Exploring the PC-Doctor Interface
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: pc, repair, diagnostic | Themes: Software
5. Exploring the PC-Doctor Interface
A quick look at the main tabs in the PC-Doctor GUI will quickly illustrate its operation and capabilities, where the program wins multiple bonus points for a simple, straightforward interface. The Home tab is where the action begins, and where you start navigating to explore the program’s capabilities.
The Home tab shows up by default, providing access to basic system information.
The Diagnostics tab is populated on the left side by device enumeration on your PC. Based on what the software finds, you gain access to all the relevant tests and diagnostics by navigating through categories to specific devices. In the screenshot we’ve captured, we selected the video card in the video category, to show the range of video tests available, which are run automatically against all monitors on a system with more than one display installed.
Though we show the video tests here, you can get to tests for all other system components this program discovers by navigating through the device hierarchy.
Those who’ve worked with device manager will get this approach instantly, and even those who haven’t can find their way around a PC’s devices by inspection and selection.
Any tests that are available through the Diagnostics tab can be invoked and included in a script that the program can generate at your behest. In the screenshot we captured, we picked a couple of items from the System Group. You can also scroll down through the rest of the interface and add elements from the Storage Group, the Video Group, the Communications Group, and the Other Group (FM radio, battery, IEEE 1394, joystick, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals) with great ease and facility. There’s a Save button to let you name and save such scripts, a Load button to let you call up already defined scripts, and a Run button to fire them off when you’re ready.
The Scripts tab makes it easy to select and include tests to be run, then fire them off at will.
Finally, there’s the System Information tab, where you can dig into the details that PC Doctor extracts for any and all of the devices on your PC. This is a great exploration and information tool, with adjustable levels of detail. By default, the program shows simple details, but crank that level up to advanced and you’ll see lots of information, including hardware IDs, driver data, firmware levels, and a lot more. Our screenshot shows simple details on the Philips optical drive installed in our test system.
System information offers adjustable levels of detail that combine device, driver, firmware and other data into a single viewable list of facts.
All in all, we really liked this part of the tool and found it intuitive to use, and quite informative in terms of what information it provided. You’d have to spelunk around inside a legion of different Device Manager property sheets to access the same data from Windows.
- Previous page PC-Doctor Tests by Category
- Next page Another Take, A Different Road
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 $130. So if you go high end, SC6 actually becomes more of a bargain.
I also use PC Doctor but the problem I have with it is that is slows performance down. There is also a bug in the program. On system shutdown you receive an error message. There is times where the program will not allow system shutdown at all.
if you no what you are doing you do not need this crap! I worked in a shop for a year that had all of this specialty troubleshooting stuff and absolutely no one used it! The only testing software u need is memtest and any hd tools, and they are free. Stop buying this stuff and learn how to fix and diagnose without all these 399$ "tools" and you will save money and learn something.
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.
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.
It's obvious the defines who you are. If you're a do-it-yourselfer
or home user, it's a little steep to pay 4 big ones. However, if
you're pro tek and you make you're living fixing other people's
machines, the cost is not a big deal. Every proffesional mechanic
owns his or her own tools. And if you're always on the field, you want to be as light and convienent while still being resourceful
and sucessful. What's the big deal?