Mm 1,1-6,2 Mac Mini 2012 boots up, but no display, network, or activity

[moral-hazard]

Howdy,

I've got a 2012 Mac Mini that's been with me for a decade. It was running headlessly as a media server. Recently it starts up but does not do anything (never grabs DHCP from the router, network shares never show up, etc). I plugged it into HDMI to see what was wrong, but there is no display when it boots up either. I tried booting it into target disk mode (holding T on a wireless USB keyboard while booting) to no avail. It seems like the machine physically powers on but never starts booting the OS.

I also tried removing the RAM which causes the machine to beep after starting up due to not having memory installed.

The machine is modified with 8GB corsair RAM, which was recently tested and functional, and has been working correctly for 10+ years. It also has an OWC data doubler (dual hard disk setup) with two samsung 860 2TB disks inside (replaced in 2021).

I've gotten a lot of life out of this machine and am OK scrapping it if it's really dead - but does anyone have further ideas to test before I do? would be a shame to let it go if it's salvageable.

 

[AlixSPQR]

Try resetting NVRAM and SMC, who knows? (Writing this on my more than a decade old Late 2012 mini )

 

[moral-hazard]

Try resetting NVRAM and SMC, who knows? (Writing this on my more than a decade old Late 2012 mini )

Thanks for the message, no luck on those unfortunately. Something bigger going on.

 

[FirDerrig33]

Howdy,

I've got a 2012 Mac Mini that's been with me for a decade. It was running headlessly as a media server. Recently it starts up but does not do anything (never grabs DHCP from the router, network shares never show up, etc). I plugged it into HDMI to see what was wrong, but there is no display when it boots up either. I tried booting it into target disk mode (holding T on a wireless USB keyboard while booting) to no avail. It seems like the machine physically powers on but never starts booting the OS.

I also tried removing the RAM which causes the machine to beep after starting up due to not having memory installed.

The machine is modified with 8GB corsair RAM, which was recently tested and functional, and has been working correctly for 10+ years. It also has an OWC data doubler (dual hard disk setup) with two samsung 860 2TB disks inside (replaced in 2021).

I've gotten a lot of life out of this machine and am OK scrapping it if it's really dead - but does anyone have further ideas to test before I do? would be a shame to let it go if it's salvageable.

Hello,

When you start it up and it powers on, do you also get the startup chime? I mean, does it POST properly but then just not do anything else? If so, it might be an "easy" fix. I'm thinking it's the PRAM battery. I say easy because the part is cheap but the labor could be irritating.

 

[AlixSPQR]

I'm thinking it's the PRAM battery.

No battery on those, I’m afraid. There is.

 

[FirDerrig33]

No battery on those, I’m afraid.

On the 2012 Mac mini? Since when? fixit has the PRAM replacement as one of the options for every Mac mini up until the 2018 model and PRAM batteries are definitely still used.

 

[AlixSPQR]

On the 2012 Mac mini? Since when? fixit has the PRAM replacement as one of the options for every Mac mini up until the 2018 model and PRAM batteries are definitely still used.

Yes, you're right, I'm wrong. I trusted my memory and I shouldn't have done that.

 

[moral-hazard]

Hello,

When you start it up and it powers on, do you also get the startup chime? I mean, does it POST properly but then just not do anything else? If so, it might be an "easy" fix. I'm thinking it's the PRAM battery. I say easy because the part is cheap but the labor could be irritating.

Oh wow, I never even knew there was a battery in there. This is super helpful information - thank you.

Re - the startup chime, I don't hear anything but this machine never made an audible startup chime (it shuts down every night and starts up every morning, and I have never heard it chime when booting up). I may have turned off the chime at some point, I'm not sure.

My only intel there was that if I removed the ram it does correctly beep to alert me that the RAM is not inserted.

I have to tear down the whole machine regardless to pull the hard drives and try to recover data, so I might as well give replacing the battery a shot while I'm in there.

 

[FirDerrig33]

Yes, you're right, I'm wrong. I trusted my memory and I shouldn't have done that.

on no worries at all. if anything I was just confused and had to go and check and make sure that I did remember it properly.

 

[FirDerrig33]

Oh wow, I never even knew there was a battery in there. This is super helpful information - thank you.

Re - the startup chime, I don't hear anything but this machine never made an audible startup chime (it shuts down every night and starts up every morning, and I have never heard it chime when booting up). I may have turned off the chime at some point, I'm not sure.

My only intel there was that if I removed the ram it does correctly beep to alert me that the RAM is not inserted.

I have to tear down the whole machine regardless to pull the hard drives and try to recover data, so I might as well give replacing the battery a shot while I'm in there.

Yeah for some reason the PRAM batteries are always in a spot that's not easy to get to except for the Mac Pro. iBooks for example, have the PRAM batter inside the actual battery and tearing down a powerbook to replace that things is NOT awesome.

ok, well it might also be that it was plugged in for the sound to go somewhere else s part of your media server setup.

I think that the machine telling you something is wrong means that it's mostly working. There are SOME instances of it being a GPU, but I don't think that's the case here.

Cool. I also do love the fact that Apple still uses those batteries. at one point in time I had a bunch of extra Apple TV remotes and just took those batteries whenever I needed them.

Whatever happens I hope that it works out.

 

[moral-hazard]

Yeah for some reason the PRAM batteries are always in a spot that's not easy to get to except for the Mac Pro. iBooks for example, have the PRAM batter inside the actual battery and tearing down a powerbook to replace that things is NOT awesome.

ok, well it might also be that it was plugged in for the sound to go somewhere else s part of your media server setup.

I think that the machine telling you something is wrong means that it's mostly working. There are SOME instances of it being a GPU, but I don't think that's the case here.

Cool. I also do love the fact that Apple still uses those batteries. at one point in time I had a bunch of extra Apple TV remotes and just took those batteries whenever I needed them.

Whatever happens I hope that it works out.

Yeah, in my case (assuming that the PRAM battery died), it lasted for 10.75 years, even with frequent power cycling and a lot of time with the machine left unplugged. They use a BR2032 instead of a CR2032, so the life span of the battery should be quite long under most circumstances. Given 10+ year lifespan under non-optimal conditions I could see why they don't put it in a super accessible location. Imagine the vast majority of machines never end up needing a replacement.

The mini is also such a compact machine that a lot of the parts like the HDD are pretty buried even though it'd be helpful to get to them more easily.

I do think the PRAM battery thing has a good shot at fixing it. Will order the battery shortly and let you know how it goes once I tear down and put it all back together. Regardless of whether it works, definitely appreciate the idea as it does seem the most likely culprit.

 

[Fishrrman]

Even if the PRAM battery dies, I'm thinking the Mac should still boot.
However, without PRAM, it won't "remember" previous settings.

At least that's how it worked "in the old days"...

 

[moral-hazard]

Even if the PRAM battery dies, I'm thinking the Mac should still boot.
However, without PRAM, it won't "remember" previous settings.

At least that's how it worked "in the old days"...

Valid point. I see some articles mentioning that the PRAM battery being drained can cause display issues or (if fully, 100% dead) a failure to boot. But it does seem odd for a battery to support motherboard memory (Time, date, etc) to have a failure mode of making the whole machine crap out.

The PRAM battery will cost me 7 bucks, so I think it's worth a shot. If the battery doesn't get the machine running again, I'll scrap the machine. OWC is selling this generation mac mini for $79 used, or the prior generation for $69 used. Not worth trying to repair it if the logic board or something else major is fried.