M1 Mac mini display issue

@wilfred89, look, there's zero established trust between us, and I don't know where you are, but if there's a way we can work it out, I have a currently-under-used M1 Mini sitting here that I could loan/escrow you to test out your whole environment to see if it's the unit or something there interacting badly. I never saw that with my two M1 minis, and do get the login-screen pink squares. I dropped out of daily reading of this thread, so I don't know your attempted correction history; I assume you've swapped cables, or tried USB-C rather than HDMI or vice versa...? Do you have it connected through a hub, and if so, is the power to the hub sufficient, and 100 other level-1 diagnostic questions :)

Hey everyone, I'd also like to return here for updates :

I've had pink squares at booting, but since I joined the beta program (11.3), I haven't seen any of these (it's been months now).

I've had loads of monitor issues via HDMI, but buying a RECENT and GOOD QUALITY HDMI fixed all of them. The other cable I used was of good quality too, but way too old, which seemed to be the source of my problems.

I've got myself a second monitor (Dell), connected via a USB-C to DisplayPort cable, and no problems either.

So 11.3 has just been released - would be interesting to know if anyone still has the pink squares on boot and/or snowy screen on wake from sleep issues (I have both on 11.2) after updating or if this appears to be finally fixed?

Doesn’t really bother me to be honest. Computer works fine apart from that. Doesn’t otherwise seem to affect performance. Just a shame a company the size of Apple, with their experience and reputation, release a product that has these problems which then takes so long to rectify if ever!!

Yes but sadly it’s a total pain in the *** to return a computer and keep replacing it.

I returned mine a couple months ago and have been waiting for word that these issues have been resolved. I’m losing patience and my computer is barely hanging on. I will either need to get over these issues, or buy a PC.

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of buying an m1 mac mini, but these problems cause me to give up. is the problem still happening? I have read on some forums that the problem disappears when using Display Port instead of HDMI. Has anyone ever tried?

I guess it all depends what you use the machine for. I’m a professional photographer and really benefit from the increase in speed for certain processes. These issues are an irritant rather than a performance issue. They shouldn’t be happening but they don’t affect performance.

I haven’t solved the issue yet myself although after the latest update no pink squares any more. I am thinking of trying DisplayPort though as I do still get occasional snowy screen which is a little more irritating than the pink squares but still doesn’t affect performance and happens very occasionally

Kirtashan, I am the one who posted above that once I switched to USB-C (aka display port through USB-C) all my problems are gone. The M1 Mini is awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone as long as you stay away from HDMI. There are certain combinations that will work with HDMI but it's so frustrating trying to figure out what works. The HDMI problems seem to be on all Minis not just the M1, although the pink pixel on HDMI problem seems unique to M1. Also, you mentioned Bluetooth issues. I think all Apples in general sometimes have connectivity issues with certain non-Apple bluetooth devices. I have a jelly comb BT mouse and it gives me several frustrating problems, so I'm current back to my non-BT wireless mouse. I've never had a genuine Apple Magic Mouse so I can't comment on that. Don't let that discourage you, compared to a Windows machine, Macs have far less frustrating issues.

First of all, thank you very much for the information you provided. Based on what you said, I assume that if I connect the display with a cable that outputs from displayport to type-c, it will not be a problem. Do you have any other suggestions to avoid problems?

I’ve decided to keep my M1 Mac mini after experiencing these issues... I’m not fully happy obviously but .... to be honest it only happens 1 out of 10 times maybe when I first start the machine and when I start using the computer opening Safari or folders they disappear and never return until I restart again.. I will only return the computer if the pink squares return while I’m trying to work or watch videos which they never have

I would honestly just wait a little while longer. My main display (which is a 27" 1440p Dell) is connected to my M1 mini over HDMI and I haven't seen any issues throughout all of the 11.3 test versions that I tried. But I can't for sure say the problem is 100% solved because it doesn't always occur anyway. I can go days if not weeks sometimes without ever seeing a pink square. I've never had snow or any of those other things.

The other thing is that I really don't get what all the fuss is about? Sure, I know the issue should not be there. But it's there for a couple of minutes when the computer first starts and then goes away. The first time I ever saw it, I was concerned my video RAM was failing (main RAM I guess in M1), after a while it bothered me a little less, now not at all.

I think the main thing is buy one, if you see the issue report it to Apple so that it goes on record as having occurred within your warranty and then just get on with your life. If at some point in the future your machine completely fails, you've reported it, you should be covered.

I know people won't agree with this.

The other potential is to wait and go for an M1 iMac in a few weeks. No display issues there. Of course there could be other issues, but I doubt it, they've had 6 months to iron out issues in these systems by now and I'm sure the iMac will just be a Mac Mini PCB inside a screen (more or less).

From my own experience apple never tells us all the changes in their OS updates, they will fix bugs without mentioning them in the release notes. Many times I run into bugs that go away without any indication in the release note.

fmenard123 wrote:

Hello, just to confirm that the screen resize upon wake seems to be gone after upgrading to 11.3. Bravo Apple! I'm just sad to see this as not acknowledged in the release notes of 11.3.

You never do see every last bug fix acknowledged and reported. I know of other display related things that have been addressed but I can't say what they were because last time I tried my post was removed.

Kirtashan wrote:

Then can we say that the pink square problem and the snowfall problem mentioned in 11.3 have been solved?

I'm not personally sticking my neck out far enough to have people purchase machines based on that statement just yet. Like I said, sometimes it can take days or more for me to see the issue. And I only updated to 11.3 final last night!