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Level 1

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Mac Mini 2011 display sleep problem

I just bought the newly released mac mini. Its connected to my hd-ready television with a mini-displayport to vga dongle to the thunderbolt port. When OS X Lion prompts the display sleep, the screen won't come back again. Not even after pushing a key, or clicking the mouse/trackpad. I contacted Apple and they tried to isolate the problem. When the tv is connected to my macbook pro with the same dongle and also with lion installed there is no problem. They therefor suggested to reinstall lion on a separate partition. This didn't work because the recovery partition is on the same HD as the one they wanted to partition, therefor unable to unmount. They then suggested to use a Snow Leopard install dvd to see if the problem would occur in SL, this isn't possible because there is nog optical drive. I am beginning to lose faith in the Apple helpdesk and am wondering if there are people in the community who have smart suggestions or have similar problems.

Thanks in advance.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7), 2011 edition with thunderbolt

Posted on Aug 5, 2011 10:50 AM

21 replies

Oct 8, 2011 5:14 AM in response to Scrobz

Well, I've found a workaround for my Mac Mini (which didn't wake the 30" ACD connected with the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter from Apple):

If I wake the Mac Mini via the Bluetooth Keyboard or the Bluetooth Mouse, the display stays in stand-by mode.

But if I use the power button at the back of the Mac Mini, the display leaves the stand-by mode just fine. I prefer this workaround much more over my previous workaround—which was unplugging either the USB connector or the MDP connector of the MDP2DLDVI adapter from the Mac Mini after each wake from sleep.

So for those whose Mac Mini's display has issues which the wake from sleep—I suggest you might want to try to wake the Mac Mini with a short push of the rear power button. Hope this helps.

lupunus

Level 4

1,000 points

Oct 8, 2011 5:37 AM in response to Thomas Voßen

Thomas Voßen wrote:

Well, I've found a workaround for my Mac Mini (which didn't wake the 30" ACD connected with the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter from Apple):
[...]
But if I use the power button at the back of the Mac Mini, the display leaves the stand-by mode just fine.

Found that the same "work around" works on portables too as the issue is not limited to MacMini.

If you look around you will find the same description for iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro but never read about on Mac Pro systems.

It seems that the wake up via mouse or keyboard did not push the system to send a sufficient wake up burst to connected displays.

I was able to reproduce that issue with my new MacBook Pro even on a old CRT, a projector and a new flatpanel.
Interestingly the wake up via mouse or keyboard works on most projectors I had to work with in the last 5 month.

By the way, I had the same issue with my older MacBook since 2008 but rarely and if on flatpanels only.

Lupunus

Dec 19, 2011 1:10 AM in response to lupunus

control-eject, then return (shutdown) works for me, but the shutdown occurs very quickly so I wonder if I'm actually triggering a forced shut down. Where can I look to find that info?

Not much to do I guess until there's an update. It would seem likely that it's a Thunderbolt port problem.

Chule

Level 1

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Aug 23, 2012 9:36 PM in response to lupunus

I found a solution. Press several times the space bar and the display wakes fine!

Jan 24, 2013 1:00 PM in response to lupunus

Thanks a bunch,... this has been a real pain for me for months, the quick push of the power button seems to do the trick, should have thought of trying this. Happy Happy Happy!! ;o)

Jun 21, 2013 2:24 AM in response to Scrobz

I had a Dell monitor connected to my 2012 Mac mini via VGA and it wouldn't wake up when I pressed keyboard, mouse and power buttons, unplugged everything, and reset on the SMC on the Mac Mini. Then I changed to a monitor with an HDMI connection and that has done the trick.

Mac Mini 2011 display sleep problem