Troubleshooting kernel panics and testing Mac hardware

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APPLE MAC By Nathan Parker Most of the time, the macOS operating system “just works.” On healthy machines, users rarely experience major system issues
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Elly, woody

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Two other tidbits that came to mind after I submitted the article:

1. Disk Utility can also be used on older Macs to perform the “Repair Disk Permissions” command. This feature was removed a while back since macOS now repairs disk permissions issues automatically. However, on ancient Macs (such as my old PowerBook G4 running Leopard), the “Repair Disk Permissions” command has resolved a few issues.
2. Fun fact: Apple used to bundle a version of TechTool (called “TechTool Deluxe”) with the purchase of AppleCare (it was on an AppleCare DVD provided in the box with the extended warranty agreement). Apple no longer offers this, but the latest version that shipped was Universal and ran on PowerPC and Intel Macs around the time of Leopard. I managed to hunt down an ancient installer for it and run it on my PowerBook G4. Turns out my hardware tests checked out (except I needed to run “Repair Disk” to clean some file restore stuff up).

Nathan Parker

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Etrecheck Pro is another utility for checking hardware and software diagnostic logs, and it is now on the App Store.  DriveDX is my ultimate S.M.A.R.T. monitoring tool on my Mac, with USB drive support.  The UI is wonderful.

 

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Nathan Parker, OscarCP

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DriveDX is $20. Doesn’t seem to be a free version.

Etrecheck is free initially, $15 as an in app purchase. Do you know what the paid version does that the initial version doesn’t?

cheers, Paul

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Nathan Parker

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