Mac Mini 2012 video blinking out

@dsmith35124

If you're referring to my post, your comment is WAY OFF.

Go back through the forum postings - WAY BACK - and see my post regarding using a MDP/TB port to DVI adaptor (with links for shopping) as a way of circumventing this issue.

Does THAT look to you like I'm being paid by someone?

Really - 50,000 views and you think this is being driven by a rep for a PC company?

I understand your anxiety and frustration - but taking THAT road is no diffent than the Genius who refuses to even acknowledge that a problem exists. It is not helpful and is in fact exasperating.

Mac desktop users - MM/Pro/iMac are a relatively small group of dedicated Apple consumers. We should be CATERED to by this company for our loyalty.

And by the way - as frustrated as I am with this issue, I'm on the fence right now - about whether to buy a Mac Pro because I strongly fear that the 2013 refresh either won't happen or it may be the last before Apple phases out this product. They're making too much money on iPhones (I have 2) and iPads (I have 3) to screw around with a pro-use desktop.

BVTW If you're anywhere in the New York area you can drive to my residence if you feel it's necessary to verify that I'm typing this post using a MM.

Message was edited by: zoney99

zoney99 wrote:

@dsmith35124

If you're referring to my post, your comment is WAY OFF.

Go back through the forum postings - WAY BACK - and see my post regarding using a MDP/TB port to DVI adaptor (with links for shopping) as a way of circumventing this issue.

Does THAT look to you like I'm being paid by someone?

My statement wasn't directed at you. The hysterical tone of this topic is being driven by a combination of Internet mob mentality, a few people with genuinely defective minis, a few anal-compulsive mini users, and a few corporate plants from competitors. It has led you to state:

"This product should have come to me PERFECT. Right - perfect: plug it in, it works."

I guarantee you that you don't own any article that is more technically complex than a pocket comb that is perfect. All complex products have bugs. It is a well-known fact that in any complex project the number of bugs asymptotically approaches some fixed number over time, not zero. At that point, fixing one bug introduces another. It's something to keep in mind the next time you're on an airplane that's making a landing.

You also said:

"tell him that 50,000 people DO know about this issue............."

which is patently untrue. There have been 48,000+ views. Not views from unique IP numbers, not participants, not people reporting defective minis. As hard as it is to do on an Internet forum, everyone needs to calm down and be patient. Or else return their minis and go down the street and buy a perfect HP computer running the perfect Windows 8 OS. And good luck with that.

This level of public attention should be alarming to Apple. I still do not understand why they do not acknowledge this problem. I am sure the competitors can take advantage of this situation and a silent Apple isn't helping.

I would return my mac mini if I could. I have been working on a deadline and lived with the problem for that time and now it is past the return period. So, I am stuck with a lemon.

I would like to believe that this is a software issue and a firmware update is going to fix it. But the diversity of the problem symptoms people discuss in this forum leads me to believe that this is a hardware issue.

My machine's symptoms are: black screen for a period of 1-2 seconds, usually (not always) followed by a period of colored snowing. About 10% of the times when the screen comes back all the colors are out of whack.

The video that Ryan posted didn't show the color snow, but I do recall other people talking about it.

@dsmith35124:

Reread my 2 posts and then your response of:

"You also said:

"tell him that 50,000 people DO know about this issue............."

No. This is what I wrote in my 2 posts:

"With nearly 50,000 views of THIS forum alone regarding this issue, I take exception to the "it may be a small segement of MM owers."

Really - 50,000 views and you think this is being driven by a rep for a PC company?

I wrote "posts" not people. See it now?

And 48,402 IS nearly 50,000 posts, or near enough not to matter.

If there were 8,402 posts, it would still be a problem, don't you agree?

You know, I'd like to know worldwide how many 2012 MM were sold. And how many of those have this issue. Besides being a computer addict, I'm also a "car guy." And there isn't a month that goes by that Ford, GM, or Toyota doesn't a recall. And I don't have a problem with that - tell me there's a problem, let the dealer fix it at his cost, let me get back to driving it.

