even worse if the Mac mini 2018 got's two macOS updates, than HDMI is broken even doing a internet recovery back to macOS Mojave cannot fix this.
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Mac Mini 2018 HDMI failes after OS upgrade / patch
- Thread starter tstimper
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An update to this case: The Apple representative we are working with on this issue called me a over a week ago.
We discussed this case and he confirmed, that after all data we gave to Apple the the engineers confirmed that there is a bug in the adapter firmware. Fixing that is on high priority, but lower as all work for the new macOS.
I disagreed because in my opinion fixing a bug that touches many users should always have a higher priority than a bringing a new product with the same bug included to market.
But unfortunately we would need to wait until Apple engineers get time to fix this bug.
Could be that its only a typo in the code which process the EDID information from the monitor.
Perhaps two hours to check and fix, 8 hours for testing .....
So we will have a fix sometime in the future, but its not clear when this will happen. So no promised date.
For this reason and because our Mac mini 2018 is already 19 month old without working as expected he offered me to return the device and refund the money and we ar now in the process of that.
He agreed to keep in touch about this issue and i promised to immediately buy a new Mac mini 2018 at the time a fix is available.
There are some good things:
- the bug is confirmed and Apple is working on a fix.
- we will get our money back for the Mac mini 2018, which we where not be able to take into usage.
- we can buy a Macmini 2018 with full new Apple care at the time the fix is available.
There are some sad things:
- its unclear when the fix will be available
- in the meantime we still cannot replace our old Mac mini 2010 and 2011 devices with newer Mac mini 2018 devices
- We did a lot of work into figuring out what happens with the Mac mini 2018 HDMI port and that all came out of our pockets.
- i no longer can test this issue because i no longer have any Mac mini 2018 available
- It can be that if i buy a Mac mini 2018 knowing that the HDMI port is defect it could be that legally i agree that that is ok for me and i could no longer open a case about that issue.
Ok, we have learned much from this an i am sure we will have a fix in the future.
Everybody who owns a Mac mini 2018 and has this issues with the HDMI port and HDMI to DVI adapter and cannot or does not want to work with additional adapters or stay on an old version of macOS Mojave can use this information appropriately.
Thank you all for your help. I will update this thread as soon as i know something new.
Thomas
We discussed this case and he confirmed, that after all data we gave to Apple the the engineers confirmed that there is a bug in the adapter firmware. Fixing that is on high priority, but lower as all work for the new macOS.
I disagreed because in my opinion fixing a bug that touches many users should always have a higher priority than a bringing a new product with the same bug included to market.
But unfortunately we would need to wait until Apple engineers get time to fix this bug.
Could be that its only a typo in the code which process the EDID information from the monitor.
Perhaps two hours to check and fix, 8 hours for testing .....
So we will have a fix sometime in the future, but its not clear when this will happen. So no promised date.
For this reason and because our Mac mini 2018 is already 19 month old without working as expected he offered me to return the device and refund the money and we ar now in the process of that.
He agreed to keep in touch about this issue and i promised to immediately buy a new Mac mini 2018 at the time a fix is available.
There are some good things:
- the bug is confirmed and Apple is working on a fix.
- we will get our money back for the Mac mini 2018, which we where not be able to take into usage.
- we can buy a Macmini 2018 with full new Apple care at the time the fix is available.
There are some sad things:
- its unclear when the fix will be available
- in the meantime we still cannot replace our old Mac mini 2010 and 2011 devices with newer Mac mini 2018 devices
- We did a lot of work into figuring out what happens with the Mac mini 2018 HDMI port and that all came out of our pockets.
- i no longer can test this issue because i no longer have any Mac mini 2018 available
- It can be that if i buy a Mac mini 2018 knowing that the HDMI port is defect it could be that legally i agree that that is ok for me and i could no longer open a case about that issue.
Ok, we have learned much from this an i am sure we will have a fix in the future.
Everybody who owns a Mac mini 2018 and has this issues with the HDMI port and HDMI to DVI adapter and cannot or does not want to work with additional adapters or stay on an old version of macOS Mojave can use this information appropriately.
