MacBook Pro :: What Are All The Tests I Can Do To Test?
Apr 28, 2010
I ordered a i7 15" Macbook Pro high resolution anti glare screen over a week ago. I've been reading lots of forums on the subject and have heard about the small print, yellow tint to the bottom half of the screen, the laptop not sleeping etc.
So I contacted the store to find out about the possibility of returning it if I'm not happy. They said I can spend all the time in the store with it but as soon as I leave the store there is a 15% restocking fee. It hasn't arrived yet but I'm expecting it any day now.
Can someone tell me all the tests I can perform in the store before I leave?
How do i get the Mac to run the hardware self tests. I saw the guy at the Genious Bar do it on my MacBook Pro. I replaced the parts that showed bad, i would like to run it again.I tried holding down the D on powerup but didn't work
I have a 17" unibody MBP (early 2009, specs below). It was running hotter than usual the other day, so I F2 booted into AHT to run a diagnostic. The status box within AHT showed 1 second into the 1st pass, and never got beyond that. Several seconds after that status message was displayed, the cursor froze. The time counter never advanced after that, and although I waited a long time, nothing happened. The test froze.Â
I've tried it several times more. It once worked, but every other time has frozen. Checking the "extended test" box, or trying to run in loop mode has made no difference - still freezes at "1 second".Â
I've had this machine for 3 years, OS's Leopard through Lion, and this has never happened before. I last ran a test, successfully, in January. I've not changed any components or suffered any damage since then. Memtest (ver 4.22) says my RAM is fine. (I ran this because the first portion of the AHT is the RAM component.) Aside from the aforementioned overheating episode, which disappeared, my machine's been fine.Â
early 2009 MBP unibody 17" 2.93 Core 2 Duo 8 GB RAM 750 GB HD
My son's 17" imac PPC G5 was not booting up. After a trying a couple of things I got it to boot using Disk Warrior and reparing the file directory. At that time I also ran DW's hardware test which said the drive was fine. My son hard restarted it shortly after I fixed it and it wouldn't start up again. Just a gray screen, no apple logo. When I tried to use DW again it told me there were problems with the hard drive and it couldn't fix the problem. I tried to fix the hard drive in target disk mode using Disk Utiltiy and Drive Genius. No luck. So I pulled a working drive out of my Mac Pro and reformatted it and swapped the internal drive of the iMac with it. There were no DIP switches to set. Started up the imac with a Leopard retail disk thinking I would just install a fresh system onto the replaced internal drive of the iMac. Disk Utility on the leopard disk didn't see the hard drive. Now I'm beginning to think it's a logic board problem but I can't find the original disks to do a Hardware test with. Is there some other way to test a logic board? Or some other idea that I'm not thinking of that could be wrong with the machine?
Info: Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4), ATI 1900, 8GbRAM
if you recall a thread I started trying to get help on why the Mac Pro was crashing... I finally narrowed it down.After speaking to about 4 different people at apple.... they had me run the Apple Hardware Test off the boot CD.I took out EVERYTHING except the 2nd DVD burner (Apple Branded Superdrive from my old 2.5 Dual G5)... and ran the test.The Hardware Test ACTUALLY FROZE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RAM TEST.I thought I had bad aftermarket ram... as it wasn't playing nice with the Apple ram when I added them together.Looks like I had fine aftermarket ram... the Apple ram was bad.I REPLACED the Apple Ram with the Aftermarket Ram... and the Hardware Test completed fine.So, now I'm going to be calling them again in the morning and letting them know what happened. I wonder if they'll just let me RMA the bad ram, or if I'm going to have to lug this dang thing down to an apple store.I WONT BE HAPPY IF I HAVE TO DO THAT.Oh, and no more lockups since switching out the ram... and all the other quirks (not able to burn CDs in Windows, sloooow Internet page draws, etc...) are all but gone now.
I received my 500GB Seagate Momentus XT yesterday and ran some quick and crude benchmarks that I thought I'd share with you guys in case anyone else was thinking of upgrading. Here are my observations.
With Factory Seagate 7200rpm 500GB Drive: ------------------------------------------- Time to boot measured from hitting the power button to when the finder toolbar appeared at the top averaged approximately 40s to 45s.
Running Photoshop CS5 immedately after reboot took approximately 10s.
The above two tests were repeated about 4 or 5 times and were fairly consistent.