Apple is a billion dollar company. It's stock sells for about $575 a share. One share. This company can, and should acknowledge there's an issue, that they're working on it, and will repair/debug/replace ASAP.

Is that too much to ask?

Finally this: The next time a "Genius" says to a 2012 MM owner words to the effect "I don't know anything about this as a problem" go to the nearest computer and show him this forum and tell him that 50,000 people DO know about this issue.............

Zoney99, this is a direct quote from you, emphasis added by me. Don't come back at me and say:

"No. This is what I wrote in my 2 posts:

I wrote "posts" not people. See it now?"

Nope. You wrote "50,000 people" where I quoted you.

I've never said that there isn't a problem. Neither has Apple. They have "captured" suspect minis from owners. They are working on the problem. Complaining brought the issue to their attention. More complaining will not make the process go any faster. All I've said and continue to say is that this is a very complex problem with technical and legal repercussions and that everyone, you included, should calm down.

Some people say they would feel better if they could have a 2012-style, psuedo-apology from one of Apple's lawyers. I can't see what good that would do, but if it would make you feel better, how about one from me?

"I'm sorry if you feel that you are having a problem associated with the new model Mac mini. Rest assured that customer satisfaction is paramount to us at Apple and that we are continuing to work hard to make sure that our products meet the highest standards or quality and reliability in the world."

That's as far as they could go right now, and it's useless. Anything more would be assuming liability for something that may not be their fault, and no company is going to do that.

zoney99 wrote:

Is that too much to ask?

zoney99 I agree with everything that you said BUT there are many different scenarios that might be happening here. Maybe this is a hardware issue with the HD4000 and Intel is dragging their feet. Maybe the driver that Intel gave Apple didn't work and they needed to send it back to Intel for a rewrite. Maybe it's something that no one here has envisioned yet like a heat issue or a manufacturing process defect and a work around hasn't been found. The point is that no one here knows why these HDMI issues have happened. People can make educated guesses but that's all they are. Only Apple knows the full story and Apple may be quiet because they are concerned of legal issues. We know Apple is working on the issue, so that's good. Most people are reporting this HDMI problem to Apple, which is also good. Others are returning their minis. Because Apple has been so silent it doesn't leave some people with any other option. You used car companies as an example, and yet car companies have acted this way too at times. I remember Chrysler and Toyota suggesting that their defects were 'user error' at one time. Customers were just as frustrated at the time with them. Realistically I only see three options for mini customers at this time, be patient (as hard as that can be), file a complaint with a organization like the BBB, or return your mini. Hopefully Apple will respond with something positive soon and everyone can put this behind them and move on 🙂

Finally this: The next time a "Genius" says to a 2012 MM owner words to the effect "I don't know anything about this as a problem" go to the nearest computer and show him this forum and tell him that 50,000 people DO know about this issue.............

So, why are page views meaningless? (And they are.) I can enable a browser extension to autorefresh the current page automatically. I could set the page to refresh every 5 seconds and just leave it running. In a single day that would generate 17,280 page views. This statistic is meaningless. It would be more meaningful, but still useless, to know how many views were from unique IP numbers, but that data isn't available to us (I'm certain it is available to Apple.) The reason this would be meaningless is that we can't know the motivation of the people who loaded the page. For instance, this page came to my attention when I was researching how to force my new mini to load 10.8.2. I thought I'd read it and see what was going on even though I wasn't having a display problem.

Sadly, as a computer engineer I decided to try to shed some light on the problem and perhaps dissipate some of the heat. Silly me. So bye now and enjoy yourselves.

BTW, I consider work-arounds suggested on the forum to be worthwhile, to the extent that they're not hawking magic cables or some such. It's just the "Oh my God, this *****! I'm going to smash my Mac with a hammer." "I'm going to lead a mob armed with pitch forks and torches on Cupertino and burn the place to the ground." tone of stuff that seems not to be useful. Finally, I leave you with STAY CALM and BE PATIENT.

