Bought a Mac Mini M4 in Dec. 16 mb Ram, 250mb SSD, 2 TB External. Sequoia 15.2-15.3. My Mac Mini will suddenly go solid black while using it. Lasts for about 2-3 seconds and is fine with no changes afterword. I upgraded to 15.3 and it still continues to do it, maybe 1 or 2 times a day. Not a real detriment to using it but...
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Mac mini
It does depend on the quality of the monitor, but HDMI is, first and foremost, a TV connection. And by quality, I mean cheaper monitors often limit HDMI to the original HD resolution of 1920x1080, regardless of any higher resolutions the monitor can support under a DisplayPort or USB-C Thunderbolt connection.
That, and over the years, I've seen far too many posts here by folks trying to use HDMI. Issues which disappeared when they used their monitor's DisplayPort option.
I have an EIZO monitor that allows me to use DisplayPort, USB-C or HDMI. Given the cost of these monitors, I know HDMI would work (with a proper high speed HDMI cable), but I'm still going to use a connection meant for computer monitors before I'd even consider HDMI.
Having an HDMI port is intended for video work. It eliminates the need for a break-out box. You use DisplayPort or USB-C to a monitor for your work screen in Final Cut Pro, Avid, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, etc., and a separate HDMI output to a reference monitor (TV) to see how color will appear on a TV as you simultaneously work in your video editor.
I forgot to mention that I switched HDMI cables and tried a USB-C cable that came with the LG monitor. Blanking continued. I am using HDMI right now, still hasn't blanked since I rebooted the LG monitor with the Mac on. Next time it does I'll try rebooting just the monitor again.
That's a good question. I am sure I tried this same USBC > DP cable before when I was having issues. I think I was using the middle port on the back before, so I tried the one closest to HDMI this time. Also I think since the last time I tried this the OS has gone from 15.4 to 15.5.
The cable is just something I got on Amazon, tried to go for a higher quality looking one but I am sure I tried this one before and I still got blackouts.
But it's truly weird how I've gone almost 2 weeks now and not had one single blackout. I even had a few on my old faithful Dell 28" 4K monitor over HDMI, which is what prompted me to try the bigger MSI again. I figured if I was going to have to suffer through blackouts might as well use my bigger monitor - and it's been rock solid ever since I swapped back.
I did shut the Mini totally down when I swapped monitors, so when it powered up it was already using the USBC > DP cable on the MSI monitor.I'm pretty sure I tried powering off though before and it didn't help.
Anyway I've probably jinxed myself now but so far so good.
Okay, it's back again. This time the right screen is going black momentarily, but I'm sure that's due to how I arranged the screens as noted earlier. Basically it's still the primary, number one screen that's doing it, it's just that I have it configured as the secondary screen.
Lasted a little while, but it's doing it again.
So after all of the equipment changes and configurations, this has to be a hardware issue with the M4 Mac Mini.
Per @Old Toad I've reported it to Apple. Hopefully they can resolve it sooner than later. It's not the end of the world but it is very annoying.
Suggest anyone that's having the same issue report it as well:
I bought a Dell S2725QC monitor a few weeks ago when I ordered my Mac Mini M4. The monitor kept blanking out randomly and sometime even the speakers cracked. I switched out three HDMI cables without success.
This monitor has a usb-c port to use instead of an HDMI cable. A usb-c high speed cable came with the monitor. I connected it to one of the 40 Gbps ports on my M4 and I think this problem might be solved.
If Apple would ad a few more high speed ports it would be nice.
Copied this solution after noticing it mentioned on another forum as well, but no luck for me. Using a USB-C hub with HDMI seems to fix it (and I assume any USB-C to HDMI cable or adapter would). But then I'm stuck with a faulty HDMI port and the loss of a thunderbolt port. I wouldn't have even bought the thing if it didn't have the HDMI 2.1 port.
