Unable to launch Apple Diagnostics

Yes. And I'm afraid,

We can never run AHT on our Ivy-Bridge Macs , till Apple fix the bug in the BootROM for Ivy-Bridge,

On Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave.

You have no trouble as long as you're running El Capitan or earlier on your Ivy-Bridge Macs.

That's because of the " Security Update 2019-002 " and later on Sierra and High Sierra, or Mojave 10.14.4 and later.

babowa, you understand?

The newest BootROM prevents the Ivy Bridge Macs from running AHT.

Thanks for the clarification. I hadn't thought of it that way, but indeed, 2012 thru early 2013 Macs are Ivy Bridge based, while late 2013 models are Haswell based – and don't show this error. (The Mac Pro, though "Late 2013", is also Ivy Bridge.) I note that the Boot ROM now in my 2013 MacBook Pro is v.255.0.0.0.0, while in the 2014 MBP it is v.153.0.0.0.0, and in the 2015 MBP v.192.0.0.0.0. So the older computer has a newer Boot ROM, which seems odd. And the newer computers do not show this error. And from what I recall, all the folks here who mention the Boot ROM have a version above 200.

That's because of the " Security Update 2019-002 " and later on Sierra and High Sierra, or Mojave 10.14.4 and later.

Oh, another wrinkle; I didn't know about that. So even if I hadn't installed Mojave on the 2013 MBP, the Security Update would have done the same thing anyway? Great.

I just tried following the instructions linked to in babowa's post - downloading the .diagnotics for Late 2012 iMac (13,2)

I copied the .diagnostics folder to my High Sierra OS Bootable USB (in CoreServices)

Oh, my. No, that's not how to do it. Read the instructions more carefully: either (a) the .diagnostics folder must be in /System/Library/CoreServices in the OS installed on the computer's internal drive, and will run (though not always in my experience) when you start with the D key; or it must be on a USB drive in raw form, i.e. without an OS, which is why creating such a drive requires Terminal acrobatics, as per the instructions – and then you must select it in Startup Manager (start with option key). I don't believe it will work from an external drive with an OS (though I haven't tried it – but upekkha doesn't say to do it that way). The System won't even see it, which is why it did not report Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' – which is the problem being discussed here.

It's not that AHT can't be found – which is what the error you show here tells you – but that even when it is found, the computer cannot load the necessary EFI driver to run it – which is what Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'  tells you – because the "updated" Boot ROM won't allow it.

I haven't tried it, but it may be that if you start from an external drive with D, and your computer is connected to the Internet, it will try to load AHT from the Internet, in which case it will likely report Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' . Which I believe you've said you've seen before. If you have seen this error before, then your iMac's Boot ROM is trashed, and there is no way to run AHT on it – until Apple supplies a fix for the what its Mojave upgrade or Security Update caused.

Anyway, sorry, but your experiment is not relevant to the subject here, only confuses the issue.

do we think EVERYONE with similar models ALL have this problem with latest firmware?

Only those who (a) have upgraded to Mojave (maybe many, though I wouldn't do it on such an old Mac – though some will give in to Apple's constant nagging) or run the latest Security Update in Sierra or High Sierra (certainly many – if indeed that also causes the problem), and (b) have had reason to try to run AHT (maybe not so many). Maybe the problem doesn't afflict everybody in those two categories, but it seems to have hit at least 200, which is not nobody.

That surely would be recognized by more people (including Apple)... ?

Not necessarily. I doubt Apple would have knowingly shipped a firmware update that caused this problem. So they must be made aware of it – which "complaining" on this forum doesn't do – as noted above. If it's not brought to Apple's attention, Apple doesn't know about it.

I wonder if anybody has tried the hard to find old original ASDs... 3s151, 3s152

Yes. I've run several ASDs on several Macs, including my 2013 MBP. ASD comes in two parts, one OS-based, one EFI-based. Before I installed Mojave on the MBP, both ran fine, but after the upgrade, while the OS version still works, the EFI version of ASD shows the error Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' . Somehow that seems familiar….