With new Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive: -------------------------------------------- Time to boot measured from hitting the power button to when the finder toolbar appeared at the top averaged approximately 30s.
Running Photoshop CS5 immedately after reboot took approximately 3s to 5s.
The above two tests were repeated 4 times (sorry I ran out of time to run more) and as expected the first attempt was a little slower than subsequent tests. The times listed above represent the times I was getting after the first reboot.
All in all i'm happy with the improvement, especially when i consider the fact that I still get my 500GB capacity. I wanted an SSD but couldn't bring myself to fork out the money to get a drive with enough capacity to meet my needs.
If you have any questions or want me to run specific tests let me know. Not sure about running battery life tests since my battery-o-meter is all over the place telling me i have anywhere between 2 hours and 8 hours of battery life depending on what i'm doing at any given moment
For some reason, Apple marketing has left out a very import bit of information regarding the sale of Flash based storage. The specs of our flash storage is and was as important as the RPMs off our mechanical drives. As most of you know, shopping for SSDs is like wading through a sea of speed tests. Yet for some reason, Apple is not forthcoming about the IOPS, Read, and or Write speeds of their flash media. There have been endless reports about Toshiba and Samsung based flash media being shipped with iMacs and MBPs with different speeds. I think the earlier brand being a slow dog most of the time. Â
I called Apple yesterday and got the, we don't have that information sir. I also send an email to feedback explaining that it's probably a good idea to let professionals who are spending nearly 4000$ USD for a rMBP to know the specs of the storage so we can know if it meets our speed needs. With all that said, I welcome all of you to post speed tests of your rMBP. You can do this with 2 tests that I am aware of. If anyone knows of others, please let me know. Please also post your basic model specs, like rMBP 16GB 768GB?
1. Reboot with no apps open
2. Then run Blackmagic Speed Test or AJA System TestÂ
I'm sure the results will not be the same each time you run the test, but over a few tests, you can come up with an average. You might not be able to run the test directly on your drive since Lion has locked us out of our own hard drives, so you might need to pick a folder in your user folder. Â
I was wondering why my Mac Pro under XP Pro is delivering lower scores in the 3DMark tests than PCs with similar specs.
An Intel Core 2 Quad (2.66GHz) with an ATI Radeon HD 3870 x2 and 2GB RAM scores 19137 3DMarks, while my Mac Pro, 2x2-Core Xeon (2.66GHz,) also with a 3870 x2 and 5GB RAM (Windows doesn't use it all - I know) scores a meager 12136 3DMarks (Both 3DMark06.)
I could understand that the Xeons probably aren't as good with games and graphics, but the difference is pretty large.
I get equally poor scores compared to the same computer in the PCMark05 tests. (8299 vs. 5136)
Any guesses to what might be going on?
ALSO: In tests with actual games, my frame rates were lower than comparable systems.
When sites do various benchmark tests, they typically use something like 3DMark, and I think Cinebench CPU, etc.
First, I probably got those benchmark apps wrong...which ones do tech sites typically use?
Also, what exactly do these benchmarks exam.
Say I have a rendering application that is processor heavy...what benchmark should I be looking at?
Say I have another application for modeling, and I know it is graphics intensive. What benchmark should I be looking at?
And, to round things out, if I have an application that I know is memory heavy, what stats should I look at.
The reason I'm asking, is when upgrading my computer (at this point RAM), or considering a new MacPro, I want to know I'm buying for the right reasons.
I don't want to buy a powerful computer to find out that its max potential is not fully realized as it relies on something else. Granted I understand a new comp all around will perform better. However, applications such as Maxwell render does not hold back, it will use every processor available (8-cores would be amazing!), but others don't rely on processor, but memory more so.
Even then, I'm not sure all the time how the application performs. With as many apps as I use for different things (Rhino NURBS modeling [XP], Maxwell Render, VIZ/3DS Max, SketchUp, Adobe CS3, CAD) I can't always tell what part of the comp they use.
Thanks [for those who read everything and understand what I'm asking]
Looks like the 2.26 is doing better after all. Some users have even gotten Cinebench scores for the new 2.26 like: 3142 (single) and 20,138 (multiple) reported here.
CINEBENCH 10 This free benchmark app uses real world code from Cinema 4D to render a sample project. It stresses all available cores. In the case of the Nehalem, hyperthreading fools the app into thinking there are 16 cores on the 8-core models and 8 cores on the 4-core models. The graph below shows the Cinebench rating for "Multi-CPU" render test.
