diagnostic
I've been trying to do an AHT/diagnostics on my pre-2013 macbook pro. Unfortunately I don't have the original DVDs and when I tried online diagnostics (Option+D after pressing the power button) I get a message saying: "Apple Server Diagnostics does not support this machine". When I try Option+D, nothing happens. Any ideas what to do now?
Start the wifi diagnostics as explained earlier.
Once in wifi diagnostics press the CMD+2 (or look under Window in menu bar) to get in to Utility.
Although this does not answer the original question, as it is about an earlier mac model, this is a somewhat common issue for newer macs, and I feel that this answer may be helpful from the people that come here from Google, where this page is one of the top results.
If, when entering single user mode, you encounter the issue shown in this question's GIF (the mac shows the single user mode white text, but never prompts a terminal and just contiunes booting anyway), the answer is that Single User Mode via CMD+S does not work on T2 macs (if your mac's model appears on this list, then it has a T2 chip).
Apple's official guidance (which strangely now leads to a 404 page, but is still available on the Wayback Machine) is to:
- Turn on your Mac, then immediately press and hold CMD+R to start up from macOS Recovery.
- Select Disk Utility from the Utilities window, then click Continue.
- From the Disk Utility sidebar, select the volume that you're using, then choose File > Mount from the menu bar. (If the volume is already mounted, this option is dimmed.) Then enter your administrator password when prompted.
- Quit Disk Utility.
- Choose Terminal from the Utilities menu in the menu bar.
- You can now enter UNIX commands. When done, choose Apple () menu > Restart.
These steps replace the CMD+S method, which doesn't work with the recommended settings on current Mac computers.
Best Answer
You will need the exact model information, not just as you say pre-2013
then we can help you looking to download the correct AHT for your model on the web (if it exists), since the AHT are model specific.
From the screen shot you can see it is a:
MacBook Pro (15 inch, Mid 2010) (MacBookPro6,2/Mac-F22586C8)
Using the above information now we have to find the unique Model Number identifier for the AHT file.
There is no method or listing for that just plain web search.
Getting the AHT is sort of back door in to Apple support.
UPDATE
I did some searching for you and, I found it:
Mac-F22586C8, MacBookPro6,2
022-4597-A.dmg
Enter that in the above link.
Let me know if I got the right file for my records.
More Update:
There is also a very nice database containing Apple Hardware Diagnostics files, all you need is your Model Identifier (found in About this Mac.