Ran across this thread while researching the issue for a friend that was having some system stability issues. I just so happen to have a stack of Ivy-Bridge MacBook Pros sitting on a shelf that have not been upgraded and I replicated the stated behavior eg. "Able to boot to AHT/AD before upgrade to High Sierra" then "Unable to boot to AHT/AD after upgrade to High Sierra".

Took a non-upgraded MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) along with my friend's upgraded non-functional MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) in to my local AASP along with an installer for the latest version of Mojave. I demonstrated the issue to the tech I was speaking with using my own boot media and they confirmed that following the upgrade neither of the laptops are able to boot any EFI Diagnostic be it ASD EFI 3S155 from a Bootable USB or a "D" or a "CMD+D" network boot.

They were also kind enough to burn an ASD OS 3S155 Bootable USB and confirmed that the machine was able to boot properly and complete a full run of diagnostics. The following message apparently flashed on the display before booting into ASD OS 3S155 which is indicative of loading the boot.efi file from the USB media which squares with a local EFI issue being the root cause of the problems.

"

efiboot loaded from device : Acpi(*)/Pci(*)/Usb(*)/HD(*Volume_ID*)

boot file path: \System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi

"

In both cases the machines passed without any hardware failures which leads me to believe that it's entirely possible that the instability on my friend's MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) was caused by the High Sierra upgrade, making this all the more infuriating. Here's hoping Catalina forces an EFI Update that resolves these issues. I'm going to try the same thing with another of the MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) I have sitting on a shelf that have not been upgraded except with Apple this time and I will be calling Apple Support tomorrow morning and requesting a senior advisor in hopes of adding my complaint to (hopefully) many others. I will rage quit life if they tell me to buy a new computer...

zacharythane wrote:

My 2012 iMac running Mojave 10.14.4 does not boot to diagnostics with only the D key, just a white screen. Option D gives me the Error: 0x8000000000000003, Cannot Load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'

Status: 0x00000003

Any other ideas?

I already posted my other ideas above.

Personally I would not beat my head against the wall, the AHT is not definitive and it may or may not kick out an error code concerning your issue.

I will add —

You can post your Kernel Panic report in their entirety here, preferable three separate reports in three separate Additional Text box (below) for ease of reading.  A single report may be useful but does not establish a trend for a meaningful diagnosis.

Kernel Panic reports can be found /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

From the Finder>Go>Go To Folder, copy and paste:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

should say panic in the file name.

If your Mac spontaneously restarts or displays a ... - Apple Support

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250285425?page=5

So firstly, +1 for this with a (perfectly working) Mac Mini late-2012 running very latest High Sierra 10.13.6 (and having just installed Security Update 2019-003):

Error: 0x8000000000000003, Cannot Load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'

Status: 0x00000003

(I've tried downloading the relevant DMG from https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest and get the same error when launching that from a USB stick.)

Also… I was trying to repair someone's iMac earlier, and attempted to run diagnostics on that, and I got the error -3403D. They did have their original installation CDs as well (and the AHT version was referenced on the label of the second). I tried the Startup Disk menu (hold down alt/option) with both but neither showed up as bootable drives.

I just tried following the instructions linked to in babowa's post - downloading the .diagnotics for Late 2012 iMac (13,2)

I copied the .diagnostics folder to my High Sierra OS Bootable USB (in CoreServices)

When I tried to launch diagnostics with Power On + D, I get the following message:

InitializationFailed: Unable to run diagnostics. DEC500

Press 'S' to shut down or 'R' to restart your computer

Try running AppleDiagnostics again. If this issue persists Contact Apple Support.

Ok... I've had enough... screen coming off... I'm going in....

Have you tried this using option + command + R?? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Anything have no use containing downgrading macOS or OS X.

We must wait Apple fixes the bug.

The newest BootRom (ver. 224.0.0.0.0) blocks AHT or Apple Diagnostics.

And you should report the bug to Apple engineers

https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html

Once you've upgraded your Mac to Mojave, Apple install the BootRom with the bug. And there is no use re-installing or downgrading the OS to any version. The trouble, never work AHT, is the fault of Apple's newest BootRom.

