PC-Doctor Software and Capabilities

By Ed Tittel and Toby Digby, published on November 29, 2007
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , | Themes: Software
Contents

2. PC-Doctor Software and Capabilities

To begin our discussion of PC-Doctor software, we must observe that it follows the PC market. That’s another way of saying that its tools are aimed solidly at Windows PCs, which is where the bulk of such diagnostic software is used. That said, the MUD does boot to a DOS clone outside of Windows, and allows users to run nearly all of the same tests outside the Windows environment. In fact, the battery of tests that PC-Doctor supports is pretty broad, and best viewed through the company’s own list of tests and support technologies.

pc doctor

Lots of tests lurk within PC-Doctor’s little black bag.

The battery of tests indicates which ones run under DOS, Windows and Linux. A quick review of the counts involved tells the real story of the product’s target market and testing strategy. Of the 149 items listed on the company’s List of Tests and Supported Technologies, which includes 11 languages supported, and 138 tests across 19 categories, the operating systems shake out as follows:

  • DOS: 119 items (79.9%)
  • Windows: 124 (83.2%) PC-Doctor mentions only 9x/Me/NT/2K/XP on this page, but other documents and our own testing indicates that the software also works for Vista.
  • Linux: 94 (63.1%)

Indeed, Windows claims only slight preponderance, all of the most important tests that don’t actually involve Windows itself are available through the bootable DOS on the MUD, and most of those are also available in Linux. Appearances to the contrary aside, PC-Doctor actually does a fairly good job of treating all three platforms even-handedly. In fact, the areas where Windows dominates are those where Windows is part of what’s being tested (Modem Technologies, Sound Card/Audio, and System Information Technologies) or where Windows provides internationalization support (Language Support). Take languages out of the picture, and DOS (112) and Windows (113) are dead even to all intents and purposes, with Linux not terribly far behind (93).

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Deleted profile 11/30/2007 11:34 AM
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Nice review. I use PC Doctor 6 on a daily basis and can say that it is quite an expansion over Service Center 5. I also use diagnostic utilities such as DFT and Memtest, however one thing that PC Doctor has over every other free utility is the logging capabilities from DOS. I have it scripted to run the whole onslaught of tests and save the log file to the MUD. This is especially helpful when a customer want's to see proof that something passed or something failed. It can also come in handy when sending a unit off to a specialized repair center if parts arent available to you. Also, the cost of a replacement MUD (at least to my company) is $130. So if you go high end, SC6 actually becomes more of a bargain.
Deleted profile 12/01/2007 3:06 AM
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I also use PC Doctor but the problem I have with it is that is slows performance down. There is also a bug in the program. On system shutdown you receive an error message. There is times where the program will not allow system shutdown at all.
Deleted profile 12/03/2007 1:31 AM
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if you no what you are doing you do not need this crap! I worked in a shop for a year that had all of this specialty troubleshooting stuff and absolutely no one used it! The only testing software u need is memtest and any hd tools, and they are free. Stop buying this stuff and learn how to fix and diagnose without all these 399$ "tools" and you will save money and learn something.
Deleted profile 12/04/2007 7:24 AM
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Why should a computer break? Oh ya I remember: failure to perform to proper quality control standards vs price since the beginning of time. Now everyone with their $399 Walmart and Bestbuy piece of junk computers can just go right back out and buy more crap to ultimately slow down a slow worthlyss computer. This is why I build my machines from scratch using high quality compponents, not some big old computer companie who throws pennies at the lowest bidder.

This seems like a great product and fortune smiles for the inventer. Unfortunatly this mess costs the consumer millions in the long run, just to have a half broken machine until the end of mankind.
etittel 12/10/2007 11:44 AM
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etittel
I think the range of responses shows just what I thought about this product: it works for some and not for others, and indeed those willing to substitute ingenuity and work for convenience and extra cost can get there from here without necessarily buying the kit. But I have to believe that hobbyists and do-it-yourselfers do not represent a key target market for this product anyway.

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