Last week, I woke up to find my mini completely dead. The power light was still on, the hard drive was still spinning, but nothing going on. I powered it off, and back on, and it still sat silent. The light came on, but no chime, and no booting.

What I've tried so far:

- resetting the PRAM => fan runs @ max until I turn it off, front light does not come on.

- resetting the SMC => back to the normal state where the front light comes on, but nothing else.

- replacing the original 1.66 Core Duo CPU to see if I'd smoked the T7200.

- pulling one of the 1G chips out, and then the other.

At this point, is there much chance that it could be anything but a failed logic board? (The thing was quite dusty around the intake vents ...). I suppose it could be the power supply, but it seems sort of unlikely.

Nobody seems to sell logic boards, so I guess it's time to pick up the cheapest old mini I can find ($350 is what I've seen), or fork over ~$750 for a brand new one.

-/\/

⟐ Commented April 19, 2022 at 22:47 MST

I don't want to buy a whole $100 dysfunctional mini on eBay just to get heatsink pins! I came up empty with Digi-Key and other component suppliers. Anyone have any ideas?

⟐ Commented November 01, 2022 at 22:33 MST

there is no visual damage on the logicboard.

i removed the logic board and found some markings on the board.

testpoints at the following parts on the bottom side are marked "pink": U6400, U6410, U9500. those areas/parts are marked "blue": the circuits between R9537/C9522 and C9525/R9540, the printed text of L4732/R4732/R4733.

on the top side is only one "red" marking on C9521.

i've read a few things of other dying minis, some suffered the "failing fan issue" - but i don't think that those things are related. others died during the setup/update of 10.6.3.

the pram battery had 2.99v - but nothing changed after replacing it with a new battery.

and please - no "get a new mini" or "replace the logic board" answers.

i want to know if those computers are fixable or not - there are way to much minis out there that could do a great job in those times (mine is a 2ghz c2d with 2gb ram - not a "crappy" old 1.5 core solo)

the cpu isn't the problem, tired it with different ones, the brick works too - tested on another mini and it delivers around 18.5v to the board

any useful suggestions??

⟐ Answered July 31, 2016 at 13:05 MST

⟐ Commented February 08, 2020 at 20:14 MST

I put it away for a while - as work changed, had no time to play on it. I took it off the shelf where it had say for 3+ years. I was fully working when I put it there.

First thing I noticed, when I hooked it up with the DVI >> VGA adapter which had always worked, I would get no image. The monitor constantly had [NO SIGNAL] message. The monitor works just fine with the Windows Server I use it on.

I removed the adapter and attached the DVI cable to the same monitor and back of the Mac, and I got a grey screen with an Apple. I attempted to boot into Recovery Mode, and while I would get the option to boot into Recovery or OS-X - Neither would load. They would start, and I would get the folder with flashing ? Which I know is bad. I took the HDD out - as it had given me problems before. I attached to another PC with a USB adapter and ran a HW test. The SMART test failed, and it also gave multiple errors and even occasionally make a clicking noise.

I was like...OH WELL, GUESS THE OLD GIRL HAS GONE TO HDD HEAVEN. :-)

I wanted to put an SSD in there anyway. I bought a brand new Samsung EVO 750 120GB drive, and put it in. The system seemed to like it. I go no errors on booting it up. Got the normal TAAAH! sound.

Now here is where the issues lie - I knew I had to reload the OS. I have a USB Drive which I have used for years to reload this machine or my MacBook which died 2+ years ago. It was the Snow Leopard installation (which had been on this machine). I booted, held the Option Key, saw the drive and clicked it. It began - what I felt was installation. 10 mins later, it was still on the Grey Apple screen... No whirligig moving - only the Apple. I said....****. Did a PRAM RESET, got the TAAAH!, waited - got 2nd TAAAH! and let go of the keys. Just so that it is known, all keys on the keyboard appeared to be fine. Caps Lock would light if touched. The PRAM reset did nothing.

I next tried the DIAGNOSTICS, it never does anything. It will eventually go the same FOLDER with ? on the screen. Have tried the COMMAND + R, and the SHIFT + COMMAND + R, nothing works there. I’ve tried the verbose mode, and only once got it to boot there. I goes through some stuff on one screen - clears screen and gives another list of data about 1/3 of the screen and stops. I have pictures of this screen. I do not see anything which jumps out as error.

