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DEAD Mac mini 1.83GHz C2D!

I

iCube

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
256
0
My faithful and trusted Intel Mac mini 1.83 C2D that I bought new in December 2007 suddenly died during a major 10.6.3 update install. It almost completed the update and the screen went black and the light went off instantly. The power button doesn't respond at all. I had major work projects going on Sunday night when I took a break, quit all applications and did the software update and it died. I took it to the Apple Store Monday morning thinking it was the power supply. I was informed that the logic board is dead and my HD has to be wiped and OS X reinstalled. The repair would cost well over $300 and have a 90 day warranty with the same logic board installed that could fail again. Ironically enough, I had been thinking about buying another new Mac mini and a new Mac mini Server for work. That's not going to happen now. I left the Apple store with my new $600 paper weight for my desk. What would you do? This was a sad day in my faith in Apple products. Apple Mac mini lemon? Thanks Apple... :mad:

While my 500Mhz Cube serves me very well day to day at work, I do need my 10.6 Mac mini to run iMovie '09 to put together my videos for http://youtube.com/deals4twowheels

IMG_0092.jpg
 
Par for the course with Intel Macs in my experience.

No, sorry, none of mine lasted more than 2 years. You've done well.!

buy or even better build a PC and dual boot Win7 and Ubuntu. Both are better than Slow leopard.

will save much money too!
 
I have a 2007 Mac Mini 2.0 C2D and it's worked beautifully for 2 and a half years, sorry about your loss.
 
I don't see why you have to wipe your hard drive? That's kinda bad advice for the service rep to suggest that. Did you at least make a backup before installing your update? You can always remove your hard drive and put it in an external enclosure and hook it up to your Cube to pull your important the files off.

You could also just buy a new Mini and swap the hard drive into that one.

Sorry about your loss but this is why the extended Apple Care comes in handy.
 
Kinda fishy that the logic board that's been going along fine for 2 plus years decided to die right at the end of a software update....I'd try some of the SMC/PRAM/whatever reset tactics you can find by googling before totally writing off the mini.
 
2007 1.83 C2d Mac Mini Still Dead!

Thanks for the input everyone. They tried to reset it at the Apple store and it didn't respond. The outlook for my $599 Apple iPaperweight looks bleek... Imagine buying a $30,000 car and in two and a half years in just shuts down and the company says, it'll be $15,000 to repair it with the same faulty part with a 90 day warranty or ...hey buy a new faster one for $30,000 and leave your old one in your driveway dead forever. It was old and slow anyway. I never imagined this, sad for my view apple.
 
I'm sorry for your loss.

These things need taken in perspective, however. You said you own a G4 Cube, and it's serving you well, and given the age of the Cube, should that not speak well of Apple? I'm not trying to deny the frustration of a dead machine, but people seem to be all too ready to denounce a product (or company) they've trusted for years over one problem.

Also, consider this with the car analogy. Cars are designed to last, what 10 years? When do you think the last time was that a computer company, any computer company, designed a computer to last 10 years? Maybe 20 years ago, if that. If you Mac Mini was designed to last 10 years, it would probably cost three times what you paid for it. The sad fact about all technology is that it's designed to become obsolete. Thus they can sell it to you cheaper because they know in five years you'll be looking for something faster, bigger, etc, and take the chance on build quality at that price point. That's not just Apple, but all computer companies, except with most computer companies it's worse. I've yet to see an HP laptop in the $500-1000 range make it past the two year mark without some kind of major issue (I work for a major retailer).

Both my Mac Minis (that are now in the hands of others) are running along just fine. One's four years old this year, the other two and a half. Of course, just my perspective is all. Apple's hardware usually (that's the key word, note "not always") outlasts the majority of PC hardware I've seen. There is always going to be machines that don't make it however. Same way there's cars that are lemons.

