diff --git a/tools/test-avrdude b/tools/test-avrdude
index 14d13b907..a400baf4d 100755
--- a/tools/test-avrdude
+++ b/tools/test-avrdude
@@ -149,8 +149,6 @@ fi
 
 arraylength=${#pgm_and_target[@]}
 type "$avrdude_bin" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "$progname: cannot execute $avrdude_bin"; exit 1; }
-echo -n "Testing $avrdude_bin"
-$avrdude_bin -v 2>&1 | grep '[vV]ersion' | cut -f2- -d: | sed s/Version/version/
 
 [[ -d $tmp && -w $tmp ]] || tmp=/tmp # Fall back to /tmp if tmp directory unusable
 status=$(mktemp "$tmp/$progname.status.XXXXXX")
@@ -160,6 +158,17 @@ tmpfile=$(mktemp "$tmp/$progname.tmp.XXXXXX")
 resfile=$(mktemp "$tmp/$progname.res.XXXXXX")
 trap "rm -f $status $logfile $outfile $tmpfile $resfile" EXIT
 
+echo -n "Testing '$avrdude_bin -v'..."
+$avrdude_bin -v 2>&1 | grep '[vV]ersion' | cut -f2- -d: | sed s/Version/version/ > "$outfile"
+if grep version "$outfile" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo -n " "
+    cat "$outfile"
+else
+    echo " error"
+    $avrdude_bin -v
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 devnull=$tmpfile                # Cannot use /dev/null as file in Windows avrdude
 
 TIMEFORMAT=%R                   # time built-in only returns elapsed wall-clock time