Language Selection screen during startup will NOT go away,

Laguage Selection screen wont cut off Mac Mini. It's a black screen that's been on almost the entire installation/setup. It's a black background with "Please select" in the upper left side of the black background. It has English highlighted in blue and a check mark next to the highlighted "English". But there are 7 other languages (Español, Francais, Deutsch, Português, Pyccknn (tyhe "n's" look backward) and two different Chineese looking characters describing a language). If I wanted to select a different language, I couldn't because the cursor passes BEHIND the black screen. The black screen takes up about 1/3 the home screen. I cannot navigate effectively because my dock is on the right side of the screen and the black screen is in the way. This stinks and makes things much more complicated than they should be. Why is this screen here??? Better yet, how do I get rid of it permanently, Thank you BF


Posted on Jan 4, 2026 4:22 PM

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Posted on Jan 5, 2026 7:00 PM

That is starting to sound more like an on screen message coming from the display and not the Mac mini or macOS.


Take a picture with your Phone or Digital Camera, Import that image to your Mac mini and post that Image back here.


In the mean time check the Dell displays settings and/or the owners manual to see if you can clear or disable any on screen input coming from the display.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2026 7:00 PM in response to bdfbfxto17

That is starting to sound more like an on screen message coming from the display and not the Mac mini or macOS.


Take a picture with your Phone or Digital Camera, Import that image to your Mac mini and post that Image back here.


In the mean time check the Dell displays settings and/or the owners manual to see if you can clear or disable any on screen input coming from the display.

Jan 5, 2026 5:47 PM in response to den.thed

Thank you. I had a medical procedure today and am just now feeling good enough to read this.


It's a new M4 (bought around 12/6/25 to 12/12/25, but installed it 01/01/26)

Memory 16GB

Startup disk: Macintosh HD

macos: Sequoia 15.7.3


My display is a Dell 27" connected with HDMI cable

Apple Magic Mouse (wireless)

Apple Keyboad (wireless)


The set up went well enough. I got all my data transfered from the back up disk (Passport)


It just this irritating screen that takes up a third of my screen and won't go away. When I've taken screen shots, it doesn't show on the screen shot. When I pull my cursor over it, the cursor doesn't go over it or engage with the different languages or arrow ^, check mark or arrow down at the bottom. It goes behind it and engages with all the things, apps. that I can barely see that are behind this screen. And there's no obvious "X" in a corner to close it out. It doesn't register at the top as an application that's open, like Chrome or Word does. Said a different way, if I use command/tab together to see what all is open, it also doesn't show as an open app. Additionally, when trying to force quit, it again doesn't show as open; no chance to close it there. It's like a haunting ghost screen and it's ticking me off!!!


Please help!


Brexton ******

71*******


[Edited by Moderator]

Jan 6, 2026 8:45 AM in response to den.thed

That sounds pretty dog gone accurate to me. That never occurred to me before, but just reading your message made my gut feel validation. I'll keep you posted. I'm at work and cannot Mac at this time, but I look forward to researching the Dell display side of things and getting a resolution. My guess is you just loaded the bases and we only need one run to win. I'll let you know but THANK YOU!!! 👍

Language Selection screen during startup will NOT go away,

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