Blog
Tests
Guides for testing your keyboard, mouse, screen, sound, network and other hardware, and for fixing what the tests find.
-
Tests
Speaker cable touching a radiator: what to check
Find out whether a speaker cable, radiator, or speaker is causing a buzz, then isolate the rattle safely with a gentle bass sweep.
-
Tests
SD card fails near its advertised capacity
Learn why an SD card stops accepting files near its stated size, how to verify its real capacity safely, and what to do with the result.
-
Tests
Pixel flickering on screen? How to check it
Check whether a flickering pixel comes from the panel, cable, refresh setting, or graphics, and learn when a pixel-fixing pattern is worth trying.
-
Tests
How to compare keyboard switch sounds at the same distance
Compare keyboard switch sounds fairly by keeping the microphone distance, typing pattern, and room conditions consistent, then compare Noise Meter readings.
-
Tests
Why screenshots have unexpected dimensions on Retina
Find out why a Retina screenshot is larger or smaller than expected, how display scaling and capture methods affect its pixel dimensions, and what to check.
-
Tests
How to inspect touch zones used by navigation buttons
Find out whether missed navigation taps come from a touchscreen dead zone, an operating system gesture area, or the button layout itself.
-
Tests
How to test a touch monitor connected through USB
Test taps, multitouch, and dead zones on a USB touch monitor, then find out whether the problem is the cable, screen mapping, Windows, or hardware.
-
Tests
How to test an external SSD's transfer speed
Measure an external SSD's read and write speed in your browser, then check whether the cable, port, hub, or drive is slowing transfers down.
-
Tests
What CPU tests reveal about a thin office laptop
See what single-core and all-core CPU results can tell you about a thin office laptop, how to spot heat or power limits, and what to check next.
-
Tests
How to interpret shader performance in a browser test
Learn what shader power and fill rate mean in TooLab's browser Graphics Test, how to compare results fairly, and what to check when a score seems low.
-
Tests
Battery drain jumps at 10 percent: what to inspect
Check whether a 10 percent battery drop is real, caused by a power-hungry app, or a battery gauge estimate, then choose the right next step.
-
Tests
Why a printer creates shadows beside text
Learn what faint duplicate edges beside printed text can mean, use a printer test page to isolate the cause, and try the safest fixes first.