Q: Mac mini 2014 won't wake monitor via HDMI

Hi again guys,

I believe I've fixed (or managed to avoid the cause of) my issue. I've been testing for 10-15 days and no sign of problems yet.

My scenario is pretty specific though, but who knows, it might help someone.

As you can see from my previous post (screenshots above), I had a pretty bad "Techicolor Rainbow" case, that occurred when waking up from sleep from time to time.

My Mac Mini is set up to launch XBMC (Kodi) after boot and is pretty much always on. I also set up sleep in XBMC (after 20 mins of idle state) and I made XBMC turn off my screen after 5 mins on top of that (I have plasma screen). After it goes to sleep, after a couple of hours it also goes to "deep sleep", as planned.

After the 10.10.2 OS X update I no longer had problems waking up, but the colour issues remained (as you can see above).

What I realized in the end was, that the cause of colour issues was the screen being turned OFF before entering sleep state. If Mac goes to sleep with screen ON the problem disappears. By turning off this setting in XBMC (now my screen only goes black after 5 mins - doesn't actually cut the HDMI signal) my Mac goes to sleep normally and wakes up without any issues. I can also wake it from sleep and deep sleep via remote without problems.

I hope this help someone

2014 mac mini, connected with Cable Matters Mini DP to DVI dual link (HDMI only supports 2k - 1920x1080-1200, and DVI dual gives more expansion possiblity - up to 4K), with Lenovo LI2223swA monitor - had same problem discussed here may times (won't wake, and technicolor rainbow nightmare).  With 10.10.2 update, no problem now; both short term sleep (an hour or so) and long term sleep (overnight).  Problem GONE.  What a relief - Apple did hear the problem and seems to have fixed. The Lenovo monitor is the only monitor I can find that has NO anti-glare, for those whose eyes don't do well with even light AG.

Also - long term sleep (forgot what that is called) does turn off the power 'glow light' (light is dark), and with a light touch of power button turns on again (someone mentioned this earlier in this thread).  This must be the way of the long term sleep now? (I think someone said over 4 hours)... for short term, still wakes with any mouse or keyboard movement/stoke...

Wondering if you can share with me a little bit more about the Sleep settings that will help fix this problem.

Quick history: I was having trouble waking my Late 2014 Mac Mini using a Benq monitor attached with DVI (DVI to Thunderbolt adapter) and thought it was the Benq monitor. Then I got a new Thunderbolt monitor and although it may be too soon to tell, there was one time when I had the "posterization" effect on my new monitor when I clicked the Trackpad to wake it up. Luckily, the problem went away in a few seconds.

Yosemite version is 10.10.2. The only things I have checked under Energy saver is "Wake for network access" and "Enable Power Nap". I don't have anything Scheduled, as I don't have a specific time of day I want it to turn on and off, but I would like the Mac to wake up right way and display correctly if I have to leave the Mac for a while during the day.

Thanks.

Hi there. I am experiencing a sort of similar issue. I purchased a Mac Mini and LG monitor yesterday. There's clearly power going to both but the display on the monitor is telling me it can't find a signal. hdmi is connected properly and i tried a different hdmi just makre but nothings hapening for me.

The fact that my monitor is not even letting me as far as the set up menu is not helping.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

In case this helps anyone, I had a similar problem with my MacBookPro.

The solution was changing the MONITOR settings, nothing to do with the Mac. The monitor was auto switching sources (HDMI, DVI, HD15) and once I set it to stay on HDMI by default, the monitor wakes from sleep correctly when my mac does.

How can I determine whether my monitor (Thunderbolt Display from Apple) is auto switching sources? I can't find anything about that in the Displays System Preference.

My  monitor is an iilama prolite, and I used the menu button on the monitor to bring up the on screen menu and cycled through the options.

I don't have/know the Apple Thunderbolt monitors. If they have more than one input source then I suspect they also have a few buttons to allow the user to switch between inputs. However a quick look on the apple store suggest the current Apple Thunderbolt Display only has thunderbolt as an input, so this question relating to HDMI issues and the solution that worked for me probably doesn't help you. Sorry

Hi ijurisic

I'm having the same problem with my mini late 2014, Yosemite 10.10.2, won't always wake up and sometimes have color issues. It seems as if you have solved the problem, could you write what (and where) I can make the settings you describe?

Henrik

I've talked with Apple Support twice. The first time they said that I should have the Intel Iris 1536 MB graphics replaced. I haven't had the graphics replaced yet and after reading this long thread about the subject I talked with them again and told them about it, but they still say the same, replace the graphics. Has anyone here tried to do that?

Hi Henrik,

Like I said, my issues were somewhat specific, since I use Mac mini with XBMC (KODI) loading immediately after boot. Therefore I use it with XBMC in front 99% of the time.

In the end I realized the problem occurs when Mac mini goes to sleep AFTER it shuts down the screen/TV. If the screen is on before it goes to sleep, it always wakes up properly, and I've never had any colour issues since.

Bottom line, I turned off option to shut of the screen after X minutes in XBMC (and probably in OSX as well, I don't remember), leaving standby mode on.

So now Mac mini goes to standby (and hibernate after a couple of hours) and I can still properly turn it on every time (with keyboard or remote).

Hope this helps

Hi ijurisic

Thanks for the answer. I must try XBMC, I hadn't heard about it before you wrote about it. I'll get back later:-)

Hi everyone -

I was having the same problem. Dell monitor (model S2340L) not detecting a signal from the HDMI port after I wake the mini. Very frustrating. 

This may not work for everyone, but after changing my HDMI cable the problem is not happening and the screen wakes straight away.  I was previously using a cheap Duronic HDMI cable.  Not sure of the new cable make (I was previously using it on my Apple TV so don't have the packaging anymore), but it says on the cable that it's a "high speed HDMI cable with ethernet".  It is much thicker than the cable that didn't consistently work and it feels of a higher quality.  

Hope this helps (some) others.  Sam

I've been having the same issue, as well as sound going out between my new Mac Mini 2.6GHZ/8GB/1TB HDD with an Acer Monitor.  AppleCare has been wonderful trying to figure it out, and has replaced it TWICE.  Same issue on all three. Speakers go out, then come back when unplugged and plugged back in.  Same deal with headphones.  Apple assumed speaker port, then software, so I did a clean install and ran just OSX without my apps and files.  Still had issue with sound.  Also doesn't wake up, and need to turn off monitor to wake up.  Still waiting for a resolution.  I have a call into my Genius Bar guy now that I've discovered so many others having an issue.

I have same problem too.
i use mini display port adapter > dvi

I was having major problems getting my monitor to wake (connected via HDMI to a 2014 Mac Mini), but I appear to have resolved it by changing a setting on the monitor. I turned off CEC, which had been set to on by default. On my BenQ monitor this was done via: Menu - System - CEC. I don't know what CEC is supposed to do, but it seems to be linked to the problems I was experiencing.