Issues with new Mini

[Thommo]

My 2 month old mini has been disappointing, out of the box. I am a low level user who knows little about operating systems who does not use the puter for much more than internet browsing so please limit jargon.

Issue 1. Sometimes, when booting, instead of getting the Apple motif immediately after the chime I just get coloured snow. I may need to try rebooting half a dozen times before it works properly. A couple of times this has happened when awakening from "sleep" mode. I have not had this since the nvram reset. see next issue.

Issue 2, A few days ago I got nothing showing on the screen when booting. The lady on the Apple help desk showed me how to do an nvram reset and it worked. Same thing happened this morning and luckily this old brain remembered the key sequence and I got it working again. But twice in 3 days? Really?

Issue 3, I have to reboot so often because the thing usually won't go to "sleep". The monitor shuts down and the usb mouse switches off, but 20 seconds later it switches back on. I have tried switching off the wireless modem and shutting down all programs [usually just a browser anyway] but to no avail.

Issue 4, is sound. The phones jack is intermittent, I have to jiggle it to get both channels working in my Sennheiser cordless phones. I have improved them by putting the volume at full in "system preferences" thereby lifting the squelch of the headset easier but at times I still have to unplug and replug the phones jack causing, I presume, the click to lift the squelch. I shouldn't have to do this.

ten years ago my imac worked perfectly, until it didn't. That was the issue of crappy electrolytic capacitors.

BTW I am using 10.10.4. and I am reluctant to try an upgrade because I don't have time-machine working. That will be another learning day.

Hope you can help. Bill.

 

[harryb2448]

Take it stright back to An Apple Store or Genius Bar if you are convinced it is the Mini and not the display and/or connections. With OS X.10. it ain't two months old if you purchased from Apple. If purchased elsewhere it is old stock. OS X.11 El Cptian was released back in October 2015.

 

[IWT]

@Thommo

I totally agree with Harry.

Problems of this sort and multitude simply shouldn't be happening. Assuming you did purchase it direct from Apple, they offer a 12 months warranty and their policy is usually fix it or replace it. And, yes, new Macs shipped with El Capitan (10.11.x) as from last October/November. But that's still well within the 12 month warranty.

You say you don't want to upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan because you have no backup - Time Machine in your case.

I would strongly urge you to back up now, irrespective of upgrading, because if Apple have to mess around with your Mac or replace it, you'll need a BU.

Time Machine doesn't need "another learning day". Believe me, it's dead easy. Buy an External Hard Drive (EHD) with a storage capacity of 1.5-2 times your Mac's storage. They are incredibly cheap nowadays.

Mount it by plugging in the USB direct to the Mini. Open Disk Utility (found in Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). The EHD will show up on the left. Click on it to highlight. Then from the top of the window on the right, click on Erase. This opens a new window. Give it a name — Time Machine seems a good idea. Then Format it OS X Extended (Journaled). Hit erase. When finished, close out of Disk Utility.

Now you're ready to go. Open System Preferences (Found by clicking on Apple Icon, top left, Menu Bar and selecting System Preferences from the Drop Down).

In System Preferences, click on Time Machine (second bottom row on left). Move the slider to the ON position. Click on Add Backup Disk. Choose your EHD. And off you go. The first BU takes a while, but runs in the background. Subsequent Bus are incremental and are very quick.

It does all this by itself. Once set up, forget it. Easy. And essential!

Ian

 

[Thommo]

I didn't buy it direct from Apple but from a reputable local store like Hervey Norman. I shall go talk to them today.

 

[harryb2448]

Ohh dear best of luck with Hardly Normal. Still suggest you take it to an Apple Store with your documentation. Didn't know Hardly had taken up selli ng Macs again.

 

[RadDave]

I didn't buy it direct from Apple but from a reputable local store like Hervey Norman. I shall go talk to them today.

Just curious Thommo but I took a look at the store's website (pic below) of their Mac Mini offerings - looking at the details, all indicate that the OS X is El Capitan - since you purchased your computer just 2 months ago, was this a new Mini or an old/refurbished one w/ the older OS X installed? Just asking because the Apple warranty may be an issue and not having any experience w/ that retailer, not sure what their warranty might be? Please let us know the details and good luck! Dave
.

 

[Thommo]

I bought it from The Good Guys but I don't know how widely known they are, that's why I said a store LIKE Hervey Norman. It was sold as new, but clearly was old stock.

 

[Thommo]

I bought it from The Good Guys but I don't know how widely known they are, that's why I said a store LIKE Hervey Norman. It was sold as new, but clearly was old stock.

In the interests of fairness, yesterday I took the puter back to The Good Guys who assured me that they got it into stock in Feb and I bought it on 3 Apr so thats OK. "About this Mac" though says it was built late '14 so it seems it had been in an Apple w'house for a year or so. I paid full price none the less. They took me seriously and and the salesman spent a lot of time with apple and was willing to return it on my behalf but reckoned we needed to upgrade to 10.11 first.

They did this and stress tested it and it appears to be working properly. I could not possibly ask more from the dealer.

The only reasonable conclusion I can draw is that Yosemite was buggy. I had it installed on an old mini and it was bad then too but I put it down to hardware incompatibility. Maybe not.

 

[harryb2448]

Someone is telling porkies Thommo! Yosemite was a good operating system and any Mac sold after September 2015 should have come with El Capitan. I would still go to Apple and have everything checked out. Have dealt with the Good Guys and they seem okay if too pushy and say anything. Check the Minis serial number and find the actual date the warranty commenced. It has twelve months from that date.About this Mac tells when the model was introduced not when it was made. It could well be old, but it would not be in an Apple warehouse let me assure you. Whoever looks after their Macs is not doing their job properly.

Check out this link to find date of warranty commencement:-


https://checkcoverage.apple.com/au/en/

 

[Thommo]

Someone is telling porkies Thommo!

Porkies? I tell the truth. It was a puter supplied by Apple and out of the box it was a piece of excrement. It doesn't matter if it was "old" when I bought it, it is supposed to work when it was built. It didn't bloody work!!! Prey tell how am I telling porkies?

The only reason I'm not blowing my top is that my supplier went to great lengths to do what Apple didn't.

I know this is an Apple cheer squad site but....Over to you.

 

[pigoo3]

Someone is telling porkies Thommo!

Porkies? I tell the truth. It was a puter supplied by Apple and out of the box it was a piece of excrement. It doesn't matter if it was "old" when I bought it, it is supposed to work when it was built. It didn't bloody work!!! Prey tell how am I telling porkies?

The only reason I'm not blowing my top is that my supplier went to great lengths to do what Apple didn't.

I know this is an Apple cheer squad site but....Over to you.

I think you may be misunderstanding. I don't think harryb is saying you are "Telling Porkies"…someone told YOU or you read "Porkies".

Please don't fly off the handle before verifying what is being said…and who it is directed at. We are just trying to help.

- Nick

 

[Thommo]

Be more specific, who do you call a liar?

The puter I bought in good faith was supplied to the retailer less than two months before I bought it. That it was built over twelve months before is an Apple problem, not the retailers.

But that doesn't bloody well matter!!! Regardless of when it was put in the box, ready to ship, it should have worked 100%. That is Apple's promise isn't it?

 

[pigoo3]

Sorry Tommo. This is not helping. Thread closed.

- Nick