EDIT: On what to do for the machine. It sucks that they want that much for a logic board (you wouldn't believe how small a logic board we're talking here), and I disagree entirely with wiping your hard drive. There's likely nothing wrong with it. You could replace the mini with a new one and tear the hard drive out of the old one and put it in an external case so you can get the stuff you lost. Although I'd understand if you weren't ready to get in line for a new one yet.
 
ok first RIP little mac :(
but dont be to sorry do what everybody seems to do considering the huge amount of mini for sale on ebay in the uk , just sell it after 2 years , keep the disc and sell them separate take out the ram you upgraded and fit the original ram again , means you will get £400 for the mini if its working if its not working slightly less but not a huge amount less ,£50 for the discs , ~£50 for the ram if it was maxed out , and bang you got the money for a new base mini or get a refurbished one and you made a profit
ok the point of short life ...that is actually the point that puts me of buying any used intel mac mini in first place , as lots of people buy them as they cant afford a macpro , but force these little bugger to do the same work , so that limits their life expectancy ...so most used intel mins are worn out and on their last legs when they turn up on ebay (not all but most), but cost near the same as a new one and you rarely get install discs for them when you buy one which is the rule on any mac sadly , but for me a mac without the install discs of the installed operating system is absolute worthless and i would not even bit a pence /cent whatever it is in your country for any mac that comes without the discs, as the osx instalation discs are the most important part , as without them its just a pc
 
I'm merely denouncing the way it was handled by Apple. It's 2 1/2 years old, that'll be a 50% repair of what you just paid. If it was a $100 repair with a new and corrected logic board I would have gladly paid it, but $300, no way. Apple will get no more of my money ever. My PPC Cube runs fine, why does a new Intel Mac die prematurely?
 
unless you did not know ,
the intel Macs are only pc's and like all modern pc you are supposed to buy a new one after one year , when your cube was made it did cost a awful lot of money for its time and people had not been expected to buy a new one every 12 month , back then a computer was meant to last a couple years ..and it did , my iMacs g3"s are about the same age as your cube and they still work without a hickup , thats why i love the old ppc Mac's .. think of it the heatpipe and fan of the eMac is nearly as big a the mini itself
they had been build to last ,

just look inside your cube and in the mini ...notice any difference the cube looks more durable and it is ;)

i just love the old mac's they might not be as powerful as the new `Mac's but at least you know what to expect and in most cases the old mac's exceed expectations
but for modern computing i just go back to pc and linux , i might loose style ,but what helps the best style if the computer breaks down?
macs might be well designed from the outside ,but in the inside they are just ordinary pc , but apple has some loyal customers left who will buy everything new as long as this little apple is somewhere on the case , and for people who say ..but look on this beautiful iMac with the sleek thin alloy back , you are right but.....how often do you see that unless you got a mirror behind it ..as i for example unless i repair one i sit in front of the screen...
 
BTW Base price on a cube was $1799, the 500MHz ones you have started at $2299 ($2900 in today's money, adjusted for inflation).

What did you want Apple to do? The warranty expired long ago and that is what they charge for a motherboard. If you had bought AppleCare they would have covered this for free and warrantied it until AppleCare expired.

Are you saying if you bought a Dell or Lenovo they would have fixed it? Or just that since Apple's cost more you should get unofficial warranty.

BTW a BMW doesn't have a better warranty than a Hyundai. And people have had to pay $15K to get a BMW engine replaced. Have you seen the warranty on Sony TVs - 90 days.
 
iCube said:
I'm merely denouncing the way it was handled by Apple. It's 2 1/2 years old, that'll be a 50% repair of what you just paid. If it was a $100 repair with a new and corrected logic board I would have gladly paid it, but $300, no way. Apple will get no more of my money ever. My PPC Cube runs fine, why does a new Intel Mac die prematurely?
Click to expand...

Par for the course and the same with any computer. Just as likely to happen to a Lenovo, Asus, HP, Dell or whatever. You get the odd bad computer in the bunch.

Also why did so many G5s die prematurely? iMac G4s had power supply issues. iMac G5s with Capacitor issues. Apple is no better or worse than any manufacturer in that regard.

Your analogy doesn't apply either.... You bought the cheapest Mac you could at the time. You effectively bought a laptop in that case.
 