On a related note, did a full restore on the Mac after a regular reset failed. Had to use another Mac to complete the process because it wouldn't even boot, which I found ridiculous. Only thing I haven't tried is swapping out the monitor (it worked with zero problems on a Windows PC and I use monitors for years before upgrading).
Apple did confirm that if the issue got worse and I sent it back after warranty, they would most definitely charge me if they discovered it was a hardware issue...
I know the most maybe old a little, but this post is the best one I could find. I got a Macbook Pro 14 M4 base model in July. I got a not so cheap LG 4k 60Hz monitor, it is a very quality monitor, it is even almost match my Macbook's display colors. But this screen goes black for a few sec like 2-3 sec is a thing, well I have it too. I tried the factory HDMi cable what comes with my montior, I bought a quality 8K Rode HDMi Cable. Same thing happend few times. Finally I bought a Super High Speed HDMi 10k UHD 120Hz (its is even got Ethernet in it) from inakustik, it was way over my budget back then but I wanted to solve this problem. For weeks it was OK, no problem at all. But after MacOS26 update the problem came back. My monitor even flashes between orange and normal sometimes, like when you turn on and off TrueTone. What is interesting in this matter and I don't really saw any body talk about this, but you can even reproduce this "screen goes black for a 2-3 sec" thing in System Settings when you change your refreshing rate of you monitor, in my case from 60Hz to 50Hz. Exactly the same thing happens. I also think this is not a hardware issue at all. This is some kind of software or HDMi communication issue between the Mac and monitors or cables. Kinda like it is refreshing the connection or communication but it goes black at the same time. If there is a hardver problem then it would get worse and worse but this isn't the case. Also it is happening with me on my M4 MacBook not even with MacMini. Sometimes nothing for a few day/weeks sometimes happen once or twice.
I had same issues, go the below one from Amazon and no issues
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J6DT070?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
Got mine from the Big River company. Brand was Warrkey. Since I see some other URLs posted, here is the one I got that has been working for me.
Haven’t had the screen black out once since going 120 Hz. Will try some more and then increase to 240 Hz and see if the blackouts come back.
Try turning off Hot Corners.
As I understand it then, the monitor cable is permanently attached, and has been repaired on top of that?
If so, that sounds like the case of a bad cable. It worked fine on the other mini - as long as no one touched it. But being moved and flexed to connect to the next mini has caused a bad connection that was already there to show itself.
Short of replacing the monitor, about all you can do is jiggle the cable so the mini can get a signal.
According to the manual, this monitor has an analog D-Sub connection and a digital DVI-d.
If you have any open USB-C ports on the back of the Mac, I would suggest a DVI to USB-C adapter. One such adapter on Amazon.
That it doesn't even have a DisplayPort option suggests this is very old monitor. A 2004 release date, actually. I would very much suggest rather than spending the money on a cable, I'd get a much newer monitor. There are plenty of 4K choices on Amazon that are right around $200. Then you not only have a much higher (sharper) resolution monitor, but options to use DisplayPort or USB-C.
The main drawback with the inexpensive models is they have cheap panels that only display the sRGB color range and gamut. Just about the smallest, least colorful RGB space in use.
Or, just get the cable to spend the least amount of money. Up to you.
Only the one monitor. Yeah I think Sequoia had something to do with it. Installed the new 15.4 upgrade, which trashed my wall paper but nothing else. Waiting to see if my screen goes black, so far so good.
Me again after some time testing: no black screen anymore now.
I don't know what has fixed the problem. Because here are the changes in my hardware
- I have now another monitor. An Eizo with usb-c to hdmi cable. Instead of the old Eizo with hdmi to dvi cable
- I have also updated to last Sequoia version
I'm getting the same issue. What I've deducted from the many posts on the subject that it's a hardware issue and not a software (system), monitor make or cable issue. All we can do is to let Apple know of the prob let thru Mac Mini Feedback.
And keep checking this Apple website for a announced fix: Apple Service Programs - Apple Support
Mac mini M4 screen go black randomly
