Thanks in advance :)

⟐ Commented December 07, 2025 at 14:20 MST

⟐ Answer edited August 12, 2025 at 18:59 MST

So this is what it looks like should I clear all this test the board etc it’s doing a full spin now. Hopefully these are easily fixed.

this is after a clean

this is what I get after all the steps I’m guessing there’s a much bigger issue there’s a longer spin with the fan now though

⟐ Commented July 03, 2025 at 4:25 MST

⟐ Answer edited March 20, 2025 at 5:16 MST

1.) 1394 9pin male to 1394 6pin female adapter cable +

2.) 1394 6pin male to USB 2.0 male adapter cable +

3.) USB 2.0 female to female adapter connector

1.) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10050082...

2.) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10050077...

3.) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10050055...

Could I safely connect to this cable chain an external HDD or anything else for that matter? Keyboard, mouse, etc.

⟐ Commented March 18, 2025 at 6:09 MST

If I connect my external display to my Mac with a Mini Displayport - HDMI (1080p) cable, immediately after I put my Mac to sleep it wakes back up (only the Mac wakes up, the external display remains in stand-by until I click the mouse or press a key).

IF I power off my external display (with the Mini Displayport - HDMI cable still plugged in both Mac and external display), THEN put my Mac to sleep, it stays asleep as it should.

• with the Mini DP - HDMI cable connected, "About This Mac" -> "System Report" -> "Thunderbolt" -> "Status" indicates "No device connected"

Do I have a faulty cable, maybe faulty thunderbolt port? Is my external display not fully compatible?

My external display is a Philips 227E7QDSB.

⟐ Answer accepted March 05, 2025 at 10:38 MST

My trusty Mac mini might not be so trustworthy as I thought. My machine’s specs are 2.3 ghz i7, with 16Gb RAM and an upgraded 1 TB SSD. It never had the Fusion Drive. I bought it new from an Apple Authorised Dealer and they did the memory upgrade before I purchased the Mac. Maybe they also changed the Fusion Drive to a different drive type, but that is not something that I had asked for. Not that it matters now because I have upgraded the drive to the SSD as above and I did that about two years ago. The Mac has been running well since.

A few weeks ago, the Mac started running a little bit slower, or that’s what it seemed like. I monitored it for a couple of days and then one day it started getting really slow. As I hadn’t rebooted it for a while, I decided to shut it down and reboot.

Except that when I rebooted, the screen was completely blank. I tried to reboot again, but I got the same result. I rebooted it a few more times and I continued to get the same blank screen.

I found an old Dell monitor with only a VGA connection on it and I scrounged around and found the adapter to get the VGA monitor connected to my Mac mini. Another reboot. Same result as before - blank screen.

I’m wondering if it is possible to use the HDMI port to connect to a monitor, and would that bypass the ‘display card’? My assumption is probably the worst case scenario where the ‘display card’ has had it, and I think that I’ve read somewhere that the display function is inbuilt on the motherboard.

I don’t want to lose my Mac mini!

Thanks for sharing your expertise and knowledge.

⟐ Commented December 18, 2024 at 20:57 MST

⟐ Commented November 13, 2024 at 13:06 MST

⟐ Answer edited November 10, 2024 at 18:52 MST

No numerical output on minijack connector. Analog is working well. It’s surely an hardware problem. I tried several configurations in sound preferences, midi preferences. Cable is ok working on iMac.Is it possible to clean the connector ?

Regards,

Bertrand.

⟐ Answer edited September 15, 2024 at 16:37 MST

I would be happy to post a 'technique' article showing people how to access and test the power supply in this model if someone can help me determine their proper output values and connector pins.

⟐ Commented August 15, 2024 at 16:09 MST

I'm looking at purchasing a 2012 Mac Mini with an i5 processor. I have a PC at home that is not really used as I am a Mac user. The PC is pretty high spec - well it was 3 years ago. It's running an i7 processor and I was wandering if I could put it in the Mac?

Any help is appreciated.

