When my computer started taking forever to change screens I first did a Malware Bytes scan and then a complete anti-virus scan, then I ran disk defrag. There was no improvement and these processes took way longer than they used to do.

I next looked for possible hardware issues. I set up my drive which was C: to run Checkdsk on reboot. If wouldn’t run.  I got a “cannot access drive…” error message, and started suspecting the drive.

Dell Computers come with a Pre-boot assessment build which is a hardware testing system. It can be accessed by pressing F12 right after you power on. After that runs you are given the option to run diagnostics which puts the hardware through all its paces

The Pre-boot assessment tests memory, hard drive, CPU and more  outside of the Windows environment.  My first pass gave me a 0142 error code which signifies a failing hard drive.

The diagnostics have an express version that takes 20 minutes or so, and extended version that takes an hour or more and then they have a facility called the Symptom tree where you can find a symptom and run corresponding hardware tests.

These tools are a definite plus and give another reason why Dell has survived when so many others have not.  Their products are not always sports car fast, but they are reliable and they have tools like this to help the home user find and fix problems.

Note: see http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN115162/EN for more on Dell computer’s diagnostic tools.