GEEKBENCH 2 It's not only multi-core aware, but it includes some memory tests which explains why the Nehalem based Mac Pros beat the older Penryn based Power Macs with higher core frequencies. The graph below shows the overall 32-bit score.
There is also a 64-bit version of Geekbench. Fewer results exist for it since, for some unexplained reason, consumers will gladly spend thousands for a new Mac but resist purchasing a $20 serial number in support of a starving Mac developer.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any recommendations as to how I should test my Refurb Mac Pro (dual 2.26 Octo, GT120, 6GB Ram) as supplied by the online store. I shall be upgrading the RAM, graphics card and hard drives in the near future, but want to check that the machine works correctly out of the box first.
I'm due to take delivery of a U2711 Dell monitor today or tomorrow, and so will be turning this system on for the first time then. I understand that everything should have been thoroughly checked through by an Apple tech at the factory, but the very fact that a refurb store exists means that the quality tests sometimes fail.
I'll be runnung FCS3 from this machine and need the machine to be reliable for paid work, hence the post. I have done a quick search, but only found a thread that was started over 18 months ago, and wondered if you guys had any current advice that could help me. Oh, and I probably should say that I'm new to macs also, so be gentle!!!
So I was curious to see what the difference would be between10.5.1 to 10.5.2 2 gigs of RAM to 6 gigs of RAM
So, when I first got the Mac Pro I ran both Geekbench and Xbench. I haven't tallied the Geekbench results, but the overall scores go like this: 10.5.1 |2 gigs RAM = 7324 | Memory Score = 2486 10.5.2 |6 gigs RAM = 7793 | Memory Score = 2693
I forgot to run Geekbench with 10.5.2 and 2 gigs of RAM.
Attached are the numbers for Xbench. I also graphed them in Numbers. For all those who enjoy this stuff, here you go.
If someone notices something that seems jacked up with these numbers for this system in its various states of configuration, PLEASE let me know!! I'm not savvy with these benchmarking programs. I just thought some folks out there would like to see the info.The chart can't fit in all the chart titles, so you'll have to look at the raw data to interpret what belongs to what.
Feedback always appreciated. I'm off to finish loading some Windows programs and my games, and then move that partition to the 400 gig drive, and then tell VMware where to go git 'er done!
I'm going to go pick up my Mac Pro from the mailbox right now and I have an SSD and a 1TB Caviar Black waiting to be put into the system. How should hard drives be formatted before installing OSX? And do I format them all the same? Right now I'll have
Boot Drive (SSD) Data (1TB) Time Machine (640 that came with Mac Pro)
Also, are there any benchmark tests I should run to see how my system is performing?
I have had FileVault 2 enabled on my MacBook Air (late 2010) and have been running regular disk speed tests using Blackmagic.Â
This week I bought a new 2GHz Air with 256GB disk and ran Blackmagic, which showed impressive 453/404 MB/s speeds. All well and good. Then I switched on FileVault 2 and decided to repeat the test to see if there was any speed degredation as a result of the encryption. Now I get an error message that the Air's disk is "read only" and Blacmagic cannot run. If I had had problems on the old Air I would have assumed FV2 was the culprit.
Info: MacBook Air 11, iPad 2, iMac i7, Mac OS X (10.7), iPhone 4
When both Mac OS X 10.6 and Windows 7 were tested on a MacBook Pro, Apple's new operating system clearly beat Microsoft in terms of speed, a new test has shown.
Both operating systems were tested on a 2008 MacBook Pro machine by CNet, and each was given its own, separate, clean hard drive. The 64-bit version of each OS was included in the test, which measured a variety of speed and performance related tasks. Snow Leopard was given true, full 64-bit support with most of its native applications taking full advantage of modern processors.
Each OS had the same software installed: iTunes 9, QuickTime, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Cinebench R10. In the test, Snow Leopard booted and shut down significantly faster than Windows 7.
"In time-based tests, Snow Leopard consistently outdid Windows 7," the study found. "It took only 36.4 seconds to boot up, while Windows took 42.7 seconds. In a shutdown test, Snow Leopard took only 6.6 seconds, while Windows needed twice the amount of time: 12.6 seconds. Both computers, however, took just about 1 second to return from sleeping. For this reason, I didn't actually test the wake-up time as it was too short in both operating systems to produce meaningful numbers or even allow me to measure the difference."