Thank you all for your help. I will update this thread as soon as i know something new.
Thomas
Thank you for the update that is wild stuff. An impasse now until their engineers can “look at it”
there won’t ever be a fix, ane soon enough they’ll force an OS upgrade ugh. Not sure what machine to get in the future as this has soured me on Apple hardware
OP wrote:
"its unclear when the fix will be available"
They politely told you that it's on the back burner and probably isn't happening any time soon.
My prediction is that if Apple doesn't "fix" this before the introduction of an ARM Mini, it's not going to happen at all.
"its unclear when the fix will be available"
They politely told you that it's on the back burner and probably isn't happening any time soon.
My prediction is that if Apple doesn't "fix" this before the introduction of an ARM Mini, it's not going to happen at all.
The point is: This is now a confirmed bug which impacts many users. Every customer who is seeing this issue and having problems should now be able depending of their situation to ask Apple to either:
- return and refund the Mac mini 2018
- get refund for self paid Apple support troubleshooting
- get free Thunderbolt to HDMI Adapters
Of course the best would be to get a fix within the next 2 to 4 weeks.
As soon a fix is available i will buy a new Mac mini 2018 and test it.
There’s no way they fix it before the ARM Mac Mini, therefore it’s unlikely they will fix it at all. They basically confirmed as much with their response.
They could open up a program for free adapters or something like that but that would require a lot more people to complain and judging by the amount of replies in this thread, that’s probably not the case.
They could open up a program for free adapters or something like that but that would require a lot more people to complain and judging by the amount of replies in this thread, that’s probably not the case.
Are there alternative kinds of ports that still work? This is very disconcerting as I was thinking of buying a new Mac Mini this week.
Don’t let this thread concern you. This ‘issue’ is entirely overcome by just using any of the four USB-C/Thunderbolt ports on the Mac Mini. I myself have two monitors running off of two USB-C to HDMI cables.
That is if you even have an issue at all. I have one Mac Mini which has never had a problem using the HDMI port and my other one I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s most likely the monitor and not the Mac Mini. These types of problems are usually the foundation for very large threads. This is not the case here, this is a relatively small thread with few people reporting issues. Check the RAM/Display Mac Mini thread for an example of an issue that is actually prevalent.
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So maybe 32GB RAM is a way to mitigate the issue you reference. Geez, my 8GB 2015 12” w/8GB RAM is sort of works driving an external LCD monitor. Though it is dying. I hoped a Mac-Mini would be a step up.
You’d just need 16GB of RAM and it only applies if you’re trying to run 4K+ monitors in scaled mode. I have a 4K monitor and a 1080/144hz monitor running off my Mini and it runs without a single hiccup. I have a 1080/75hz running off my Mini with 8GB of RAM and it doesn’t have any issues.
The Mini will be a huge step up from your MacBook. Whatever monitor you’re running off your MacBook you will be able to run fine with a Mac Mini.
Anything people experiencing this issue can do? I also have this issue, not sure if another data point needed or if more reports would help prioritize it. Thank You!
More reports to Apple definitely would help to prioritize that. Please do that.
What i have learned from this thread is that many people who have that issue think that their adapters or cables or monitors are faulty. After replacing some and / or changing to Thunderbolt adapter / monitor it worked and there are happy.
But sat does not fix the underlying problem and that does not pay back for the extended effort the user has to pay for getting the Mac mini 2018 to work.
But: if you want to enable FleVault and / or firmware password or need to do internet recovery some times later you are possibly lost.
And if you try to sell your Mac mini 2018 perhaps in 2025 you possibly will not get the price you can get today on Ebay for a Mac mini 2014.
As far as we know the only way to keep the HDMI port running ind to keep the Mac mini 2018 on the original macOS Mojave.
And its a confirmed bug, possibly very easy to fix.
Conclusion: every report, every opened Apple Care case would help.
Interesting on how the OP handled the issue and cool that Apple is refunding. Even with the HDMI issue the Mac mini is still that good and not worth returning IMHO. Yeah the issue sucks but if you turn on the Mac only with the hdmi monitor on all is fine, then turn on all other monitors.
