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Very disappointed with my new 2014 2.6 mini.

J

jod1921

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
56
20
(Update 12/3 IT WORKs NOW ). I received my new mini today. I've been using a 2007 c2d 1.83 for the last 7 years. It was upgraded to 3 gig ram and a crucial m500 ssd. 15 second turn ons , instant program access and it worked great. I turn on my new mini and my Logitech keyboard and mouse won't work on the new one. So I ran up to best buy to get a cheap usb keyboard and mouse. They work fine. the next problem is connecting my hp2207 monitor that looked great on my old mini also. I tried dvi to hdmi, dvi to dvi to a Dvi-display port adapter, dvi to hdmi to a hdmi-display port adapter. The monitor shows no input signal unless I turn it off and on several times and them it works . It also does this after entering sleep mode also. Maybe vga to vga to a vga to Dvi adapter to a dvi-display port will work . I'll try that next. What a shi**y day. The new mini wont even run an older dvi monitor correctly . Buy the new mini if you want to be forced to upgrade everything you use with it.
 
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jod1921 said:
I received my new mini today. I've been using a 2007 c2d 1.83 for the last 7 years. It was upgraded to 3 gig ram and a crucial m500 ssd. 15 second turn ons , instant program access and it worked great. I turn on my new mini and my Logitech keyboard and mouse won't work on the new one. So I ran up to best buy to get a cheap usb keyboard and mouse. They work fine. the next problem is connecting my hp2207 monitor that looked great on my old mini also. I tried dvi to hdmi, dvi to dvi to a Dvi-display port adapter, dvi to hdmi to a hdmi-display port adapter. The monitor shows no input signal unless I turn it off and on several times and them it works . It also does this after entering sleep mode also. Maybe vga to vga to a vga to Dvi adapter to a dvi-display port will work . I'll try that next. What a shi**y day. The new mini work even run an older dvi monitor correctly . Buy the new mini if you want to be forced to upgrade everything you use with it.
Click to expand...

I have none of those problems with my new 2012 Mini. Logitech keyboard, ancient DVI monitor, etc. Even Harmon Kardon USB Soundsticks.
 
I was going to buy the 2012 but nooooo I had to have a 2014. So much for
"It just works". If I see another beach ball tomorrow I'm going to be sick.
 
jod1921 said:
I was going to buy the 2012 but nooooo I had to have a 2014. So much for
"It just works". If I see another beach ball tomorrow I'm going to be sick.
Click to expand...


How about investigating the return policy or if there isn't one, just putting it on eBay? It's a mistake purchase under $1,000...not a $30,000 car that turns out to be a lemon, or a $200,000 house you regret or something.
 
I bought the stock 799 model , the biggest problem is the 1.5 gigs used up by the Iris card ! Plugged into a bang & olufsen beovison 11 tv.

I wish I'd got 16 gigs of ram now !!!

I honestly have no idea why it needs so much vram as I have a mac pro 2006 with a radeon 4870 w 512 megs and a mac mini w the amd card 256 megs that run fine on other hdtvs.

Why on earth would it need so much vram ?? what does it do , does it speed it up ?

Can you lower it !?

Overall , not bad but I prefer my 2011 256+750 2.7 i7 mac mini ...
 
George Dawes said:
I bought the stock 799 model , the biggest problem is the 1.5 gigs used up by the Iris card ! Plugged into a bang & olufsen beovison 11 tv.

I wish I'd got 16 gigs of ram now !!!

I honestly have no idea why it needs so much vram as I have a mac pro 2006 with a radeon 4870 w 512 megs and a mac mini w the amd card 256 megs that run fine on other hdtvs.

Why on earth would it need so much vram ?? what does it do , does it speed it up ?

Can you lower it !?

Overall , not bad but I prefer my 2011 256+750 2.7 i7 mac mini ...
Click to expand...

My understanding is that it allows the GPU to use that much vRAM IF needed. It doesn't automatically leave you with only 6.5GB of RAM. I was worried about the same thing on my Macbook Air, but then was told to not worry about it as the vRAM is dynmaically assigned when necessary.
 
You know hp2207 monitor is very old machine. Don't have full hd, don't have anything. Take some good Dell model with IPS matrix and decide your problem :cool:
 
I just purchased the base model to use as Media Center/Server, I've connected to a wide range of displays I've at home: 4K-Display Port, HD using both native HDMI and DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, and to an Old Vewsonic 22" which only accept DVI-D and connected with DP-DVI-D adapter, all work fine, also the 4K while very slow compared with other mac, still usable and better than other mini-pc on 4K (except those based on Iris Pro/nVidia).

My only issue with this mini is the base HDD, the 512GB spinner its slow, I power on the mini, then I go to the kitchen make a breakfast and when I sit again its still finishing boot, swapping soon to an 256GB SSD (I've also an external WD Thunderbolt Duo for storage), It's nice, while cant handle heavy work, does nice with common tasks (surf, mail, pages, ligth Xcode too), and its virtually inaudible too, I'm still explorig other task, I installed osx server, very nice, considering to install Plesk but dont convince me.

BTW my base Mini its an good acquisition, mi suggestion its to order the base configuration with the fastest HDD or SSD option available, the base HDD its too slow.
 
ZipZilla said:
I have none of those problems with my new 2012 Mini. Logitech keyboard, ancient DVI monitor, etc. Even Harmon Kardon USB Soundsticks.
Click to expand...

What do you mean with your "new 2012 Mini"? Did you buy it this year?

Mago said:
BTW my base Mini its an good acquisition, mi suggestion its to order the base configuration with the fastest HDD or SSD option available, the base HDD its too slow.
Click to expand...

