News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 15, 2007

troubleshooting

Apple Hardware test may overestimate VRAM

Posted Jun. 15, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall
Category | Troubleshooting

aht.jpgWhen a Mac is being cranky, sometimes it needs a visit from the Apple Hardware Test. Included on the Mac OS X Install disc, this diagnostics suite can rule out possible hardware problems, which is useful for troubleshooting. However, the Apple Hardware Test might not be foolproof when it comes to video RAM, according to this Apple Support file:

Apple Hardware Test (AHT) may incorrectly report that the computer has more VRAM than is actually present. For example, AHT may report 256 MB VRAM for a computer that has only 128 MB VRAM. You may use Apple System Profiler to obtain accurate VRAM configuration.

This issue only affects 15-inch MacBook Pros (2.4 and 2.2 GHz models) that were bundled with the 3A121 version of the hardware test, according to Apple, Inc. To verify the affected computer’s true VRAM, Apple Support offers these tips:

Restart the computer from the hard disk.
Open Apple System Profiler from /Applications/Utilities/.
In Hardware and Graphics/Displays, see VRAM (Total) for the correct configuration.

The Apple Support article does not mention that “VRAM” turns into “Vroom!” just by changing some letters and adding the right punctuation. Just throwing that out there.

[Edited because “virtual RAM” is not the same as “video RAM” no matter how much I may want it to be]


2 Comments

Urban Lindeskog said:

You must be meaning Video RAM, right?

June 15, 2007 10:54 AM
RambOrc said:

VRAM stands for "Video Random Access Memory".

June 15, 2007 12:09 PM

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