DevicedialWhen is each piece of gear due for a check?
Nobody skips a check on purpose. They skip it because there is no date attached to it.
One gear check a month
MonthlyOne thing a month worth measuring before it fails properly โ a mic that reset itself, a stick that drifts, a switch sending two clicks. Two sentences and the test.
Free to use โ Pro is for keeping it
This tool, like every other one here, is free and needs no account. A free account keeps three setups and three email alerts. Pro takes the ads off every site we run and lifts that to 200 setups and 50 alerts, adds a public page for any result and lets you embed the tool without our badge.
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How often should I test my gear?
The Devicedial gear test schedule turns an interval into twelve dates you can actually see, and emails you a few days before each one if you are signed in. Pick how often โ weekly, fortnightly, monthly or yearly โ give it the date you last checked, and it lists the next twelve occurrences with the number of days to each.
Monthly is the right default for almost everything on a desk, because that is roughly how long it takes for a fault to go from occasional to constant: a mouse switch that chatters once a week, a stick that has crept past the deadzone, a microphone whose input level was reset by an update. Rates are different and event-driven rather than periodic โ check the refresh rate after a driver update rather than on a date. Nothing here needs a download, an account or a network connection, so a check costs about a minute.
What is worth checking, how often, and why that interval
Intervals worth setting, grouped the way the gear sits on a desk. None of these is a manufacturer requirement โ they are the points at which a fault is still cheap.
| What to check | Interval | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone level and background noise | Monthly | Input level is the setting that resets itself after an update |
| Mouse double-click chatter | Monthly on a mouse over a year old | A worn switch chatters occasionally before it does it constantly |
| Controller stick drift | Monthly while in use | Drift starts well below the point where you notice it |
| Screen refresh rate | After every driver or Windows update | The setting quietly returns to 60 Hz and nothing announces it |
| Mouse polling rate | After changing port, hub or cable | A hub or a long extension halves the effective rate |
| Dead and stuck pixels | Yearly, and once more before the warranty ends | A claim needs the count while the panel is still covered |
| Webcam resolution and frame rate | Before anything that matters | The camera negotiates down in a dim room and stays there |
| Keyboard rollover and dead keys | Yearly, or when a key starts sticking | Rollover only fails on combinations you rarely press |
Everything on this list is a browser test that takes about a minute. The interval matters more than the date: a check that happens every month at some point beats one scheduled precisely and skipped.
Which tests belong on a monthly interval
The ones that fail gradually. The double click test is the clearest case: a worn switch sends two presses for one click occasionally long before it does it every time, and the test counts those events rather than leaving you to notice them. The stick drift test reports a score from 0 to 100 that creeps upward over months, and the mic test catches an input level that an update has quietly reset.
Which ones are events rather than dates
Rates. The refresh rate test is worth running after a driver update or a new cable rather than on the first of the month, and the polling rate test after changing port, hub or receiver. If either comes back lower than the box promised, the input lag budget shows what the difference is actually costing you in milliseconds.
The exception that is neither is a warranty deadline. Run the dead pixel test well before a panel’s cover ends, and if the count is not zero, the readings belong in the warranty claim log with dates on them.
Frequently asked questions
Does this replace the monthly email this site already sends?
No, they do different jobs and they work well together. The monthly gear check email picks one thing worth measuring and tells you why, which is useful precisely because you did not choose it. This schedule is the opposite: it is your own interval, for your own gear, on dates you set โ a stick you already suspect, or a panel whose warranty ends in March. Signed in, it emails you before each date in the list.
I entered a date from last year. Why does the list start next month?
Because the schedule only shows what is still ahead. The date you give is the reference the interval counts from, not the first entry: the tool steps forward from it by your interval and starts listing at the first occurrence that has not already happened. That is what makes ’last time I checked’ a useful thing to type, and it is why the list is always twelve future dates rather than a mix of history and plans.
Is monthly too often for a device that has never given trouble?
For a check that takes a minute and finds a fault at the point it is still covered, no. But the honest answer is that the interval matters most where wear is mechanical and gradual โ switches, sticks, cables. Something with no moving parts, like a monitor’s pixel count, is better checked twice a year and always before its warranty ends, which is a date rather than an interval and is exactly what the one-date-only option is for.
How the test works
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