Mac Mini has lost it's mind.....me too!!

Went to start my mac and found the question mark. Knew what this meant so I installed a new SSD (128 gb). I made an installer Flash Drive and restarted using option key. All I see on maintenance screen is the installer.....no internal (New drive was formatted prior to install). Tried several different drives that were all confirmed good with same result. If I selected the installer it just showed he question mark again. So.....I made an El Capitan Boot drive on my Mac Pro....verified it was working well and plugged it into a USB as an external boot. When I started up again using option key the maintenance screen showed the install Flash still plugged in and also showed the external boot drive along with a third choice being the recovery partition.....but still no internal drive. Selecting ANY of the three options still gave the question mark. If I try booting to the external boot drive I still get the question mark!!!!.....Mac Mini has not ribbon cable as oter computers do, instead it has a small board. I cleaned the connections with same results.....the d--m question mark!! So can I get any suggestions OTHER THAN a new logic board.

This is a late 2006 a1176 mini that goes for $50 to $150 on ebay. It would be cheaper to just replace the unit. Logic boards cost from $80 to around $175.

I'm just trying to pick your minds and see if there is anything I forgo to do!!!! Thanks for any help.....I have to get this working for my grandson who is entering the police academy and needs a small computer in a small space. He has a Mac Pro 13" but needs a larger screen. His port is broken on the laptop for external screens so this was my solution until the dreaded question mark spoiled my plans!!!!!!!!!!

It is a PowerPC model Mini if the information supplied is correct and will not boot from external hard drivces or flash drives. Simply too old and not near enough oomph to do the job. It can run nothing later than Leopard OS X.5.8. The lad would get laughed out of the Academy using an operating system now seven version old!

Buy him a 15" MBP, 2012 or later, and for goodness sake spend nothing on this old dinosaur! To be honest I would not pay $5 for it. Sorry to be so blunt.

phylrick said:

He has a Mac Pro 13" but needs a larger screen. His port is broken on the laptop for external screens so this was my solution until the dreaded question mark spoiled my plans!!!!!!!!!!

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What Mac Pro does he have? If the machine is fast enough to meet his need there might be an easy alternative. There is some hardware out there that allows you to connect an external monitor by connecting it to the USB port rather than the usual connector for a monitor. Here's one example of what I have in mind but there are several others I used an earlier version of a similar device and it worked quite well. Give the guys at OWC a call. They should be able to give you an ideaa whether it would meet your needs.

I don't think he would want to be carting an additional monitor Sly, as he will probably living in a barracks or dormitory situation I imagine.

However I am sure we both agree the Mini is out of the question being PowerPC.

You're probably right Harry but as usual my first instinct is to use gear that is already at hand. When I ran a similar setup it really didn't take up as much space as you would think. There are a variety of these things out there and most are about the size of a pack of cigarettes. The monitor would of course take up a little space.