M1 Mac mini display issue

My Mac mini M1 has the same pink square issue on the boot-up screen. I think it may be the Drift screensaver. I changed it from that, and I am going to see if that is the issue. I restarted it twice since then, and no pink squares.

Hopefully this is the issue. Way way the pink squares would show up and move around some reminded me of that screen saver.

Fingers crossed. I think I'll be exchanging/returning it if not.

In response to Chrysothemis19, I agree that returning was the best solution, I would have done that as well. The pink squares are just an irritation to me, I only had them when I connected hdmi to hdmi and now I have updated to 11.2 they seem to have gone altogether. If I had other screen issues as well, I would think and act differently.

Thanks for your answer, I'm relieved to learn that you would have done the same. Plus I'm waiting for a second monitor to be delivered, which should arrive before I receive my new Mac mini. I'm glad the return time has extended so I can try them both at the same time to see if there's any issue.

No, in my case, the issue didn't disappeared if I opened an application in full screen. The only way out was my monitor automatically rebooting itself – sometimes multiple times in a row – until everything was back to normal. And the lines were in front of any open application, not on the wallpaper.

It still not fixed ........

The pink box-issue still persists here with Big Sur 11.2.....

And I'm now having another weird problem.. I had HDR turned on, but suddenly the image was reverted to the default dull, not so vivid image. And now if I click HDR off it dispalys like it was before HDR selected!!

This happened also once on 11.0

Yes, I encountered this problem. My mac is connected with the hdmi cable to a Philips 276e monitor. The problem occurs sporadically and disappears after a few minutes after switching on. Sometimes it is very loud and annoying and I have noticed that it fades when the monitor is turned off and on. Currently, however, I have not solved the problem. tanks

Hi there,

I've just bought a new usb-c display, and my pink squares has gone. I hope forever. Earlier I tried on 3 different monitors with 2 different HDMI cable, and I saw the pink squares everywhere. Update to 11.1 and then 11.2 haven't solved the problem.

Now almost everything is fine with LG UltraFine Display Ergo 31,5" 4K monitor. I tried both with USB-C and HDMI (the same as earlier) cables and no pink squares at all.

I still have some small issue. Sometimes after restarting my mac mini (using the USB-C cable) the monitor doesn't show anything, even if I switch back and forth between the inputs in the menu. It decides it wants work only with HDMI cable. After some unplugging/plugging the USB-C cable (also you can switch the two ports on the mini) the problem has gone.

So, still not perfect, but much better.

Best,

fabee

I'm on my 3rd 8GB M1 Mac mini now due to this issue. This last one was replaced by Apple even though it was not purchased through them directly. I've been discussing with Apple this issue since November. They are now saying (not confident in their confidence) that it is a SW related issue and a SW fix will be needed. They are aware of the issue but as of today no commitment to actually fix it, depends on how many people have the issue it seems. After 11.2 update I thought it had disappeared but nope back again. Apple said it may be fixed in a forthcoming update but as of right now they are saying a fix is not yet available or in testing based on the latest information from Apple engineering When I said is there a chance Apple will never fix the issue, they said yes there is that possibility. Got to say, not happy!

FWIW, I've been building, maintaining, optimizing, and even writing drivers for (in some cases) various computers since the 80s. This *TOTALLY* has always felt like a software issue to me. I've also largely ignored it, and I've been telling people to just return the computers if you're not happy; big return numbers are the only way to get a big company's attention on something like this.

If you're only getting the pink squares, you can just move on with your life and start using the computer for real; it's such a small thing in the greater pantheon of possibilities. Should it happen? Of course not. I'm not excusing it. I'm simply choosing to wait it out.

$.02

This thread is pretty amazing for all the consternation; return the stupid thing or wait for a fix. It's a pretty easy choice. $.02

It would be nice if life were that simple wouldn't it! How about people that traded in their previous computer to buy this one. "Just returning it" is really not that simple then is it? What are you meant to do? Not have one?

For what it's worth I haven't seen the issue since connecting a second screen. Weird but true. I have little to no faith in this issue getting fixed although I'm quietly hoping that it will. At this point I think this thread has pretty much run it's course. It's just full of "me too's" or "I stood on one foot file switching the machine on and it seems to have fixed it for me".

Bottom line, this is a revision 1 product and I don't expect to keep it anything like as long as I normally would. As long as it has some trade-in value in 12 months time and doesn't die completely before then, then it's good enough for me. Outside of this issue and the really limiting amount of ports (which we're kind of used to with Apple), it's otherwise a pretty stellar little machine.

That wouldn't make me happy either. Others in this thread have reported that 11.3 beta fixes their issues. It's due out in a couple of weeks, maybe?

I returned my Mini and got a Macbook Pro 13" and it has a similar issue but it's easy to work around where if you create a second desktop and drag an application window over to it at the same time anything on that second desktop then has a pink tint. I'm guessing the issues are related.

Based on what I'm hearing farther up the thread though I have faith these are just early adopter issues and there is hope.

This is exactly what I did.

In reality the pink squares I'm sometimes getting didn't bother me enough to return the Mini.

They only show up during and right after boot, but never when you're actually using it.

So in practice it's only a minor issue for me.

I use my Mini daily for many hours. This without any major issues.

If one day the pink squares are being fixed with an update: great! If not my computer will still be perfectly useable.

(It does drain the battery of my magic keyboard/trackpad too fast though. When I used them on my Mac Pro I could go on for months, now the batteries are drained after just a couple of weeks max. That's however not related to this thread, I think it's the bluetooth.)

So I've received my new machine, and it worked perfectly the first day. After that, my display issues came back (I've noticed once the pink squares, but it's far from being my main problem to be honest). I did a few more research, and it seems that the problem may come from the HDMI port in itself. I've ordered a brand new high quality and short (1m) HDMI cable, just to be sure, but if the issue remains when I try it, I might consider returning it again... apparently, the HDMI issues are a common and widespread problem.

I'll post some updates when I receive my cable !

I'm starting to really doubt it's a software issue (I'm not talking about the pink squares, I've had other displays issues that I discussed earlier in this topic), but I'm currently downloading the 11.3 beta. We'll see if it changes anything or not !

I did ! I also got a brand new and high quality HDMI cable. So far, I haven't had any issues, but I hadn't a real opportunity to try it out over the week-end, so we'll see if I manage to go through one week of regular use (work and others) without noticing these issues. If so, I'll consider it gone.