Sad Macintosh Error Codes

When you turn on your Macintosh, several memory and system diagnostic tests take place.  If any test fails, the Sad Macintosh icon appears.  The Macintosh SE and newer systems will have two 8-digit hexadecimal numbers displayed under the icon.

Most hardware failures display a Sad Macintosh error will do so before the floppy drive or the hard drive start spinning.  If a Sad Macintosh appears after the disk starts spinning, the first digits of the error code are usually "OF" and often indicate corrupted software.  If you get this error code, try restarting the Macintosh with the Option and Command keys held down to rebuild the desktop file.  You also may be able to fix these problems by reinstalling the system software.  Also, try using the start-up disk that came with your Mac and run the First-Aid program.  It sometimes will correct the error.  Often it is necessary to update your disk driver to correct the problem (common problem in Sys7.5).

Macintosh SE and later systems:

Error codes 0001 through 000E indicate hardware failures.

•
xxxx0001
xxxxxxxx     Rom Test Failed
•
xxxx0002
xxxxxxxx     RAM Test failed
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xxxx0003
xxxxxxxx     RAM Test failed
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xxxx0004
xxxxxxxx     RAM Test failed
•
xxxx0005
xxxxxxxx     RAM Test failed
•
xxxx0006
xxxxxxxx     VIA1 chip failed
•
xxxx0007
xxxxxxxx     VIA2 chip failed
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xxxx0008
xxxxxxxx     ADB failed
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xxxx0009
xxxxxxxx     MMU failed
•
xxxx000A
xxxxxxxx     NuBus Failed
•
xxxx000B
xxxxxxxx     SCSI chip failed
•
xxxx000C
xxxxxxxx     IWM chip failed
•
xxxx000D
xxxxxxxx     SCC chip failed
•
xxxx000E
xxxxxxxx     Data bus test failed
•
xxxx000F
0000000B     Unassigned error
•
xxxx000F
0000000C    Coprocessor protocol violation
•
xxxx000F
0000000D     Format exception
•
xxxx000F
0000000E     Spurious interrupt
•
xxxx000F
0000000F     Trap 0 to 15 exception
•
xxxx000F
00000010     Interrupt level 1
•
xxxx000F
00000011     Interrupt level 2
•
xxxx000F
00000012     Interrupt level 3
•
xxxx000F
00000013     Interrupt level 4
•
xxxx000F
00000014     Interrupt level 5
•
xxxx000F
00000015     Interrupt level 6
•
xxxx000F
00000016     Interrupt level 7
•
xxxx000F
00000017     Coprocessor BRA or SET on unordered condition
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xxxx000F
00000018     Coprocessor inexact result
•
xxxx000F
00000019     Coprocessor divide by 0
•
xxxx000F
0000001A     Coprocessor underflow
•
xxxx000F
0000001B     Coprocessor operand error
•
xxxx000F
0000001C     Coprocessor operand error
•
xxxx000F
0000001D     Coprocessor NAN
•
xxxx000F
0000001E     MMU configuration
•
xxxx000F
0000001F   MMU illegal operation
•
xxxx000F
00000020     MMU access level violation