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My mini locked up with this screen.

steve knight

steve knight

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
2,735
7,180
I have a 2011 mini with 8 gigs of memory and i had a few lockups that needed a power button fix. I also had itg slowing way down and everyone said sounds like a bad drive.
put a ssd in and it has been great till I came home to a min that should have been sleeping to this screen that needed turned off.
 
steve knight said:
I have a 2011 mini with 8 gigs of memory and i had a few lockups that needed a power button fix. I also had itg slowing way down and everyone said sounds like a bad drive.
put a ssd in and it has been great till I came home to a min that should have been sleeping to this screen that needed turned off.
[url=http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/7464E8D0-7290-4361-AB92-A0AC440C28BD_zpsahomqvni.jpg]Image[/URL]
Click to expand...

It looks like your graphics card is failing. Do you have AppleCare?
 
no apple care and most likely it would have run out by now. would hate to do an update now as i would not be getting a much never computer. plus I hate updating computers always seems a letdown. the ssd made a huge difference to me.
 
steve knight said:
I have a 2011 mini with 8 gigs of memory and i had a few lockups that needed a power button fix. I also had itg slowing way down and everyone said sounds like a bad drive.
put a ssd in and it has been great till I came home to a min that should have been sleeping to this screen that needed turned off.
[url=http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/7464E8D0-7290-4361-AB92-A0AC440C28BD_zpsahomqvni.jpg]Image[/URL]
Click to expand...

Which 2011 mini? Base or mid? The base had only the iGPU so it uses system RAM so if you had bad system RAM I could see this happening.
 
I did the apple one as I was too lazy tonight and did the long version and it said no problems.
 
Seems to be it is only a few months old. But the mini was fully locked up. Ordered the new test.
 
steve knight said:
Seems to be it is only a few months old. But the mini was fully locked up. Ordered the new test.
Click to expand...

If you model is the one with Intel HD 3000, it shouldn't be a gpu issue. Looks like a defective RAM module. Try removing one of the modules or even reinstall the original ones. If the problem disappears, just buy new RAM... maybe an opportunity to upgrade to 16GB...
 
I had something like that happen about a year ago, 2 days after upgrading the Ram. Put the original modules back in, problem solved. Turned out one of the new modules was defective, had it replaced, no more problems.
Hope this helps.
 
Doubt i could find the original memory so I was thinking of buying more. what to get in 8 or 16 gigs?
 
steve knight said:
Doubt i could find the original memory so I was thinking of buying more. what to get in 8 or 16 gigs?
Click to expand...

I think you should try removing the defective module before upgrading. There's a remote chance that you have a problem in another component. Assuring that the problem is RAM is the first thing to do.

You should buy RAM that is recommended in the forum for your module. Just create a topic like "Right RAM for a 2011 Mac Mini (base model)". There will be a lot of people commenting based on suppositions, but try to filter the answers by users who actually have or had the same Mac Mini.

Usually commenters suggest the obvious and more expensive way, that is, buying from OWC, iFixit or "made for Mac" RAM from Crucial or Corsair. Eventually you can find users who have inexpensive modules installed for a long time.

Maybe your RAM isn't defective at all, but some of its properties makes it incompatible (e.g. high CAS latency not supported by the HD 3000). I could report my experience, but since my Mac Mini is a 2010 model, it couldn't work for you as well.
 
steve knight said:
Doubt i could find the original memory so I was thinking of buying more. what to get in 8 or 16 gigs?
Click to expand...

If it's worked OK with the memory it has in it for a number of years, I'd be hugely surprised if it's just "gone bad". Try each stick individually.
 
I can't remember what memory it was one of the ones recommended at the time Crucial I think. it has been working for 3 years almost. but the lockup happens so seldom it would be hard to test it by taking one ram out. the last time it locked up was at least a month if not more.
 
steve knight said:
I can't remember what memory it was one of the ones recommended at the time Crucial I think. it has been working for 3 years almost. but the lockup happens so seldom it would be hard to test it by taking one ram out. the last time it locked up was at least a month if not more.
Click to expand...

Try filling up the entire RAM space, then check what happens. Open a very big text/image file (a 2GB-sized one seems to be ok).
 
Having the same issue with my base 2011.

Started a similar thread here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1684839/

Basically I've learned to live with it until it gets so frequent that I have to either fix it or get a new machine.

A few things I've noticed dealing with this is

1) It has only happened when I've been watching HD content on my display. Either 720p or 1080p video.

2) It would happen mostly when Time Machine was doing a backup. I have a scheduler that backups up every 4 hours, and I noticed when I would restart more often then not Time Machine would resume backups.
 
Consider the possibility that this is a heat related problem. Before installing replacement memory, you might consider trying some fan control software using settings which encourage more airflow.

Also, vacuum any dust from the heat exhaust port.
 
Mine I would just find it locked up. no clue what it was doing at the time. plus it is so seldom it would be hard to know what causes it.
I thought of heat but with the SSD drive my mini hardly gets warm anymore. I don't think the fan has gotten about 1700 rpms. I cleaned the dust otu when I put the ssd in.
 
Thermonuclear said:
Consider the possibility that this is a heat related problem. Before installing replacement memory, you might consider trying some fan control software using settings which encourage more airflow.

Also, vacuum any dust from the heat exhaust port.
Click to expand...

I'm using the iStats app and it can be set to control fan speed and shows temp. I never noticed a relationship between temp and when it would freeze up. I have my Mini setup as the Plex server for a few Rokus around my house. When they start transcoding content the CPU and temp really get way up, and it never caused it to freeze not once.

What can almost on cue cause a freeze is if I play a 720p file formatted using the PAL frame rate of 25fps (50Mz) Not sure why but it does. Probably because it needs to do more video processing is my guess, since my display is either 24fps(film mode) or 29.97 fps(NTSC).
 
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