Or you buy a TORX R6 security screwdiver and mount an SSD od SSHD buyed from 3rd party into you shinny new mini.
 
Just purchased the 2.6 mid range 2014. Have been going back and forward between the base 1.4 and 2.6. have a 1.4 Mac Air with 128 ssd. But will keep that as a back up. So going to unpack later this evening and hopefully migrate the stuff from the Air over to the MM .
Will try and do a review when i get it up and running
Ian
 
OP wrote above:
[[ I tried dvi to hdmi, dvi to dvi to a Dvi-display port adapter, dvi to hdmi to a hdmi-display port adapter. The monitor shows no input signal unless I turn it off and on several times and them it works . It also does this after entering sleep mode also. Maybe vga to vga to a vga to Dvi adapter to a dvi-display port will work . I'll try that next.]]

Actually, I would suggest you try a simple minidisplayport-to-VGA connection. You may be pleased with the results...

I'm also wondering if the HP monitor isn't subject to some of the same problems other folks have had with some Dell displays -- that is, the Mac OS is "perceiving" the connected display to be a "TV", rather than a "computer monitor". I've never had this problem myself, just read about it, but there is a "fix" that "forces" the computer to recognize the display -as a computer monitor- and NOT as a tv screen. After applying the fix, the problems are generally resolved, and the display will look much better.

I'm interested about the keyboard and mouse. Why didn't they work? A USB keyboard is pretty much "a USB keyboard", and it should work. Same with the mouse. As I type this, I'm using an old Logitech MX-610 mouse with my 2012 Mini. That particular mouse was NEVER even supported for Macs by Logitech, but it worked from the first moment I connected it to a Mac, and has worked ever since.

What kind of drive is inside the new Mini?
Is it a platter-based HDD?
Did the Mini come with Yosemite installed?
If so, you're going to find that the overall performance may be impacted (i.e., "slowed down") by the HDD.
Yosemite seems to require an SSD if you want anything like "high speed" performance.

Is the crucial m500 from the old Mini available? You could take that, put it into an external enclosure or USB3/SATA docking station, and create a zippy "external booter" that will considerably enhance the 2014 Mini's performance.
I use a Crucial m500 myself, to boot and run this way.

Give yourself a few days to work out the hardware conflicts and get the components all working in harmony....
 
paulrbeers said:
My understanding is that it allows the GPU to use that much vRAM IF needed. It doesn't automatically leave you with only 6.5GB of RAM. I was worried about the same thing on my Macbook Air, but then was told to not worry about it as the vRAM is dynmaically assigned when necessary.
Click to expand...

Brilliant ,thx !

:cool:
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote above:
[[ I tried dvi to hdmi, dvi to dvi to a Dvi-display port adapter, dvi to hdmi to a hdmi-display port adapter. The monitor shows no input signal unless I turn it off and on several times and them it works . It also does this after entering sleep mode also. Maybe vga to vga to a vga to Dvi adapter to a dvi-display port will work . I'll try that next.]]

Actually, I would suggest you try a simple minidisplayport-to-VGA connection. You may be pleased with the results...

I'm also wondering if the HP monitor isn't subject to some of the same problems other folks have had with some Dell displays -- that is, the Mac OS is "perceiving" the connected display to be a "TV", rather than a "computer monitor". I've never had this problem myself, just read about it, but there is a "fix" that "forces" the computer to recognize the display -as a computer monitor- and NOT as a tv screen. After applying the fix, the problems are generally resolved, and the display will look much better.

I'm interested about the keyboard and mouse. Why didn't they work? A USB keyboard is pretty much "a USB keyboard", and it should work. Same with the mouse. As I type this, I'm using an old Logitech MX-610 mouse with my 2012 Mini. That particular mouse was NEVER even supported for Macs by Logitech, but it worked from the first moment I connected it to a Mac, and has worked ever since.

What kind of drive is inside the new Mini?
Is it a platter-based HDD?
Did the Mini come with Yosemite installed?
If so, you're going to find that the overall performance may be impacted (i.e., "slowed down") by the HDD.
Yosemite seems to require an SSD if you want anything like "high speed" performance.

Is the crucial m500 from the old Mini available? You could take that, put it into an external enclosure or USB3/SATA docking station, and create a zippy "external booter" that will considerably enhance the 2014 Mini's performance.
I use a Crucial m500 myself, to boot and run this way.

Give yourself a few days to work out the hardware conflicts and get the components all working in harmony....
Click to expand...

I tried all adapters and cables that I had on hand. Tonight I tracked down a vga cable and bought the vga to mini display adapter and it Works Fine.

I have a Logitech cordless elite duo that uses a receiver connected to the usb. It has been plug and play on everything I've owned for over ten years. I have never even bothered to download drivers or load the Logitech software on any of the 4 computers it's been used on. The mouse would point but not click on anything.


It's a 5400 spinner that will either get upgraded with a pci ssd (create fusion) or changed out. The way it's gone so far, I'll probably wait until the warranty expires before I open it up.

The reason I bought a new mini was my 78 year old dads computer died. I gave him afresh OS X install and set him up with my old mini.

I just wasn't prepared for nothing happening when I turned on my new mini yesterday. It took 20 minutes to get the display to work ( got lucky that I tried turning it off and on several times ) and then the mouse wouldn't let me click and set the thing up. Can you imagine . LOL
 
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Also if you want to try DVI later, just make sure the monitor is NOT in auto detect mode for the display.

I've noticed that the new mini tends to not have any signal until the login screen is up if in auto detect, and shows much sooner with a selected input port.

Might get some digital snow with manual monitor input select, but beats waking the monitor manually.
 
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