The first question that is likely to be asked when seeking technical help is what hardware is inside the computer. What's Inside My Computer? will give you all the answers you need to get the right help quickly.
This software can also provide information that is not immediately apparant otherwise, or at least not without opening the case of the computer. An example of this is the way memory is installed in the computer. System Properties will report 1GB but not whether this is a single memory card or several.
Most of the information can be gathered manually using tools like Device Manager but this is much faster. Some information still requires the case to be opened but this is an easy first step.


