When the computer restarts, it doesn't indicate a kernel panic.

No idea what to do, thank you for the help!

⟐ Commented July 12, 2025 at 12:03 MST

I have a Mid 2011 Mac Mini (2.5Ghz i5 model A1347) which I bought from the refurb store in 2013.

From mid 2013 to late 2016 it served as a media server, running XBMC/Kodi. Towards the end of that time it started to randomly shut down. I then stopped using it and since then it's been sat in a cupboard.

I was going to wipe it and set it up for my daughter, but I can't get it started. When I try to start it, the power light comes on and I can hear something (I think it's the HDD) and then about one second later it switches off.

Any guidance on troubleshooting this would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

⟐ Commented March 27, 2025 at 10:57 MST

 performed an NVRAM, performed an SMC reset, booted on Safe mode, changed memory module, without success

  I would really appreciate some ideas to start looking for the cause.

Found on this site:

"I disagree with the power supply diagnosis. Unless you have set your power save options to restart after power fail, the machine will stay off. Mine does not stay off. None of the others reporting this issue claim it stays off.

I was having the random restart problem several times per day after updating to High Sierra. The suggestions above caused me to start thinking about what functionality might change across releases. I decided to look at Power Save options.

I disabled power save for both system and display (set it to Never). The problem has disappeared. I have been running for a week now without recurrence.

It appears that Apple has introduced misadventure into the Power Save behaviour of (at least) High Sierra on Mid-2011 Mac Minis."

⟐ Edited by author February 15, 2025 at 19:28 MST

for example My Idea is is to buy a computer case and put the Mac mini board in where PCI cards go?

⟐ Commented January 10, 2025 at 5:37 MST

⟐ Answer accepted October 25, 2024 at 20:10 MST

Regardless of the cost, we still need an answer. As one person commented, some of us may have an existing case or 2010 mini. I noted a similar question posted recently as well.

⟐ Commented October 14, 2024 at 4:42 MST

Oh--and is it SATA III or II?

And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).

I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)

The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.

But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).

Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?

Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.

Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?

Thanks and sorry,

Michael Donahue

⟐ Answered September 21, 2024 at 13:43 MST

I had this older Mac Mini sitting around and wanted to see if there was anyway to solve this issue I've stepped upon which I've never seen before.
I've heard the horror stories about those Radeon GPUs around the time of when this model of Mac Mini was around, but this model seems to have a Intel iGPU. I'm unsure if that makes a difference in whether this is another dead GPU case, but I wanted to see if anyone here had any suggestions on what the issue could be.

As the title mentions, this is a Macmini5,1 with issues relating to no video/display, plus the front LED light not lighting up either. I've tried resetting the NVRAM about two times, which I did hear the multiple chimes, and that didn't seem to do anything. Although, I've noticed that my monitor gets "power" (I guess?) when the Mac Mini turns on, but nothing shows up on the display.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

⟐ Answered September 02, 2024 at 23:31 MST

I had what seems to be a classic error while upgrading my Mid-2011 Mac Mini hard drive to an SSD and broke my IR connector. I unfortunately didn’t grab a picture and don’t especially want take it apart again.

What I did was attempt to pry up the clip and 3/5 of the connector bay came up with it. So part of the bay is still attached, although one pin came off entirely, and the rest is just floating there.

From what I gather thus far in my reading, I can live without the IR connector as I don’t use a remote and don’t care about the on light.

My question is, however: am I going to cause a short or any ill-fate to my computer by just leaving this connector hovering above the spot it’s supposed to attach to the logic board? Do I need to either fix it or remove it entirely?

Thanks for your help!

Graham

⟐ Commented August 26, 2024 at 16:54 MST

So I download High Sierra and made a bootable installer. Formatted the SSD and ran the installation, this did not complete the installation process. But then enters a boot loop, boot runs then restarts to about 3/4 off the grey install screen, then reboots again.

Then on the start of a reboot pressed the shift and managed to complete the installation process in safe mode.

Now it is continuously still stuck in loop boot. It starts to 3/4 grey startup screen and restart again.

But you can force it into safe mode. Also now the start chime now has stoped working.

I have tried many times now and have lost my way forward.

