Sad Mac

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One version of the Sad Mac icon, this one indicating that an illegal instruction occurred.

A Sad Mac is an iconic symbol used by older-generation Apple Macintosh computers (hardware using the Old World ROM), starting with the original 128K Macintosh,^[1] to indicate a severe hardware or software problem that prevented startup from occurring successfully. The Sad Mac icon was displayed, along with a set of hexadecimal codes that indicated the type of problem at startup. This was used in place of the normal Happy Mac icon, which indicated that the startup-time hardware tests were successful. In models made after the Macintosh II, a tune (Chimes of Death) was played. In the MC68000-based machines (those models earlier than the Macintosh II as well as the original Macintosh Classic), crashed silently and displayed the Sad Mac, without playing any music.

A Sad Mac may be deliberately generated at startup by pressing the interrupt switch on Macintoshes that had one installed, or by pressing Command and Power keys shortly after the startup chime. On some Macintoshes (e.g. PowerBook 540c) if the user presses the command and power keys before the screen comes up, it will play the chimes of death; the chimes are a fraction of normal speed and there is no Sad Mac displayed.

[edit] Sad iPod

A Sad iPod signifying an error in the hardware or the firmware of the device.

On the iPod, if damage or an error occurs to the hardware (or the firmware), as if the files of it are deleted, a Sad iPod appears. This is similar to the Sad Mac, but instead of a computer, there is an iPod.

[edit] Sad iPhone

The Sad iPhone, signifying that the device is in Safe Mode

On a jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch, if the device boots into safe mode, either by Springboard crashing, or the user forcefully initiating it, the background on the lock screen changes to a Sad iPhone, apparently drawn by Geoff Stearns

[edit] "Aw, Snap!" tab

The screen that is seen when a tab crashes in Google Chrome

A reference has been made to the Sad Mac on the Google Chrome web browser, in which if a tab crashes, the user sees an image of a tab with a Sad Mac face on it, along with the text, "Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, press Reload or go to another page." Users may manually get to the crash page by entering 'about:crash' into their address bar.

A similar image appears when a plug-in crashes, as a puzzle piece with the same face on it.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Macintosh: "Sad Macintosh" Error Code Meaning". Apple. 2003-11-30. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=7748. Retrieved 2008-08-24. 

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