The Mac software also unsurprisingly ran Apple's own native applications more efficiently. Converting a movie from M4 format to iPod in Quicktime X on Snow Leopard took 444.3 seconds, while Windows 7, with QuickTime 7 (the latest version available) took 723 seconds. Similarly, converting 17 songs in iTunes from MP3 to AAC took 149.9 seconds in Snow Leopard, while Windows 7 required 162 seconds.
The test also found that Mac OS X 10.6 had better battery life on the MacBook Pro than Windows 7. The 2008 model has a removable battery. But author Dong Ngo said he believes Boot Camp drivers were mostly responsible for the Windows 7 battery life, as many PC laptops fared much better than the 77 minutes the Microsoft OS fared.
One area where Windows 7 was able to easily trump Snow Leopard was in graphics performance. The system's 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card helped the system score much better in the latest version of Windows, earning a 5,777 3D rendering score in Cinebench R10. Snow Leopard scored 5,437.
In testing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Windows 7 again came out on top, with an average 26.3 frames per second performance, compared to 21.2 frames per second within Snow Leopard.
Ngo's conclusion: Unless you are a gamer, get a Mac.
"If you can get by with just software designed by Apple and if money is not a big issue, you will be happy with a Mac," he said. "Examples of these software choices are iTunes, iLife, QuickTime, Safari, iChat, and so on (and you probably won't need much more than those for daily entertainment and communication needs). Finally, if money is not an issue--and it definitely is for most of us--you should get a Mac anyway. It's the only platform, for now, that can run both Windows and OS X."
CBS.com is currently testing HTML5 video playback for streaming episodes of its TV shows, signaling that the major U.S. broadcast network aims to be iPad compatible before Apple's new multimedia device launches.
As discovered by MacRumors, accessing "iPad - test" video links accidentally posted by CBS through the iPad simulator, or when spoofing a browser's "user agent" setting, loads a new page that appears to be set up for HTML5 streaming video. The same links take users to the Adobe Flash page when accessed with a traditional browser.
"This new version of the video does not yet work but appears to be based on HTML5," the report said. "The css files reference HTML5 and have a number of 'webkit' specific calls. Webkit is the browser engine used in the iPad's mobile safari. While the videos don't currently play, the 'fullscreen mode' reportedly already works in the iPad simulator."
That CBS would be eager to find compatibility with the iPad should come as no surprise -- the network was on board with Apple's proposal for a TV subscription deal while other networks were wary. The network has also suggested it will lower prices of some TV shows on iTunes to 99 cents, down from the current standard of $1.99.
In February, it was rumored that Hulu, an online streaming video destination for multiple networks, plans to make its videos available without Flash for the iPad platform. Reports then alleged that the Web site could be prepared by the time the iPad launches April 3, though it was said the service would likely be subscription only.
CBS iPad test page, screenshot credit MacRumors.
In January, Google added support for HTML5 in YouTube, the Web's most popular streaming video destination. Allegedly labeled a "CPU hog" by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Adobe Flash has been a target of Apple, which has not allowed the Web standard on its iPhone OS, including the forthcoming iPad.
For more on Apple and Flash, and why the Web format will likely never be available on the iPhone OS, read AppleInsider's three-part Flash Wars series.
Third party testing has confirmed that Apple's new 27" iMac can only be used as an external display for devices designed to provide DisplayPort video. It will not work with any equipment that only supports VGA, DVI, or HDMI output.
In a follow-up to its teardown of the 27" iMac last week, iFixit said it revisited the new hardware to see if it could display high-definition video from a non-DisplayPort external source.
The results of the testing indicate that Apple's stated specifications for the iMac were correct; while video input worked as expected with a 13" MacBook Pro equipped with Mini DisplayPort, all attempts to use a physical adapter dongle to supply alternative video signals to the new 27" iMac failed.
"The iMac will not act as a second (or primary) display using the Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter that Apple sells," the group's website stated. "We tried it on a PS3 Slim, as well as a MacBook and MacBook Pro. It looks like we'll have to wait for a special adapter from Apple or a third party."
A one way street
According to Apple's stated specifications however, the 27" iMac's video input feature will only ever work with DisplayPort devices, and no physical adapter will change that fact.
Apple has frequently used converter dongles on its notebooks in order to support multiple types of video output signaling via the same port. For example, previous notebook models provided Mini-DVI ports proprietary to Apple which could deliver both VGA and DVI outputs using the appropriate connector. These ports provided multiple signaling types over the same physical pins.
