What Is TechTool Deluxe?
TechTool Deluxe is a diagnostic application provided with the Apple Protection Plan. For more information on the Protection Plan please see:
http://www.info.apple.com/support/applecare_products/protectionplan/features.shtml.
The purpose of TechTool Deluxe is to assist the user with self-diagnosing any perceived issues the user has with their Apple product. The utility will scan the computer's hardware and software with a battery of tests looking for specific issues and report the results.
Who Supports It?
Apple is supporting all aspects of TechTool Deluxe. The software is published by MicroMat who offers and supports a more feature rich version of this software called TechTool Pro. The Pro version includes other repair and maintenance features which are not present in the Deluxe version.
Some of the features included with TechTool Pro that are not part of the Deluxe version include:
- A wider variety of expert diagnostic tests (more than just the basic tests that Deluxe has).
- Disk optimization and defragmenting utilities.
- Data recovery features.
Customers who would like to upgrade to TechTool Pro from the Deluxe version should call 800-829-6227 or visit:
http://www.micromat.com/deluxe/
MicroMat supports all customers who have upgraded to the TechTool Pro version.
Using TechTool Deluxe
When running TechTool Deluxe make sure that you are using the software on the computer for which you purchased the Protection Plan. Be sure you are starting up from the Protection Plan CD. (For assistance with this, please follow the directions that came with your Protection Plan CD). After starting up from this CD open the TechTool Deluxe application program and then click the Check button. The program will run the tests and provide a report with the results. If it finds issues it will offer recommendations.
I have copied the TechTool Deluxe program to my hard drive but it asks for the Protection Plan CD when I run it.
The Protection Plan CD must be present to run TechTool Deluxe. For accurate results you should be starting up from this CD.
Why does changing TechTool Deluxe's preferences not appear to do anything?
When running the program from the CD, which is the desired method for running this program, the preferences are located on the CD. Therefore, they cannot be changed. You can open the Edit Menu, select Preferences, make changes, and click OK; the program will not report that the changes did not take effect. You can verify that the changes did not take effect by reopening Preferences; you will see that they have not changed. The only way to change the Preferences is to copy the program to the hard drive and run the program from the hard drive after starting up from the Protection Plan CD.
What does it mean when a test says "Unavailable"?
It means that the computer being tested does not have that specific hardware present. This is not an issue, nor does it imply that anything is "missing" from your computer.
In Standard Mode what do all the different tests check?
The tests are divided into these categories:
Drives- Hard Drive Mechanism: This tests the hard drive mechanism to make sure it responds correctly to reading and writing data.
- Surface Scan: This tests the data integrity of the complete hard disk drive. It will scan all of the sectors of the drive. This can take a very long time on larger hard drives and is disabled by default.
- Volume Structures: This test validates and repairs HFS/HFS+ data structures on the volume by rebuilding the Master Directory Block and other crucial drive files.
- File Structures: This test checks the internal resource structure of files on the volume.
Chips- L1 Cache: This test checks the internal cache performance of the CPU.
- L2 Cache: This test checks the external cache performance of the CPU.
- Clock Chip: The Clock test verifies the proper operation of the clock chip and performs a calculation test to determine the speed of the device.
- SCC: The Component test checks several critical motherboard components.
- VIA1: The Component test checks several critical motherboard components.
- VIA2: The Component test checks several critical motherboard components.
- FPU: The FPU Panel tests the floating point processor (if present) or the floating point circuitry embedded within the CPU.
- Processor: The CPU Panel tests the central processing unit on the computer motherboard.
RAM- RAM: The RAM check tests the random access memory on the computer motherboard.
- ROM: The ROM panel tests several aspects of ROM which could fail under regular use.
- VRAM: TechTool's VRAM Test uses a variety of direct-access memory test procedures to verify proper operation of your video RAM.
Other- System File: The File Test works by comparing almost every resource within the system file and verifies the checksum and file offsets of each resource.
- Finder File: The File Test works by comparing almost every resource within the Finder file and verifies the checksum and file offsets of each resource.
- Enabler File: The File Test works by comparing almost every resource within the Enabler file (if present) and verifies the checksum and file offsets of each resource.