DEV Community: Lohith Reddy

How to Build a System Health Scanner That Speaks Human (Not Geek)

Lohith Reddy — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:08:49 +0000

The User Experience Problem

Activity Monitor shows you this:

Memory Pressure: Yellow
CPU: 87.3%
Swap Used: 4.2 GB

Your mom asks: "Is my Mac okay?"

You answer: "Uh... probably?"

Building a Better Health Check

I built DivLens to give instant, understandable system health summaries.

Design Philosophy

Principle 1: No Jargon
❌ "Memory pressure in yellow zone"
✅ "Your RAM is at 97% usage → This can slow down your Mac"

Principle 2: Actionable
Don't just say "high CPU." Say "high CPU → drains battery, makes Mac
sluggish → [Identify Culprits]"

Principle 3: Prioritize
Show "Needs Attention" first, "Looking Good" second. People care about
problems more than confirmations.

Principle 4: Suggest Next Steps
After showing status, offer relevant questions:

"Why is my battery draining so fast?"
"What apps are using the most storage?"

UX Patterns That Work

Immediate Value - Scan happens instantly on "How can you help?"
Visual Hierarchy - ⚠️ for issues, ✅ for good status
Progressive Disclosure - [Quick Health Scan] [Show All Capabilities]
Conversational - Feels like chatting with a tech-savvy friend

Try It

DivLens is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

[https://www.divlens.in]

Would love feedback on the UX approach. What would you change?

Building a System Health Tool That Actually Explains What's Wrong (Not Just "Error Code 0x0000004E")

Lohith Reddy — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:03:21 +0000

The Problem: Error Messages Are Useless

Battery Health: 37715 Wh capacity detected
System Error: ACPI_BIOS_ERROR (0x0000004E) 
DCOM Event ID 10016
Python packages: 16 updates available

Cool. What does any of that mean?

The Solution: Conversational System Intelligence

I built DivLens to translate system status into actionable insights.

![System health check screenshot]

What It Does Differently

Traditional monitoring tool:

Battery Capacity: 37,715 mWh
Design Capacity: 52,514 mWh
Cycle Count: 247

DivLens:

⚠️ Battery Health: Your battery's maximum capacity has decreased 
to 37,715 Wh from a design capacity of 52,514 Wh. This means 
you're getting less battery life than when it was new.

[Check Battery Health Details]

See the difference? It explains what the numbers mean for YOU.

Real-World Example

User asks: "Is there any issue in my system?"

DivLens responds:

⚠️ NEEDS ATTENTION

Battery Health - Degraded to 72% (implications explained)
System Errors - BIOS issues that could cause instability
Outdated Packages - 16 Python packages (security risks noted)

✅ LOOKING GOOD

CPU - Running at normal speed (2.61 GHz)
RAM - 16GB available (sufficient for most tasks)
Graphics - RTX 3050 ready for intensive work

Plus suggested follow-up questions:

"How can I improve my battery life?"
"What do those system errors mean?"
"How do I update my Python packages?"

Technical Approach

Data Collection:

Read system files (battery stats, process info, package managers)
Parse system logs (Windows Event Viewer, syslog, etc.)
Query hardware info (CPU, RAM, GPU specs)

AI Translation:

Context-aware explanations (not just generic definitions)
Severity assessment (is this critical or just FYI?)
Actionable recommendations (what should the user do?)

Privacy-First:

All analysis local (no cloud processing required)
No telemetry or tracking
Open about what data is accessed

Why This Matters for Developers

We're good at debugging code. We're bad at debugging our own systems.

How much time have you wasted:

Googling "DCOM Event ID 10016"
Cross-referencing outdated Stack Overflow answers
Checking if 16GB RAM is enough for [project]
Diagnosing why your laptop is suddenly slow

DivLens gives you that time back.

Try It

Free tier available. Works on Windows, macOS, Linux.

[https://www.divlens.in]

Open to feedback, especially from sysadmins and DevOps folks who deal with
system diagnostics daily.

