I just got my new mac mini today and it won't start up. After some research I discovered that the icon on the screen is telling me to put batteries in my mouse. There are batteries in my mouse. I shut it down and restarted it again, making sure my wireless keyboard and mouse were turned on. That didn't work. Then I tried turning them on after I started the computer. That didn't work either. I'm sad.
Not sure if it's entirely necessary, but if it were me I'd use a standard USB mouse and keyboard for the initial setup, then configure the bluetooth peripherals.
I'm not sure that bluetooth peripherals work until they are "paired", that has to be done once the system is up and running.
I bought my mac mini today and encountered the exact same issue!!! I did wonder how the heck I'd pair the wireless keyboard and mouse without a errrrrrrrrrrrr keyboard and mouse (talk about chicken and egg scenario!!!!)
Unfortunately for me I made a wasted return trip to the store as I thought I had a faulty machine!!
Surely the people selling the kit should know this!!??! I feel a request for a discount coming on!
I bought a Mac Mini yesterday along with a Magic Pad and Wireless Keyboard. I connected the MM to my HDTV with an HDMI connector. I turned on the power and it went as far as a screen with some oval shapes, a blinking green light and a magnified green shape with an up arrow next to it. It would not go any further. I called Apple Tech Support and the fellow was also stumped, as were his colleagues - they never seen the icon with the green things, concluding they were factory test settings and there was obviously something wrong with the unit. He said to take it back to the store and get a new one. I did that today, brought home the new one and voila...same result as yesterday. So, after reading a previous posting I discovered the icon means put batteries in a mouse! Not so obvious, at all. Now, I have to get a USB keyboard!! The Apple documentation for the Mac Mini with a new Wireless keyboard refers you to the Wireless Keyboard documentation, which in turn refers you to the Mac Mini booklet. Come on, Apple! I'm glad to learn I'm not the dumb one...Steve Jobs should be on to this one.
New Mac-mini wireless keyboard and magic trackpad for 2010 xMas,. Love the boxes, almost didn't want to wrap them and put them under the tree.
Obviously Apple is NOT reading this discussion thread, as I ran into the problems listed below.
First off, both the keyboard and trackpad are working, as I can pair both of them with my laptop. Effortlessly -- that's the way this stuff is suppose to work.
The mini however is a story of a different color however. It looks the wireless keyboard is pairing, as the indicator light stops blinking. However the big obscure drawing off the underside of a mouse telling me to put the battery in still tells me to turn the mouse on. (Really Apple -- that picture is not up to your standards!)
Anyway, the interesting thing is that on one hand, the Keyboard apparently "pairs" -- in that it's light stops blinking -- BEFORE the booting OS checks for a working mouse/trackpad, but on the other hand I can't use hot keys on the keyboard (like the Option key) to effect the booting sequence. So honestly I have no clue of the keyboard is even working.
Can't tell of course because the mouse isn't connecting.
I wonder if Apple has a lending pool of old USB keyboards and Mice that I can borrow in order to setup my brand new fresh out of the box computer...
I have had the same issue (new Mac Mini, client OS, new wireless keyboard and trackpad ... connected using HDMI cables through my receiver to my TV).
First I got stuck on a spinning doughnut right out of the gate. Phone tech support told me I needed a wired keyboard. While I didn't like the idea, I went down to the apple store to buy that and they told me there was something wrong with the Mini and to bring it in. Today I did took the unit in; they discovered a faulty harddisk and replaced the unit without much hassle (nice).
Before leaving the store, I told them what phone support had to say about requiring a hardwired mouse and keyboard for setup. They told me it used to be necessary but that is not so nowadays. I happily left the store expecting no other issues.
Now here I sit. My trackpad is recognized but my keyboard is not. I can't get past the nearly indecipherable screen showing me how to power up these devices for discovery and pairing because it doesn't recognize the keyboard. And since I don't have a wired keyboard anywhere in my house, I'm looking at my 60 minute roundtrip to the apple store.
sigh
I'm most upset about that part. If they'd simply set my expectations that I need a wired solution for setup, I wouldn't like it but at least I'd know and wouldn't spend endless time wasting gas simply to get to step 2 of setup.
I've been a big fan of the iPhone an iPad but I have to say that Windows PC setup (while a tad slow) is MUCH more straightforward than this. At least I have some workaround options that get me moving. Works out of the box, my @#$.
In continuation of an earlier email that I posted on this thread.
In our last exciting episode, I was trying to get through the startup sequence using a Logitech Windows keyboard.
I borrowed a real honest to god Apple keyboard and mouse from work, plugged it in, and it went right into the OS... Apparently I had got far enough through the initial OS setup (giving the timezone and such) that it was ready to continue, but the keyboard mapping between windows and mac is such that I couldn't figure out the correct "enter" key on the windows keyboard.
One of the things that I found out, was even though I had picked up a brand new Mac Mini, it was not loaded with the correct version of the OS to support the track pad. Of course I didn't know the version of the OS that was on the Mini, because it wouldn't boot to tell me.
Once it was up (wired) it was a painless process to upgrade to 10.6.5, and then everything worked flawlessly.
When things work, they work well... When they don't 😟
This was really painful. But it's something that most folks only need to do once. Apple QA is totally missing this set of problems (1) Windows key mapping 2) Wireless keyboard, and 3) trackpad OS version issues during initial system setup)
So I guess the moral of the story is know who's awake in your neighbourhood at 2am that you can borrow a wired keyboard and mouse from.