The day I bought my Mac mini, if I was told this would only last a few years there's no way I would have bought it. I have G4 Power Macs and G3 iMacs that still run like new! They are all 10 years old. AppleCare and warranty are not an issue here, bad hardware is the issue.
 
the problem is not so much that they die prematurely

when i bought the dell zino HD which did cost less then the base mini it was actually a impulse buy out of disappointment , because of the high used prices of intel minis , and the quality and lack of discs supplied from sellers , and because it was cheaper i do not expect it to last much longer then the warranty
a mac instead i would buy out of the heart ,if you know what i mean , because i love mac's and i love osx , and if you love something you just want it to last forever ,have you ever had a pet (dog .cat other animal) that did pass away , thats how it feels if a mac dies , if a pc dies so be it ..just in the next shop and get another one , but with a mac its something different ..at least thats the wish we all know pets will die one day :( but my macs are all in working order and look like new (apart from the iMac g3 600 ) ,and all are working just like on their first day and the powermac and the tam are already 13 years old, the hardware got cheaper in the last 5 years but the quality too , and the price went up for the mini's :(

and if we talk about pets i own a commodore pet too and that is already over 30 years old and still works with the original parts in it ALL of the original parts
 
The problem with the Apple logic board...

The problem with the Apple logic boards and PC motherboards overheating is pretty much the same for every manufacturer these days. (The mandatory switch from leaded solder to non-leaded seems to have something to do with it, but I'm not nearly technically gifted enough to try to go down that thought path.) I love my Mac Mini Intel C2D 1.83GHz, but, after suffering the loss of my iMac G5 1.6GHz to logic board damage, due, I must now admit, to fairly obvious overheating caused by long periods of use, I've learned my lesson about allowing any computer system to run so haphazardly. Every time I run my Mac Mini, I have it sitting on my old laptop cooling pad with its dual silent fans always on the run. During hot weather, I have additional cooling fans directed on all my components. And I never, ever- ever- let the system run for days at a time anymore, at least not without regularly scheduled shut down periods. I've also made myself very aware of the problems I might expect of this particular machine, and keep a very close eye out for any signs of any internal problems. So far, my Mac Mini runs without a fluke, but I've learned my lesson about thinking any of these systems are indestructible.
 
you made a good point there , but it is also the customers fault , the customer is complaining about every little noise a fan does , so the manufacturers are forced to fit the most silent ans slowest running fans in the new computers , but thats for most people not enough and they even use software to tunrn down the fans , and only a small proportion of them ever thinks about if its cool enough , that was not so much a problem on the old computers , just take my eMac the whole cooling is oversized like it was meant to work on the sun possibly , so i fitted a sensor on the cpu direct to monitor the temp and fitted a fanmate fan controller and turned down the rpm , its quieter , but only 2 degree hotter then before , i monitored it over 24/7 and no change no matter how much i did on it

sorry for your g5 iMac , but the 1.6 is a first generation iMac g5 and had the bad cap issue , and on top of that all g5 iMac's are not really running cool , but thats a design fault the fans are not effective enough to squeeze the hot air through the little slot on the back top , but the customers did want it that way a bigger slot and better fans would have created more noise , so apple didn't change the design

same problem with the iMac g4 (a true design icon ) they had to be ultra quiet so the fan is not really efficient to cool them down best example is if you try to overclock them
while you can easy and safely overclock a eMac 800mhz to 1.33 ghz without any signs of overheating a iMac g4 with the same processor would simply die from overheating within minutes
and while people have safely overclocked their eMac 1.25's to 1.46 and to 1.58 the iMac will just overheat and shut down if you only try it


same on the new iMacs people do not like noise from their computer so they turn down the rpm's , but apple has aknowledged the trouble and wisely designed the back on the new iMacs acting as a big heatsink , but the time will tell how long that lasts if people mess around with fan control on them

same for the mini's, ultra quiet they had to be too because the customer does not want to hear a fan any more , but fitted in such a small box proper air circulation is nearly impossible , easy solution is to turn the mini on its side upright and whop it runs cooler without needing more fan power

in the early days of computing and on proper workstations you hear fans roaring, but everything is kept nice and cool which leads to a longer life of components
 
cjmillsnun said:
Your analogy doesn't apply either.... You bought the cheapest Mac you could at the time. You effectively bought a laptop in that case.
Click to expand...

I didn't have space for anything bigger. I didn't set out to buy "the cheapest Mac you could."

Is it possible to get it fixed? Is the entire board ruined? I had my 12" iBook G4 board repaired beautifully by superiorreball.com because of bad GPU solder joints.

