Zyv-Scan

A desktop app that reads about a hundred hardware values off a laptop and explains them in plain language. Free, and it spends no credits.

Installing it

Linux

sudo apt install ./zyv-scan-linux.deb

Debian, Ubuntu, Zorin and Mint. Everything it needs comes with the package.

Windows

Download the portable zip, unpack it anywhere, and run ZYV SCAN.exe. There is no installer yet, so nothing is added to your system — deleting the folder removes it completely.

Important

There is no macOS build. It reads hardware through Linux and Windows system tools, and macOS exposes different ones.

Why it asks for a password

Some readings are only available to an administrator — that is the operating system protecting you, not the app being nosy. Specifically:

Disk SMART healthneeds administrator
RAM slots, speed, manufacturerneeds administrator
BIOS version and release dateneeds administrator
Board serial and manufacture dateneeds administrator

You can skip it entirely. CPU, memory, battery, GPU, display, network and the stress test all still work without it.

Note

The password is used to run those specific commands on your own machine and is never sent anywhere.

Running a scan

Type scan my laptop — or check karo laptop ko, it understands that too — and it collects everything, then explains it back to you.

It finishes with a health rating out of ten and the reasons behind it. The reasons matter more than the number.

The stress test

Ten seconds of full load on every thread. It reads the CPU frequency before and after and reports the difference as a percentage.

Above about ten percent and the machine is throttling — the cooling cannot keep up. On a laptop that usually means dried thermal paste or a fan full of dust, both fixable, both worth knowing before you pay for it.

Note

It is safe. Ten seconds of full load is the same thing that happens when you compile something or export a video.

Using it to check a used laptop

This is what it was built for. The four numbers that decide whether a second-hand machine is worth the price:

  1. Battery wear — design capacity against what it actually holds now. Over about 30% and you are buying something that lives on the charger.
  2. Disk SMART — power-on hours and reallocated sectors. A growing reallocation count is a disk on its way out.
  3. Throttling — run the stress test on the spot.
  4. OS install date and user accounts — a machine wiped an hour before you arrived says so here.

None of these appear in photographs, and none appear in a five-minute look around a shop.