New M1 Mac Mini blanks out

[rjalex]

Dear friends,
first days with the new Mac Mini (256GB SSD + 16GB Ram) and Big Sur 11.1, one monitor attached to Displayport (Viewsonic 24" IPS fullHD).

Today as the machine was copying some 100GB+ of files from a USB WD hard disk to a USB SSD (Samsung T5), about midway, the screen turned off.

I naively thought it just went on some display power saving mode (the Mini's LED still on) but neither the keyboard (Apple bluetooth) nor the Magic Trackpad 2 would wake the machine up.

I even tried nudging the power button (on my old iMac this worked) but to no avail.

Only way out was pressing the power button for long enough to do a hard power off.

Don't know if this is of any relevance but in the first seconds the desktop came back I am 100% sure the clock was wrong at 01:01 while the real time was 10:01 which was displayed correctly after a second or two.
EDIT: I have seen that in the login screen after a reboot the hour is displayed PST and only after logging in it's set properly to my timezone (Europe Central Time) hence the -9 hours I observed

I don't know if this might be related to another instance of the machine becoming unresponsive while in sleep mode over the night. In the morning after I had to shutdown the hard way like today.

Two freezes in 3 days of ownership, this is worrying me a little.

Two questions:

a) In the logs I could not find anything of obvious relevance. Can anyone help me understand if I should look for something more specific?

b) What is the procedure to raise a bug/support request to Apple for such problems?

Thank you very much and happy 2021 my friends!

PS If I can raise a support request I'd also like to ask how to solve the dreaded terminal fonts problem to which I could not find a solution.

 

[Apple_Robert]

The best way to reach Apple Support is to use the Apple Support App. You will be able to chat in real time. What you described is not normal.

 

[rjalex]

Usually very happy with Apple support.
This guy does not seem up to par.
First he suggests I reset the SMC, but the M1 mini does not have one.
Now he's trying to steer the problem in the monitor's direction which seems quite wrong since the poor screen has been working flawlessly with my Macbook and promptly wakes up when the machine is not hung

 

[Apple_Robert]

Some of the people working support right now have been brought in from other areas to try and lessen the load.

Have you been using any dongles with your drives?

 

[rjalex]

The SSD is direct to the USB-c. The older WD HDD is attached to a 4 port hub which in turn is connected to one of the USB-A ports.
Still have the second USB-A port on the mini free. Could be a good idea to move the HDD directly to it
But still this would not be related to the mini becoming unresponsive during the night while sleeping, right?

 

[Apple_Robert]

The SSD is direct to the USB-c. The older WD HDD is attached to a 4 port hub which in turn is connected to one of the USB-A ports.

I forget which thread it is but, I have read of many members having problems with some dongles causing their M1 to go dark, blank or unresponsive.

 

[rjalex]

Thanks.
They brought in a "senior adviser" so let's see what that brings.
Thanks a lot for you caring. Happy 2021 !!!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Thanks.
They brought in a "senior adviser" so let's see what that brings.
Thanks a lot for you caring. Happy 2021 !!!

Happy new year to you as well. I hope they can find the problem.

 

[ThemePro]

Does it still happen if you change the energy saver setting to never turn the display off and/or check the ‘prevent computer from sleeping automatically…” box? Have you checked with Viewsonic support?

 

[rjalex]

Back to the wonderful experience of great Apple support. While no solution yet, at least the suggestions made sense this time Thanks to all

 

[Quackers]

It sounds like it went to sleep, which can have problems sometimes.
I've set sleep to never on mine (but that's a laptop and I can just close the lid).

 

[rjalex]

Yes for sure it went to sleep. The issue is more about why it hasn't properly woken up (if that's an English word LOL)
The support had me reinstall BigSur, which wasn't traumatic, I have moved my two external disks directly attaching them to the machine and will see what happens in the next weeks. If it rehappens they advised to call support as soon as I reboot and do it on the phone so I could share the logs/screen with them.
Fingers crossed
Thank you. Take care and happy 2021!

 

[rjalex]

Updating the thread with new info

After a session with a second level specialist (the first one wasn't up to par and insisted I reset SMC/PRAM which this new architecture doesn't have) he guided me to the new procedure to REinstall BigSur which worked well with the rationale of "Let's try this and see if the problem resurfaces but if it does we have a known point to start from".

After some days of routinely putting it to sleep, even overnight, I have to say that up to now the mini has woken up flawlessly every time. So maybe the preinstall had some corrupted file(s)?

As per @Apple_Robert suggestion I also attached both external disks directly to the M1 and now the dongle only has other peripherals.

Hope this helps others with the same behaviour.

 

[rjalex]

Not sure reviving this oldish thread is the best course of action but I need to report that now (mid March 2021) the problem has gotten a LOT worst and the machine does not wake up almost every time. Big Sur 11.2.3 as of now. This is really a big problem

 

[radus]

Not sure reviving this oldish thread is the best course of action but I need to report that now (mid March 2021) the problem has gotten a LOT worst and the machine does not wake up almost every time. Big Sur 11.2.3 as of now. This is really a big problem

you are right, it is a shame

 

[M5RahuL]

You're not alone.. I had similar issues ( monitor not waking up, BT not connecting to previously paired devices, vertical lines on the screen etc... ) It was a royal PITA! I'm glad I was able to return the mini for a full refund!

Hopefully, OS updates will resolve these bugs in the future..

 

[xraydoc]

Any crashing/unresponsiveness if you disable sleep?

 

[rjalex]

Ok so I have new data.
When the sleep does not seem to end when touching the touchpad or the keyboard, I discovered that if I press ENTER the mini emits a sound maybe because it's getting an empty password, so definitely the Mac is not hung, it's just not able to wake up the screen.
ALSO I discovered that if I unplug the Displayport cable on the screen and reattach it the screen invariably wakes up and all is good and sweet.
Wonder if any of this might give us a clue as how to fix this nuisance.
PS I would not mind to shutdown and restart since it only takes some 10 seconds BUT the power on chime can wake up family if I use this early or late ...

 

[rjalex]

Any crashing/unresponsiveness if you disable sleep?

No never crashed. Thanks

 

[xraydoc]

No never crashed. Thanks

Monitor directly connected to the Mac or connected through a hub?
Try for a few days with nothing else connected to the machine except for the monitor (and keyboard/mouse) and see if it fails to wake up. If that solves it, add your peripherals back one at a time for a few days until you figure out which one is causing the problem.
If it keeps doing it even with nothing else attached, then it's either the Mac itself or it's the monitor. See if you can borrow a different monitor to eliminate that as a variable.