MacBook Pro 2013 - cannot load Apple Hardware Test

Thanks for your response. Btw, I like your avatar.

I've seen a lot of posts on these forums with people getting the EFI error when trying to run the Apple Diagnostic.

Indeed, I see I'm far from alone: Unable to launch Apple Diagnostics - Apple Community. "I have this question too" has been checked over 150 times (plus four times here). There are 6 pages of comments, now including mine (see there for more details on my work with this issue).

Good Lord. I can't even…. What's the point of offering testing software (How to use Apple Hardware Test on your Mac) if it doesn't work? What's wrong with the utility that's supposed to tell me what's wrong with my Mac? The mind boggles.

(Btw, it's Apple Hardware Test on this Mac, the very last before the introduction of the more opaque Apple Diagnostic – which uses the same D key startup.)

Either the current firmware is buggy…

That seems to be the prevailing opinion; however, from my experimentation it may not be the case; see my post at Unable to launch Apple Diagnostics - Apple Community.

…or Apple's Diagnostic Internet Recovery servers have an issue…

Well, but that wouldn't explain why the same error appears when trying to run AHT from a USB stick – with no Internet connection (WiFi is off, Ethernet disconnected). And the same error appears when trying to run Apple Service Diagnostic EFI version from USB.

Anyway, I was able to load and run AHT on this MBP – both via Internet and from USB stick – as well as Apple Service Diagnostic (EFI), several times last year, and as recently as March, two months ago. But now it won't. What happened?

…or perhaps the diagnostic needs to use the hidden EFI partition on the internal drive and the partition isn't available.

Well, the EFI partition is there; Terminal sez:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh SSD 250.1 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

[To be continued…]

Are you having any issues other than being unable to run the Apple Diagnostic?

Unfortunately, yes. This all started early last year, when intermittent problems with this Early 2013 15" MacBook Pro finally became intolerable. I didn't want to be without a computer while I was figuring it out, so I bought a 2015 MBP (still new with warranty, found on eBay). I then took this MBP to the local AASP, asked them to diagnose it, for which they charged me $60. Presumably they ran Apple's in-house Apple Service Diagnostic. They told me it was fine. But it wasn't fine. So I bit the bullet and did some research, found where I could grab the Apple Service Diagnostic, figured out how to use it, and it found both several memory problems and a few others that are more of a mystery to me.

There's more to the story (see my other post), but after numerous runs of ASD (whose OS version will still run, though the EFI version shows the same "Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'" error as does AHT), in addition to four memory errors (Apple 64 Memory Walking Ones test, …Walking Zeros test, …Walking Spread Bits test, …Walking Bit Flip test all report ERROR - -12012 [Child process exited due to signal. Usually a crash!]), there are also these three errors:

[16:50:24] AirPort (test #9) - Wireless Module PCIe Root Port Hardware Register Test

- Verifies PCIe root port error bits for wireless module doesn't register any NAKs

[16:50:24] ERROR - -12100 [IOConnect error reading from PCI address space] -- TEST FAILED

[16:51:52] AirPort (test #47) - Sleep Wake PCIe Error Count Screen Test

- Performs sleep wake cycles and verifies module presence and the total PCIe correctable error count for both module and its bridge within test limit.

[16:52:37] ERROR -- 44 [Module becomes missing upon sleep wake cycles] -- TEST FAILED

[16:52:38] SATA: SATA PCI Register Test (test #1) - SATA PCI Register Test

- Checks the SATA link error registers for dropped data packets using direct PCI access.

[16:52:38] ERROR - -12105 [PCI driver IOService open error] -- TEST FAILED

Can anybody give me a clue to what these mean? The AirPort (WiFi) card seems to work okay. If the memory problems require replacing the logic board (thanks, Apple), will that also fix these errors? Or is there something else that must be replaced?

If not, the laptop should be Ok.

Actually, it mostly runs okay for light work, but intermittent crashes add up. The new 2015 MBP also turned out to be problematical, and I had to return to the 2013 while I got it fixed. It's been fun…. But I plan to sell this MBP, and can't in good conscience when the software that a new owner might be likely to run on it (i.e. Apple Hardware Test) won't show a clean bill of health – in fact won't run at all.

As I note in the other thread, somebody just commented on another forum that replacing the logic board (for memory problems) in his Mac also solved the Apple Diagnostics loading problem. But was that an accident, or is it the fix? The only fix? So 150+ people must replace their logic boards in order to run Apple's own diagnostic software?

I'm waiting to hear from Apple.

P.S.: Oops, link in post above is incorrect. See my posts at the Unable to launch Apple Diagnostics thread (now up to 163 "I have this problem too") here and here for more detailed information and follow-up. 

The error message you posted is telling you that you cannot load Apple Hardware Test via Internet Recovery. That is no surprise, because Apple Hardware Test was never supported by Internet Recovery.

See How to use Apple Hardware Test on your Mac:

Some Mac computers that shipped with OS X Lion v10.7 or later will start up from AHT over the Internet if your startup disk doesn't contain AHT….

I'm pretty sure my 2013 MBP would get AHT from the Internet back when it was able to load the EFI, but it's been a while, and I mostly have run AHT from a USB stick, following instructions from the GitHub post you link, which I discovered a year ago.

However, the problem is not the location of the AHT software (I've tried all three: Internet, USB stick, install in System/Library/CoreServices/) but the fact that this MBP can no longer load the EFI driver required to run AHT (nor the one required to run Apple Service Diagnostic EFI version). As I wrote above, I get the same error no matter where AHT is located.

The OP above was written more than two weeks ago; since then I've learned that I'm far from alone with this problem. If you're interested in learning more about it, follow the links in my posts above.

Well, since you insist, I've looked back in my notes:

On March 24, 2018, after the MBP had crashed the previous day, I called Apple Support, who told me that the Apple Hardware Test must be accessed via the Internet, and how. So I did, and ran it, and it reported a memory error.

The following week, after an inconclusive trip to the local AASP (who charged me $60 to run diagnostics on the MBP, told me it was fine – but it clearly wasn't), I ran AHT again from the Internet (the extended test this time).

I then looked around the 'Net, found the GitHub article, downloaded the AHT for the MBP, put it on a USB stick, ran it again. Also learned about Apple Service Diagnostic, found it, put it on an external drive, ran both OS and EFI versions. Unlike AHT, it doesn't stop when it finds the first error, so it found four.

I ran AHT again, probably from the USB stick, in April 2018. Then on December 24, 2018 I wrote: "Start up with D key: Starting Internet Recovery. This may take a while. Select network, enter password. Gets AHT 3A244 online." Again found error. I might have run it from the Internet 1 or 2 more times last year, I don't have a complete record.

In my opinion, you can not load Apple Hardware Test over the Internet, and you never could.

Well, I have done so at least three times, probably more. Which am I going to believe, your sworn word or my lying eyes?

Then on May 3, 2019, I tried to get AHT from the Internet, got the error message "Cannot load 'EFI/Drivers/TestSupport.efi'". Same result with AHT on a USB stick. And the EFI version of ASD.

You made a bootable USB-stick of Memtest. Do the same for your proper version of Apple Hardware Test and don't look back.

Yes, the bootable EFI USB stick of MemTest86 does work, which is further indication that the problem is Apple's, since only its EFI driver seems to be incompatible with the computer (and those of the ~170 other users complaining of this problem). But AHT doesn't load, either from a USB stick or from the Internet.

I stand by what I wrote.

Be my guest.

[Edited by Moderator]