COMPUTER TROUBLESHOOTING 31

Get Your Computer Details
Want to figure out all your computer specs? Stuff like CPU speed, RAM, Hard Drive space, screen resolution, etc? It's actually not as easy as it should be. Maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell, you have to go to separate areas in Windows to figure this it out.

RAM & Windows Version -
Right-click My Computer and select Properties . The screen that pops up will give you info on what version of Windows you're running and how much RAM is currently installed in the machine.

Hard Drive Space -
Open My Computer , right-click the C: drive, and select Properties from the resulting menu. You'll get a handy little Pie chart that gives you used and available HD space.

Screen Resolution -
Right-click the Windows Desktop and select Properties . Hit the Settings tab on the resulting screen. You'll see your resolution and color depth listed there.

CPU Speed -
Windows XP will actually give you this if you right-click My Computer, Properties . However, older versions of Windows won't give you the slightest hint as to the CPU speed.

So, what can you do?

First place to look is towards the top of the screen when the computer first starts up. Some machines will display the type of processor and speed. If you have some sort of splash screen come up when you first turn on the computer, try hitting the Escape key. Sometimes that will remove the splash screen and let you see the "real" screen behind it.

If that doesn't work, you may need to find a third party software utility to check CPU speed.