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I just restored my HD from a Time Machine backup and afterward my AHT won't work, despite the fact that I have the original install disk (10.5 Leopard, disk #2 that says it has AHT on it). AHT worked a week ago, no problem. I'm 100% sure I have the right disk. I've successfully run AHT many times using this disk in the past.

Weirdly, I can still boot to Recovery Mode from the same disk by hitting Command + R (unfortunately, can't reach AHT that way). I ran First Aid from disk just in case, no problems found. So the disk drive, disk, and keyboard all seem to work okay.

I shut down, hit D right after hitting the power button, and screen goes gray forever, never boots. Same thing occurs when pressing Option at boot to choose the boot disk... goes to gray screen, never boots. I'm using a wired USB keyboard (a Microsoft brand, but I'm accounting for default option key vs. command key vs. windows key, etc.). I also tried hitting D at different times after hitting power, before hitting power, and tried different USB ports for the keyboard. Unplugged everything. All fails.

I assume my HD recovery changed something. Apple support said they think my disk is bad, which I don't buy since it worked last week.

Perhaps relevant: I want to use AHT because — before I recovered my HD — AHT indicated I had bad ram. (Ram problems were intermittent). I wanted to determine which of my two chips was bad by using just one or the other and repeatedly running AHT to find which individual chip is bad. Currently using just one of my two 4GB chips, which I guess could be related, if it's the bad one. MacMini is a 3,1 Intel currently running 10.11.6 btw.

Thanks a lot for any advice.

