Mac Mini purchase turned into disaster.

I'm new to the Mac World though not new to PCs. After doing all the research including advice on the switchers sub forum I have finally bought my Mac Mini. Looks apart it has turned into something of a disaster. Within about 10 minutes of first boot the monitor a 24" Benq suddenly lost it's connection with the Mini. I say the monitor, the real suspect is the Mini. It started with a momentary loss - symptom screen goes totally blank apart from white noise (just like a TV that's not tuned to a station). After a short time, probably 30 seconds it flickered back into life. Since Tuesday (when I purchased the Mini) the problem has got worse and worse until this evening when I have lost the picture completely apart from a momentary flicker back into life. I am using the mini HDMI to DVI adapter and all the connections are tight. I have checked the memory modules just to make sure they were seated correctly and everything seem to be OK in screen setup. Anyone have any ideas before I have to return the unit which will have wasted two days of me setting everything up as I wanted it. Given what the Mini cost me I'm less than impressed with what has happened and have to question Apples QC.

Just to add injury to insult my HP All-in-One can no longer scan to OCR as that has an error with it to which HP don't appear to have a fix.

Do you have another computer to test the monitor on?

Exactly what Model is the Benq monitor? I have in the past ran into issues with low cost flat panel displays using DVI and many ATI video cards.

It's not the memory on the Mini. If that was the case the mini would not even post.

dtravis7 said:

Do you have another computer to test the monitor on?

Exactly what Model is the Benq monitor? I have in the past ran into issues with low cost flat panel displays using DVI and many ATI video cards.

It's not the memory on the Mini. If that was the case the mini would not even post.

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I have paired it back to my W7 PC - result perfect video - the BenQ is only a month old. The Mini uses NVidia card. I have found this issue from at least six other posters on some other Mac forums and all appear to be identical to mine. One poster now on his third mini - still having problem and one on his second motherboard - still having same issue. Looks like Apple have a real problem on their hands. I will try re-setting PMU and SMC but can't see that solving this issue. I think I will be asking for a refund rather than replace as I really do need a solution that works straight out of the box as I haven't the time to waste like this.

Could be the monitor just isn't supported by the Mini. It's unusual, but not unheard of. I went through several Apple HDMI > VGA conversion cables on my Mini until one finally worked with my Vizio LCD TV. I had similar issues with an Apple HDMI > DVI converter cable as well. My money is on the converter cable personally. If you have the interest still, I'd suggest bringing the Mini and converter to Apple and seeing if switching the converter cable fixes it. Then again, they may not have any DVI monitors in the store. If you check the online Applestore reviews of the converters, there have been some pretty bad batches that go through every now and again.

Agreed with XJ-linux. give it a try.

Spoken to Apple Care this morning. They had me do the "unplug all your cables plug just the power cable back in then press PR command and alt as soon as you hit the power and hold until you hear boot up jingle twice routine" or some such combination. They are acknowledging that there is an issue and said if this doesn't work I am to take the Mini back either for a replacement or a full refund. It has nothing to do with cables etc. Thing is if this is a known issue then what is the point of asking for a replacement as the new unit is likely to do the same thing. I couldn't get a straight answer from them of what the issue actually is so I'm minded to get my money back. Pity really as the Mini really is a nice bit of kit.

Machine now been on for two hours and not had a recurrence of the problem. Not sure what that strange boot up procedure actually does but it has obviously had some effect.

They had you reset the PRAM NVRAM with the procedure they gave you. That clears out any errors that may have been stored in the PRAM NVRAM (memory). You can read more about the procedure from the Apple KB.

chscag said:

They had you reset the PRAM NVRAM with the procedure they gave you. That clears out any errors that may have been stored in the PRAM NVRAM (memory). You can read more about the procedure from the Apple KB.

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Well it just may have worked because up to now I have not had any issues since the reset. It does have me worried though that the issue may reoccur if I decide to keep the machine which will then make it harder for me to get a refund or replacement further down the line. It does state in the knowledge base that display and video settings are part of PRAM.

Further update. Sadly re-setting the PRAM and NVRAM didn't last. After approx 6 trouble free hours the problem returned late last night and was there again today. I have regrettably repacked the Mini and returned it to Apple. I have to say they were really good about the return and offered what appeared to be sincere apologies plus a full refund. They did offer me a replacement but I have for the time being declined as if others experiences are anything to go by a replacement is unlikely to cure matters.

I don't know where to go from here as I don't want the all-in-one, I hate Laptops and the Mac Pro is way OTT for my needs. For the time being it's back to Windows 7, which to be honest is no hardship.

JP-ME said:

It started with a momentary loss - symptom screen goes totally blank apart from white noise (just like a TV that's not tuned to a station). After a short time, probably 30 seconds it flickered back into life.

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I have my mini plugged into a Samsung monitor, and occasionally I see the same thing as you. It usually happens when I wake the mini from sleep mode and turn on the screen. I can fix it by just turning off the monitor and turning it back on again. After that it works just fine.

I would suggest selling the monitor and purchasing another known to be compatible with Apple products. I know it may sound like a hassle, but I am sure you would eventually consider it worth it. It would be a shame to miss out on the benefits of the Apple computing experience, just because you wanted to use an existing monitor.

