It’s a known fact that Windows gets slow with time. The PC gets slow as users install new software, change settings, and so on. Windows OS houses tools that can help users to improve performance and help users ensure their system’s reliability. This article will use one such tool, the Windows System Stability Chart. We’ll also learn how to use it to determine our system’s reliability, i.e., check System Reliability of Windows PC.
What is a System Stability Chart?
A system stability chart is a representation of data collected over a lifetime of a Windows system. Every day in that represented time has its system stability index rating, denoted by a graph point.
In simpler words, a System Stability Chart is a representation of data that includes the total number of failures (accidental crashes, reboots, etc.), and the system stability index is the unit or the calculated weighted measurement which we take into consideration before concluding on the stability of a Windows system.
The system stability index values 1-10, with one being the worst stable and ten being the most. All this information in the System Stability Chart is based on past periods and the system stability index preceding 28 days. Here are some things you should know about the system stability index:
- Recent failures are weighted more heavily than past failures.
- Insufficient data leads to a dotted line in the graph.
- Significant changes will be denoted with an information icon.
- The system stability index doesn’t include the days when the system is asleep or powered off.
We now know what a System Stability Chart is, but to determine what the values and graphs it displays mean, we’ll need to know about the Windows Reliability Monitor.
What Is Windows Reliability Monitor?
Windows Reliability Monitor is an application that comes pre-installed in Windows PCs and laptops. It identifies specific issues (mostly related to software) that can potentially negatively impact Windows performance, reliability, and your system’s overall life.
It is a tool that Windows users can use to obtain a system stability overview and recognize software issues that reduce Windows PC’s reliability. Windows Reliability Monitor is responsible for calculating the system stability index that is displayed in the System Stability Chart and is also responsible for identifying potential threats.
How To Check System Reliability of Windows PC With the System Stability Chart
In this section, we’re going to find out how we can use the Windows Reliability Monitor, Windows System Stability Index, and Windows Stability Chart to determine the overall reliability of our Windows PC.
Listed below are the steps you can follow to check your system’s reliability:
- Launch Control Panel by searching for it in the Start menu.
- Now, head to the top right corner and change the View by option to Large icons. This will display a list of all the options available in the Control Panel.
- Open the Security and Maintenance options.
- Expand the Maintenance chevron, and click on View reliability history.
- The Windows Reliability Monitor will generate a report. You can view the results by days, weeks, months, and years.
The top half of the System Stability Chart displays a graph containing the system stability index. In the other half of the chart, five rows track Reliability Events that either contribute to the stability measurement for the system or provide related information about software installation and removal.
When one or more Reliability Events of each type are detected, an icon appears in the column for that date. The system stability chart indicates installs & uninstalls, crashes, errors, reboots, and occurred errors against the day of their happening with respective icons, and that’s how you can identify the software issues impacting your system’s reliability.
If the index value is low, it’s stable, and if it’s high, the system is unstable. So on the index of 1-10, 1 is best, and 10 is worst.
Selecting a day or week will reveal a list of programs with critical failures. Right-click on any of the events, and click n View Technical details. It will reveal details that will be important to the developer or technical admin.
What can I do if Windows’s System Stability Chart is poor?
- Check for resource hogs: Some programs and processes may use many system resources, which can cause stability issues. First, identify the program in the report and check if it uses too many resources before it stops working. Later, you can either check if an update can fix the problem or if you need to replace it with another software.
- Check for hardware issues: If the program depends on hardware or the technical details point to any hardware failure, check further. You may need to update the driver or check if the hardware has issues that require replacement.
Conclusion
This article discussed how we could determine our system’s reliability using the Windows System Stability Chart. The Windows Reliability Monitor is greatly recommended for an accurate idea of what software issues potentially threaten your system’s reliability.
Understanding the various values and graphs of the System Stability Chart may seem complex, and that’s precisely why this article presented a simple walkthrough of what you need to do to check your system’s reliability. We’ll wrap up this guide and hope it will help you.
