Is there a way of testing the logic board via Terminal?

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Level 1

14 points

Is there a way of testing the logic board via Terminal?

About 5 days ago, my mac book pro experienced the gray screen flashing folder scenario, telling me that it can't find the OS.

I opened in Internet Recovery mode, and when opening disk utility to check my hard drive, the hard drive didn't show.

After a breif call to apple support, it looked like my hard drive was kapput, so I bought another hard drive (something I've wanted to upgrade for a while anyway).

The new hard drive is a seagate momentus xt 750GB, and fairly sure it's compatible as I watched a youtube vid showing me how to replace the hard drive with the very same drive.

The disk utility cannot find this hard drive either, which means it could be a number of things, the worst being an issue with the logic board..

I cannot open in apple diagnostic mode, but I can access terminal without an OS, can I check the logic board, or anything else that could be causing the problem from there?

I'm trying to find out as much as I can about the problem before I have to pay to get it diagnosed.. hopefully it just needs a replacement SATA cable!

Thanks all,

Joe

Posted on Jul 24, 2013 8:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 24, 2013 9:06 AM in response to JRod37

I assume you correctly installed the OS on the new drive?

Giving out terminal shell commands to unknown persons is frowned upon here for the obvious reasons that typing even the slightest thing wrong can cause major problems, corrupt the OS, and very easily wreck havoc on your OS and its operations.

You should make a bootable from USB to see if you can boot from there before prematurely assuming your logic board is bad.

see: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-mac-osx

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Answer 2

leroydouglas

Level 10

199,434 points

Jul 24, 2013 9:14 AM in response to JRod37

Did you format the new drive? This can be done with the Internet Recovery Mode. Try booting holding the command option R keys to get to Disk Utility.

JRod37 wrote:

I cannot open in apple diagnostic mode

You can run the Apple Hardware Test / Apple Diagnostics:

may not be aware is that Apple dumped AHT this past June. New Macs, introduced in June 2013 or later, no longer include the software. Instead, they have an entirely new diagnostic application called, appropriately enough, Apple Diagnostics. You access Diagnostics exactly the same way as you do AHT: Hold down the D key at startup.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5781

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New MacBooks can access HardWareTest by rebooting holding the D key, no disk required.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

or older machines Boot off your Install Disk while holding down the D key, (not c key), then run the extended Apple Hardware Test. Some disks require you to use the Option key at bootup to select AHT. Some models have a separate AHT CD.

If any error codes are generated, post that code back here for interpretation.

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Answer 3

JRod37 Author

Level 1

14 points

Jul 24, 2013 9:23 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

I haven't been able to install the os yet. I created a recovery disk usb stick, but when going through the recovery/reinstall process and get to the 'select disc...' bit, my new hard drive doesn't show up.

When holding d at startup, it just opens into the OS X utilities screen.

Sorry I forgot to mention its a 2011 model, came with lion and had since been upgraded to mountain lion.

Thanks for your replies so far, I understand giving out terminal messages isnt the norm, im just rrying to find out as much as I can about the problem before handing it over and paying for an expert to look at it.

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