If you lot've ever opened up your computer, yous know there is a lot of hardware in there. It's all a potential point of failure. Certain pieces of hardware are more than prone to failure than others.

Equipment that either generates oestrus or has moving parts tends to fail nigh often. Thanks to figurer hardware tests, you can scan your organization and spot declining hardware before everything crashes.

What Can Get Incorrect With PC Hardware?

The parts that almost commonly break are fans, hard disk drives, CPUs, and GPUs.

RAM also tends to fail too. Information technology is continually being written and re-written to (flashed). Solid-state retentivity can only handle then many flashes before it begins to fail. The problem also applies to solid-state difficult drives.

The best way to avoid existence caught out is to perform regular hardware diagnostic tests on your calculator. Here'due south how to do hardware tests on Windows ten.

Windows 10 has ii built-in PC hardware diagnostic tools.

  1. Performance Monitor
  2. Windows Memory Diagnostic

The commencement analyzes system functioning on your computer, and the second runs retention tests on your Windows 10 PC.

Performance Monitor

performance monitor

Performance Monitor is the native Windows 10 hardware diagnostic app. Information technology'south the operating organisation's most holistic tool for locating and diagnosing hardware and system issues.

Open the Offset menu, search for its name, and click on the link to open the app. You may accept to wait for a few seconds while the app collects data.

If yous want a quick overview of your organization's hardware, use the left-manus panel to navigate to Reports > Organisation > System Diagnostics > [Estimator Name].

It provides you with multiple checks for your hardware, software, CPU, network, deejay, and retentiveness, along with a long listing of detailed statistics.

Dig a trivial deeper, and yous'll find live performance graphs (in Monitoring Tools > Performance Monitor) and customizable data sets (in Data Collector Sets).

Windows Memory Diagnostic

Windows Memory Diagnostic

A computer'southward central processing unit (CPU) uses RAM to store brusque-term information. Annihilation contained in the RAM is lost when you turn off your machine.

There are lots of warning signs when your RAM is close to failing. They include worsening performance, frequent crashes, video cards declining to load on boot, corrupted data files, and incorrect RAM information in the Windows Organisation app.

If y'all're wondering how to run a memory test on the RAM, y'all need to use the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool.

It works by writing to, then reading, your computer'southward RAM. Differing values signal faulty hardware.

To launch the tool, press Windows + R to open the Run window, so type mdsched.exe and striking Enter. Windows will prompt yous to restart your reckoner.

The test will take a few minutes to consummate. When it's over, your machine will once more restart. You'll run into the results of the screen once yous return to the Windows desktop.

event viewer

If Windows doesn't automatically show you the results, open the Event Viewer by right-clicking on the Start button, and so head to Windows Logs > System and detect the near recent file called MemoryDiagnostic.

3rd-Party Hardware Diagnostic Apps

If you're looking for something specific or a little more powerful, you'll need to plow to third-party software.

In that location is a lot to choose from, but hither are iv of the all-time computer diagnostic apps.

1. MemTest86

memtest

MemTest86 is well established every bit the best tool to test your RAM on Windows. It's more powerful than Microsoft's Windows Retentiveness Diagnostic tool.

The app has 13 different RAM testing algorithms and supports DDR4, DDR2, and DDR3 RAM. Yous can boot information technology directly from a USB stick or a CD, and Microsoft has signed the app's code for Secure Boot compatibility.

Unlike the Windows tool, MemTest86 as well has a total-featured graphical interface.

Download: MemTest86 (Gratuitous)

2. CrystalDiskInfo

crystaldiskinfo

If you want to focus on testing your hard drives, you should install CrystalDiskInfo.

The app's primal feature is the "Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Engineering" (SMART) test. It provides information most several aspects of your drives, including the read error rate, a count of reallocated sectors, the spin-up time, and a whole lot more.

CrystalDiskInfo besides includes advanced power management and audio management tools.

And, if y'all leave the app running in the background, it can even provide y'all with live alerts if drives become besides hot or are suffering from other failures.

Download: CrystalDiskInfo (Gratuitous)

3. HWiNFO

hwinfo

HWiNFO is way ahead of the pack when it comes to the amount of information provides. Indeed, if you lot're new to the world of hardware testing, we recommend giving this i a wide booth until you're more familiar with the concepts and terminology. It is one of the best computer diagnostic test apps out there.

From a hardware test standpoint, we are most interested in the app's arrangement health monitoring features. They provide detailed existent-fourth dimension reports and graphs near your machine'south CPUs, GPUs, mainboards, drives, and peripherals.

You lot can also download a agglomeration of add together-ins that provide HWiNFO with extra functionality. They include screen tuners, widgets, and log viewers.

Download: HWiNFO (Gratis)

4. RWEverything

RWEverything

Finally, we'll leave you with a tool for uber-geeks: RWEverything. It won't win any design awards, but it'due south extraordinarily powerful.

Yous can use information technology to check nearly every aspect of every piece of hardware in your motorcar. More pertinently, you can also write to all the hardware. That means y'all can tweak any setting, no matter how minor.

Warning: If you don't know what you're doing, don't beginning irresolute settings. You chance irrevocably dissentious your hardware.

Download:RWEverything (Free)

Cheque Your Computer's Battery Health

Some other piece of laptop hardware that'southward prone to failure is the battery.

We've written about five tools that'll assist your test the health of your laptop battery if you'd like to learn more.

Other Estimator Hardware Tests

Keeping an eye on your hardware is only one part of maintaining a healthy computer that runs smoothly.

For more data, cheque out our commodity below on how to cheque the health of Windows.

Image Credit: kmiragaya/Depositphotos

How to Cheque the Wellness of Your Windows 10 PC or Laptop

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About The Writer

Dan Price (1604 Articles Published)

Dan joined MakeUseOf in 2014 and has been Partnerships Director since July 2020. Reach out to him for inquires about sponsored content, chapter agreements, promotions, and whatever other forms of partnership. Yous can likewise discover him roaming the show floor at CES in Las Vegas every year, say hi if yous're going. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.

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