Mac mini refuses to boot

Hi all,

Tonigh after a power outage my mac mini refuses to boot. It displays a grey screen without a apple. I tried several things, like command-s and that kinda things. I tried to boot without any usb devices, without network cable (yes, the apple site suggested that). I also tried to boot the installation cd. The installation cd does display the apple logo, but booting hangs there.

What other options do I have?

Reset PRAM?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Reset PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300574

Worth a try, won't hurt anything.

My bad, I should have mentioned I tried that too, but that didn't have any effect.

Actually, when my mini had some boot troubles a few months back, removing the network cable actually fixed the problem. Go figure.

You said you can't boot from the OS X boot disk? Give that another shot.

Another thing to try is to let the mini sit for some time, off. Yes, I know, it sounds dumb, but I really can help. Leave it off for at least 10 minutes, then give it another shot.

Ok, now I am sure it is a hardware problem.
I booted with a Ubuntu Linux live cd and that hangs when probing for harddisks.
Last message: hda: lost irq

So my mini needs a repair :-(

Thanks for your answers.

Wijnand said:

So my mini needs a repair :-(

Click to expand...

Sound like it, is it still under warranty?

Yes it is, it is only 3 months old.

That's the worst. Sorry. I know how you feel; I had my PowerBook for two months when the HD made that dreaded clicking sound. It was grim death.

But, on a positive note, the repair service at the Genuis Bar at my local apple store was excellent. Took about 1 week to have the whole thing turned around. And good as new.