MacBook Pro 2015 – Software to Test Hardware

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The company I work for uses MacBook Pros. Mine is significantly slower and runs significantly hotter than my colleagues'. I want to test the hardware to see whether there is a fault.

All the MBP's we use are Retina 15-inch Mid 2015, 2.5Ghz i7, 16GB RAM. The main software we use is VMWare Fusion running Windows 10 and the Mac version of MS Office. The machines are all running Sierra, but mine has run poorly since way before the upgrade. The only quirk is that I use an external monitor, although my colleagues have used my monitor themselves with no problems.

When VMWare is running, the fans are running full speed almost constantly on mine, and Windows can become almost unresponsive at times. My colleagues' machines run quietly and only occasionally run the fans (but even then the fans are run slower than mine). I am also not able to run VMWare Fusion in Unity whereas my colleagues are. (Aside from my infuriation, the sheer amount of noise mine makes has become a standing joke in the office!). If I leave the Mac for a while, it has crashed when I return and refuses to wake up requiring a reboot. The external monitor occasionally goes black for a second or two.

I have checked the VM settings and they are identical. I have:

  • toggled these up and down,
  • wiped the VM image and created a new one,
  • reinstalled VMWare,
  • copied my colleague's VM, and I have
  • wiped my Mac.

I'm a Mac noob and am pretty much out of ideas, and so I want to check the hardware.

Best Answer

Okay, the first things I would do are reset your SMC and NVRAM. Instructions follow.

Reset your SMC

Your computer's System Management Controller (SMC) can be reset as follows:

  1. Shut down your computer
  2. Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
  3. Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
  4. Let go
  5. Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Take a note of whether the fans and/or anything else improves and report back.

Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Here’s how to reset the NVRAM on your particular MBP:

  1. Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
  2. Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
  3. Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
  4. Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Run Apple Diagnostics

Now to answer your question about testing the hardware. If resetting the SMC and NVRAM don't resolve your issue, you can follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

  1. Fully shut down your MBP
  2. Restart your MBP
  3. Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
  4. Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
  5. Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:
    • a No issues found message
    • a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions
  6. If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.

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