Apple Hardware Test (AHT) Description. Apple computers ship with a pre-installed suite of hardware diagnostic tools, known as Apple Hardware Test (AHT). In principle you can start them by holding the d key while booting. Newer models support holding option d. July 2002 – Apple Hardware Test for iMac version 1.2.2 – Download. Apple iMac, Apple eMac. October 2002 – Apple Hardware Test for iBook version 1.2.4 – Download. Apple iBook, will not work with any other computer. December 2002 – MacTest Pro G4, December 2002 version 7.7 – Download. All iMac (17-inch Flat Panel), eMac, iMac (Flat.
Diagnosis or Hardware Test on a mid 2009 Macbook Pro with MacOS 10.9.2. Accessing Apple Hardware Tool on MacBook Air 2010 running Yosemite. Q: Mid-2009 15' MBP Line-out / Headphone-out jack not working properly - how to resume behaviour without replacing Logic Bus? Hot Network Questions. The hardware tests are built for a specific system, so if you have a restore disc that contains tests for a Mac Pro, you will not be able to use this on a Mac Mini or iMac system.
How to monitor your Mac’s performance? How to tell that your computer works at its full? How to compare it to other machines with similar specifications? The answer: Mac benchmark tools.
Benchmarking can help you understand the performance of your Mac’s software and hardware, including the disk speed, memory, and graphics card performance. This information is very useful as you can see the weak spots in your system that can be enhanced.
Luckily, there are many apps that can help you measure how various components of your Mac work. And in this article, we’ll look at five tools that can help you test your Mac performance.
You’ll know how they work and what they can measure. Plus, we’ll tell you about a utility that cannot only help you monitor your Mac’s performance but also improve its work and take it to a whole new level. So let’s roll!
1. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
As you have already understood from its name, the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test measures your hard drive performance, in particular, its reads/writes speeds. It was designed to help video editors to determine if their hard drives can handle various video files.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test is extremely easy to use. It consists of a single window and a big Speed Test Start button. If you have a single hard drive, simply click the Start button and Blackmagic will test your hard drive and show the results.
If you have multiple hard drives, you need to choose which one you want to test. To do that, go the Blackmagic’s settings by opening the File or Stress menus from its toolbar. Once you’ve chosen the hard drive, you may click Start to run a test.
If you are looking for a good hard drive speed test on Mac, feel free to use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. It is free to download from the App Store, so take advantage of this tool whenever you need.
2. Geekbench
Geekbench is a useful app for measuring the CPU performance and memory speed on your Mac. It includes different tests that were designed to estimate how well your Mac can run everyday tasks.
To start the Macbook performance test, you need to install the app, launch it, choose your processor architecture and click Run Benchmarks.
When the test is completed, you can compare your results with other users. Don’t miss this great opportunity, it is really useful to see whether users on the same computer get the similar results. This may suggest that there is a problem with your Mac and what you should really expect from your particular model and hardware.
You can try Geekbench for free, but if you want to get the full version, you need to buy it from the App store.
3. Cinebench
Cinebench is a platform used to test two things: CPU and graphics card performance. It may be interesting for you to know that Cinebench is based on MAXON’s Cinema 4D animation software that is used for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in different popular movies, including Iron Man 3, Prometheus, and Oblivion.
You can use Cinebench to test:
Main processor performance. Cinebench uses all your system’s processing power to test how quickly your processor can render a complex 3D scene that contains more than 2,000 objects, a great number of shadows, sharp reflections, and more. And the higher number you get, the faster your processor.
Graphics card performance. This test uses a 3D car scene that shows the car chase. And to test the capabilities of your graphics hardware, Cinebench uses a great variety of different effects and textures. The higher the numbers, the faster your graphics card is.
Cinebench is free to use, so if you need to run a CPU speed test on Mac or measure your graphics card performance, try it out.
4. Novabench
Novabench is a free tool that provides Mac benchmark test for your whole system, including CPU, RAM and graphics performance.
Hardware Test Mac Pro 5.1
You can test your whole computer in minutes and even compare results with thousands of other systems. To run the Mac speed test, do the following:
- Launch the app.
- Click the Start Tests button. Novabench will start running different tests.
- Wait 1-2 minutes for the tests to run. Don’t use your computer during the tests.
- Get the results of each test along with the Novabench score (the higher the number you’ve got, the better).
Once you've tested your computer performance, you can add results to your profile or keep them private. If you want to share results with others, click the Submit and Compare button.
Novabench is easy to use and provides a quick way to test Mac performance.
5. CleanMyMac X: For overall computer performance
While the apps mentioned above are designed to measure Mac performance, a utility like CleanMyMac X can also optimize your Mac and improve its efficiency.
CleanMyMac keeps you up-to-date on all the important stuff going on inside your Mac:
- processor load
- memory usage
- available disk space
- battery health
If there’s a problem with your Mac, the app will let you know immediately and help you with the fix.
You get alerts when apps stop responding, disk temperature is high, the memory use is unusually heavy, and battery status is critical. With CleanMyMac X, you always know if your Mac is running well and can fix the problem as soon as it arises.
CleanMyMac also has the Maintenance module that gives you access to all Mac optimizing goodies: running maintenance scripts, repairing disk permissions, verifying startup disk, running Mail speedup, reindexing Spotlight.
All those things may sound a bit complex, but don’t worry: CleanMyMac X is extremely easy to use. Just run a scan of your whole system and the app will tell you what should be removed to boost your Mac performance. The scanning and cleaning process requires just 2 clicks and less than 5 minutes. Impressive, right?
Good news, CleanMyMac X is free to download. So give it a try and boost your Mac’s performance!
