log your battery’s status over time, as well as provide useful details about the name, manufacturer and serial number. On the main screen, pay particular attention to the Battery Wear Level – this is the difference between the designed capacity and the actual capacity when fully charged. A new battery should show 100 per cent here, but this will inevitably decline over time.