Mac Kung Fu, 2nd Edition

Tip 145

Stress Test Your Mac’s CPU

If your Mac has been experiencing random crashes, you might want to run a CPU stress test. This will load the processor to 100 percent, and you’ll therefore be able to determine whether it’s faulty or, more likely, whether the cooling system is faulty.

Testing

There are various ways of stress-testing a Mac, but the easiest way is as follows. Before starting, be sure to save any open files and close any unnecessary applications. If you’re using a portable Mac, attach the power cord.

Before starting, find out how many processor cores your Mac has. Unless you’re using a Mac Pro desktop system, the answer will be either two or four. To see a quick trick to view the number of cores in the system, check out Tip 135, ...