Running hardware test

Hi,
my intel imac has been acting balky lately- running a bit slow at times. It recently started "blacking out"- shutting down somewhat randomly and being slow to restart. I'm trying to run the hardware test from the installation cd's that came with my machine, but I'm unable to get it to run.
I've tried using installation disc 1 (my machine came w/ version 10.4.4 of the OS), installation disc 2, holding down "c", holding down "d", holding down "apple-d" etc to no avail. Any ideas how I can get the hardware test to actually run?
I just want to try to diagnose the random shut downs.
Thanks!
Jason

have your tried starting up in safe mode ?

Similar Messages

My 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard won't boot even after erasing and re-installing Snow Leopard (via my MacBookPro), either from the HD or DVD drive. Can't get it to run Hardware Test. Disk Utility says disk OK - files are there. What can I do?

My 2006 iMac running Snow Leopard won't boot even after erasing and re-installing Snow Leopard. I erased and re-installed by putting the iMac in Target Disk mode and usin my MacBookPro as the host. But after numerous attempts I still can't get it to boot either from the HD or DVD drive. I just get the white screen after the wheel stops spinning. I can't get it to run Hardware Test - just get the white screen. If I use Disk Utility via my MBP it says the disk appears OK. All the Snow Leopad files appear to have been installed. What can I do?

Hi-NRG Bwoy wrote:
I erased and re-installed by putting the iMac in Target Disk mode and using my MacBookPro as the host.
Reet the SMC and the PRAM
 Cheat sheet to help diagnose and fix your Mac
Perhaps you installed the wrong version OS X onto the iMac, you can't use the disk from another Mac.
clean the disk.
If it's not working then use this method to create a bootable 10.6 USB from the iMac machine specific 10.6 disk or the 10.6.3 retail disk on your other Mac, use it to boot the iMac with.
http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

24" iMac summer 2008. CPU fan runs at highest speed, some times goes to "sleep" mode. t' is about 35'- 42'C. Run hardware test: 4sns/1/40000000:tlop-130.000, next time 4sns/1/40000000:tlop-128.000 errors. Reinstalled all softwere. Nothing changed.

24" iMac summer 2008. CPU fan runs at highest speed, some times goes to "sleep" mode. CPU t' is about 35'- 42'C. Run hardware test: 4sns/1/40000000:tlop-130.000, next time 4sns/1/40000000:tlop-128.000 errors. Tried SMC, NVRAM, PRAM. Reinstalled all softwere. Nothing changed.

I suspect you have hardware problem with a fan sensor. Doing a software install will not help the machine needs to be taken in for service. If you run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode it should reveal the error code. If it does not then run AHT an additional 2-3 times to be sure in Extended Mode. Each pass will take about 30-60 minutes.

Can I run hardware test and repair a disk with Leopard using 10.3 DVD

Hi,
I'm trying to decide whether to partition and clone Leopard to my external or partition and install Tiger on the external.
My iMac came with 10.3.6 install and hardware test DVD's and they (Comp USA) gave me a Tiger drop-in DVD. I upgraded to Leopard through a family pack DVD (when I told my friend I would by one of the install's I thought I would get a DVD, but you only get an install license, oh well). By the way, Leopard runs great in my rev A iMac G5.
I'm trying to figure out which os to use on the external as a safe-boot incase something happens. If I clone Leopard onto a partition for backup/boot, can I still use the Disc Repair (not permissions) and Hardware Test from the 10.3 or Tiger DVD's to maintain that permission should something bad happen? The way I see it, i'll be able to repair permissions on both the main and external drives using Leopard's disc utility, but I'm not sure if I can repair a Leopard disk or do Hardware Test on that disc using an earlier version of OSX install/Hardware Test DVD's.
Will earlier versions of OSX repair a Leopard disk and be able run Hardware Test?
Thanks for the help,
LowBb
Message was edited by: LowBb

Yes, that seems to be the case, but I didn't do good enough research when he asked if I wanted a license for Leopard. For some reason, I had it in my mind that a Family pack came with multi DVD's for people. Maybe that's why he sold me a license so cheap. I thought I was getting a bargin, you get what you pay for.
So, I have the hardware test DVD's that came with the iMac and the Tiger drop-in is just an upgrade with no Hardware Test, you are correct.
But: (let me make sure I have this right) I should not use the 10.3 DVD's or the Tiger drop-in to repair a disc (not permissions) on a hard drive running Leopard. Is this what you are saying? I kind of thought this would be the case. If it is, I'm going to install MY stuff that I have the DVD's for on the external as an emergency boot disc.

