Why is your computer acting funny? Look at the Windows Reliability Monitor.

Our technicians often get calls from customers who say “my computer has been acting “funny” lately”, or “something strange happened right before I went home last night and I wanted to report it this morning”.  

While both scenarios are serious, it’s difficult to quantify “funny” and no matter how skilled, computer technicians may have a difficult time in determining what strange thing may have happened last night.

Since at least Windows 7, Microsoft has been trying to help in scenarios likes this by including a Reliability Monitor that tracks your computer’s reliability and problem history. Prior to Windows 7, technicians had to rely on combing through technical, and often overwhelming, logs to glean a clue that could lead to a solution.

The easiest way for a user to access the Reliability Monitor is to click on the Start menu (or hit the Windows Key on your keyboard) and type Reliability. One of the options that will appear is your Reliability Monitor. Clicking on the selection should bring you to the Monitor screen.

The history provides you and your computer technician with a timeline of your computer. At the top is a stability index that approaches the value 10.  You want 10 across the board!  10 describes events that are not cause for worry. Each critical event that your computer regards as cause for worry reduces the stability index; if you have multiple events repeatedly the stability score drops and stays low.   Now you need to worry!

A computer user that finds their computer acting “funny” all of a sudden can use this to see what is really going on, and rationalize whether it’s worth contacting a computer technician.  Additionally, a user can take a screenshot of the Reliability Monitor and send it to a technician to get an idea of how long it might take to fix the issue at hand. For technicians this can be an easy way to nail down a timeline of issues, and find out what happened “last night”.

The Reliability Monitor is a great tool that allows the user to submit a more effective report of what might be the problem and allows the technician to potentially avoid a lengthy process of combing through event logs. For some events, Microsoft may even give a solution that a user can carry out.

Need help with using the Reliability Monitor?  Or still not sure why your computer is acting funny?  Call us, we’re happy to help!  1-866-320-8922. For us, it’s personal; not just business!