Member Avatar for Catweazle

Hi all,

One of the problems we face when trying to assist people with their hardware problems is the matter of identifying what hardware they actually have in their systems. I've just come across yet another reporting tool, and it seems to me to be rather a good one. I've tried it on several systems here and found it to report accurate, detailed and very useful information about them.

Could others here who have a good degree of knowledge about the components in their systems try it also, please, and report on their impressions of the tool?

It's called Everest, and it's a free download for personal use from:

http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=1


Feel free to mention other good quality reporting utilities as well, if you like!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by oalee

Dani AI

Generated

Good call, — and thanks to , , and for testing and commenting. To keep this thread useful for people who find it later, here's a short, practical checklist and a few troubleshooting tips to get reliable, shareable output from any hardware-reporting utility and to avoid common interpretation mistakes.

  1. Run the tool with administrator rights and close other monitoring apps first.
  2. Export/save the full report (HTML or text) so helpers can view the exact output.
  3. Cross-check against Device Manager (or msinfo32/dxdiag). For any “Unknown device” copy the Hardware Ids (VID/PID) from Device Manager -> Properties -> Details and post those strings.
  4. For disks: treat generic “health” flags cautiously. RAID controllers and USB bridges can hide raw S.M.A.R.T. data; use the drive maker’s diagnostic if you suspect failure.
  5. For temps/fans: confirm readings against BIOS/UEFI or a known-good monitoring tool—software needs supported sensor chips to be accurate.
  6. When asking for help, include OS edition, exact CPU, motherboard model and BIOS version so responders can match driver and chipset issues.

If the utility won’t start (as reported): check Task Manager for a stuck process, try “Run as administrator,” and test Compatibility mode if the system is older. Temporarily disable real-time antivirus and redownload the installer in case of corruption. Look in Event Viewer -> Application for the faulting module name (that points to missing runtimes or DLL conflicts). If still stuck, try running it on another machine or inside a VM to see whether the binary itself is faulty.

Before posting a report, redact sensitive items (serial numbers, license keys, etc.). For deeper diagnostics, attach the exported report and pair it with targeted tests (memtest for RAM, manufacturer disk utilities for drives) and post those results alongside the report.

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Member Avatar for ikenfixit

EVEREST IS THE WHIP!! Ive been using it for a while and it does give a ton of info on the system..Also if you need a laptop temp and battery monitor search for Mobile meter.. Works good on everthing so far.. . .. Theres the link.. (need Japanese language pack)..

Member Avatar for Catweazle

ikenfixit, have you had opportunity to use it on systems where devices weren't yet nstalled in Windows, or were incorrectly installed, and if so what sort of accuracy did it have?

Member Avatar for ikenfixit

No I havent..BUT I'll give it a whirl and let you know!

Member Avatar for Zymz

I just tried it out and it is excellent. More detail than I had expected, even recognizing antivirus software and such. Very useful for troubleshooting.

Member Avatar for thepom11

an excellent product it pointed out a shortage of sdram on my computer, amongst other things.

Member Avatar for ReDuX

Looks groovy. Gonna give it a go..

Member Avatar for joshuu

I downloaded it but when I try to open it the cursor shows its busy opening it but nothing happens,it doesn't open.

Member Avatar for Rueful Rogue

Got steered here by a post from szukalski (2:35 PM MST USA - 11-18-04) on the Processor Inquiry thread.

Have you tired the "BELARC ADVISOR"? It's also a FREE utility which when run will profile your computer and allow you to print out a report. It will profile all of your hardware and software, list a history of all your Microsoft Hotfixes (updates), give the versions of all the software you have on your PC, and provide license info (registration keys). Pretty cool.

You can get it here:

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Rueful Rogue, Belarc Advisor is a reporting tool I was in the habit of recommending BEFORE I came across Everest. It is still a useful one to have for some specific purposes, such as reporting on program install codes and enabling quick acces to program install directories, but as a system reporting tool Everest leaves Belarc a long, long way behind in it's dust cloud!

Member Avatar for Rueful Rogue

Catweasel - I couldn't agree more. I went to the site, read about the program, and downloaded it. I'm really impressed. Thanks for the lead on this one. I'm sure this will solve many a person's problems.

Member Avatar for juiceisub3r

great program, just used it, I luv it

Member Avatar for oalee

I'm gonna give it a try.

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