[macintologist]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of buying a Macbook from someone on Craigslist and I was wondering what's the best way to perform a quick diagnosis of the machine when we meet in person? I know obviously you turn the machine on and make sure the Airport is working but as far as checking the RAM, and checking all the other parts, is there some software I can run that will quickly check all that stuff?

What have you done in the past when purchasing a computer from someone in person, to make sure that it functions correctly?

[Doc HM]

If it comes with the original disk you can sick that into the optical drive and restart it holding the d key down and run the Apple Hardware diagnostics off it, the extended ram test can take a while so you may have to just run the basic tests.


Alternatively, bring a copy of Tech Tools Pro or similar on a DVD and boot from that and run the diagnostics off that, you will have ot skip the hard drive surface scan as that takes hours but it will test the other components.

[seanc]

Take a copy of SMART Utility and Coconut battery on a pen drive to check the health of the HDD and battery. 'Verified' in Disk Utility is useless.

[Dr. Wahnsinn]

In my experience, hardware diagnostic utilities will identify only the most obvious problems.

If the battery is charged, try running these tests using only battery power.

One test I use for the optical drive is to insert a DVD with lots of files on it (I have test disc) and drag-copy it to the HD. If that works well, I then burn a CD using some of those files. This won't tell me if the drive will successfully burn a DL-DVD, but I don't want to do so many tests that I have to pay rent to the guy.

Give the processor and its fan a workout by secure deleting some of those copied over files.

Bring a mouse along to test the USB ports. Maybe a pair of headphones or earbuds. An external Firewire drive and cable if it has FIrewire.

If the seller believes the laptop to be free of issues, he/she shouldn't mind you performing the tests. Just explain what you would like to do before you start. Offer to buy the seller a latte if you're at a coffee house.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.