Hmmm..... Apple engineers claiming to me that it is due to my monitors not supporting HDMI 2.0! What a load of nonsense! Using a genuine Apple HDMI to DVI adapter it should be compatible with any DVI monitor! Pretty sure they are trying to pass the blame and get me to leave them alone. How embarrassing for such a big company!
Maybe I'll publicise this as well as the MacBook Pro dedicated graphics card issue which I also have seeing as they refuse to accept it onto their recall program as it's now closed. It's still a faulty product (by their own admission) which I paid good money for! They should repair it!
Maybe I'll publicise this as well as the MacBook Pro dedicated graphics card issue which I also have seeing as they refuse to accept it onto their recall program as it's now closed. It's still a faulty product (by their own admission) which I paid good money for! They should repair it!
They confirmed to me that its a bug in Mac mini 2018 firmware which they will address with high priority after the new macOS is relesed. I told them that releasing a new mnacOS is not fixing a known bug. Fixing a bug is fixing a bug. That always has to have higher priority than releasing something new.
Welcome the the club. My Macbook Pro 2011 got three logicboard replacements because of a faulty graphics chip.
Each logic board only survives arround 12 to 20 month.
Sure that was done by Apple at warranty but after warranty had end i had to pay myself and i decided to find someone who can replace the graphic chip by soldering in a new one. After doing that i was working daily without any issuses for a year. Then i replaced it with MacBook Pro 2015 I72,8 GHz Quad Core and a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB. Read speed 2155 MB/s, write speed 1753 MB/s after using about 8 month.
Anyway, back to the faulty Mac mini 2018 HDMI. That is a confirmed bug. Anybody who cannot work with workarounds should be able to claim his money back.
My Mac mini 2018 is back at Apple and i am awaiting the money within a few days.
There is a quote of Steve Jobs in a Video of a talk at MIT about vendors and they parts they deliver:
QUOTE:
It's their job to get us zero defective material on time per agreements.
Our philosophy is: Our money doesn't break after we give it to them so and their parts shouldn't break after they are given to us.
/QUOTE
He was at NeXT that time...
Yes please do, this is #macmini2018hdmigate, this affects every Mac mini 2018 which was sold.
We where able to dig deep enough to point then where they have to look at.
Could be that they simply have a typo in the code which processes the display resolution tables.
I don't think that this is related to the Intel CPU. There are other computers out there which are using this CPUs without any problems with HDMI and HDMI to DVI adapters.
Agree an again:
QUOTE:
Steve Jobs :Our philosophy is: Our money doesn't break after we give it to them so and their parts shouldn't break after they are given to us.
/QUOTE
They are trying to tell me that if my monitors don't have HDMI ports they are not compatible with the signal. I've pointed out that they themselves have sold me an adaptor which should convert to analogue DVI but they won't accept that. Essentially adaptors don't correctly "hand shake" with the graphics card is what I've decided. I had a suspicion that the HDMI port was not outputting a high enough voltage to correctly run the adaptors. I bought a HDMI to VGA adaptor with USB power boost input and that seems to work correctly now.
So, Apple, the multi billion dollar organisation couldn't fix this issue for years and wouldn't even admit the problem to me and yet I fix it with a £7 adaptor?! I'm still gonna push for a docking station as this now uses up an extra USB port unnecessarily and this Mac is short on ports. My Apple superdrive demands that I use one of the internal ports rather than a hub so I'm fresh out of ports already.
Ridiculous!
So, Apple, the multi billion dollar organisation couldn't fix this issue for years and wouldn't even admit the problem to me and yet I fix it with a £7 adaptor?! I'm still gonna push for a docking station as this now uses up an extra USB port unnecessarily and this Mac is short on ports. My Apple superdrive demands that I use one of the internal ports rather than a hub so I'm fresh out of ports already.
Ridiculous!
I asked this question almost three months ago, and I don't think anybody ever answered it:
If you feel compelled to use a very old display device that has only DVI video input, and you can't get it to work to your satisfaction if you connect it to your 2018 Mac mini via an HDMI-to-DVI video adapter cable, then rather than wasting countless hours and enduring endless frustration screwing around with something that clearly doesn't work, why don't you just use a USB·C-to-DVI video adapter cable instead?! You can buy one for about €/£/$30. Done, problem solved.