ScotttDC
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  • The MacMini3,1 model identifier was used for both the early-2009 and late-2009 models. I suspect you have an early-2009 model - can you confirm this? – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 01:00
  • Right. "Mac mini (Early 2009) / Processor 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo" – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 01:22
  • Ok. Can you go to Apple > About This Mac and, after the Overview comes up, click on the System Report... button. Near the bottom of the Hardware Overview window that appears, you'll see listed your Boot ROM Version and SMC Version. Can you comment back with the versions you have installed? – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 01:31
  • Boot ROM Version: MM31.0081.B06 SMC Version (system): 1.35f0 [Thanks Monomeeth] – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 01:44
  • Trying to get one step ahead of you MM... should I rerun the EFI updater? Here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518 – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 02:53
  • No, I don't think that will help. Something a little strange is going on if you ran the AHT only a week ago from the exact same disk using the exact same optical drive. I've just posted an answer to try and get it to work from a bootable USB instead. – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 03:57
  • As an aside, if your main goal is to test memory, then AHT really sin't the best tool for this. But that's another issue/question and if you can get AHT to work then it may be enough to identify a potentially faulty RAM chip. – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 03:58
  • The Mac started acting weird and crashing. Panic reports were kind of all over the place...not that I really understand what they say. One or two indicated ram issue, and I know bad ram can make everything screwy. Ran Rember a few times, found nothing. Ran AHT, both ram chips loaded, and got a 4MEM (ram problem). So AHT seemed like the way to go. But an hour ago I ran Rember again and it detected bad ram (both chips loaded). No idea why it started working. Seems I can reach my short term goal of figuring out which chip is bad; longer term, I like AHT and I wonder why my Mac doesn't work right – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 05:54
  • So, does this mean you were able to follow my instructions to create a bootable USB with your Mac's version of AHT on it? Or did the original CD start working? – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 05:59
  • Sorry, I explained poorly. Sequence is: AHT finds bad ram; I recover HD (due to a bad-idea driver install to make a generic ethernet to usb dongle work; made computer crash, panic report indicated the driver, so I wanted to go back to a backup before I ever put that stupid driver on my system to be safe); then, post-recovery, AHT/Option at boot started failing. – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 06:03
  • So the only really pertinent change is that Rember starting seeing the bad ram all of the sudden, when previously only AHT could detect it. Curious, what part of the OS handles booting to AHT (with D key) and choosing boot drive (with option key)? Maybe I could poke around in there, see if something is amiss. – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 06:11
  • Don't know if relevant, but I've ID'ed the bad ram chip and removed it. Afterward, same result when I attempt to boot with D key or Option key, disk or USB drive. – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 16:30
  • Here's an idea: I have Time Machine backups going back months. Can I restore whatever software handles booting to disk/USB? Perhaps boot.efi in CoreServices folder? Something like that? – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 16:48
  • I'm just getting a tad confused - can you clarify whether your Mac Mini is still booting normally from the internal HD you restored from the TM backup? That is, can you boot your Mac and use it, or do you still get the grey screen? And, if you can boot your Mac normally, how well can you use it? – Monomeeth Feb 11 '17 at 23:13
  • It was booting normally. Just couldn't run AHT from disk with D key nor select boot drive with Option key. However, I reset the PRAM and now I have caused myself much, much bigger problems. Now I can't boot at all. Just gray screen for all boot attempts now. I'm going to start a new thread. Crap. – ScotttDC Feb 12 '17 at 20:38
  • Update: I have erased my internal SSD and reinstalled OS 10.11.6 over the net in Recovery mode. Also created a bootable 10.11.6 external HD. External appears as an option for Startup Disk in Sys Prefs, and I can successfully boot from it by selecting it there. But not AHT on flash drive. Option still fails at boot. D key with AHT Install Disk loaded still fails. Both Option and D go to gray screen of death. Since it seems erase would retain the Recovery partition etc. on SSD, perhaps I should fully erase/reformat my internal SSD? Could that be the problem? Can I install AHT on the external? – ScotttDC Feb 26 '17 at 17:42
  • As an AHT workaround, I ran DriveDX app (free trial) on the SSD. Results: Advanced S.M.A.R.T. Status: Failing. Specifically, #171 Program Fail Count Total: Total number of flash program failures: 126. "Short Self Test" results in "read failure" at 10% progress, with the same "LBA [Logical block addressing] of 1st error". Also shows outdated firmware. I checked with Crucial online tech support (it's a Crucial SSD) and they agree there's newer FW and I should update. Don't know how I would given that I'm supposed to put it on a bootable flash drive and boot it, which I can't currently do. – ScotttDC Feb 26 '17 at 17:44
  • I tried to start a chat but couldn't! :( Anyway, I've read through all of this again and have two thoughts: (1) Have you tried booting from the original AHT disk by holding down the C key instead? (2) I'm not convinced that you can't boot from USB - all we know is that you couldn't from the USB you installed the downloadable AHT on. So, I would follow the steps provided by Crucial to create the bootable USB stick for your firmware update and see what happens? However, I would use a different USB stick just to eliminate the minor possibility there was a problem with the other one. – Monomeeth Feb 26 '17 at 22:58
  • Huh, what do you mean my chat? Does StackEx support direct chatting between members? – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 15:27
  • I will try C at boot using install DVD #2 instead of D next time I boot. However, in the recent past D has worked. Problem I see with the Crucial FW update is that the instructions involve creating a bootable CD or bootable USB, which I worry may not work given my problems booting from DVD and USB. – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 15:29
  • Here's an idea: if my theory is correct that I have some fundamental corruption in my internal SSD that is screwing up my boot with Option and D keys... since I have a fully bootable external HD connected via USB, how do I start the boot from that external HD (i.e. bypass internal SSD) to attempt Option or D from that external? Make sense? Would simply selecting the external as Startup Disk in Sys Prefs and rebooting do that? Or are D and Option commands hardware related? – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 16:33
  • p.s. Does your flash drive with bootable AHT appear in Startup Disk in Sys Prefs as an option? because it doesn't on mine when my Flash drive with AHT is in a USB port. – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 16:34
  • p.p.s. To be clear, even with a bootable external HD plugged in via USB, I cannot select it for boot using Option key at startup. That goes to gray screen of death too. That's a proven bootable drive that I can boot from Sys Prefs > Startup Disk. So I'm skeptical any flash drive will work. – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 19:05
  • RE: "Have you tried booting from the original AHT disk by holding down the C key instead?" Yes, just did. Fails to boot, goes to gray screen of death. – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 19:20
  • 1- No, my AHT USB doesn't appear in the Startup Disk preference pane, but it does still boot fine. 2- I don't think any corruption of your SSD would cause a problem in terms of invoking the Startup Disk Manager (or any startup keyboard shortcuts). You could test for this though by removing the SSD and trying to boot from another drive. 3- I would reset both your NVRAM and SMC. Refer to my answer here on how to do this. Make sure you: reset the NVRAM first and select the instructions for each that apply to your Mac. – Monomeeth Feb 27 '17 at 22:24
  • Thanks again, MM. PRAM reset seems to wreak havoc on my machine for some reason: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/272789/reset-pram-in-macmini-3-1-early-2009-and-now-it-wont-boot-at-all-but-powers – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 23:49
  • Strangely (to me anyway) I just downloaded the SSD firmware update from Crucial and burned it to DVD. That DVD shows as bootable in Sys Prefs > Startup Disk. I'd do it and I have a bootable external, but I don't know what I'm doing. Specifically, if I update the FW, SSD will be empty and I'll have to reformat it. Dunno how I'd actually do that. There won't be a Recovery partition on the internal and I don't know if I'd be able to get the external to boot. – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 23:52
  • RE: "You could test for this though by removing the SSD and trying to boot from another drive." Could I do the same test by booting from my bootable external drive, which is connected by a USB to SATA? – ScotttDC Feb 27 '17 at 23:56
  • Quick update: I successfully updated the Crucial SSD firmware after burning the FW to DVD and booting to it via Sys Prefs > Startup Disk. Successful install of the FW update, but after, lots of hiccups... Mini wouldn't stop booting to the FW DVD, couldn't get to Recovery mode. Loaded OE 10.5 install disk #1, hit C to get utilities, and reinstalled a Time Machine backup. Then from an external I wiped the entire internal SSD and then installed the OS, then rebooted to Recovery and installed a TM backup. Option at boot to select startup disk still fails (gray screen of death). – ScotttDC Mar 02 '17 at 22:32
  • So full wipe and FW update did not make Option at boot functional. I haven't tried loading install DVD #2 with AHT and hitting D yet, but I'm not hopeful. Currently dealing with a screwy Seagate external... will try AHT from OE install DVD #2 soon and update. – ScotttDC Mar 02 '17 at 22:32
  • With Flash drive with AHT in a USB port and OE Install Disk #2 with AHT in the optical drive, both Option at boot and D key at boot go to gray screen of death. Pressing C key boots normally. – ScotttDC Mar 04 '17 at 20:08
  • So Option at boot definitely doesn't work for my machine. The only way I have available for selecting a different Startup Disk is by picking it in Sys Prefs > Startup Disk. How do I put AHT on a flash drive in a way that will make it an option in Sys Prefs > Startup Disk? Theoretically, this should work, since that's how I recently updated the FW on my SSD (i.e. burned the FW ISO onto a DVD, then selected it in Sys Prefs > Startup Disk). – ScotttDC Mar 07 '17 at 23:21