You all should report the bug from here.

I had a case with a Mac senior advisor. Did a full erase and reinstall (also erasing my windows partition) and did not migrate any data before testing again. Issue persisted. They gathered logs from my iMac and engineering said I should take it in to get looked at. It seems the culprit is that the memory is beginning to fail, which is why it won't boot to diagnostics. Not sure if the boot rom is the cause of it or not. My iMac works perfectly besides not being able to boot to diagnostics. I restored my data, and re-partitioned windows since then. Probably just going to install new RAM in it soon. My model is not self-installable, so have to have someone do it.

1. I have this problem also; see my post MacBook Pro 2013 - cannot load Apple Hardware Test.

2. At the moment I have 3 15" MacBooks Pro on hand: (Early) 2013, 2014, 2015. The 2013 won't load Apple Hardware Test from either the Internet, a USB stick, or when the (invisible) .diagnostics folder is installed in System/Library/CoreServices. The 2014 and 2015 MBPs load Apple Diagnostics on order with the D key.

The 2013 MBP loaded AHT fine only a few months ago, but now does not. Meanwhile, MemTest86, which also starts up from an EFI driver from a USB stick, still works fine with this MBP. So it seems this MBP is now somehow allergic to Apple's own EFI driver? I've reset the SMC and NVRAM, and reinstalled the OS (Sierra, and others) numerous times, to no avail. Something's changed, but what?

I'm pretty sure I did install both High Sierra and Mojave on the 2013 MBP sometime after the last time AHT ran successfully – and before it wouldn't. So the theory that installing those OS versions might cause this problem seemed plausible. I decided to test it by installing Mojave on the 2014 MBP (which I've just gotten, so I don't know if it's been upgraded before; it arrived with Sierra). Installing Mojave did not change the Boot ROM (see below), and it still loaded AD with the D key. So in this case anyway, installing the later OS did not cause the problem.

The three MBPs have the following Boot ROM versions:

2013 MBP: 255.0.0.0.0

2014 MBP: 153.0.0.0.0

2015 MBP: 192.0.0.0.0

Interesting that the earliest one has the highest number; I don't know what that might mean. I also don't know if the Boot ROM was changed by installing High Sierra and/or Mojave, as I wasn't looking at that then. I also tried reverting the 2013 MBP to its original OS, Mountain Lion 10.8.2 (after completely erasing the SSD); that changed the Boot ROM from 255.0.0.0.0 to 255.0.0 (?), but it still wouldn't load AHT.

Anyway, it doesn't look like installing High Sierra or Mojave is the cause of inability to load AHT or AD – at least not predictably.

3. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with an Apple Senior Advisor on Tuesday (May 28) about this issue, trying everything he could think of (he apparently hadn't heard about this before), ending with sending a bunch of information which he said would be forwarded to some "engineers", who would get back to me in a few days. I provided links to this thread and my own (above), and emphasized that there are over 150 people now waiting for an answer. I'll post whatever I hear.

4. A poster at another forum where this issue is discussed writes:

"Just tried the 'D' startup and it worked.... My motherboard had a very strange memory failure that took the Apple service manager quite a while to figure out at the local Apple Store. I paid the $500.00 to fix it, and now everything is ok.... I couldn't run the hardware test on the pre-replacement motherboard."

So maybe we all need to replace our Macs' logic boards? 150+ of us? But will the replacements solve the problem? We still don't know what is causing the problem.

Bottom line: obviously it's Apple's problem, not ours. Apple needs to fix it.

Update from today - I went to Apple Authorized Repair center. They DID manage to run Apple Diagnostics Tests (unlike how others and myself have reported this is not working from Cmd-D) - it showed no errors from top level view. They then tried various boots and installs which all stalled as have mine at home.

[I do find it annoying that we can't get this version working !!!]

BTW the yellow warning on memory is because of the 3rd party Kingston HyperX 16GB I just swapped in - non Apple certified.

