can a mac mini overheat? does it automatically shut down?

and there are no obvious louvers or vents in the Mini case.

The vent that you can't seem to locate:

Overheating has not been an issue with any of the 3 Mac Minis that I have ever owned. Only runaway processes are likely to cause overheating, and they can be identified by using your Activity Monitor app.

As a matter of fact, I'm having the overheating problem with my Mac Mini, which I just purchased 6 months ago, so I would suggest that perhaps the problem has not, in fact, been resolved even now. Every now and then (and I'm not even running any CPU-intensive software) I'll notice the case is quite hot; the only way I can find to cool it down is to either put it to sleep or do a shutdown. BTW, from my online research it appears that there is in fact an internal fan--this is a surprise to me since I have never heard any fan running, and there are no obvious louvers or vents in the Mini case.

Jenna

Unexpected shutdowns are more often related to the power supply starting to fail. One thing you can try is to reset the power management, which is called "PMU" or "SMC," depending on your specific Mac mini model.

If it's Intel-based, this is the procedure

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

If it's PowerPC-based (a G4), this is the procedure

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2183

You should disconnect ALL cables when you do this. When you connect it back to power, if you were using a power strip of some type (especially if it's old or overcrowded), connect it directly to a wall outlet by itself (at least initially). Don't connect any peripherals except standard keyboard and mouse (and display). Use it that way for a while and see if there is any improvement.

If it's working better, it may be because of the PMU/SMC reset, or possibly because there was some conflict related to having the peripherals connected (or a faulty device). Add those devices back one at a time, to see if the problem recurs.

In case it is related to overheating, you should check the vents along the bottom for accumulation of dust blocking airflow.

Sadly it's a well known problem amongst mac mini users, it's simply a design problem Apple wouldn't admit. They thought the heat would dispatch through the aluminium housing, but that's just not enough. I have the same, early mac mini i5 2.5, housing hot like **** when running games or pro audio apps, keeps freezing. Only way to avoid that is using a program like 'SMC fan control', driving the fan much faster and louder and/or putting something icey on top of it...

A Mac can overheat and if it does would normally shutdown, it has various built-in sensors for this. I have not had it happen with a Mac mini but have had it happen with a very old PowerMac in which the heatsink compound between the CPU and heatsink had deterioated. In my case cleaning and applying fresh compound fixed the problem.

Other causes are having the vents blocked by for example paper, dust, fluff, cats,etc. or putting it too close to a radiator, or putting it on or under another device which adds to the heat. Or of course if the fan is faulty.

Yes, look for dust in the air vents. Happened to me. Vacuumed the ports and all is well.

kd4ttc did you notice that the post is over 1 /2 years old? I think they resolved the problem by now

kd4ttc wrote:

Yes, look for dust in the air vents. Happened to me. Vacuumed the ports and all is well.

Well, you seem to have found it quickly. This thread turned up on the first page of a google search for <mac mini overheats and shuts down>. It is surprising how often an older link like this shows up as a first result, but without a beneficial response. While the original posters may have figured this out, I was posting to others that have found the same problem, and hope to save them a little grief. Just trying to make the universe a little better.

Steve