Mac Mini Won't Power On -- power light on, nothing else

Hello Oleg, What exactly is the problem? why are you applying the SMC reset?. Is it that you have purchased the Mini and it wont power up?, also how do you mean "This time i did not put the mac to sleep", Cheers.

Message was edited by: David JD

I will ask this again, since noone bothered to respond to my question before.

That may not be a particularly good attitude to take, given that everyone here who is trying to help is merely a user like yourself, offering their time and knowledge for free. In general, people help when they can, not when they can be 'bothered'.

As much as you may be frustrated and upset with the problem you are suffering, failing to at least describe it in sufficient detail for people to try and help if they can is hardly helpful in itself.

This is (almost) strictly a user-to-user support site, and though very rarely an Apple staffer may post helpful information, it is not as a formal contribution from Apple, but merely as another user trying to offer some assistance.

Unfortunately in your case, while there have been some reports of similar behavior in other Mac minis, there has not been any clear solution found - which is why I suspect you haven't had any helpful responses. The SMC reset procedure has been suggested for this in the past, and has occasionally worked, as it appeared to do for you that one time, but generally it appears not to have helped. Indeed, the fact it didn't resolve the problem in your case after that first time suggests that it may only have been coincidental that it seemed to have worked.

There are really only a couple of possible causes as I see it. Faulty memory can cause the sort of failure to boot you describe here, and could also be complicit in wake from sleep issues too, and it's possible an external device could be causing problems too. You might try and boot with nothing connected to see if that helps, but in the broadest sense this sounds to me like a hardware failure. Macs (not just Mac mini models) do occasionally suffer wake from sleep issues, often the result of peripheral devices, but this would not be expected to also affect system boot up. Indeed, should never do so.

Typically, if done correctly, an SMC reset either works first time or not. Doing it multiple times means it isn't the solution - as you have found. It may be that your system is suffering a dead internal battery (some Mac models simply fail to boot with symptoms similar to yours) with then internal battery fails, but all in all I think Apple need to look at this problem and try and resolve it, because even if there appears to be a solution in some user-initiated procedure such as an SMC reset, unless the actual fault is known, there can't be much confidence the problem will not return at some point.

Please let us know what Apple say - I suspect they'll have you run through the usual array of troubleshooting tests, and then want to start replacing components such as the logic board, but it will be interesting to know what they decide.

It's hard to tell how common since it's not at all easy to track the regularity of posts on specific issues - and in reality the issues users have are not always reported sufficiently clearly to make it obvious what the problem really is. However, this is not something that has come up particularly often that I recall. Sleep issues in the broad sense arise quite often, but are often relatively simple problems relating to USB devices and hubs, or device drivers holding systems awake or waking them prematurely. The sort of problem you describe, which has a sleep issue as a symptom, but which also included complete failure to boot, is not at all common. I think we've seen a handful of reports in the last few months - which doesn't mean these are not significant problems by any means or that they are not important, just that in the scale of Mac minis sold, they would not appear to be very common experiences at all.

All the more reason to press the issue with Apple, because if they have sporadic reliability or production issues for example, they won't be able to adequately track them and reliably deal with the problems unless users report the problems and pursue Apple to get them fixed!

Interesting, the exact same thing happened to my G4 Mac Mini last night. It was working just fine when I went to bed, then this morning it wouldn't wake from sleep. Restarting results in the exact situation you describe. The light turns on, I get a startup chime and the fan starts, then nothing. I cant even get it to start in targeted disc mode...

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The symptoms may be the same, but the problem may not be, since yours is a G4 mini while the OP's in this thread is an Intel model.

It's probably best to start a new thread of your own, so as not to end up with a confusion of G4/Intel recommendations, but in your case with a G4 system, you might start with a PMU reset as follows:
-Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord.
-Wait 10 seconds.
-Plug in the power cord while simultaneously pressing and holding the power button on the back of the computer.
-Let go of the power button.
-Press the power button once more to start up your Mac mini.

For other readers, please note the above is for a PPC/G4 system only, not an Intel system.

Glad to hear you've got the new one and it appears to be behaving rather better! You're certainly right that a new mini should not run the fan up unless the CPU is under load - indeed, no mini should!

Thanks for letting us know the outcome.

My mac mini has done the exact same thing. I powered up my mini in November. One late December morning I went to turn it off before I packed it up to move and I had and have no video? I have powered it off and on no luck. No sound no video. I have used VGA out and DVI out no luck. I tried all this before I packed it up. I am now in sydney and don't think I can get a new model from mac mall. Any clues? Sounds like this is not just me that have this problem. If there are any Mac staff lurking please give up any info? The light glows constant no Mac beep on startup. No beeps at all. I must say I have more problems with newer mac products than my old mac Doorstops!!!

thanks for the help
crash

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Firstly, as you'll note from previous posts in this thread, this is not a place where you can reasonably hope to make contact with Apple, whether at a corporate level or product support. Apple Discussions is user-to-user, so the only way to get to Apple is to call them or take the system to an Apple store. If it's under warranty (and the mini's warranty is worldwide, so it doesn't matter where it was purchased) then it can also be taken/sent to any Apple Approved Service Provider.

In terms of what could be wrong with your system, as you can see in the thread here, and perhaps in the handful of others on the same subject, there isn't a clear cause of this sort of failure, nor a known consistent pattern in the failures themselves which might help troubleshooting when other incidents occur. However, what may be different between your experience and others that have been posted is that you imply that in December you came back to the mini and found it in a faulty condition - no video at least. Other users with dead systems appear to have found them faulty after a period of non-use.

Whether that's relevant or not is hard to say, but I assume you have tried the standard SMC reset? If not follow the instructions to reset the SMC on an Intel mini:
-From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).
-Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
-Wait at least 15 seconds.
-Plug the power cord back in, making sure the power button is not being pressed at the time.
-Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.
-Press the power button on the back to start up your computer.

Have you opened the system up in the past or had any work done on it previously?

When I first got it I added RAM and it worked flawless until my problem.
There does not seem to be an apple store open here so I will try to deal with a fix it place. I have tried the standard SMC reset. Nothing doing.

thanks

crash

If you have the original RAM, you might try reinstalling it - faulty memory can cause similar symptoms as this, so trying the original would be a good test. There's also a reset button on the logic board that you can try (press once only)!

Failing that, if you do have warranty cover still, I'd urge you to pursue Apple or an authorized service provider since it's likely a hardware issue, and the mini isn't really amenable to user 'tampering'.