Can not run hardware test on nMP

I have Mac Pro late 2013, 6 cores, 16 Gb RAM, Yosemite. I have followed Apple instructions how to run hardware test. Both using D and Alt D at startup. Unplugged devices, plugged devices. The only thing I see is a row of languages and option to shut down or restart with black background I check English and hit return. After that nothing happens. Is there somone who could explain ?

Using Apple Diagnostics
Using Apple Diagnostics - Apple Support
I take it you are using a wired keyboard and you are not seeing the display:

I want to run hardware test on my Power Mac G5 but it isn't working.

What I tried:
I have the original install disc 1 which came with the machine in the optical drive (which is the usual one). I printed the hardware test guide which is on the disc, disconnected everything but mouse, keyboard and monitor. I tried to boot, pressing the Alt/Option key, but the "system picker" or boot menu won't show up. What happens is what somebody described as for "old world" macs: my system boots with no finder window open and without the white screen and apple logo (which usually shows up during startup).
I also tried something I found in a user manual pdf for Power Mac G5 on the apple archives: Booting and press-holding C (btw it's strange that this manual says something different than the manual on the original disc). What happens here is that my machine is booting from the original disc but it boots in Installation mode. I looked at every drop-down-menu I could find there for several times but there is definitely no hardware test, since this is thought to install Mac OS 10.4.
I also tried the Intel-way and holding D during boot, but no surprise, it only booted the first drive (like it should on a pre-Intel).
But something about this all is very strange. Yesterday night I tried all these steps above and when I was close to fall asleep in front of my monitor it suddenly worked and I made it finally into the hardware test. If I remember correctly, I was holding down the C key, but as I said a was pretty dizzy and can be mistaken. I ran hardware test once enhanced and it stopped during ram, giving me an error code I wrote down. But since I made it into the test and was so tired, I thought "lets continue tomorrow" which was my epic fail for this year, I guess. Today I repeated every step, every way I tried but it just doesn't work; and I read sooo many forums and Q&A's.
By the way here is my error code which appeared after 49 minutes (to proof I didn't dream this):
"2MEM/1/4: DIMM3/J14"
Why do I want to do this?
Around the 1st of September this year my Power Mac G5 didn't boot anymore (the fan speeding issue). After reading a little online I came to the point that its either my Ram memory or its my graphics card or its Pram or NVram. I resetted Pram and NVram, I also replaced battery and then it booted again for one day but on the following day it didn't. I repeated every step but the battery replacement since it was a brand new one. It can only be Ram memory or my Graphics card (which is the standard one for this machine).
Since then my Power Mac was rarely in use, only two or three times in Firewire Target Mode to access some of the data. Yesterday I wanted to do this again; booting it in FT mode but I must have connected my keyboard too late during booting and my machine surprisingly booted just fine! I was so stoked about this! Then I wanted to find out why it didn't work for a while and started several steps. Ran maintanance scripts, repaired the system volume, checked for enough free space, checked my Ram and then I stumbled on the interwebs over the hardware test which is delivered on the original install disc 1 and I never heard about this before (strange enough). What followed is written above.
What do I have?
I have this:
Modellname:
Power Mac G5
Modell-Identifizierung:
PowerMac7,3
Prozessortyp:
PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Prozessorgeschwindigkeit:
2 GHz
Anzahl der CPUs:
2
L2-Cache (pro CPU):
512 KB
Speicher:
4 GB
Busgeschwindigkeit:
1 GHz
Boot-ROM-Version:
5.2.4f1
Seriennummer (System):
CK52107BRTY
Hardware-UUID:
00000000-0000-1000-8000-000D93640EEE
Sorry for the German but I think you still get it. The PPC was delivered with 10.4 and I bought it used from a friend with his original Update disc to 10.5 and I updated to the max, 10.5.8. I have 2x 1TB drive (similar ones) together as a Raid0 and three partitions on it. (I know now that it doesnt make that much of a sense).
Yeah so I really want to find out why my machine didn't work for three months but since it is so old and I'm a student, it doesn't make any sense to me to go to an Apple store or similar to have it expensively serviced since there is no guarantee that these guys really help you (heard some stories about the local stores here).
Is there a way to re-access the hardware test and run it to the end?
As you might have noticed, I'm pretty desperate. I would soooooooo appreciate it!!
Best,
Erik

