Hello, I hope someone can figure this out because I am at my wits end. I was just typing this post on Boot Camp XP on the Mac Mini in question when before I could save or post, it shut down, so now I"m typing it up on my laptop. Ok here's the problem we have a used late 2006 Mac Mini Intel 1.8 GHZ (no audio, since the ribbon is broken, we just use a USB sound card, but we don't get chimes since no on board sound) with Snow Leopard when we bought it did not have a Power Supply Unit so we bought a new one online we went with the 110w rather then 85w since that's what the specs called for, it worked fine for a few days and then it started shutting down. The only way it would start up again was to leave the PSU connector disconnected from both the mini and the AC outlet. I should add though I don't think it's a factor I misplaced the power cord it came from and I'm using one from a different adapter. Anyhow So I started to wonder if this could be a bad PSU, I didn't really think much of it since we were getting ready for a RV cross country trip. The mini was in storage for about 2 months till I recently hooked it up again, the problem persisted and I started to wonder if maybe the mini was overheating so I recently installed SMC Fan control, as far as I can tell the temps are well within the acceptable parameters, one odd thing happened yesterday though, it booted up and the LED light did not come on and the Fan was at full speed, SMC Fan control showed the Fan speed at 0 and I'm not sure what the temp was, since yesterday the white light would only come on and then off and no power up. Also when you hold in the power button the White light will flash but it won't start up. Lately I started wondering if something was wrong with the Logic Board since it's behaving very erratically if that's the case I give up. Today I was ready to throw in the towel since it just wouldn't start no matter what, As in the past I tried and I tried everything, re seating the RAM,
(oh I should mention the white light will blink correspondingly when no RAM is detected since I tested it by taking out the two RAM modules), I tried to reset PRAM and SMC PMU and everything else suggested, the only thing that seems to work is disconnect and reconnect the PSU and the longer it stays disconnected the better chance it has of starting and staying on I just tested the PSU with a multimeter and the output show around 18.7 it should be 18.5 no surprise the mini just started up after I left the PSU disconnected for about an hour or so, I am going to wait till it shuts down again and test the PSU output again, I will post the results as soon as I can. Well I'm on it right now on mac side and SMC fan control shows 55 Celsius about 3900 RPM, the PSU brick doesn't seem hot to touch at all, I haven't noticed in past shutdowns if it seemed like it was overheating, it's too bad sensors can't monitor the PSU temp. I'm waiting for it to shut down like it usually does to test the output, we shall see soon I hope. just tried to put it to sleep and it won't do it it keeps waking up could it be a bad PMU? UPDATE, I shut it down and when I tried to startup the boot screen loaded but then as usual it it wouldn't stay on, the brick didn't feel hot at all, I tested the output and at first it read 18.7, but I tried again and it read 19.2, this seems like a sign that the brick is overheating, it would seem that way to me. I am going to wait about an hour or so and test the output again and I wouldn't be surprised if the mini starts up again with no problem. I'm on it again, the output reads 19.3 last checked, that seems way to high, I read somewhere online the the brick has some kind of a switch inside that if it overheats it will shutdown the Mac Mini, Sleep is working fine now, waiting for next shutdown to happen
On a side note, last week it stayed on for nearly two days straight and then the next days very bad,, Could it be the PSU is bad and is overheating and that's why it only will start after being disconnected, and that's why It shuts down with no warning? System log reports as of today as you can see " Jun 16 09:27:20 localhost DirectoryService[13]: Improper shutdown detected" meaning "Uninstalled Interrupt", if I'm not mistaken whatever that means since after an extensive search online I found little to no information on that. I'm not sure what to think. If the PSU is bad, no big deal I will just replace it and buy another one,but since they aren't cheap I don't want to buy it and then find out the problem was something else and if it's the logic board, then it's hasta la vista baby.
Thanks for any help.
(oh I should mention the white light will blink correspondingly when no RAM is detected since I tested it by taking out the two RAM modules), I tried to reset PRAM and SMC PMU and everything else suggested, the only thing that seems to work is disconnect and reconnect the PSU and the longer it stays disconnected the better chance it has of starting and staying on I just tested the PSU with a multimeter and the output show around 18.7 it should be 18.5 no surprise the mini just started up after I left the PSU disconnected for about an hour or so, I am going to wait till it shuts down again and test the PSU output again, I will post the results as soon as I can. Well I'm on it right now on mac side and SMC fan control shows 55 Celsius about 3900 RPM, the PSU brick doesn't seem hot to touch at all, I haven't noticed in past shutdowns if it seemed like it was overheating, it's too bad sensors can't monitor the PSU temp. I'm waiting for it to shut down like it usually does to test the output, we shall see soon I hope. just tried to put it to sleep and it won't do it it keeps waking up could it be a bad PMU? UPDATE, I shut it down and when I tried to startup the boot screen loaded but then as usual it it wouldn't stay on, the brick didn't feel hot at all, I tested the output and at first it read 18.7, but I tried again and it read 19.2, this seems like a sign that the brick is overheating, it would seem that way to me. I am going to wait about an hour or so and test the output again and I wouldn't be surprised if the mini starts up again with no problem. I'm on it again, the output reads 19.3 last checked, that seems way to high, I read somewhere online the the brick has some kind of a switch inside that if it overheats it will shutdown the Mac Mini, Sleep is working fine now, waiting for next shutdown to happen
On a side note, last week it stayed on for nearly two days straight and then the next days very bad,, Could it be the PSU is bad and is overheating and that's why it only will start after being disconnected, and that's why It shuts down with no warning? System log reports as of today as you can see " Jun 16 09:27:20 localhost DirectoryService[13]: Improper shutdown detected" meaning "Uninstalled Interrupt", if I'm not mistaken whatever that means since after an extensive search online I found little to no information on that. I'm not sure what to think. If the PSU is bad, no big deal I will just replace it and buy another one,but since they aren't cheap I don't want to buy it and then find out the problem was something else and if it's the logic board, then it's hasta la vista baby.
Thanks for any help.