This article contains frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the Apple Personal Diagnostics (APD) software.
Questions answered in this FAQ:
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1) Apple Personal Diagnostics reports a disk or directory problem with my hard disk, but when I run Disk First Aid, no problems are found. What is causing this contradiction?
2) I have noticed that running APD while using video mirroring is causing trouble. Is APD compatible with video mirroring?
3) Is the Apple Personal Diagnostic (APD) 1.0 compatible with Power Macintosh computers?
4) I have System 7.5 with the System 7.5 Update 1.0 installed on my Power Macintosh computer. My Apple Personal Diagnostics 1.1 is reporting problems with my Power Macintosh computer's logic board. What should I do?
5) Is Apple Personal Diagnostics (APD) version 1.1.3 supported on the Power Macintosh 7200, 7500, and 8500 computers?
6) Sometimes when I try to launch my Apple Personal Diagnostics software or while I am using it, I get a low-memory alert. How do I correct this?
7) I ran the Disk First Aid utility and it said my hard disk needed to be repaired. However, the Repair button is dimmed.
8) I am following the System 7.5 upgrade guide, attempting to update the hard drive with Apple HD SC setup and it is unable to locate a suitable SCSI device. I can see my hard disk icon. What does that message mean? Can I skip this step?
9) I ran the Disk First Aid utility and it said it found problems, but Disk First Aid cannot repair them. What should I do?
1) Question: Apple Personal Diagnostics reports a disk or directory problem with my hard disk, but when I run Disk First Aid, no problems are found. What is causing this contradiction?
Answer: Under some circumstances, Apple Personal Diagnostics may incorrectly report disk or directory problems, but drive diagnostics such as Disk First Aid may not find these problems. This situation is usually caused by extension conflicts with the Apple Personal Diagnostic utility.
For best results, when running Apple Personal Diagnostics, disable Extensions by holding down the Shift key at startup, then run the diagnostics.
2) Question: I have noticed that running APD while using video mirroring is causing trouble. Is APD compatible with video mirroring?
Answer: Apple Personal Diagnostics has known incompatibilities with video mirroring. If you sometimes use the video mirroring option, Apple recommends you make sure video mirroring is turned off before running APD.
3) Question: Is the Apple Personal Diagnostic (APD) 1.0 compatible with the Power Macintosh computers?
No, however APD version 1.1.1 fully supports the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, and 8100 series computers. APD version 1.1.3 adds additional support for the Power Macintosh 9500 computer.
You can download the Apple Personal Diagnostics 1.1.3 Update from one of the Apple Software Updates areas located on eWorld, AppleLink, CompuServe, and the Internet at the following path:
USA Apple Software Updates -> Macintosh -> Utilities
Apple Software Updates are posted to a variety of online services, please search the Apple Tech Info Library by the string "Apple Software Updates" for a current list of online services we post Apple Software Updates to (You can also use the special string: "kol" to search for this information in the Apple Tech Info Library).
You can also call the Apple Order Center for the upgrade. The Tech Info Library article titled "Locating Vendor Information" can help you search for Apple Order Center's phone number.
4) Question: I have System 7.5 with the System 7.5 Update 1.0 installed on my Power Macintosh computer. My Apple Personal Diagnostics 1.1 is reporting problems with my Power Macintosh computer's the logic board. What should I do?
Answer: Apple Personal Diagnostics 1.1 is generating a false error message. To resolve this you need to upgrade to at least version 1.1.1. The current version is 1.1.3.
You can download the Apple Personal Diagnostics 1.1.3 Update from one of the Apple Software Updates areas located on eWorld, AppleLink, CompuServe, and the Internet at the following path:
USA Apple Software Updates -> Macintosh -> Utilities
Apple Software Updates are posted to a variety of online services, please search the Apple Tech Info Library by the string "Apple Software Updates" for a current list of online services we post Apple Software Updates to (You can also use the special string: "kol" to search for this information in the Apple Tech Info Library).
You can also call the Apple Order Center for the upgrade. The Tech Info Library article titled "Locating Vendor Information" can help you search for Apple Order Center's phone number.
5) Question: Is Apple Personal Diagnostics (APD) version 1.1.3 supported on the Power Macintosh 7200, 7500, and 8500 computers?