"2MEM/1/4: DIMM3/J14"
Replace the memory in the DIMM 3 slot.
If you are running Mac OS X 10.5 you can use this program to test your G5's memory:
http://www.kelleycomputing.net/Rember/
It will subject your RAM to a more thorough test than Apple Hardware Test.

Hard drive issues; how to run hardware test

A couple of weeks ago my hard drive experienced what I would call "minor crashes". The computer booted up to the grey box with the question mark, and would do nothing more. The hard drive also made unpleasant noises. I think I got it back by resetting PRAM, but it happened a second time, and then a PRAM reset again got it back. Needless to say, I'm nervous about this drive.
I have Apple Care until January '09 (this is an '06 Intel machine) and figure I should try to move on figuring out what's up ASAP (both because I don't want a drive failure, and because I only have a few more months of Care).
I'm guessing that I should run the extended hardware test, but I can't seem to get it going using the Leopard disk I used to upgrade the OS. Do I need the original install disks (which I can't find, of course!)? What else can I do to determine if I have an issue that calls for hard drive replacement? If I need a new hard drive (it now seems small at 250gb anyhow), will I be able to do it myself (assuming Apple Care won't take care of it)?
Any insights welcome. Thanks!

Give it a try, if not you'll need to dig up your Disk 1!
+Some Intel-based Macs ship with Apple Hardware Test and Mac OS X 10.4.x preinstalled on the hard drive. If an Erase and Install installation of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is performed using a retail Leopard installation disc, Apple Hardware Test will be erased and not reinstalled on these Macs.+
+If you're in this situation and need to use Apple Hardware Test, simply start from the DVD that came with your computer (not the Leopard installation disc) while holding the "D" key. Apple Hardware Test will run from the DVD.+
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306568

G4 15" seems to work, but won't boot Install CD or run Hardware Test

Hello all, I have an odd one here. I have a 15" Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz with Tiger 10.4.10 that works generally OK, but I want to run Repair Disk on it because Console keeps popping up with what seem to be disk-related problems.
When I boot with Install CD 1, the process hangs at an empty blue screen and the CD stops. When I try to run Apple Hardware Test, I get a message that "apple hardware test does not support this machine", even though the Install CD says PowerBook G4 and OS X 10.4.
I've tried swapping the RAM out but it didn't help. What do you think - motherboard issue?
Here are some of the Console messages - perhaps they are actually program execution errors rather than file system errors.
2007-11-28 14:15:42.403 HPEventHandler[214]: DebugAssert: Third Party Client: (NULL != m_lock && 0 == errno) Can't create semaphore lock[/Volumes/Development/HP/Mac-Sirani/mac-software/components/HPEventHandler/ Sources/Core/HPTMNotificationManager.cpp:62]
2007-11-28 14:15:42.632 HP Director (All-in-One)[210] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
(UNKNOWN)
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2007-11-28 14:15:42.658 HP Director (All-in-One)[210] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
(UNKNOWN)

That implies you have a .plist problem.
Run Disk Utility, select your hard drive in the left pane, and Repair Permissions from the right pane.
Do that a few times until there are no errors reported, update to 10.4.11, and repair permissions again.
Joe

My iMac G5 will not run Hardware Test. Please help!!