Refusing to take advantage of this simple, straightforward solution would strongly suggest that one's real interest is not in solving the problem, but rather in maintaining a pet grievance about which one can prattle on incessantly.
If you feel compelled to use a very old display device that has only DVI video input, and you can't get it to work to your satisfaction if you connect it to your 2018 Mac mini via an HDMI-to-DVI video adapter cable, then rather than wasting countless hours and enduring endless frustration screwing around with something that clearly doesn't work, why don't you just use a USB·C-to-DVI video adapter cable instead?! You can buy one for about €/£/$30. Done, problem solved.
Refusing to take advantage of this simple, straightforward solution would strongly suggest that one's real interest is not in solving the problem, but rather in maintaining a pet grievance about which one can prattle on incessantly.
On a Mac mini there are only 4 thunderbolt ports, 2 usb ports and a HDMI port. I want to use my thunderbolt ports for external SSD drives, audio interfaces and, yes, one of my 2 monitors via an adapter as you describe. The HDMI is a port which can only be used for a display. It seems silly on a machine with so few ports to leave this port redundant and therefore need to buy docking stations, hubs, etc etc to get around an issue which should frankly be embarrassing for Apple.
I did use 2 of the thunderbolt ports for my displays until I found a fix but I am short on ports and I feel like I shouldn't have to fork out for a dock because a dedicated port on my £2200 machine is faulty. It should be Apple's duty to get this fixed or provide a dock of some kind to provide extra ports as a work around.
I did use 2 of the thunderbolt ports for my displays until I found a fix but I am short on ports and I feel like I shouldn't have to fork out for a dock because a dedicated port on my £2200 machine is faulty. It should be Apple's duty to get this fixed or provide a dock of some kind to provide extra ports as a work around.
Incidentally, I don't feel "compelled to use a very old device", I've just spent £2k on a new Mac in lockdown and could do without extra expense buying HDMI screens when my current ones are fine for my needs as an audio based studio. Unless you work for Apple I don't quite understand your grievance with us "prattling on" about a port on an expensive computer being clearly deficient 2 years after the product's release. We may have found work arounds but that does not negate the fact the HDMI port doesn't output sufficient power to correctly handshake with screens and adapters. This should be seriously embarrassing for a company as big and prestigious as Apple and for them to claim my screens are not compatible (with an analogue converted DVI or VGA signal) is just laughable and insulting to our intelligence.
An update from my side. I got my money back from Apple, i got confirmed that the HDMI problem is a bug whcih will be fixed in the future but its unclear when that will happen. So we cannot order new Mac mini 2018 because of this faulty firmware.
So this should be fixable with software and should not need a hardware fix.
The interesting thing is that am brand new Mac mini 2018 works, but an updated doesn't work anymore.
So this should be fixable with software and should not need a hardware fix.
Please keep in mind, that adapters cannot help if you use FileVault and / or Firmware password or Internet recovery.
In my case this always needed to have a working HDMI port, Thunderbolt did not work in this early stae of booting up a Mac mini 2018. Can be that others have other experiences.
If you are booting a Mac mini 2018 once a week or once a month, you possibly can live with that.
If you daily boot the Mac mini 2018, using FileVault, Firmware password, do deployment tests for mass MacOS installations you really need working ports in every state of the life cycle of the Mac mini 2018 in your company.
Our tests in about the first three month worked perfectly. The craiyness started with macOS Mojave 10.14.6 supplemental update and did not end until today.
Yes mine worked from fresh, and was corrupted by 10.14.6 security patches. It works with the current adaptors I have with filevault etc enabled. This is the workaround with supplementary USB power to the HDMI adapter and the other screen via thunderbolt to VGA adapter. The only issue is it takes an extra USB port and it doesn't wake from sleep correctly if set to turn screens off on sleep. When it wakes it only sees one screen connected. This is fine for me as I would just disable the screen turning off and I always shut down over night.