Answer: APD 1.1.3 is not supported on these computers. Here is a list of Apple computers supported by Apple Personal Diagnostics v1.1.3:
Apple Workgroup Server 60
Apple Workgroup Server 80
Apple Workgroup Server 95
Workgroup Server 6150
Workgroup Server 6150/66
Workgroup Server 8150
Workgroup Server 8150/110
Workgroup Server 9150
Workgroup Server 9150/120
Macintosh Plus
Macintosh Portable
Macintosh SE
Macintosh SE/FDHD
Macintosh SE/30
Macintosh Classic
Macintosh Classic II
Macintosh Color Classic
Macintosh Color Classic II
Macintosh TV
Macintosh II
Macintosh IIx
Macintosh IIfx
Macintosh IIci
Macintosh IIcx
Macintosh IIsi
Macintosh IIvi
Macintosh IIvx
Macintosh IIvm
Macintosh LC
Macintosh LC II
Macintosh LC III
Macintosh LC 475
Macintosh LC 520
Macintosh LC 550
Macintosh LC 575
Macintosh LC 630
Macintosh Centris 610
Macintosh Centris 650
Macintosh Centris 660AV
Macintosh Performa 200
Macintosh Performa 250
Macintosh Performa 275
Macintosh Performa 400
Macintosh Performa 405
Macintosh Performa 410
Macintosh Performa 430
Macintosh Performa 450
Macintosh Performa 460 Series
Macintosh Performa 475
Macintosh Performa 476
Macintosh Performa 520
Macintosh Performa 550
Macintosh Performa 560
Macintosh Performa 570 Series
Macintosh Performa 580 Series
Macintosh Performa 600 Series
Macintosh Performa 630 Series
Macintosh Performa 640 Series
Macintosh Performa 5200 Series
Macintosh Performa 6100 Series
Macintosh Performa 6200 Series
Macintosh PowerBook 100
Macintosh PowerBook 140
Macintosh PowerBook 145
Macintosh PowerBook 145B
Macintosh PowerBook 150
Macintosh PowerBook 160
Macintosh PowerBook 165
Macintosh PowerBook 165c
Macintosh PowerBook 170
Macintosh PowerBook 180
Macintosh PowerBook 180c
Macintosh PowerBook 500 Series
Macintosh PowerBook Duo 200 Series
Macintosh Quadra 605
Macintosh Quadra 610
Macintosh Quadra 610 DOS Compatible
Macintosh Quadra 630
Macintosh Quadra 650
Macintosh Quadra 660AV
Macintosh Quadra 700
Macintosh Quadra 800
Macintosh Quadra 840AV
Macintosh Quadra 900
Macintosh Quadra 950
Power Macintosh 5200 LC/75
Power Macintosh 6100 Series
Power Macintosh 7100 Series
Power Macintosh 8100 Series
Power Macintosh 9500 Series
Note: APD also tests the Power Macintosh Upgrade and Macintosh Processor Upgrade cards. APD does not test the DOS Compatible Card or DOS Compatibility Upgrade Card.
6) Question: Sometimes when I try to launch my Apple Personal Diagnostics software or while I am using it, I get a low-memory alert. How do I correct this?
Answer: Apple Personal Diagnostics returns a low-memory alert when the APD application does not have enough memory to run or is running low on memory. For example, if you have created a report that requires more memory than is currently available. To allocate more memory to the APD application, you can do one or more of the following:
If you are using System 7.x, or System 6 with MultiFinder try the following:
- Quit other applications that may be running at the same time as APD
- If you have sufficient RAM installed in your system: quit the APD application, click once on the APD application icon, under File choose Get Info, increase the "preferred" application memory size from 1200K to 1500K
- Close any open report
- Reduce the size of any installed RAM disk and the system RAM cache.
If you are using System 6 with Finder rather than MultiFinder:
- Close any open report
- Reduce the size of any installed RAM disk and the system Disk cache
7) Question: I ran the Disk First Aid utility and it said my hard disk needed to be repaired. However, the Repair button is dimmed.
Answer: Disk First Aid is not being used properly. You cannot repair the startup disk with Disk First Aid. If you started from your hard drive, Disk First Aid cannot repair it until you start your Macintosh from another startup disk. Make sure you are starting up from your Power Macintosh CD, the System 7.5 Disk Tools floppy diskette, or other bootable disk. Disk First Aid also cannot repair the disk from which it was launched or any disk attached to a computer that has File Sharing turned on.
8) Question: I am following the System 7.5 upgrade guide, attempting to update the hard drive with Apple HD SC setup and it is unable to locate a suitable SCSI device. I can see my hard disk icon. What does that message mean? Can I skip this step?
Answer: This message may appear for two reasons:
• You may have used a non-Apple formatting utility to format your hard disk. If you have been using a previous version of System 7, you can safely skip this step and continue on with the installation of System 7.5. If you have been running System 6 or earlier, you should check with the vendor of either your hard drive or your hard drive's formatting utility and verify compatibility.
• Your computer may have an IDE hard drive which Apple HD SC Setup is not designed to format or update. You should use Drive Setup 1.0.2 to test, format, and partition your IDE hard drive.
The following computers use IDE hard drives:
Macintosh 630 Family computers*
Macintosh LC 580
Macintosh Performa 5200 series computers
Macintosh Performa 5300 series computers
Macintosh Performa 6200 series computers
Macintosh Performa 6300 series computers
Macintosh PowerBook 150 series computers
Macintosh PowerBook 190 series computers
Macintosh PowerBook 2300 series computers
Macintosh PowerBook 5300 series computers
Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC
Power Macintosh 5300/100 LC
*Note: The Macintosh 630 Family includes the following computers: Macintosh LC 630, Quadra 630, and Performa 630, Performa 635, Performa 636, Performa 637, and Performa 638.
9) Question: I ran the Disk First Aid utility and it reported it found problems, but Disk First Aid cannot repair them. What should I do?
Answer: This message indicates you have a corrupted directory structure. Apple recommends backing up and reformatting a hard drive with a damaged directory. There are, however, third-party utilities such as "The Norton Utilities for the Macintosh", "Symantec Utilities for the Macintosh", and "Central Point's MacTools DiskFix" that attempt to repair damaged directories.
If a third-party utility cannot repair your hard disk, then back up all the data on your hard disk and reformat it using Apple HD SC Setup if you have a SCSI hard drive, Drive Setup 1.0.2 if you have an IDE hard drive.
Article Change History:
24 May 1996 - Updated for technical accuracy.
06 Feb 1996 - Updated supported computer listing.
09 Jan 1996 - Updated unsupported computer listing.
