Find repeated app crashes with Reliability Monitor before reinstalling everything
Use the Windows reliability timeline to identify when failures began and whether they line up with a specific app, driver, update or installation.
- Run perfmon /rel and select the day the problem occurred.
- Open the matching application or Windows failure and preserve the technical details.
- Compare the first repeated failure with recent app, driver and Windows changes.
- Confirm whether the same app fails again under the same conditions before making broad system changes.
What this problem usually means
Reliability Monitor provides a time-oriented view of Windows reliability records. Microsoft documents perfmon /rel as the built-in way to open Reliability Monitor, while the underlying reliability records are derived from Windows Event Log information. That makes it useful for building a timeline, not for declaring a root cause from one red X.
Work from the narrowest fix to the broader one.
Use the timeline to isolate the first meaningful change
Low riskWhy this belongs here: A sequence of repeated failures that begins after one change is more useful than a long list of unrelated warnings.
- Move backward to the first day the same failure appears.
- Note app installations, driver changes or Windows updates near that point.
- Test the narrowest reversible change that matches the timeline rather than uninstalling unrelated software.
Use technical details as a clue, then verify in the matching subsystem
Low riskWhy this belongs here: A faulting app/module name can narrow investigation but does not always prove the named module is defective.
- Record the product/application name and technical details.
- If it is one app, use that app repair/update path.
- If failures span unrelated apps, check storage, memory, Windows servicing or system-wide events instead.
When this guide stops being the right path
Do not treat the Reliability Monitor stability score or a single failure entry as proof of defective hardware or a specific driver.
If the problem is still not fixed
Move to Event Viewer for precise event records, or to the app/storage/memory branch that matches the repeated technical details.
Sources reviewed for this page
Primary technical guidance is preferred. A source supports the scope stated here; it does not imply that every possible cause is covered.