Well, the EFI Failed with a SATA error for no SMART attributes found but everything else was good. ASD OS won’t boot unless safe mode and then of course it won’t run without root access. Any ideas other than a blind buy and swap of a video card?
So in summary:
Was locking up with only mouse movement. Then went to boot looping with Kernal panics. Now if it isn’t boot looping, it’s locking up with multi-colored artifacts in either/both groups and horizontal lines across the screen. It boots perfectly fine in Safe Mode.
AHT tests gave two different fan motor codes(1 time each) and then nothing after cleaned and replaced HDD. After adding the EFI and OS test to the thumb drive I seem to have lost access to the AHT also.
4MOT/4/40000003: HDD-1316
4MOT/4/40000003: HDD-1302
EFI test results above.
Pretty sure I don’t have one of these in a late 09 iMac. I think those started in '11 which is when Airplay became an option for Macs. The original i3, i5, and i7s just don’t have them.
Doesn’t seem like they sell just parts.(Not surprising as Apple says the only thing replaceable/upgradable on these is the RAM) Also, this part is …4, 5 years old now?
Now the question is what do I want to put in here. The top end I think is a 6970m 2Gb card, but they are pricey new. Risk used? Chinese rip aparts? eBay has for about 400. I did catch one story of someone flashing an 880GTX and getting it to run but that’s way more. Might just go with a 6700 series card 512. I had a 4850 512 in here.
Diagnostics failing SMART Attributes can be ignored.
Once booted, go into Disk utility, Click on the storage device, and See that SMART Status is verified.
ASD OS has the Video test suite in it.
ASD EFI diagnostics tests Low level functionality of devices. What’s loading isn’t actually an OS, rather an interface to interact with hardware tests already built info firmware. It has some really good RAM tests and usually a Full DMA block scan for the Hard drive.
ASD OS actually loads a basic OS, to test the higher level functionality of the system. Cameras, Video cards, IO trackpads, etc. Things that need a software driver loaded to be tested. It’s less good at testing RAM, as the OS occupies a part of the RAM.
AHT is the watered down version of ASD EFI apple provides with the computer. It either shipped on a CD,DVD back in the day, later it was stored in a hidden folder in System/Library/Coreservices/.diagnostics. It ceases to function when you reformat a drive and reinstall the OS, as installers don’t restore that folder. It can be coped from another like machine.
All versions of Apple Diagnostics are only intended for a narrow range of computers. If it is not the correct version for the computer it should tell you. If it somehow manages to run on the wrong model of Mac it will cause false errors.
I’m 99% sure I’ve got all the right diagnostic versions, I just can’t load any OS out of safe mode. I found a thread on her apple boards about upgrading the video card and most of the people who wound up there had the same issues I’ve come across. Increasing lockups and finally either boot loops or freezes on boot up with artifacts across the screen. All of them dead 4850 512mb cards.
I’ve grabbed a 6970 2gb off eBay and while I’m at it, an i7 880 3.06mhz CPU. Just won’t have time for a week or so to do anything with them due to a 25hr job and a 40hr job. Free time is very difficult to find.
Sounds like a Video driver issue, since in safe mode it uses the Generic driver. Video flicker is normal in safe mode especially in a newer OS.
Reading your original post, you had diagnosed it down to a bad SATA cable. Have you tried your original video card since addressing that issue?
Usually I recommend, like many other here, that you install an SSD Drive as your startup volume. OWC sells a very nice hard drive bracket to replace your optical drive. It works very well, and if, for some reason you still need an optical drive its easy to put in an external case. Keep the rotational drive you have for storing all your data: movies, pictures, svgs etc.
I can confirm that your diagnostic version is 100% correct for the model you have given. The 3rd party video card will VERY likely have a problem with ASD OS.
I would agree except for the fact that even loading the ASD OS tester(Snow Leopard maybe?) should be the original driver for this iMac had the same issue of being unable to load unless put into Safe Mode. Unless there’s a bios style deep driver that kicks in and drives any and all loaded OSs that are loaded, I’m going to stick with dead 4850. crosses fingers (generic driver may just not push the GPU hard enough to die.
edit: Aaaaand, time to go to work essentially for the next 3 days before i have off from 1 of the jobs.
Brother had a “dead” CPU once that would boot and last long enough to get windows partly loaded before shutting down. That was fun to diagnose.
The OS in ASD OS will ONLY load the Driver for the OEM card for that given model of mac.
The ASD testing environment is minimalist to reduce false errors, there is theoretically nothing in it that is not required to run the tests.
I would agree that your original card is likely the culprit in this scenario. A blown video card in my '07 iMac finally put it to pasture after many years of service. The replacement card was as much as a whole unit of the same vintage!
So after burying myself in my iMac almost completely(when the i7-880 comes in it won’t be but a few more screws away then how deep I got), I’ve got a fully working machine again.
Used to be a AMD 4850 512MB. And now to go and restore to my old backup.
See that you’re running Sierra reminded me that I had to chase down a copy of Javi SE 6 last night to keep Adobe Illustrator CS6 running after upgrading to Sierra on my iMac.
Heehee. Only thing left would be at some point pump the RAM to 32GB. Just have to put six more screws back into holding the monitor in the frame, clean it well, then set the glass back in front of it.
well, over the weekend I got bored and installed WINE and tried to setup Final Fantasy XI. I got the installers going but haven’t yet worked out the kinks as I’ve got stuck on some of the DLLs. I had the same issues on my PC a few years back, but was easily able to install a bunch of various years VC-redist packages dotnet and an old dx8 and was good.
I’d toy with the RAM(it will support 32GB) but as stated way up there, I have no need(justified need, not want) for that much expense.
Oh. I also scrubbed the Logitech files in the hidden and system areas, reinstalled the Logitech Controller software and now I have usable forward and back buttons on my M570 again. Busy computer week.
Now if only I had a giant grey laser box to sit next to my computers.
Busy computer week.