Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for checking whether hardware of an intelligent terminal runs abnormally and an intelligent terminal. The method includes: checking, by an intelligent terminal at a service layer, whether load of an intelligent terminal system exceeds a preconfigured maximum threshold; if the intelligent terminal detects that the load of the intelligent terminal system does not exceed the maximum threshold, triggering, by the intelligent terminal at the service layer, execution of determining whether hardware runs abnormally; determining, by the intelligent terminal, whether the hardware runs abnormally; determining, by the intelligent terminal, target hardware that runs abnormally; and acquiting, by the intelligent terminal, exception information of the target hardware, and notifying a user that the target hardware runs abnormally. In the embodiments, only when load of an intelligent terminal system is light, does an intelligent terminal triggers execution of determining whether hardware runs abnormally. This avoids increasing load of the intelligent terminal system and thereby ensures that the intelligent terminal runs normally.