Apple's modern machines similarly all supply a Mini DisplayPort connector (originally designed by Apple but now part of the official DisplayPort specification); using the right connector, users can extract and output any video signal type supported by the computer, including VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
VGA is analog video; DVI and HDMI are both digital, electrically compatible, serial video data formats that only differ in their physical connectors; DisplayPort is an entirely new format that uses a packet signaling format.
The iMac's Mini DisplayPort supports output of all three, but can only input and display DisplayPort video. Unlike moving from DVI to HDMI, converting a DVI signal to DisplayPort requires more than a cheap physical dongle; it would necessitate a relatively expensive converter box to process the signal into a completely new format and possibly also a scaler to match the output device to the 27" iMac's enormous resolution of 2560x1440.
This prevents the new iMac from serving as an HDTV-style output source for older DVI-based computers or HDMI-output devices such as the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Apple TV, or standard DVD and Blu-Ray players. Future devices that support the DisplayPort standard will work, of course.
Why no DVI or HDMI input is supported
The 27" iMac's inability to input DVI video is rooted in the fact that the DisplayPort specification is uniquely designed to work as both an internal (video card to built-in display) and external (PC to monitor) video signaling system.
Non-DisplayPort systems typically use LVDS for internal video cabling and DVI for external video connectors. No Apple computers supply any sort of internal DVI input to support driving their built-in LCD via the DVI port using an external computer.
Apple's existing MacBooks, Mac mini, Mac Pro, and the smaller new 21.5" iMac model do not support video input at all. The company's 24" LED Cinema Display is the only other device that currently supports (and only supports) DisplayPort input. The 30" Cinema Display HD only supports DVI input, but not DisplayPort.
What is the best was to diagnose possible motherboard faults on a Mac? I'm having various problems which appear to be hardware related (i.e. re-formatting, re-loading OSX, etc don't seem to fix them and the problems appear at different times running different processes) so want to check the motherboard out.Typical problems are a USB hard drive suddening going off-line, the DVD burner suddenly resetting itself for no reason, screen not redrawing properly etc. and all these only happen occasionally. The only test I can find is a RAM test (various programs allow this including Tech Tool Pro 6) but is there a way to test other components?
I'm stuck between knowing if my MBP has a bag logic board, worn out plugs going Into it, or other reasons. It will not power on at all. About 5-10 minutes prior it was perfect. The battery had power, and when its not plugged up the green light is very bright. I figure since the I/O board is connected to the Logic and it shows power, that it may indicate its ok. But i dont know, since its not directly hooked to it. Apple / Geniuses and Other shops just give me quotes on changing out the logic board after observation of it not getting power...never have said anything relating to "After Testing the logic board...." So I am wondering, whats the secret? how is it done? CAN it be done at home? or, does anyone know what the shops/techs use to test boards?
I just found a working macbook with a broken screen being sold for $60 on craigslist. I asked the seller for specs and she said she doesn't know the details except for the model # (which is A1181). It comes with no power adapter or software.Is there any way I can I test the computer to know if it is worth buying when I get there? I want to make sure it is able to run properly before investing in a screen. I have a 13" macbook. When I was at the apple store today, the employee was able to run diagnostics on my computer with his MBP without having to touch my computer. (Edit: There was a cord running between both computers, and my comp. was running, but everything was being done through his OS). Is there an easy way for me to do the same thing?
I purchased my Macbook Pro (Early 2011) 2ghz i7 edition, about 4 months ago now,
Earlier today my MacBook Pro ran a grey bar update during start up started up & ran a little slower until I restarted afterwards. I was concerened until the restart, however I am no longer concerned. My main issue is that now I can't seem to correctly follow the instructions to successfully start an apple hardware test. I have previously owned a Mac mini, Powermac G5 Dual 1.8ghz and Powermac Quad G5 and I have always been able to successfully run apple hardware tests on them.
I held down the "D" key during startup prior to the grey screen and I tried plugging in a ethernet cable, the powercable and a USB keyboard all to no avail.
I've been having issues with my 2011 MacBook Pro, I just keep getting a weird error popup but it always flashes up and goes away before I can read it. My Mac has also even running a bit slower lately and I know that I can do the Apple Hardware Test to check out that all the hardware is functioning properly. But will my Mac continue to run normally after I do the AHT? Like, will I be able to use it as I was before?