I'm not selling my mini on ebay, I'm not getting rid of it and I'm not giving up on it. My entire world is dead and tied up in that little dead Mac box. I must admit, it does make a fashionable paper weight and turns a lot of heads in my office! Don't get me wrong, I love OS X and Apple, but I'm not getting a PC...EVER!! While Steve Jobs prances around touting his new iPad and new Flash, poor saps like me are stranded with two and a half (NOT THREE) year old dead Macs. So I shouldn't wait on an Apple Mac mini logic board repair program?
 
MizzTree said:
The problem with the Apple logic boards and PC motherboards overheating is...
Click to expand...

Thank you so much! That has really cleared a lot of things up for me. I never let my mini run day and night. I always monitored the fan speed and internal temps with iStat Pro. I only used my mini for a few hours per day and always shut it down afterward. Sometimes I would only use it twice a week.
 
drewdle said:
I'm sorry for your loss.

These things need taken in perspective, however. You said you own a G4 Cube, and it's serving you well, and given the age of the Cube, should that not speak well of Apple? I'm not trying to deny the frustration of a dead machine, but people seem to be all too ready to denounce a product (or company) they've trusted for years over one problem.

Also, consider this with the car analogy. Cars are designed to last, what 10 years? When do you think the last time was that a computer company, any computer company, designed a computer to last 10 years? Maybe 20 years ago, if that. If you Mac Mini was designed to last 10 years, it would probably cost three times what you paid for it. The sad fact about all technology is that it's designed to become obsolete. Thus they can sell it to you cheaper because they know in five years you'll be looking for something faster, bigger, etc, and take the chance on build quality at that price point. That's not just Apple, but all computer companies, except with most computer companies it's worse. I've yet to see an HP laptop in the $500-1000 range make it past the two year mark without some kind of major issue (I work for a major retailer).

Both my Mac Minis (that are now in the hands of others) are running along just fine. One's four years old this year, the other two and a half. Of course, just my perspective is all. Apple's hardware usually (that's the key word, note "not always") outlasts the majority of PC hardware I've seen. There is always going to be machines that don't make it however. Same way there's cars that are lemons.

EDIT: On what to do for the machine. It sucks that they want that much for a logic board (you wouldn't believe how small a logic board we're talking here), and I disagree entirely with wiping your hard drive. There's likely nothing wrong with it. You could replace the mini with a new one and tear the hard drive out of the old one and put it in an external case so you can get the stuff you lost. Although I'd understand if you weren't ready to get in line for a new one yet.
Click to expand...

I agree on this. I know there are plenty of Macs that are out there and are going strong. But, IMO the macs with the PPC were *generally* better built but with electronics, or cars, there are always exceptions. I'm sorry yours died, but you should at least try to get the files off the HD (Erasing the HD sounds stupid to me) and then use your cube for a while until you decide what you want to get.
 
Anecdotes

Sorry to hear about your iPaperweight. But consider this, I have an even older Intel mini (1.83GHz Core Duo, Mini 1,1) that's basically never been turned off and is my families only computer and is the media server for our entertainment system. Frankly, in my mind, leaving them on all the time (assuming decent system temps) is better than on/off cycles and the associated thermally induces strains on components.

That anecdote doesn't invalidate the fact of your dead mac, but similarly, your dead mac doesn't mean the entire production run was faulty.

If 300 bucks for a new logic board is too much (I just spent 400 on a 160GB Intel SSD for my older mini), then take it to a competent repair shop to see if there are swollen/burst Chinese capacitors or some other repairable issue with it.

For me, the money on the SSD was worth it, since it will move to a new computer at some point. A new logic board is half the price of a new mini... I'd probably just do that if it can't be repaired.

There will be no logic board repair program... you can take that to the bank.
 
i would not be so sure about "there will be no logic board repair program"
if its a real manufacturing fault like on the eMac's apple did a repair/exchange program for bad cap effected systems , ok it took apple about 2 years to acknowledge that if caps are bulging and leaking and the failing of some eMacs are related issues like on the iMac g5

i mean its not easy for a manufacturer to admit that there is a problem with some of the parts inside one of his products and first the manufacturer has to find out if he can sue the manufacturer of the parts which can take a while
 
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