Unable to launch Apple Diagnostics

I don't know if it's exactly an Official Policy (and can see why it wouldn't be publicly announced), but I gather that Apple will run their diagnostic on even seven-year old Macs (and maybe older) if brought to the Genius Bar. After all, they might get a repair job out of it. Certainly in this case, since the computer is officially supported for the Mojave upgrade, they should check it out if you bring it to them with a complaint.

If your Mac doesn't pass Apple's diagnostic, you will have to get it fixed before Apple will listen to you about the Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' error. You will then have a choice: whether to have it repaired by Apple, or take it to some other (possibly cheaper) shop. If it is repaired by Apple, and still shows the Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' error, then you have a case, and can insist on a solution.

Note that it may not show the error, if its logic board has been replaced with one from a computer that has never been upgraded to Mojave (or had the noted Security Updates installed – if indeed they cause the problem). Check to see if the Boot ROM in the replacement logic board has a number below or above 200; it seems like the problem occurs when the number is above 200. To make sure, you can go ahead and install Mojave, and see if it can still run AHT. (You can always downgrade back to an earlier OS, as I did; the Boot ROM will not be reverted to the earlier version, however, so it will still be unable to run AHT, regardless of which OS version is on it.)

If you have the Mac repaired by another shop and it still shows the error (paragraph above also applies), you'll have to get the Genius Bar to run their diagnostic on it again. If it then passes, you'll have a case, and can insist on a solution.

To reiterate (once again): Posting about a problem here in "Apple Community" does not bring the problem to Apple's attention. Apple hosts this forum as a service to its users, a place where they can help each other solve problems. Other than providing moderation, Apple pays no further attention to what goes on here. In fact, a Senior Advisor told me he would lose his job if he paid official attention to this thread. I can understand why, and have no argument with this policy.

However, it means that if anybody here wants a solution to the Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi' error – which can be provided only by Apple – it must be brought to Apple's attention via official channels, i.e. Apple Support and/or a visit to a Genius Bar (or AASP). Since Apple Support will almost certainly tell you to take your Mac to a Genius Bar, you might as well go ahead and do that to begin with.

A midterm exam:

Unable to launch Apple Hardware Test occurs by following 3 factors

・Ivy-Bridge generation Macs

・macOS Sierra or later

・Security Update 2019-002 or later

Now,

・MacBook Pro Mid 2012 13 inch: OK (Apple offered Apple Diagnostics instead of AHT since July 4th)

・MacBook Pro Mid 2012 15 inch: NG (neglected)

・Mac mini Late 2012                   : NG (neglected)

And I have no info about iMac.

BDAqua wrote:

Yeah, one can hope, but I doubt Apple worries what old Macs can do. :(

No, of course Apple doesn't worry much about what old Macs can or cannot do. They're into enough trouble with the current models (can anybody say "keyboard"?). And of course, they need you to buy a new Mac every few years – though they seem to be determined to continue alienating long-time users from doing so.

I'm sure there are some at Apple who know about this problem. However, merely "hoping" they'll do something about it is pointless if they have no incentive to do so.

I see that now 257 people have checked "I have this problem too" on this thread. (The thread I started has been closed, and the "I have this problem too" number removed, but it was nearing 20 last time I looked.) So far as I'm aware, not a single one of these 250+ Mac users who have this problem has taken the trouble to bring it to Apple's attention through the proper channel, which is the only way to get Apple to do something about it. In fact, as I mentioned in another post, an Apple Advisor actually told me that he would lose his job if he took official notice of anything he saw in one of these Apple Communities discussions.

The facts:

1) Ivy Bridge based Macs are listed among those models which can take the upgrade to Mojave. Personally, I'm surprised at this, since they are so old; but Apple does provide Mojave installers and updaters for these Macs.

2) Apple provides instructions for using Apple Diagnostics (or Apple Hardware Test) and recommends doing so if you are having trouble with your Mac.

3) However, if Mojave is installed on an Ivy Bridge based Mac, it then becomes impossible to run AD or AHT on it. (The problem may also be caused by Sierra and High Sierra security updates, but I don't have any way to test this.)

Given these facts, certainly the owner/user of an Ivy Bridge Mac has good reason to ask Apple to solve this problem. However, you have to actually ask – and quite likely insist a little – if you want action. Merely complaining on this forum is a waste of time.

In my case, I am dealing with serious illness, and simply don't have the energy/time to do anything about it. I'm hoping I might in a few months, but right now it's just not on my list of things to do besides surviving for another day. I'm pretty sure this problem is solvable, but somebody is going to have to actually put in a little effort.

See my earlier post for more detail. And my other posts for even more.

One addendum: As noted in another earlier post, Best Buy is now officially an AASP. Not all Best Buy stores are yet qualified – people have to be trained – but most are. So if like me you're not close to an Apple Genius Bar but do have a Best Buy nearby, you can try them.

Very interesting - no, it's not working with the late 2012 iMac I just tried it on. This iMac has the latest public Mojave release.

So the problem seems to have been fixed on some Macs and not others.

I wonder if the reason is because the 2012 Macbook Pros are still supported by Apple because they were only ceased in 2014.

The 2012 iMac is no longer supported.

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

˜What all 3rd party extensions are you running?

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.

There is also Malwarebytes...

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

Sorry, I meant to try the d key after Safe boot to clear caches then regular boot or d key boot next.