I don't know where to go from here as I don't want the all-in-one, I hate Laptops and the Mac Pro is way OTT for my needs. For the time being it's back to Windows 7, which to be honest is no hardship.

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Sorry it didn't work out for you. But it seems you were treated well by Apple as they gave you a full refund. Perhaps later on you'll come back to buying a Mac. Nothing wrong with Win 7 if it suits your needs.

brairden said:

I would suggest selling the monitor and purchasing another known to be compatible with Apple products. I know it may sound like a hassle, but I am sure you would eventually consider it worth it. It would be a shame to miss out on the benefits of the Apple computing experience, just because you wanted to use an existing monitor.

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If only it was that simple - before I returned the Mini I tried two of my other screens, Viewsonic and HP, the HP is only 7 months old. Some of the other posts I have seen with this issue were using a Samsung SyncMaster an LG and even an ACD so just where does the buyer go from there? I think most people would come to the conclusion there is an issue with the new Mini rather than the screens.

I did make a time machine backup to an external drive before I returned the Mini and I am going to write to Apple and see if I can get a steer from them as to what they think the issue is. If I can get a straight answer from them plus some sort of assurance then I may re-order from them in the fullness of time. At least that way I can quickly restore all my data without having to go through all the hassle of installing everything again.

J.Fo said:

I have my mini plugged into a Samsung monitor, and occasionally I see the same thing as you. It usually happens when I wake the mini from sleep mode and turn on the screen. I can fix it by just turning off the monitor and turning it back on again. After that it works just fine.

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Turning the monitor off and on was a bit hit and miss with me I'm afraid. It also made no difference whether the Mini was used in "sleep mode" or full reboot. Believe me I tried everything as I'm not one to give up easily. The telling point was that Apple Care advised me to return the Mini as they could see there was something really not right.

brairden said:

I would suggest selling the monitor and purchasing another known to be compatible with Apple products.

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Too late for that?

JP-ME said:

Thing is if this is a known issue then what is the point of asking for a replacement as the new unit is likely to do the same thing.

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A "known issue" is something that some units may have & some don't. Meaning 99+% or more are probably problem free...and less than 1% (or even less) could have a problem.

It's just like the automobile industry...when some cars with a certain VIN# or serial # are recalled for a problem. Not all of the cars of a certain model are bad...just some.

Sometimes defects are caused by:

- a design error: which would mean all or most units are bad (which is not the case with this Mac-mini model...otherwise we all would have heard about it by now)
- a bad batch of parts: which may only effect 1 hour or 1 day of production at a manufacturing facility
- a "bozo" human being: on an individual production line or workstation not doing the best job & having a bad day.

Of course the Quality Assurance checks should catch problems...but most manufacturing facilities don't do a 100% inspection...since they use statistics that if only 1 out of 10,000 units has a problem...kind of inefficient to inspect all 10,000.

In any case...if the Mac-mini is what you like...and it fits your needs & budget the best...I would recommend getting another Mac-mini. If the 2nd one "craps out" on you...then you might say...forget about it. If it were me...I would even try a 3rd Mac-mini before I would give up.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

In any case...if the Mac-mini is what you like...and it fits your needs & budget the best...I would recommend getting another Mac-mini. If the 2nd one "craps out" on you...then you might say...forget about it. If it were me...I would even try a 3rd Mac-mini before I would give up.

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As I say I may well do in the fullness of time. As it is I feel somewhat exhausted by the whole episode. I know that may sound a tad dramatic but I had to go to all the trouble of installing all my data plus the progs I wanted, finally personalising it only to end up with hours of hassle with the screen then on the phone to Apple Care before finally returning it.

The thing is I don't live near any Apple Stores so had quite a trek to return the unit. We do have Apple Shops locally e.g. located in stores such as PC World or Comet etc. However, I doubt the Apple returns policy extends to such outlets and if the products come under PC Worlds own returns policy - well need I say more. It's a store of last resort for me as they treat their customers abysmally and won't readily accept returns.

JP-ME said:

As I say I may well do in the fullness of time. As it is I feel somewhat exhausted by the whole episode. I know that may sound a tad dramatic but I had to go to all the trouble of installing all my data plus the progs I wanted, finally personalising it only to end up with hours of hassle with the screen then on the phone to Apple Care before finally returning it.

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Understandable. Jump back "in the pool" when you think the time is right!

- Nick

There were a couple of things that puzzled me with the Mini - probably has more to do with how Apple hardware works than anything being wrong. I have looked at the settings for the Benq panel now I am back using W7. The panel on this Windows Desktop is running at 59 MHz whereas I'm sure it was running higher than that with the Mini. I wouldn't swear to it but I thought it was being run at 70 MHz. Perhaps some other Mini users could provide feedback on that. Mind you I'm not convinced that would cause the "white noise" drop outs that I kept getting.

The other puzzle is memory. Now I never got around to upgrading the memory so it was operating with the standard 2gig. When I checked usage the pie chart should very little available memory i.e. the green sector, probably around 400mb. All the memory was either in active or inactive memory even though I only had Firefox open at the time. I found the only way to recover that memory was to reboot. Now I'm not sure how Apple uses the memory but on my Windows Desktop 3gig of memory 64bit Quadcore even with lots of Windows open I rarely see it peak above 44%. Was the memory used excessive or about right for a Mini?

60HZ (Not Mhz BTW) is what flat panel displays are supposed to run at.