Help!!! How do I run Hardware Test?

Question

Help!!! How do I run Hardware Test?

My early 2008 24" has suddenly developed a problem - screen has gone black (initially it was 'black' with backlight on, now not even a backlight)
The machine has Lion installed but it came with 10.5.2

I can access the machine via screen sharing & it all runs fine so I want to determine what is wrong with it.

I dropped in my original grey system discs, pressed 'D' on start-up... nothing. It seems Lion no longer supports Hardware Test from discs on older machines.

Thanks for that Apple another great Lion advancement...

Anyone have any idea how I can run hardware test on this machine?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), Early 2008 24inch 3.06GHz

Posted on May 18, 2012 4:48 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,173 points

May 18, 2012 4:51 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

How to run hardware diagnostics for an Intel Mac

Boot from your original OS X Installer Disc One that came with your computer. After the chime press and hold down the "D" key until the diagnostic screen appears. Run the extended tests for a minimum of two or three hours. If any error messages appear note them down as you will need to report them to the service tech when you take the computer in for repair.

Some "common" error indicators:

SNS - sensor error

MEM - memory error

HDD - hard disk drive error

MOT - fan error

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Answer 2

May 18, 2012 5:20 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy wrote:

How to run hardware diagnostics for an Intel Mac

Boot from your original OS X Installer Disc One that came with your computer. After the chime press and hold down the "D" key until the diagnostic screen appears.

Tried that & it doesn't work.

The only way I can see what the iMac is doing is through remote admin access aka screen sharing & when I boot from the installer discs eithe rteh machine wont show up to access or I just get a blank screen

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,891 points

May 18, 2012 5:31 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

To run the AHT, you have to insert the "Applications" disc -- not the installation disc. You also have to disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard and mouse, if applicable. The test is completely independent of the operating system. If you're doing everything right and the test still won't run, then you do have a hardware fault.

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,173 points

May 18, 2012 5:32 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

Either you don't have the original installer disc for the computer or are using one from a different model, or you aren't booting from Disc One, or the disc is bad or dirty, or your is a model that had the AHT installed on the hard drive and you've repartitioned the drive which wiped out the AHT partition.

I guess you might be stuck with having to take it in for service to have the hardware checked.

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Answer 5

May 18, 2012 6:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:

To run the AHT, you have to insert the "Applications" disc -- not the installation disc. You also have to disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard and mouse, if applicable. The test is completely independent of the operating system. If you're doing everything right and the test still won't run, then you do have a hardware fault.

No, depending on the original OS the machine came with the AHT is on disc one or two.

In may case it's on disc one as it's a pre-10.4 machine.

The problem is teh only way I can 'see' if the disc or AHT is running is through screen sharing. When I try to mount the disc the machine doesn't show on the network.

Is there another hardware test application our there that I can run? Other than the TechTool.

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Answer 6

May 18, 2012 6:07 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy wrote:

Either you don't have the original installer disc for the computer

Yes I do.

or are using one from a different model,

No I'm not.

or you aren't booting from Disc One

I am

or the disc is bad or dirty

Nope, all good

or your is a model that had the AHT installed on the hard drive and you've repartitioned the drive which wiped out the AHT partition.

Zero chance of that.

I guess you might be stuck with having to take it in for service to have the hardware checked.

Beyond doubt but I want to establish what the fault likely is first.

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,891 points

May 18, 2012 6:41 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

In may case it's on disc one as it's a pre-10.4 machine.

You said your machine came with 10.5. If you're trying to boot from an older disc, you're wasting your time.

Screen sharing won't work while the AHT is running. Anyway, it doesn't matter. The test wouldn't tell you anything you don't already know, which is that you have a hardware fault; probably this one:

MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues

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Answer 8

May 18, 2012 7:47 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:

In may case it's on disc one as it's a pre-10.4 machine.

You said your machine came with 10.5.

Sorry, typo, I meant 10.5.4

10.5.5 was when the AHT switched to residing on Disc 2.

If you're trying to boot from an older disc, you're wasting your time.

Well that brings up a bigger question. Assuming my screen was working & I needed to run AHT on this machine how would I do it?

I have no doubt that it has some sort of fault but I'm trying to establish what before I take it in. If it looks to be a major $1000+ type of issue then I won't even bother paying the money to have it benched & diagnosed. At least if I know what's wrong I may be able to get a ballpark figure on repair costs.

Thanks for teh link but the machine is an iMac, not a MBP.

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,891 points

May 18, 2012 8:47 PM in response to Adam Woodhams

Assuming my screen was working & I needed to run AHT on this machine how would I do it?

I think that's been covered. You would insert the disc and reboot with the D key held down.

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Answer 10

ds store

Level 7

30,875 points

May 18, 2012 9:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hey Linc,

Got a guy who installed rEFIt into his Lion EFI and now he can't boot into OS X or BootCamp, neither can he reinstall Lion.

His EFI is borked, he tried deleting the EFI folder but likely go the wrong one and had rebooted 5 times to no avail.

He doesn't have a backup of his data, either out of OS X or Windows.

He can boot from Recovery, I gave a long winded speech about installing Lion on a external drive and doing data recovery efforts and erasing the entire drive and reverse cloning.

He seems not to be terminal shy, so perhaps you know of a way for him to delete the EFI folder that's causing the problem and allow him to use the earlier version, reboot twice and that could solve his issue.

Take a look and help the fellow out, I've tortured him pretty good for trying to install Linux on a Mac. 😁

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3962185?tstart=0

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Answer 11

May 18, 2012 9:31 PM in response to Linc Davis

I think that's been covered. You would insert the disc and reboot with the D key held down.

Seems that users with pre-Lion machines are having mixed results with that working as expected.

Of interest I just went into the System Profiler for the blacked-out machine & under the 'Display' button it says 'No displays detected' and in the detailed section under 'Graphics/Displays' it says 'No information found'...

As this machine uses a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS which is known to be somewhat dodgy I wonder if that's the cause.

Anyway, I've booked a Genius slot for tomorrow, will see where we get to.

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