Mac Mini hardware fault

[brammn]

Hi,
My Mac Mini Mid 2011 keeps randomly rebooting itself, particularly when I've got it doing intensive stuff. I'm 99.9% sure its hardware as I've re-installed OS X a couple of times and unplugged pretty much everything attached to it to rule that out.

Apple extended hardware tests don't find anything. With the behaviour its exhibiting I'm swaying towards memory or CPU (probably CPU given how hot its getting), it's had a new HDD fairly recently and I purposely ran that disk in another machine for a few weeks first to be sure as I can be it was/is good.

Has anyone got any suggestions for other hardware diagnostic tools I can run or any suggestions to try and narrow it down?

Cheers
Nathan

 

[pm-r]

Have you got any compatible internal temp software installed to check and watch what the temps are and/or add a fan.app utility and boost the fan speeds.

If its hot to your hand so you can't comfortably keep your hand on it — it's running too hot!!!




- Patrick
======

 

[lclev]

If Patrick's suggestion shows a fan issue and boosting the speed does not help it could be a fan that is weak or failing.
If the fan is bad it can be replace: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Mid+2011+Fan+Replacement/6387

It is possible the thermal grease needs replacing between the heat sink and cpu. It can dry out although I would not think this would be the case this early as it is a 2011. The heat sink could also need replacing. I did look at ifixit.com to see how hard it would be and it is listed as difficult.

Lisa

 

[chscag]

Random reboots can be caused by:

1. Bad memory

2. Failing power supply

3. Overheating

As you can see... you have a lot to check and troubleshoot. Try the Apple Hardware Test first and if that shows nothing, a good memory tester.

 

[brammn]

Thanks folks,
I've tried the Apple hardware diagnostics and nothing.
Any suggestions for decent fan app and memory test utilities? The fan itself is turning (I dropped the bottom off the unit to check and turned it on)
Thanks
Nathan

 

[pm-r]

As for a fan control, I recommend and use Macs Fan Control.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/47386/macs-fan-control

I've never had much success trying any memory testers successfully over the years. Or they gave some results that I didn't understand.





- Patrick
======

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Do you get a Kernel Panic message when it reboots or an indication after it comes back? Take a look at this article about how to grab any reports that might exist. if you do have a log, that will go a long way of indicating potentially where the issue lies.

How much memory do you have on this Mac Mini? Open up Activity Monitor and keep an eye on how much memory/swap is being used..

 

[ferrarr]

I have used memtest86 in the past, but not within the last 4 - 5 years, http://www.memtest86.com