diff --git a/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/main/test_heap_align_hw.c b/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/main/test_heap_align_hw.c
index a3fa60cfaae..2dd6601cfa6 100644
--- a/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/main/test_heap_align_hw.c
+++ b/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/main/test_heap_align_hw.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include "esp_memory_utils.h"
 #include "hal/cache_ll.h"
 #include "hal/cache_hal.h"
+#include "soc/soc_caps.h"
 
 TEST_CASE("test heap_caps_malloc_prefer for dma memory", "[hw-align]")
 {
@@ -41,13 +42,21 @@ TEST_CASE("test heap_caps_calloc_prefer for dma memory", "[hw-align]")
 #define TEST_ALLOC_COUNT 100
 static bool test_alignment(uint32_t caps, int expected_alignment) {
 	bool ret=true;
+	int alignment = (expected_alignment > 1) ? expected_alignment : 1;
 
 	void *mem[TEST_ALLOC_COUNT];
 	size_t size[TEST_ALLOC_COUNT];
 
 	//First, check if we can allocate memory with these caps anyway.
+	if ((caps & MALLOC_CAP_SPIRAM) && heap_caps_get_total_size(MALLOC_CAP_SPIRAM) == 0) {
+		printf("skipping caps 0x%" PRIx32 ": no PSRAM heap registered\n", caps);
+		return true;
+	}
 	void *tst=heap_caps_malloc(1, caps);
-	if (!tst) return true;
+	if (!tst) {
+		printf("caps 0x%" PRIx32 ": cannot allocate 1 byte with alignment %d\n", caps, alignment);
+		return false;
+	}
 	free(tst);
 
 	//Step 1: generate sizes and allocate memory.
@@ -59,9 +68,20 @@ static bool test_alignment(uint32_t caps, int expected_alignment) {
 	// Step 2: check alignment and fill up memory up to the aligned size
 	// (which should succeed as we expect to get an integer amount of cache lines)
 	for (int i=0; i<TEST_ALLOC_COUNT; i++) {
+		if (size[i] == 0) {
+			continue;
+		}
+		if (!mem[i]) {
+			printf("caps 0x%" PRIx32 ": allocation %d of %u bytes failed\n", caps, i, (unsigned)size[i]);
+			ret = false;
+			continue;
+		}
 		intptr_t off=(intptr_t)mem[i];
-		if (off&(expected_alignment-1)) ret=false;
-		size_t size_aligned_up = (size[i] + expected_alignment - 1) & (~(expected_alignment - 1));
+		if (off & (alignment - 1)) {
+			printf("caps 0x%" PRIx32 ": %p is not aligned to %d\n", caps, mem[i], alignment);
+			ret = false;
+		}
+		size_t size_aligned_up = (size[i] + alignment - 1) & (~(alignment - 1));
 		memset(mem[i], 0xA5, size_aligned_up);
 	}
 
@@ -77,11 +97,16 @@ static bool test_alignment(uint32_t caps, int expected_alignment) {
 
 TEST_CASE("test alignment for dma", "[hw-align]")
 {
-	int int_cache_size=cache_hal_get_cache_line_size(CACHE_LL_LEVEL_INT_MEM, CACHE_TYPE_DATA);
-	int ext_cache_size=cache_hal_get_cache_line_size(CACHE_LL_LEVEL_INT_MEM, CACHE_TYPE_DATA);
+	int int_cache_size = cache_hal_get_cache_line_size(CACHE_LL_LEVEL_INT_MEM, CACHE_TYPE_DATA);
+	int ext_cache_size = cache_hal_get_cache_line_size(CACHE_LL_LEVEL_EXT_MEM, CACHE_TYPE_DATA);
 
-	test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA, int_cache_size);
-	test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AHB, int_cache_size);
-	test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AXI, int_cache_size>8?int_cache_size:8);
-	test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA|MALLOC_CAP_SPIRAM, ext_cache_size);
+	TEST_ASSERT_TRUE_MESSAGE(test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA, int_cache_size), "MALLOC_CAP_DMA");
+	TEST_ASSERT_TRUE_MESSAGE(test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AHB, int_cache_size), "MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AHB");
+#if SOC_HAS(AXI_GDMA)
+	int axi_desc_alignment = int_cache_size > 8 ? int_cache_size : 8;
+#else
+	int axi_desc_alignment = int_cache_size;
+#endif
+	TEST_ASSERT_TRUE_MESSAGE(test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AXI, axi_desc_alignment), "MALLOC_CAP_DMA_DESC_AXI");
+	TEST_ASSERT_TRUE_MESSAGE(test_alignment(MALLOC_CAP_DMA|MALLOC_CAP_SPIRAM, ext_cache_size), "MALLOC_CAP_DMA|MALLOC_CAP_SPIRAM");
 }
diff --git a/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/pytest_heap.py b/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/pytest_heap.py
index ab1bb25b12b..825b6cb9194 100644
--- a/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/pytest_heap.py
+++ b/components/heap/test_apps/heap_tests/pytest_heap.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ def test_heap_in_flash(dut: Dut) -> None:
 @pytest.mark.parametrize('config', ['psram', 'psram_all_ext'])
 def test_heap(dut: Dut) -> None:
     dut.run_all_single_board_cases(group='psram')
+    dut.run_all_single_board_cases(group='hw-align')
 
 
 @pytest.mark.generic