It had 2x2GB DDR2 667 DIMMS which have always worked, and it has the 64bit CPU. I have re-seated both of those, made sure all the connectors are secure and all wires from the HDD swap. Still nada. Just to make sure the HDD was not the issue, I put in another old 80GB SATA drive. Same results when trying to install. Hangs on GREY SCREEN - will sit there for hour if I let it. I also attached the new SSD to my windows PC with the USB adapter, and it is seen, will let me format it for MBR or GPT. I used TRANSMAC and told it to format the HDD for MAC USE. It works. Still nothing when put back into the MAC.

I dug out my old install DVD for Leopard, and put into the drive. It makes all kinds of racket and then spits it out. I opened up the DVD and made sure the lens was clean and freely moving. Tried again - still spits it out. I attached an external DVD to the machine, booted with OPTION, finds the DVD chose to install. DVD flashes 3-4 minutes, and the same grey apple screen appears and never goes anywhere.

I took one of the 2GB DIMMS out, and tried again...SAME. Swapped the DIMMs and again... SAME. I tried the SMC clear process... both methods. Still nothing.

I cannot get SAFE MODE to work - as there is no OS installed.

I’m now at wits end. I would love to get this running again, but have run out of ideas. Looking for help as what else to try.

Thanks a million in advance,

I was able to get the MAC MINI A1176 to boot into VERBOSE mode - here is a picture of the screen.

⟐ Commented November 15, 2018 at 14:31 MST

⟐ Answer accepted September 08, 2016 at 7:29 MST

Im looking at Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor BX80571E7500 from NewEgg that looks like it would give my mini a good boost and i am also going to get another stick of RAM for it.

Would the 2.93GHz work without a problem in the A1176?

⟐ Answered September 21, 2016 at 2:31 MST

Any suggestions?

⟐ Commented August 16, 2018 at 5:59 MST

•The Fan runs loudly at full speed, and stays on all the time, as soon as the computer is booted.

Other Symptom(s) or Details:

•All operations of the machine seem to be slower than they used to be, whether using just the OS, or running an application (I do not know if this is a related problem).

•80GB HD with 47GB free space. 1GB RAM installed. Computer is used *only* for email, internet browsing, and to run Finale (music notation software - no audio processing)

⟐ Commented June 02, 2020 at 2:16 MST

⟐ Answer accepted September 30, 2018 at 9:09 MST

⟐ Answer accepted May 04, 2018 at 5:15 MST

⟐ Commented September 22, 2022 at 12:24 MST

⟐ Answered August 25, 2010 at 5:29 MST

⟐ Answer deleted March 11, 2014 at 20:42 MST

----------Update 17/01/10------------------

yesterday my sound card in sys prefs shown as working, after i downloaded Mac OS X Combo update (today) the sound card were not shown even in sys profiler??

⟐ Answer accepted November 09, 2013 at 4:29 MST

Seeing as they use the same chipset in theory it should be possible.

My guess would be it's a firmware issue?

⟐ Commented June 06, 2025 at 7:15 MST

⟐ Answer deleted December 30, 2020 at 4:27 MST

Here's an actual photo of the issue:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10974334/P18809...

What is best to do here ... repair it (best way???) or buy a new part? (where do I get it?)

Thanks,

Eric

⟐ Answered April 19, 2019 at 2:40 MST

Does anyone have thoughts on a practical alternative to Apple's Mini case? I'd prefer something on the practical/discreet side, as opposed to goofy and outrageous.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented March 09, 2015 at 21:34 MST

I am running snow leopard with 4GB Ram and 500gb HD. (Can't remember the HD but it is a faster one)

I am afraid Lion will slow it down even more. I want to make it faster. What to do? Ssd? Cpu change?

Or does it make more sense to buy latest 2011 model?

Thanks in advance for you input.

I broke down and upgraded.

I got a ssd drive. It seemed easier then replacing the CPU.

I might still consider CPU upgrade if I can find one cheap enough.

I got a Corsair Force 3 @ Newegg. It had good specs. I got the 120gb version but regret that I didn't get the bigger one.

For a comparison I did a xbench before and after.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

xbench with 7200rpm WDC HD was (Disk test)64.43.

xbench with ssd was (Disk test)243.85.

sequential w/HD 101.94

sequential w/ssd 148.85

random w/HD 47.10

random w/ssd 673.98

Night and Day the difference.

⟐ Answered December 26, 2013 at 21:49 MST