2 Answers2

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My first thought was that perhaps you had somehow updated the firmware and were trying to use an AHT disk that couldn't boot due to this. This is a possibility because your Mac Mini came pre-shipped with Mac OS X 10.5.6, but the firmware update (which you do have installed) requires Mac OS X 10.5.7. However, then I realised your question says you only just ran the AHT last week. So, unless you somehow updated the firmware in the past week, this isn't likely to be your problem.

Since you can't seem to get your disk to work, the only other option I can think of is to download AHT again and run it from a USB. The steps to do this are as follows:

  1. Create a bootable USB flash drive by using Disk Utility's Erase function. Make sure you choose OS X Extended for the format and the GUID Partition Map for the scheme. For the purposes of these steps, also give your USB the name AHT when you're erasing it.
  2. Download the AHT for your particular Mac Mini here
  3. Mount the downloaded image (it should mount as AHTCThree)
  4. Now you will need to copy the AHT to your USB flash drive. To start, Launch the Terminal app (usually found within the Utilities folder)

  5. In the Terminal window, enter the following:

    cp -r /Volumes/AHTCThree/System /Volumes/AHT/

  6. Now we need to make the USB flash drive bootable, so enter the following line in Terminal:

    sudo bless --folder /Volumes/AHT/ --file /Volumes/AHT/System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics/diags.efi --label AHT

  7. Enter your Admin password

  8. Leave the USB flash drive plugged in and restart the Mac Mini

  9. Immediately hold down the Option key

  10. Select the AHT from the list and boot up

NOTE for other readers: - These Terminal commands were written for this specific question. However, these can be adapted for your use by replacing the AHTCThree with whatever name your downloaded disk image mounted as at Step 3. For example, if at step 3 your downloaded disk image mounted as AHTEOne, then at Step 5 you would use AHTEOne instead of AHTCThree within the Terminal command.