I need to run a hardware test for two reason:
1. ethernet stopped working [airport does work]
2. if the computer falls asleep it won't wake up
So, I want to find out if it's a hardware or software issue. Problem is, when i try to boot up the Hardware Test nothing happens. The computer starts up normally as if I didn't have the disk in at all.
I am following the instructions in the Hardware test "Read Me" file...put the OS X install disk in & restart holding down the "D" button. The startup screen flashes 2 different colors of grey and then just boots up normally. If I try holding "option" when I restart I get to a screen with the hard drive & the disk as choices to boot, but if I choose the disk I get a really weird screen of text talking about kernel panic & a bunch of stuff I don't know about on top of the grey crash screen telling me to restart.
So after this long-winded question does anyone have any idea what I should do? THANKS!!

Try using Disk Utility:
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

How do I run hardware test in Mavericks

I have a mid 2009 iMac with 8gb. I've upgraded the OS through several flavors, now have Mavericks. I need to run a memory test but can't invoke it with D, option D, etc. I have a Snow Leopard disk but no sign of it there, either. The internet launch didn't work, either.
Any ideas?
Bill

The AHT for your machine can be run from the original disc that came with the computer when it was new.
How to invoke and interpret the Apple hardware tests | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews
Using Apple Hardware Test
Get Apple Hardware Test Boot Mode Back on Some OS X Lion Macs
Intel-based Macs- Using Apple Hardware Test

Can you run Hardware Test from older DVD?

Hello,
My mini2,1 came with OS 10.4. I have the two original system discs. SInce I bought it right before 10.5 was released, Apple sent me a single Leopard Upgrade disc. Does anyone know if the Apple Hardware Test is on the 10.5 upgrade disc? If it isn't, can I run the test from Disc 1 of the original 10.4 DVD's even though the mini is now running 10.5?
Thanks in advance.

Excellent. I found the hardware test on the original 10.4 OS X Install Disc 1. Glad to know that the test on the DVD is for my specific computer hardware, and that the current OS on that machine does not matter.This was not clear to me and I could not find an answer on Apple's help pages. And that explains why the hardware test isn't on the 10.5 upgrade DVD.
Thanks BD and Niel.
Dr. Rock

Why can't I run Hardware Test?

I am trying to figure out if I have a hardware issue and was told to run the Hardware test. my iMac is the late 2010 model and shipped with Mac OS X (10.6.4) and currently upgraded to Mountain Lion 10.8.3.
I have tried running test by restarting and pressing "D", option "D", and both ways with and without the original applications install DVD in. But every time I just get the login screen that I normally get. Am I doing something wrong?
This is above my pay grade, but I am having trouble running Adobe's Illustrator and a colleague using the same set up said they had the exact same issue and it turned out to be bad RAM. So, I am trying to run the hardware test to determine if I have a hardware or software issue.
Thanks in Advance,
Rob

See this thread and baltwo's directions, which will enable you to start the AHT directly from the boot volume, that is if the AHT (.diagnostics) isn't already present.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4427984?start=0&tstart=0
But first, using the starting suggestion there, unhide hidden folders and see if you have .diagnostics in the given location. If you don't, then proceed with the rest of the suggestions, but be sure to use the corrected Terminal command later in the thread.
Still, disc 2 and the D key should work. Don't know why it isn't.
Also, if you just want to test the RAM, get Rember. But close all applications first. It may be necessary to run several loops before it finds anything.
http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Running Hardware Test from second Mac?

My wife has a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac. It has a faulty DVD drive - actually a disc has been stuck in there for some time and we haven't been able to get it out. That is not our current issue, although it makes troubleshooting much harder.
Her iMac is getting slower and slower and I promised I'd run some tests. I can't run the Hardware Test on that machine from the original install disc because of the faulty DVD drive. I'd like to run the test remotely from my MacBook Pro but can't work out how to do that. I have tried booting her Mac in Target mode where I can run Disk Utility on my machine and repair her hard drive but when I insert her original Install Disc in my laptop there is no Hardware Test visible on it. I have tried to get access to my DVD drive from her iMac but 'DVD or CD Sharing' being turned on in 'Sharing Prefs' on my machine doesn't seem to bring up any shared discs on her computer. Maybe it's still trying to access her faulty DVD drive?
Is there anything I can do here to run some hardware tests on her machine? I'd like to do that before I start doing clean installs of the Mac OS on hard drives etc. I'm a bit stuck.
Thank you

