I have just replaced the internal HDD of my Mac Mini with a Crucial MX500 SSD, in the process of moving the logic board I pulled it out too far which disconnected the wires from inside the logic board connector of what I believe is the optical drive sensor. I have inserted the wires back into the connector but even so I’m having an issue with the fans on full speed.

As others have recommended, I am using the app SSD Fan Control but became perplexed as to why it wasn’t doing anything when I set it to Auto or S.M.A.R.T.

Only when I set the optical drive setting to manual did it stop the fans from spinning on max.

I’m guessing this means the optical drive thermal sensor is broken.

I taped the HDD thermal sensor to the new SSD, similar to how it was on the original.

The app is set to SMART on the left half (hard disk) and manual (2500 RPM) on the right side (optical drive). Does this mean the fans are still working automatically based off of the data from the thermal sensor on the HDD, just not on the sensors on the optical drive? The optical drive on this Mac is never used, so could I feasibly continue to use the Mac as normal and won’t have to worry about overheating so as long as the optical drive isn’t used? The reason I believe the HDD thermal sensor is working is because the measured data on the app fluctuates a little (RPM and degrees) so I think it’s reading some sort of data.

Separate to this, does this app work in the background? When I close it, it doesn’t show anything in Activity Monitor that I can see, so will it still read the sensor data and adjust the fans accordingly? I’ve set it to open upon logging in via System Preferences, Users, Login Items.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

⟐ Commented February 20, 2026 at 5:33 MST

⟐ Answered December 06, 2025 at 14:19 MST

⟐ Answered June 06, 2025 at 16:15 MST

⟐ Answer accepted October 29, 2024 at 20:16 MST

I got frustrated and installed a fresh hard disk and tried to boot the mac into a bootable mac OS X usb which I made using transmac on windows as I do not have access to any other mac. When I tried to boot into the usb, it would again load to the end and just get stuck there and would not go past it. At that point I gave up and left it for 2 years. I tried to fix it again this year and I tried various other things like creating a bootable usb from a mac os virtual machine which did not work. I got fed up and tried to install a different OS, like windows which would not work. The only OS I got to work on my mac mini was Ubuntu. I have no idea what I can do anymore.

Is this the only apple product which refuses to boot into Mac OS? I would really appreciate any help I can get because honestly.. I am in a limbo with this machine.

⟐ Commented October 27, 2024 at 8:13 MST

I bought a Mac Mini (Mid 2010, 4.1) many years ago on eBay and used it for some time as a server.

Recently it didn‘t turn on anymore. After unplugging and plugging the power cord multiple times it turned on once again, until I moved it a little while it was running and it lost power. Looks like a loose contact from the Blackbox view I have.

Now it doesn’t turn on at all anymore. Nothing comes up when I press the power button. So I disassembled it but am quite clueless on how to diagnose it.

Anyone any ideas on how to debug and fix it?

Best regards,

Manu

⟐ Commented March 27, 2024 at 11:33 MST

Has anyone tried putting in the larger DDR3 PC3-10600 ram into the mac mini mid 2010 rather than the recommended DDR3 PC3-8500.

⟐ Commented November 16, 2023 at 12:54 MST

I have not had any success yet with the Ethernet Switch and Cables, so I would like to try it with a Firewire Cable and Migration Assistant.

Could you please inform me of the correct cables for this task

⟐ Answer accepted November 09, 2023 at 10:58 MST

⟐ Answer edited August 23, 2023 at 14:45 MST

⟐ Commented January 06, 2023 at 16:06 MST

⟐ Commented January 02, 2023 at 14:20 MST

This was the issue before I opened it to replace the thermal paste and clean the dust out. So I didn't make it any worse or any better.

The RAM sticks are OWC, so I think it's safe to say they are in good health and quality.

I think it may be an issue with the hard drive? It was a family computer that went through a lot, so maybe it is broken? IDK, and the data on it doesn't mean anything because there was always a backup.

I am kind of at a loss on what to do; I would appreciate any ideas.

⟐ Commented May 08, 2022 at 10:05 MST

It will work if I use only one of the new 4 GB together with one of the old 1 GB. One 4 GB by itself doesn’t work.

Why doesn’t it work with both 4 GB chips, but works with mismatched RAM?

5 GB is working fine and speeding things up considerably, but is there a way I can make my Mac use all 8 GB?

Thanks!

⟐ Commented April 15, 2022 at 5:13 MST

Can you tell me what kind of SSD hard drive 500 GB should I buy for Mac Mini 2010 server with Snow leopard?

I need Mac OS X 10.6 for old applications.

⟐ Commented September 23, 2021 at 17:37 MST

I suspect the thermal sensor is either bad or connected incorrectly to the system board.

My questions is: Which of the 2 possible locations on the logic board are used if there is only a single HD in the system? Or, does it even matter?

I bought this unit used, and there were other minor details about it that make me think whoever added/ replaced the HD was not careful in reassembly of the Mini - which is why I wonder about the possible misplaced sensor.

Thanks in advance!

The images would have made more sense, if, when I opened up the Mini, there had been 2 thermal sensors connected. As it was, there was only one and it was connected to the left connector (farthest from the RAM slots. )

I moved it over to the right slot and it's settled right down,

Thanks for the quick reply

⟐ Commented July 14, 2021 at 0:18 MST

I did a fresh install quite a few times but same results. I’ve also tried removing one SO-DMM , then the other, different drives, different RAM and essentially it still restarts with random Kernel errors.

Mac Mini mid 2010, 16GB memory , 250GB SSD, macOS High Sierra

Any suggestions?

⟐ Answer edited July 10, 2021 at 15:52 MST

⟐ Answered March 14, 2021 at 11:21 MST

I want to use handoff or airdrop in my mac mini, do I need a new airport card?

If necessary, please provide us with a compatible list.

I've already tried Bluetooth dongle, but it's not activated.

⟐ Commented February 17, 2021 at 5:43 MST

After pushing the power button of my mac mini, the cooling fan goes to max speed and does not put out any video signal. The Power LED is on and white.

• I removed the power cord and cleaned the fan and the inner of the mac -> no change
• I tried to remove both RAM sticks and boot -> mac beeps once every couple seconds and the fan seems to be on normal speed. But still no video Signal.
• I tried to boot with only 1 RAM stick -> Still fan ramps up to the max and no video signal.

Does anyone have an idea what I could troubleshoot next?

I am thankful for any ideas and comments.

Regards

Philipp

⟐ Answer edited December 20, 2020 at 20:25 MST

⟐ Answer accepted November 24, 2020 at 11:40 MST