I have a Mac Mini with a core solo processor in it that I got as was described to me as a non-booting machine, I got it home and powered it up and it worked fine, it booted from the optical drive and an external hard drive (there was no internal hdd). I left it sit for about a week and ordered a new hdd for it which came today and I just put it in and now it won't chime or display. The led turns on and the fan spins but no display and no chime. I took the new hdd out, still the same. Made sure all the connections were put back together properly, still the same. I reset the smc and pram via the button on the logic board, I only pressed the button once, still no chime, no display. I was told that the previous owners son might have tried to upgrade the solo processor, could the processor just be fried? Would it be worth it for me to spend $30 on ebay to get a working processor to test it out or does this sound like it definitely must have the logic board replaced? Hopefully someone has had this experience before or could point me in the right direction. Any help is very much appreciated.
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Mac Mini core solo, no chime no display
- Thread starter paradox1156
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It's very difficult to tell just from that whether it's the CPU or the board. Either could cause the problems you describe. It's a risk to buy a new CPU for it. But if you really want the machine to work (ie, you don't want to invest in a new one), then it's probably worth a shot replacing.
If you have ruled out/can rule out the CPU, and it's the mainboard that's the problem, don't bother trying to fix it; it will likely be almost as expensive as a new machine.