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
      left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in
      your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
        /usr/bin/drutil eject
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.
Running the AHT doesn't make much sense for fixing slowness. If the computer is working, then there is no hardware failure. See the following:
Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
                                  The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
                                  The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
                                  The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
                                  Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
    used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
    requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
    drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

Running Hardware Test or Running Mac OS X from DVD with an older iMac

I have a 4 year old iMac which is running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and using a wired aluminum keyboard along with a Magic Mouse. I recently had some files corrupted so that when I booted up, the dock would not load and could not run any programs. It appeared to me that Finder wasn't working properly.
In any event, I tried to run the Apple Hardware Test from the Snow Leopard DVD by starting the computer and pressing the D key but the computer would not boot off the DVD and continued booting off the hard drive.
I also tried starting the computer with the C key to try and do a reinstall of OS X, again with same result.
I ended up bringing the computer to Genius Bar at local Apple Store. The tech guy plugged an older styled white plastic keyboard and the computer recognized the D and C keys during start up. He then did a recovery of OS with no problems.
He downloaded a firmware update for me to install when I got home. When I tried to install the update, updater said firmware update is not needed.
At the moment, I'm in the same position as before. The computer runs fine but I still can not boot off the DVD because the aluminum keyboard's keys are recognized at startup.
Any ideas on firmware update to rectify this? Don't have the older plastic keyboard and seems silly to have an old one on hand in case computer acts up.

I tried resetting the PRAM but since keyboard keys are not recognized on booting up, holding the CONTROL, COMMAND, P & R keys didn't work. I noticed that on older Power PC Macs that holding Power On button continuously while starting up would force computer into Open Firmware so PRAM could be reset. This didn't work for me.
I also reset the SMC.
When I look in Utilities, I see that Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0 is installed last modified on Oct. 8, 2009. I've had the keyboard much longer than that so not sure what that means. When I clicked it, it said firmware is up to date.
In any event, is there any way to force a firmware update even if my computer says the firmware is up to date? Thanks

Trouble running hardware test on 07 iMac with noisy fan

Hello
I have an 07 iMac with a noisy fan- I've tried vacuuming out dust from the back but want to avoid taking it apart if possible...
I read online I should run the hardware test, but since I am running Mavericks the Apple support advice is to run the original OS X install disc and restart (holding down D or Option+D)...
Long story short I got a replacement disc from Apple (I'd lost the original) but the iMac ejects it when I restart following the process above... could it be my bluetooth keyboard? Hopefully not since I no longer have the original hardwired one... or does anyone have any other ideas for either how to get to the hardware test... or fix the fan (without a third party app just stopping it)
Thanks!

Try holding down the Option key to get the one time boot manager screen then select the AHT. Not sure as Apple moved it around on different install discs but it might be on the Applications discs and not the OS X discs.

Run hardware test on MacPro 2009 running 10.8.2

Hello. I think I should run a hardware test on my MacPro early 2009 running 10.8.2. Restaring while holding D key does nothing, neither inserting the original install DVD and restarting holding the H key, nor restarting holding cmd-D (supposed to call up internet hardware test). Any other options (besides Apple Care, for which it is definitely too late, or walking to some hardware store)?
Thanks

For a machine that shipped with 10.5.x, the appropriate Apple Hardware Test for that particular hardware is on the second (Applications) disk. If you did not get a replacement for that disk, you should call Apple back and request that disk. There is no other disk that will contain the appropriate boot system for AHT.
BTW, note that those disks were almost certainly not left out of the packaging. It is not uncommon for them to be overlooked. If you still have the packaging somewhere by any chance, search it very carefully, taking it apart to look everywhere. (You may think that expecting you to keep the packaging for a 2009 machine may be a little ridiculous, but some people - especially those who don't live near an Apple Store - like to keep the box from machines they still own, in case they have to send them off somewhere.)

Running hardware test

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