M1 Mac mini display issue

Well, the software is technically similar or the same as what you're running when you load the full OS. The difference might be drivers but I'm guessing they're the same too. The fact that the hardware test came out okay though tells me that the RAM is likely good and that's a +1 point for the hardware possibly being good and it being a software issue.

I'm going to make a wild guess on what could be causing it. The one thing that is different from Mac Minis that the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro don't have is the power supply. If for some reason the power supply is off, bad capacitors, etc. we could see all kinds of weird things happen. It's just a guess but based on what I'm reading and seeing it seems the most likely culprit to me.

Well one time after rebooting, while troubleshooting a different monitor issue with this Mac Mini, my USB stopped working and I had to restart with my bluetooth mouse to get it working again.

It definitely has some major bugs, or at least mine does.

It gets even weirder on my Mini now.

Because of the pink squares I also wanted to do a hardware diagnostics test, but it simply won't run.

It tries to start by checking the network and then I always get an error saying that the diagnostics were unable to load.

What a crappy first gen product this is.

Sounds like pot luck, but no pink squares for me since unticking the mission control "displays have separate spaces" option as suggested earlier.

Have a minor issue though with my display coming back on with different settings. One time it booted with a 720p res (panel is 1080), then on multiple occasions it's booted into 60Hz mode with the 120Hz and 144Hz options missing until a screen off/on cycle.

I've also seen the desktop wallpaper reset itself post-reboot on multiple occasions.

Guys I have same issue.

I met this pink artefacts from the box but that momenta I thought it just a SW bag but then I seen it again and again and two restart with full pink screen before it, without reason, ones when I did files copying, second just web browsing.

And I can see this pink screen when trying to turnoff Mac mini manually using a power button, always pink screen before its going off.

First time in my 15 years of experience with apple devices I can see something like this. But I'm glad what Im not alone and apple soon have to tell us some good news.

Can anyone who also using Mac mini try manually turn off machine using a power button and see if pink screen also will appear

same here

first week was just fine. second week now is a disaster.

monitors were blinking first. no pink squares. just blinking.

after a while it resolved by itself somehow. but came back even worse.

to the point where my mini does not boot anymore until i unplug the monitors.

but when i plug them back in the system crashes and i have to reboot. so i´m stuck in a loop.

both monitors are fine. use them every day for work with a windows machine. even now with my macbook pro.

this is unacceptable.

@Adam-Strange, yes, very quick full-screen flash of pink immediately before power down.

That just looks like a screen memory muffler quick-clear before unloading rom and powering down or something.

I'm really not seeing anything that makes me think the machines are going to melt and blow up. If you're having ongoing, persistent issues, just return or swap out the machine. Numbers of machines coming back in will be a WAY more important barometer of severity to Apple than all of us int his echo chamber.

We're all in this thread for the same reason.

Return the machine.

Unit counts are what will matter to Apple.

Just do it.

Yeah tomorrow will make an appointment to the Genius Bar and not leave them until they change me Mac mini. And will come again if problem will appear again. If Apple sent this Mac mini as a test bench for free I can test and rest azure. But we all paid own money for it and also need find a solution by ourself?

Nope, it just appeared onscreen hours after power-up. The MacBook Air has one GPU core less than the mini so who knows, maybe Apple are messing around with magic backdoors and the notification was never supposed to appear. Would be great if they could let us know something at this stage.

The problem seems to occur primarily (and on the previous one I returned for exchange) when a USB device is plugged in close to the unit while it's outputting via HDMI. An external hard drive when plugged in close to the Mac Mini causes flashing pink artefacts to appear in a band like the posted pictures across the desktop. The more I see it, the more it seems like an interference issue.

Apple seems to have put their tail between their legs and scampered away over the issue. Nothing Apple tech support has told me over the issue convinces me they have any intention of getting to the bottom of the problem. It's easier to let tech support be the community of frustrated product users and let them work it out for themselves.

Are you using a traditional mechanical external hard drive or SSD? I have two thumb drives (128gb each) plugged into a USB hub through one of the USB-C ports. Wonder if that could be causing my random pink squares and screen distortion? I am also using a Sound Blaster external 5.1 sound card plugged into one of the USB A ports.

Has anyone else tried reinstalling the OS?

After the notification I got (posted earlier) I wiped the drive 100% clean (both the OS and Data partitions) and created one single partition. The OS installation ultimately failed from a different bug, but there’s a workaround that resolved the installation. Once it actually installed I, so far, have not experienced ANY of the issues I was before.

Im still convinced my theory is correct, until I find something to conflict with that.

Have you tried reinstalling the OS?

The other issues I had (which were related to graphics) I could reliably trigger like clock work. Those issues resolved with reinstall, and I have not seen any artifacts either.

Granted it could begin having issues again, but those problems I had were from initial boot and I could always trigger it. Never went away.

I also reinstalled the OS, after wiping the disk. Makes no difference at all.

For me the pink squares are very random. Sometimes I don't see them for days and all of a sudden they're there again during/just after booting.

Not plugging in anything in the USB/TB ports also makes no difference at all.