Monomeeth
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  • Thanks a lot for giving this time and thought, MM. I will try this approach tomorrow. I worry that Option still won't work because currently holding down Option pre boot goes to a blank gray screen of death. – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 05:59
  • Followed your instructions, MM. With the USB drive plugged directly into a Mini's port, pressing Option immediately after hitting power goes to gray screen of death. – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 16:28
  • MM, checking my work here... I redid your instructions above, but then checked Disk Util to see if the Flash drive or AHTCThree volume were bootable in "Info." In both cases, answer is no. That means Option at boot should not work, right? – ScotttDC Feb 21 '17 at 03:33
  • Edit: meant to write "AHT volume" – ScotttDC Feb 21 '17 at 03:51
  • @ScotttDC I've just followed my steps (but for an iMac) and checked info in Disk Utility and it says No for bootable. But when I try to boot from it, it boots into AHT fine. – Monomeeth Feb 21 '17 at 06:48
  • Thanks again, MM. Darn, thought I was onto something. Just tried Option at boot again and got gray screen of death again. Also tried over-the-internet AHT (Option D) but as expected, didn't work. Perhaps there's a Terminal command for rebooting to a specified volume? – ScotttDC Feb 21 '17 at 15:07
  • It's turns out my mini's OE internal HD still works. I have a SATA to USB connector, so I could use it as an external. Could/should I make that HD bootable with the full OS, or just AHT? Or would that change nothing? Btw, this is my current problem: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/273719/disk-utility-first-aid-says-problems-were-found-with-the-partition-map-which?noredirect=1&lq=1 – ScotttDC Feb 22 '17 at 15:12
  • Hey MM, I decided to try this again with a brand new flash drive. After I enter the command for #6 above, Terminal now says "sudo: bless: command not found". I'm copying and pasting command, so it should be correct. Does that mean anything? Can I word that command a different way? – ScotttDC Mar 26 '17 at 23:04
  • Hmm, if you're copying and pasting the whole thing it should be fine, but the error implies some sort of punctuation/syntax error. What happens if you try typing the whole thing out manually? – Monomeeth Mar 26 '17 at 23:14
  • Manually typed, Terminal asked for my password then said "sudo: bless: command not found". – ScotttDC Mar 27 '17 at 03:26
  • I just retried Option at boot and D key at boot, and both still go to gray screen of death. Therefore may not matter cause I couldn't boot with Option key anyway. – ScotttDC Mar 27 '17 at 14:21
  • p.s. Is there a Terminal command that would let me select the starting-point file in the flash drive's AHT and boot to it? (Thereby bypassing this recent Terminal issue and my Option at boot problem.) – ScotttDC Mar 27 '17 at 14:53
  • p.p.s. MM, I've been thinking big picture...1.5 months ago, AHT from install DVD worked with D key, as did booting with Option key. It stopped working after I was forced to do a clean install in Recovery mode (whole saga began when I did a PRAM reset: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/272789/reset-pram-in-macmini-3-1-early-2009-and-now-it-wont-boot-at-all-but-powers/272983#272983 ).

    As far as I know, that's the first time I've ever done a clean install on this Mac. Is it possible there was some OE software for my Mini that disappeared with the clean install of El Capitan?