They also tried to use a ROM update tool (non-public too!!) to update from my 283.0.0.0.0 ROM to latest compatible - I thought this was going to be 285.0.0.0.0 (but maybe that is only for 13,1 machines - not 13,2 like mine)

- but when I got home I found that it hadn’t updated from 283.0.0.0.0 :( What I really wanted was to go to back to last known good version before my upgrade - but they said the tool can only upgrade - not downgrade.

So no fixes to my startup issues related to Kernel Panics in Windows Server - so a strong suspect is the faulty GPU (even though High Sierra booted with GPU with an older ROM before I upgraded to Mojave)

I hate the idea of junking the whole iMac because of a SW/HW incompatibility introduced when I upgraded old ROM during failed install of Mojave

One of the weirdest things is that the shop also managed to get my internal drives up and running and recognizable by Target Disc Mode - they then erased and set them up as HFS+ drives (128GB and 1TB SSD).

However - when I got home I plugged into my 2018 Airbook with Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 /USB-C Apple adapter - and I still see nothing. I will try with neighbor’s old macbook Air with TB2 and see if that can see them… Why would a new macbook Air with Mojave 10.14.5 not be able to see these drives?

So I have a couple of options:

1. Remove the 1TB SSD (and new 2x8GB Kingston HyperX RAM I just bought). Could also try to resell the refurbished PSU I just bought as well
2. Buy a refurbished logic board for $500 and fit myself.
3. Hang onto setup and keep hoping there is a SW/Firmware solution that someone finds in the future. Meanwhile I could buy a new iMac… I really miss having a ‘family’ computer for photo editing in the kitchen which isn’t a noisy slow ancient windows machine (which is what I replaced the iMac with for the moment)

Safe-boot, re-installing or downgrading macOS don't work, I told you.

The latest BootRom causes the bug.

・Mojave 10.14.4 update

・Security update 2019-002 for Sierra and High Sierra

install your Ivy-Bridge Macs the BootRom with the bug.

Read until the end, this pretty much proves it is the firmware update in Mojave. I am having the same problem. I got this computer from a friend who only sold it because he upgraded to a new macbook. He asked that I scrub his drive so I gave him his old one and installed an SSD. I am now having two problems since I installed Mojave:

1) I cannot book to diagnostics, either with d or option d

2) I am having the memory error another user reported occasionally.

This computer ran fine prior to Mojave. It also worked well while running Mountain Lion after the SSD install. Once Mojave was loaded, I began having these issues. Could I have messed up the board? Not likely, but as a logical person cannot rule out the possibility. But it seemed to run fine on Mountain Lion prior to me upgrading to Mojave.

Here is the proof:

I just so happen to have three mid 2012 Macbook Pros, two 13” and one 15”

Two of them, the 13”s, are now experiencing the inability to load diagnostics. Any Apple

employee who sees this is welcome to check out my Apple user ID which is the same email

as I have attached to this username, and you can see that I do in fact have three mid 2012 MB Pros. I also checked the HD cables, replaced all 3 hard drives, tried installing new memory on one, and ran third party hardware testing on all of them with no failures. I do have other computers, but these are the ones I allow my family to haul around and use, so I’d like someone at Apple to work on a patch for this problem. While I am only one person reporting this problem, I have it on two of my machines, and my third proves I am not incapable. Something is wrong with the Mojave update for the 13” mid 2012 Macbook Pro.

BDAqua wrote:

I hear from a reliable source that the Original ASDs that weren't available to the public still run on updated iMacs that have had the Firmware Updates & all Security Updates through 2019-003.

Did your reliable source specify that the EFI version of ASD v.3S152 (for the 2 Late 2012 iMacs) or ASD v.3S155 (for the single Early 2013 iMac) (these three are the only Ivy Bridge based iMacs) runs on these iMacs with all current updates? What OS version has been installed on these iMacs? Are they on Sierra or older, or has High Sierra or Mojave been installed?

I don't have an iMac, but as I wrote above, the OS version of ASD 3S155 runs fine on my Early 2013 MacBook Pro, but the EFI version shows the same Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'  error that appears when trying to run Apple Hardware Test.