Q: No Signal on HDMI TV After Lion Upgrade

I'd like to share my experiences connecting my Mac Mini (mid 2011) to a Benq E2200HD monitor. If i let the Mini enter sleep mode, or let the Mini put the monitor in sleep mode (turn off display), the monitor won't display any image when waking up. The monitor lights up and displays the message "No signal detected". The only solution is to restart the Mini. The monitor works just fine when using the DVI connection instead of HDMI. I've never had any trouble with this monitor when connected to other computers.

The Mini works just fine when connecting to my LCD TV, so it seems to be some kind of compatibility issue.

Has anyone applied the Firmware update 1.4 that was released Oct 26th and found any difference?

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1449

The patch didn't solve my problem.

Since my last post I have talked to Benq and they said that the monitor has not been certified for use with OS X. Not so sure I believe that. Sounds more like "don't know - don't care".

Good evening guys,

Im here to tell you my story, last year a purchased a macmini 2010 c2d 2.4ghz.

My tv is a Pioneer kuro KRP-500a and my home cinema a yamaha RX-V467, my mac mini was connected via hdmi to the yamaha receiver and the yamaha receiver to the TV. Everything worked like a charm.

I decided, since i was really happy with the mini, to upgrade myself to the new mini server quad i7 with lion, and its when all started...

Everytime I turn on my tv and select the mini input on the yamaha I get the screen flickering every 10 seconds, i see the screen, then it goes green, black, screen, 10 more seconds, green,black,screen...

I have tried as well with a minidisplay-hdmi cable I bought at an authorised apple reseller, but i get the same issue.

How did I try to solve it? I have both outputs connected, the hdmi goes to the yamaha (for audio only) and the minidisplay goes directly to the tv (for video only), then I dont get any flickering, however, after leaving the mini on for several hours (and watching a different input on the yamaha) if i try to go back to the mini there is no sound coming out, when I go to the system preferences->audio it says there are no audio devices.

Rebooting the mac at that point will bring the audio back, but what is the point of having a server you need to reboot once or twice a day?

I never had such issues with my old mini, I tried the programs recomended here, disabling 1.3a, doing the specific order of devices, PRAM restore, pram + shift, etc, and I am still having the same F***ing problem, so I replaced a 700e mac mini with a 1000e mac mini server and I cannot use it.

Apple please do something about it...

Thank you.

Since I cant edit my coment above I have uploaded a movie to youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uic3n5_NT8

If only it were that simple. If you google around non Apple forums, you'll find endless people with differing hardware with the same issues, or slight variations. avsforum is a good site as one of the HDMI gururs is there, check out the HDMI forum there as ask him questions. Here's a sample for you to read:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-1286409.html

In here, you'll note how common the issue is (just one of hundreds of thousands of posts). Many problems are the EDID info, which the Gefen mentioned previously would likely solve. I know it SEEMS like change one variable, the system breaks, therefore it MUST be the one variable, but, not the case with HDMI. You can find people with the same TV and Mac on the same os that works, you can find ones that do not work, etc. The problem MAY be Apple, it may also not be, perhaps the TV has a slightly out of spec HDMI implementation and while it may work with other hardware, in reality, it's not supposed to, etc. Adding intermediate HDMI devices such as AVRs, repeaters, etc only compllicate it more. And then you have HDCP issues on top of that. Plus, possible cable issues, length issues, etc.

We all wish HDMI were that simple (and really, it SHOULD be). Sounds so promising - one cable, how ideal. The reality is not so simple. And it's not limited to the Mini, to a specific TV, to Apple, to a certain video card, to a certain driver, etc. At times, on any platform or combincation of devices, an intermediate defvice is needed to just make it work as it should have in the first place. Sometimes, even though the only difference is the Mini, the problem actually lies elsewhere.

For the Yamaha RX-V467 - I see a number of messages on avsforum with differing HTPC issues and even green flickering (and one with blue). One guy says he got the Yamaha replaced and it solved his problem. Again, it does not matter if it works with another PC, that is the nature of how this all works.

Best suggestions is to ask on avsforum, in the HDMI forum specifically so the HDMI implementor can provide some specific info for your specific setups.

I am sure it has been said he before, posting "Apple, please fix" in these forums is 100% useless. You have to report them in the Apple bugtracker system. But, with HDMI, you'll do much better asking on avsforum. Unless you can find that 100% of the time for all owners on a certain tv, a certain tv does not work.

Good suggestion to report in bugtracker by sfatula. Also, contact Apple through AppleCare to raise the visibility of this problem.

Well, I can say after upgrading to 10.7.2 and after a few restarts I do not encounter this problem anymore.I think the problem is when you put the display(TV)  to sleep only.Perhaps, you should try the option never put it to sleep see what happens.

almost everything is back to normal for me after redownloading lion from the app store over the weekend. any combination of restart, sleep, display sleep, etc seems to work. i still have to adjust the underscan instead of leaving it off, though. that seems to be the only difference.

after going through this, as soon as apple tv gets 1080 and it's plex app can do everything the mac one can, i'm switching.

I have the same problem, and it just got worse today. In the last two months I've experienced this a couple of times, but today my Mac mini is really giving me a hard time. I have my Mac mini connected to my Denon receiver (together with a PS3). So HDMI1 is for the PS3, HDMI2 is for my Mac mini. Today I lost the connection after playing PS3. When I return to my Mac mini it just says stereo on my receiver (should say multi channel in).

In order to fix this i shut down my Mac mini, turned off the receiver and my TV. Then I turned on my receiver and TV, and THEN i started the Mac mini. This finally gave me the connection back. Not sure if this was just luck or what...

Thankfully I have shared the screen to my iMac, so I can turn my Mac mini on and off from there.

Apple need to fix this bug ASAP!

I bought a Mac Mini  (2011 -  2,5 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5)  last Saturday here in Germany. It had Lion OS X 10.7 installedand and I had no chance to get a picture (after the white boot screen) on my Philips 42pfl9903H Aurea (HDMI to HDMI). Yesterday, at the Genius Bar in Oberhausen, we upgraded to 10.7.2 and Efi Firmware 1.4. Everything seems to be fine now (1080P 60Hz)! By the way, the update also removed obvious bugs with the Thunderbolt Display which we used during the process.        

I'm glad to hear that the Lion upgrade solved your problem. Unfortunately I'm already running the 10.7.2 version on my Mac Mini, and the problem is still there.

And you said that you got the white boot screen (I assume the one with the Apple logo?), but I don't even get that. There's no signal between my Mac Mini and my receiver/TV what so ever.

So my temporary solution is this:

As I mentioned in my previous post I share my Mac Mini screen with my iMac. So when I turn off my TV and/or receiver I have to make sure that the screen sharing is up and running on my iMac. This way I somehow "force" the Mac Mini to maintain a connection to my receiver/TV.

If I forget to turn on the screen sharing before I turn my TV/receiver or Mac Mini off it really is a 50/50 chance if I get a connection to my TV/receiver when I turn the Mini back on...

I also have the 1.4 version of the Efi Firmware.

Still no fix??!!?? This is really driving me crazy!

I noticed lately that this problem has died off for many.  I have not been hearing anyone with a Denon receiver or Pioneer plasma complaining.  There's been a Lion upgrade since I first reported trouble.  So last week I reinstalled Lion on my 2010 Mac Mini and the display has worked fine consistently.   I'm pleased now, and I hope that Apple fixes this issue for the rest of you. 

I hope that Apple fixes this issue for the rest of us too...