That’s it. We hope our article was useful and you’ve chosen a Mac benchmark tool that works best for you. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
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Most Mac users enjoy several years of trouble-free experience, but eventually, time will come when hardware problems arise. Although it rarely happens, problems can be caused by a motherboard issue, a failing hard drive, a GPU problem, or lack of memory space. Fortunately, Apple has a way to detect, prevent, and solve any hardware-related issue. Apple Hardware Test is the first step. You can use it to check if there are serious hardware issues to deal with. Don’t worry, because you can run the test yourself. We will teach you how below.
What Mac Models Can Run Apple’s Internet-Based Hardware Test?
Not all Mac models can run the Internet-based Apple hardware test. Some MacBook models need to use a local version of the hardware test, which has to be installed on the hard drive or saved on OS X DVD. Other Macs manufactured after 2013 can use the latest version of the Apple hardware test, which is called the Apple Diagnostics test. Here’s a guide on how to use Apple Diagnostics test. As for the only Mac models that can use the web-based version of the Apple hardware test are as follows:
- 11-inch MacBook Air 3 (late 2010 through 2012)
- 13-inch MacBook Air 3 (late 2010 through 2012)
- 13-inch MacBook Pro 8 (early 2011 through 2012)
- 15-inch MacBook Pro 6 (mid-2010 through 2012)
- 17-inch MacBook Pro 6 (mid-2010 through 2012)
- MacBook 7 (mid-2010)
- Mac Mini 4 (mid-2010 through 2012)
- 21.5-inch iMac 11 (mid-2010 through 2012)
- 27-inch iMac 11 (mid-2010 through 2012)
It is important to note that the mid-2010 through early 2011 Mac models may require to update the EFI firmware before you can run the web-based Apple Hardware Test. If you are uncertain if you need to update the EFI firmware or not, you can do the following:
- Go to Apple menu and click About This Mac.
- A new window will open. Click the More Info button.
- If your Mac is running in OS X Lion or the later version, select System Report. Otherwise, proceed to step 4.
- Another window will open. Highlight Hardware in the left portion of the screen.
- On the opposite corner of the screen, take note of the boot ROM version number of your Mac and the SMC version number.
- Once you have these details, go to the EFI and SMC Firmware Update page on Apple’s website. Compare the versions you have with the latest available. If your Mac is running on an older version, you need to download the most recent version on the same web page.
How to Use the Internet-Based Apple Hardware Test
As soon as you have verified and confirmed that your Mac is capable of running the Internet-based Apple Hardware Test, you can start using it. Here’s how:
- Turn off your Mac first.
- If you are running a MacBook, connect it to an AC power source. Do not run the test with only your MacBook’s battery as the power source.
- Press the Power button while holding down the Option and D keys. Continue until the Starting Internet Recovery message pops up on your display.
- Wait for a few seconds. You will soon be prompted to select a network. Use the drop-down menu to choose from the list of available network connections.
- Select a wireless network and enter the password if asked. Press Return or Enter. You can also click the checkmark button on your display.
- As soon as you are connected to your chosen network, you will see a message on your screen that says, Starting Internet Recovery. This will take a while because the Apple Hardware Test will be downloaded to your Mac. Once it is completed, you will be prompted to select a language.
- To select a language to use, use the Up and Down arrow keys or the mouse cursor.
- The Apple Hardware Test will then continue to check what hardware is installed on your Mac. Again, this will take time.
- Before you proceed with the actual test, it’d be better if you verify first what hardware was found so you can ensure that all your Mac’s components are correct and accounted for. Check if the exact amount of memory is displayed, along with the graphics and CPU specs. If you suspect that something is wrong, verify your Mac’s configuration by going to Apple’s support site. If the displayed config does not match with what your Mac model’s configuration should be, your device might be failing. To verify your Mac’s hardware specs, navigate to the Hardware Profile tab.
- If all configuration details are correct, proceed with the testing by going to the Hardware Test tab.
- Note that the Apple Hardware Test can support two different types of testing; a standard test and an extended test. While the standard test is generally a good option, the extended test is highly recommended, especially if there is an issue with your Mac’s graphics card or RAM.
- To run the standard test, select the Standard Test option and click the Test button. At this point, the hardware test should start. It will take several minutes to complete, so just be patient. Do not worry if you hear your Mac’s fans rev up and down. That’s normal during the hardware testing process.
- Once the test is done, a list of potential issues or a No trouble found message will be displayed in the test results pane. If there is an error, check what it is about. We listed some of the most common error codes below alongside their meanings:
- 4AIR – AirPort wireless card
- 4ETH – Ethernet
- 4HDD – Hard disk (includes SSD)
- 4IRP – Logic board
- 4MEM – Memory module (RAM)
- 4MHD – External disk
- 4MLB – Logic board controller
- 4MOT – Fans
- 4PRC – Processor
- 4SNS – Failed sensor
- 4YDC – Video/Graphics card
These error codes generated by the Apple Hardware Test seem to be cryptic, and in some cases, only certified Apple service technicians can understand them. But because most of these codes are recurring, they’ve become known.
Mac Hardware Info
- If no problem was found, you could continue running the extended test. It can detect graphics and memory problems better than the standard test. To do the extended test, select the Perform Extended Testing option and click the Test button.
- If by any chance, you’d like to stop the test, just click the Stop Testing button.
- Once you are done using the Apple Hardware Test, end it by clicking the Shut Down or Restart button.
If no error was found after the test and your Mac is still experiencing problems, then you can check your system. It might be loaded with files you don’t need, or your RAM is taken up by unnecessary programs and apps. To fix the problem, download third-party tools like Tweakbit MacRepair.
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