Give your Mac a once-over
Quickly test your hardware and diagnose errors with MacCheck
Whenever an app quits unexpectedly, or your Mac restarts after freezing, you probably want to run a quick check to reassure yourself that there’s nothing more seriously wrong with it. You could restart and run Apple Diagnostics, or start up OS X Recovery to run Disk Utility’s First Aid feature – but by then it’ll be lunch and you’ll have got nothing else done.
These are ideal situations to run a quick and lightweight check, so that you can get back on with what you were doing. To this end, it’s time for MacCheck from micromat.com. When you first open this app, it’ll ask you to register for a free serial number – there’s no price attached.
MacCheck is much like a health-screening for your computer. It performs a quick run through the most important indicators of significant problems with a Mac’s hardware. It checks the results of the last power-on self-test (POST), memory, and several kinds of storage error, as well as the battery on portable Macs.
If you get a set of green lights at the end of the tests, you can be happy that, whatever it was that happened, your Mac remains in good health. If any test returns a red light, you need a strategy and the tools to follow it up.
Most errors found during the power-on self-test are likely to be with memory, and should have attracted your attention at that time, as you would have experienced problems during your most recent startup. Battery problems tend to be straightforward, and are typically fixed by replacing the failing battery.
MacCheck only tests internal drives, so it won’t recognize an external RAID drive even if it was set up using OS X’s software-based RAID tech. Drives with a hardware-based RAID controller normally have their own maintenance tools to check and report their status. Use Disk Utility to check software-based RAID drives.
If you suspect a hardware fault, Apple Diagnostics ( apple.co/294GZtH) is the ultimate check. Power on your Mac and hold until it appears. You may get a choice of regular or extended checks; in the first instance, pick the former. Note any error code to quote to AppleCare or a Genius Bar.