     – ScotttDC Mar 27 '17 at 18:19
  • ... I wonder if I reinstall the software from scratch using the OE install DVD (10.5.6), then upgrade to El Cap, would AHT with D and Option at boot start working again? Are there machine-specific pieces of software for older macs (e.g. boot commands support) that aren't included in clean, newer OS versions? – ScotttDC Mar 27 '17 at 18:22
  • Something strange happened at the outset of all this. The original PRAM/NVRAM reset should not cause these problems (I'm actually skeptical that it did - instead I think there was an existing issue/fault that wasn't symptomatic until you did the reset). Your Mac Mini supports El Capitan, so while I understand why you're questioning whether that was the cause, it's highly unlikely unless the installation itself was corrupted in some way. I guess this could be possible as you had problems with your SSD. – Monomeeth Mar 28 '17 at 00:03
  • If your Mac is otherwise working fine at present, I would leave it and continue saving for your next one. But if it's not working fine (i.e. you've got other problems besides being unable to boot into AHT), then you could try reinstalling the OS from scratch using the original DVD (assuming you can boot/install from it). But if you do this you'd want to ensure you have a full backup! – Monomeeth Mar 28 '17 at 00:03
  • Thanks, MM. I agree a PRAM reset should not do that. But it has screwed everything up the two recent times I've done a PRAM reset... weird. I do have some problems that are popping up, but they're minor: Mac will occasionally go "into neutral" (I'll be typing and suddenly the active app will no longer be active, then a couple seconds later, it's fine); Mac won't wake up from sleep, requiring restart; can't run that sudo command... that's it really. It's working pretty well.

    If I were to get AHT to work, and the problems discovered necessitated a logic board replacement, I wouldn't bother.

     – ScotttDC Mar 29 '17 at 14:06
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Maybe this is a long shot, but I could imagine that repairing your recovery partition could do the trick. This article describes the procedure:

Note: This procedure can potentially destroy all data on your disk and you should make sure you have a working backup ready.

  1. Download a copy of the “Install OS X” or “Install Mac OS X” from the Mac App Store under the “Purchases” tab which matches the version of system software on your Mac (for example, the “Install OS X Mavericks” app, or “Install macOS Sierra” app)

  2. Go to the developers website here and download the latest version of Recovery Partition Creator, it’s an AppleScript that will handle the recreation of the recovery drive

  3. After the app has downloaded, right-click on “Recovery Partition Creator.app” and choose “Open” to bypass Gatekeeper

  4. Follow the onscreen instructions, and select the primary drive you want to restore a recovery partition onto (typically Macintosh HD unless you named the drive differently, or are using a separate disk

  5. Point to the Mac OS X installer application you downloaded in the first step and let the AppleScript do it’s work

  6. When the Recovery Partition Creator app is finished running, reboot the Mac and hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery and confirm the recovery partition now exists and works as intended

Community
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n1000
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  • Thanks n1000, my HD doesn't have a recovery partition. You mean in my normal HD, right? I thought that was developed after my old MacMini 3,1 (early 2009). Am I wrong? – ScotttDC Feb 11 '17 at 16:03
  • Oh. I am sorry. I overlooked that you are on Leopard. So this answer does not apply. – n1000 Feb 11 '17 at 16:07
  • Now that I've dug my very corrupted SSD HD out of corruption hell, I realize you were right, n1000. The hidden volume "Recovery HD" is there after I did a clean install of 10.11 El Cap. I didn't know where/how to look before. – ScotttDC Feb 17 '17 at 19:15
  • I had assumed Cmd+R was running from 10.5 disk #2, since that disk was in the drive. – ScotttDC Feb 17 '17 at 19:20
  • @ScotttDC Too bad you had find out the hard way :/ Please consider upvoting or accepting my answer if you think it (would have) solved your question and if you think it could help others in the future. – n1000 Feb 17 '17 at 20:02
  • To clarify, at the time I asked the question I could successfully enter Recovery Mode from my HD. (Quote: "Weirdly, I can still boot to Recovery Mode from the same disk by hitting Command + R (unfortunately, can't reach AHT that way)." I had wrongly assumed Recovery Mode was run by my install disk #2. Would re-creating my working Recovery partition help me bypass that HD by running AHT on disk or doing Option key startup? – ScotttDC Feb 18 '17 at 00:18
  • Sorry. I don't know. My hypothesis was that AHT id part of the Recovery Partition and that it may have been damaged on you internal disk – n1000 Feb 18 '17 at 07:47
  • Ah. No, AHT isn't in the Recovery partition, at least on my old Mac Mini, that came with OS 10.5. Have to run it from OE Install Disc #2. – ScotttDC Feb 26 '17 at 16:43