I tried both options.  does not work!

Привет Roman,

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204308

No!

macOS Sierra's or High Sierra's Security-update 2019-002 or later prevents your Ivy-Bridge Mac from running AHT again.

Do you wanna try that?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro running High Sierra and have the exact same problem. A few weeks ago I did upgrade it to Mojave but reverted to High Sierra thru Time Machine.

My boot ROM version in System Report is 224.0.0.0.0 .

I have tried every conceivable option for the last couple of days to get either AHT or ASD working. I've tried creating bootable USBs and copying the .diagnostics folder over to the local coreservices folder. I've tried scripts and terminal commands from various sites and absolutely nothing works. I can't boot using a USB or get in by holding down 'D' on boot.

I also cannot run Option-D to load diagnostics over the Internet.

It must be something in the updated EFI firmware that is preventing the running of the diagnostics.

If you can figure out a way to get it working I will be very impressed.

HI, nice work, great post! :)

Have you tried installing 10.13.6 yet... thinking maybe it has a Firmware update that is needed.

1. Start up from macOS Recovery

To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following combinations on your keyboard. Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later.

Command (⌘)-R Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.

Option-⌘-R Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Shift-Option-⌘-R Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

Release the keys when you see the Apple logo, a spinning globe, or a prompt for a firmware password. When you see the Utilities window, you've started up from macOS Recovery.

The problem is that swapping out the logic board will probably fix the issue…

If the replacement board came from a Mac which had not been upgraded to Mojave or High Sierra. I suspect this is why a poster on another board found that his Mac could now load the Diagnostics software after a logic board replacement, where it couldn't before. He had upgraded to High Sierra, which probably caused the problem; but when the logic board was replaced, the HD (or SSD) was simply moved from the old board to the replacement, so High Sierra was not reinstalled after the replacement, thus the Boot ROM was not changed.

You saw my screen shot earlier where their in house Diagnostics run ok (at least top level tests) whereas built in or Internet based don't...

I have no experience with Apple's current diagnostic software, which is closely guarded in-house. The previous, pre-2015 version, Apple Service Diagnostic, which I have run on several Macs, consists of two sets of tests: an OS version and an EFI version. The OS version will still run on a Mac that will not run the basic Apple Diagnostics / Apple Hardware Test which Apple makes available to users (which requires loading an EFI driver), but the EFI version of ASD (which also requires loading an EFI driver) will not. So my guess is that your photo shows an OS-based diagnostic software set, not an EFI-based one. Maybe the current in-house diagnostic software is all OS-based and there is no EFI-based version – though this seems unlikely as the EFI version can do tests the OS version cannot (the OS requires a big chunk of memory to run, so it cannot test that memory, while the EFI version requires only a tiny slice of memory for its own use, so can test more memory).

I see that the post recommending the GitHub article on AHTs has been promoted to "Helpful" – I don't by whom. I'm quite familiar with the excellent GitHub post, which I discovered a year and a half ago. Since then I've downloaded numerous versions of AHT and run them on numerous Macs, both by installing the invisible .diagnostics folder in /System/Library/CoreServices and by creating a bootable USB drive per upekkha's instructions. Which worked fine on my 2013 MBP, which also ran AHT fine from the Internet – until I installed Mojave on it (or maybe until I ran the latest Sierra Security Update, I don't know which). Now it won't run AHT from anywhere. 

Otherwise, the post is a recipe for giving up. "Apple trashed my computer, but that's okay, it's an old computer anyway." An old computer that Apple wants you to install Mojave on. If that's what works for whoever checked it as "Helpful", okay. It doesn't work for me. Unfortunately, I can't get to a Genius Bar at this time. I'm hoping that somebody here who can, and who has an affected Mac that will pass the Genius Bar's diagnostic (i.e. with no hardware problems), will go do that and ask "Why can't I run AHT on this Mac?" And mention that there are more than 200 other users with Ivy Bridge Macs who have the same problem. Then maybe we'll get some action. 

Whatever fix works for one should work for all. (Except in the case where a logic board is replaced with one that has never been subjected to the Mojave upgrade, thus does not have the new Boot ROM. In that case, if Mojave is installed again, the error will probably then show up.)

We've done all we can here. The problem requires a fix from Apple. It must be brought to their attention, through the official channel. You can try calling Apple Support about it, but they'll almost certainly want you to bring your Mac to a Genius Bar for diagnosis, so you might as well go ahead and do that to begin with. 

FWIW, I gave up trying to figure out how to bypass the EFI. It's possible, but dangerous and more work than just updating the Tech Tool Pro license that I already had.

Tech Tool Pro isn't perfect for memory tests either, because it can't test all the memory, but it did find a bad DIMM for me.

First, i don't recommend doing the update for Catalina until next year.

They are calling the Windows Vista of OSX because of how many problems the system have.

(Maybe thats why they are not fixing Apple Diagnostics yet)

Like greg said, you shouldn't buy a new iMac not knowing the full problem yet.

Few days ago i had a freeze/cursor hangs problem and was driving me crazy.

Finally i've found out it was a simple extension on Chrome crashing my system.

But just to be safe, i wanted to do tests.

Because Apple Diagnostics was unavailable, my options was Apps focused on individual tests: Geekbench for CPU/GPU, DriveDX for HD and finally memtest86 for RAM. Maybe you should try alternatives and see if the iMac is still healthy as before.

Cheers!