Stop Guessing If Your Laptop Can Handle X - Ask It Directly

Lohith Reddy — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:57:48 +0000

The Common Question

"Can my laptop handle [video editing / machine learning / gaming / Docker]?"

Usually followed by: specs copy-pasted from System Settings.

And replies like: "Maybe?" "Depends on your workflow" "Should be fine"

A Better Way

What if you could just... ask your laptop?

Not Google. Not Reddit. Your actual laptop, with your specific hardware,
your current battery health, your existing system errors.

That's what I built.

Real Analysis, Not Generic Advice

Question: "Is my system handle high video editing tell me and explain me clearly"

DivLens Response:

⚠️ Potential Bottlenecks

Battery Health: 37,715 Wh vs 52,514 Wh (design capacity) - limits performance when unplugged
ACPI Error: Embedded controller issues → potential system instability
DCOM Errors: Application permission issues → could cause crashes

✅ Key Strengths

CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13420H (12 cores, 8 physical)
RAM: 16GB (sufficient for many video editing tasks)
Dual GPUs: Intel UHD + NVIDIA RTX 3050 (helps with rendering)

💡 Overall Assessment
"Your system can handle video editing, but you might experience limitations
with battery life and potential system instability due to the ACPI error."

Why This Matters

This is your system. Not "systems like yours." Not "in general."

It knows:

Your battery has degraded to 72% capacity
You have specific BIOS errors that could cause crashes
Your exact GPU model and capabilities
Your current system state

Generic advice can't compete with that.

Beyond Video Editing

Same approach works for:

"Can I train machine learning models on this?"
"Is this laptop good for gaming?"
"Can I run multiple Docker containers?"
"Is my system ready for [specific project]?"

Real hardware analysis → Honest assessment → Specific recommendations

Try It

DivLens is free for personal use. Works on Windows, macOS, Linux.

[https://www.divlens.in]

What would you ask your system?

I Built a Conversational System Monitor So Developers Can Stop Decoding Activity Monitor

Lohith Reddy — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:52:18 +0000

The Problem

You know that moment when your Mac starts sounding like a jet engine, you
open Activity Monitor, and see this:

Process #77913: npm view npm ver npm view npm version - 51.8% CPU
Process #77909: npm view npm ver npm view npm version - 46.5% CPU
/opt/homebrew/Library/Homebrew/... - 45.7% CPU

Cool. Very helpful. 🙄

What does this mean? Is 51.8% bad? Which one do I kill? Why are there
three npm processes?

The Solution

I built DivLens - a conversational system intelligence tool that
translates your system into plain English.

Instead of decoding Activity Monitor, you just ask:

"Why is my computer slow?"

And it responds:

✅ Identifies the specific culprits (those npm processes)

✅ Explains why it's a problem (higher than normal, makes your Mac sluggish)

✅ Suggests actual fixes (close these apps, restart your Mac)

✅ Gives you clickable actions with time estimates

How It Works

DivLens reads your actual system data (CPU, memory, processes, etc.) and
uses AI to translate technical jargon into conversational explanations.

It's like having a senior engineer looking at your system and explaining
what's going on - but instant and always available.

Key Features

🗣️ Conversational interface - Just ask in plain English
🔒 Privacy-first - Everything runs locally on your machine
🖥️ Cross-platform - Works on macOS, Windows, and Linux
⚡ Instant answers - 5-10 seconds vs 30 minutes of Googling
💰 Free tier - Core features free forever

Why I Built This

As a developer, I spend way too much time helping non-technical friends
debug their computers. "Why is my laptop slow?" "I don't know, Sarah,
let me look..."

But also? I waste time on my own system issues. Checking if packages
are outdated across npm, pip, brew. Figuring out which Docker container
is eating RAM. Decoding ACPI BIOS errors.

Technology should explain itself. You shouldn't need to learn "computer
language" to understand your own machine.

Try It

DivLens is available now (free tier):

I'd love feedback from the dev community. What system questions do you
ask most often?

TL;DR: Built a tool that lets you ask your computer "Why is this slow?"
and get actual answers instead of Activity Monitor hieroglyphics.