Many thanks,

Steve

⟐ Commented May 29, 2024 at 11:47 MST

⟐ Answered May 21, 2024 at 10:22 MST

I was wondering if I could leave the existing HD in place, in the upper bay, and put an SSD in the lower bay (without moving the logicboard), after buying the appropriate SATA cable from this website. I would like to install MacOS (probably Monterey or Ventura) on the SSD using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher method (first booting from the USB drive, then transferring the OS to the SSD). Then, I would erase the HD, and use it for storage.

Does this sound like a workable plan? (No one else seems to have posted about doing it this way.) Would anything else besides the SATA cable have to attach to the SSD? Any other parts needed?

Alternatively, if the above wouldn't work, would it be possible to put the SSD in a USB-A enclosure, and boot and run MacOS from the external SSD? Or would that be way too slow? The Mac mini late 2012 has USB-A gen 3.0 (up to 5 Gb/s). I plan to use the mini for photo storage, photo and video editing, and web browsing.

Oh, one additional question - when formatting the new SSD, should I choose APFS?

Thank you!

Hi, @danj , and thank you for your response. I tried to post this reply as a comment, but it was too long, so I am posting it as an "answer", which, of course, it is not.

I have looked at the guides you linked to.

My 2012 Mac mini currently has one HD, and it is in the less accessible bay (the upper bay, with the machine upright). While you are clearly highly skilled, and have never never damaged a Mac mini, many other site users have not been as fortunate (judging from the comments on the Hard Drive Replacement Guide), and since I have never done this sort of thing before, I don't want to push my luck.

We have opened my machine, and partly disassembled it - the fan and the antenna plate have been moved aside (though we opted to leave them connected), and the cowling has been removed. I just do not want to go further with disconnecting things from the logic board, so that it can be moved. Instead, I would like to leave the existing HD in place, in its current location, the upper bay (when the machine is upright). It still works, by the way.

While the Hard Drive Replacement Guide that you linked to shows moving the logic board to replace this HD in the lower bay, there are videos (eg, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnBtXrof... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP3oPq1I...) that show that you can replace a drive in the lower bay WITHOUT moving the logic board. (See also the comments to Step 10 of this Guide.)

I would like to slide an SSD into the lower bay (the one that is accessible without moving the logic board). Since I am not replacing an existing drive, I will need to buy a SATA cable and two screws and maybe some tape.

The SATA cable for the lower bay is available on this website (Part Number 821-1500).

Do you know where can I buy two T8 torque screws to use as mounting pins for the SSD (since I am not removing those from an existing drive)? Can I get them at a local hardware store?

Polyimide tape is what I need to put over the SATA cable connector where it connects to the SSD, right? (Since I don't have any tape to transfer from an existing drive.)

Then, my plan is to use OpenCore Legacy Patcher, via a USB stick, to format the SSD and install Monterey or Ventura on it, following this guide: https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog... . I believe I can prepare the USB installer from my 2018 mac mini (since the 2012 is partially disassembled), and work on the SSD after it has been installed inside the Mac min. (But I'm not entirely sure; I need to re-read this guide carefully.) And then I would reformat the existing HD, erasing all its content. (I don't need the data files, and don't want the current Mac OS.)

Daunting, but hopefully not impossible! Thank you for your help.

⟐ Commented March 03, 2024 at 22:35 MST

However, the Mac I picked is pretty old, but it was also on the shelf with a good config (2.3 Quad i7/16GB/240GB SSD) so I went with this for testing and potentially the final "server" I setup for a while. I'm thinking of transitioning the server setup to a M1 Mini with 16GB/1TB in the future due to how old this Mini is, and the OS maxing at Catalina.

Is there any reason to do this with a M1, or should an old 2012 Mini be plenty?

⟐ Commented February 03, 2024 at 2:07 MST

I just got Mac mini 2012 and need to upgrade storage to SSD. But I found out that I can have TWO SSD's in this model - https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+... - so my question is: is the second SATA cable already inside so I need to add asecond drive ? Or do I have to buy it separately ?

Thank you very much for any ideas.

Regards Rob

⟐ Commented September 16, 2023 at 13:24 MST

⟐ Answer accepted September 15, 2023 at 7:09 MST

⟐ Commented September 13, 2023 at 0:29 MST

⟐ Answered August 17, 2023 at 8:14 MST

⟐ Commented May 24, 2023 at 7:41 MST