How to Use Apple Diagnostics
Macs are renowned for their robust stability and performance, but even their users may sometimes experience random bugs, crashes, and other issues. Thankfully, Apple's engineers have thought about this beforehand, and all Macs come with a ready-to-use Apple Diagnostics utility. It can help diagnose hardware issues, recommend fixes, and give users a good idea about any critical issues that they might need to be aware of. But how do you run Apple Diagnostics on your Mac?
- Disconnect non-essential peripherals such as external drives, tablets, Web cameras, etc. Only the keyboard, mouse, and display are necessary.
- Go to Apple Menu -> Restart.
- Hold down the D key.
- Release the key when you see Apple Diagnostics launched.
Wait for the Apple Diagnostics scan to finish and the report to be generated. Typically, the report contains an error code, which will tell you what piece of hardware may be causing trouble. Some of the commonly encountered error codes are:
- 4AIR – WiFi chip issue.
- 4HDD – hard disk or SSD.
- 4IRP – logic board.
- 4YDC – graphics card.
- 4PRC – processor.
- 4MEM – RAM.
Troubleshooting issues reported by Apple Diagnostics is not an easy task, and we would advise you to bring your Mac to a certified technician if you see one of the aforementioned error codes.