⟐ Answer unaccepted April 11, 2024 at 12:08 MST

My Mac mini has a dead gpu. No way to switch to HD 3000 because the ssd I have runs windows 10 and there is no image. Something was like rolling in the Mac mini so I decided to let it fall out and sure enough, it was maybe a capacitor. Is this capacitor important? I don’t have soldering kits. I need a fix for this.

Note: capacitor says 1R0 206 PS0

Thanks ifixit.

Edit:

Basically if it’s powered on, fan will start and no boot chime and no display, then it would probably shut down after 15 secs

⟐ Edited by author October 15, 2023 at 11:06 MST

If I reset the SMC the symptoms gets back.

Any ideas where to go from here?

Specs:

MacOS: High Sierra 10.13.6
Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i52.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory:16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6630M 256 MB

When I boot in verbose mode those are the last lines before it goes blank

[image] https://ibb.co/sJGK2mh

⟐ Commented July 07, 2023 at 14:29 MST

⟐ Answer edited April 01, 2023 at 14:27 MST

I am now using a 8g ddr3 1600 ram(1.5v) now and mac mini is working fine. Can I install another 8g ddr3l (low voltage, 1.35v) at the same time? Because normal voltage(1.5v) ram is very rare now.

⟐ Commented February 14, 2023 at 14:50 MST

When removing the top left T6 screw that secures the fan and heat sink cowling to the logic - on left in this picture: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig... - I was unable to lift the fan on its own until I disconnected the cowling from the logic board so that I could lift them both together.

As I lifted them clear, a small spring popped out.

I am sure that I could replace the pair of them still coupled, but can anyone tell me how to separate them please? Is this a pair of screws (one screwed into the other)?

⟐ Commented January 01, 2023 at 17:05 MST

⟐ Answer edited November 21, 2022 at 5:26 MST

I didn't know where to post it, but I thought I'd post it here. We tried to tidy up a friend's Mac Mini 2011.

However, it was given to the service before and the service stated that it would no longer be repaired and that the motherboard had to be changed.

When I took the device and opened it the R56D coded SMD inductor on the motherboard is missing.

If the service dismantled it, why did they remove it? Is a separate mystery...

My question is, where can I find this part? Even if I find a spare motherboard, I find it unnecessary to spend just for this part.

Thank you very much to everyone in advance.

⟐ Edited September 29, 2022 at 5:20 MST

• macOS 10.13.6
• 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
• 5 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

I currently have 4 GB and 1 GB memory cards, however even with 2 x 4 GB cards I still experience the same problems.

It cannot handle more than 3 basic apps running at the same time. I usually have Safari, Mail, and the Music apps running all the time but if I decide to open anything else e.g. Photos, it becomes extremely slow forcing me to close one of the apps.

It also struggles with more than 6-7 Safari tabs depending on the webpages.

I often listen to a music playlist on YouTube and maybe after 15-17 songs, I have to close the tab and open a new one. It warns me about using significant energy and if I ignore it the device runs slow.

I am only using two extensions for Safari, Grammarly and AdGuard.

I am only performing the most basics of tasks on this device and it struggles to keep up with it.

I don’t want to buy another Mac, new or used. I am sure there is something that can be done to fix this issue.

I have these apps installed on my Mac which I believe are quite basic apps.

AdGuard for Safari, Android File Transfer, App Store, Automator, BitTorrent, Calculator, Calendar, Chess, Contacts, DaisyDisk, Dashboard, Dictionary, DVD Player, Express VPN, FaceTime, Font Book, GarageBand, Chrome, Grammarly, iBooks, Image Capture, iMovie, iMovie 9.0.8, Install OS X El Capitan, iPhoto, iTunes, Launchpad, Mail, Maps, Messages, Microsoft Silverlight, Mission Control, Notes, Numbers, Pages, Photo Booth, Photos, Preview, QuickTime Player, Reminders, Safari, Siri, Stickies, System Preferences, TextEdit, Time Machine, VLC,

Thank you for reading.

Cheers!

⟐ Commented July 25, 2022 at 7:21 MST

Some week ago, my Mac started facing the following problem.

When I try to turn it on the power led blink, but it doesn't start (nothing at all)

When I take the power cord out for a couple of hours and plug it again, the computer starts normal and can work for hours with no issue.

I’m guessing it the battery, power supply or the board if someone had seen this behavior and fixed it would appreciate any hints

⟐ Commented July 05, 2022 at 9:11 MST

⟐ Answered July 05, 2022 at 5:49 MST