Nice to hear that Apple might have actually come up with a solution. If you run a system profile, is it possible to see where there's a difference between the returned MM and the replacement?

We were about to upgrade from our PPC G5 until we discovered there were problems — thanks to BobH47's response to our request for advice. When the ivy bridge gear was released, it was pretty clear that the sandy bridge upgrades probably weren't all that far off, so we decided to wait. Now, the graphics board issues are probably a decent clue to what the next 'upgrades' will include. But we don't do professional film editing or gaming and so we thought we'd go ahead and buy an i7 MM.

Since ostentatious displays of disposable income aren't an option these days, and because the nearest brick and mortar retail source is 70+ miles from where we live, we really do need to have something that's more likely than not to work "out of the box". So, I guess we'll keep an eye on this thread and hope that things get resolved sooner than later. If we buy directly from Apple, I guess we could always inquire as to whether we'd be getting a 'rectified' unit. But I'm kind of wondering if something purchased from anywhere else is likely to be older inventory that hasn't been modified. Yet another reason to pay attention to return policies and read the fine print on the warranty...

@dsmith -

I found it - YOU"RE RIGHT, I was wrong. 😟 In my last sentence I miswrote PEOPLE and meant views. My appology. Computing, not editing, is my long suit.

But really - I hope you DO understand what I'm getting at with the rant. So don't be annoyed, this is YOUR forum too and your post are more than welcome.

On a side note: Annoyed? Yes. Buy another MM? Oh Yes. I already have the 2X8GB RAM sticks ready to slap into it. AND: no putty knife or micro Phillips head screwdriver required. 🙂

I'm not stating my views on these issues anymore because I've been clear on how I feel about Apple's silence. Arguing serves only to amuse those Apple employees who monitor this forum.

For reasons that are irrelevant to everyone except myself, the Mac mini is the only Apple computer choice for me right now. I've given myself a very generous deadline by which Apple must fix this issue. Should they miss this deadline then I will have no choice but to seek other solutions for my computing needs.

This is not a threat. Apple doesn't care about me as a long time customer so threats are useless.

I'm not throwing a tantrum. That accomplishes nothing and only entertains Apple.

I'm willing to give Apple a bit more time but then I simply must make a calculated business decision to move on. It's unfortunate that Apple is working so hard to make this an easy decision.

My guess is that the reason behind Apple's silence is simple. They want to keep a lid on it until we are safely past the Christmas shopping season.

Found this (although it's probably old info to most of the people here):

Intel Reports Fix Coming for Flickering on Monitors Connected to 2012 Mac Mini via HDMI

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/11/28/intel-reports-fix-coming-for-flickering-on-m onitors-connected-to-2012-mac-mini-via-hdmi/

Makes me a bit nervous about thinking waiting for the discrete graphic board option might be unnecessary?

Some info from my replacement MM.

Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C2034) I updated using software update.

Model Name: Mac mini

Model Identifier: Macmini6,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MM61.0106.B00

SMC Version (system): 2.8f0

Intel HD Graphics 4000:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 4000

Type: GPU

Bus: Built-In

VRAM (Total): 768 MB

Vendor: Intel (0x8086)

Device ID: 0x0166

Revision ID: 0x0009

Displays:

CG223W:

Resolution: 1680 x 1050

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number:

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported

formac TFT 1900 AU3-0:

Resolution: 1280 x 1024

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number:

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Rotation: Supported

I don't know if that helps at all?

Sadly, as a computer engineer I decided to try to shed some light on the problem and perhaps dissipate some of the heat. Silly me. So bye now and enjoy yourselves.

Hey dsmith35124,

Your input is appreciated, at least by me. As an experienced computer engineer you can provide valuable insights to this community. I see you're not very active on this forum, I hope the heat of this thread doesn't make you turn your back to us. Please continue contributing, we need people like you.

Please understand that for people like myself, the price-tag of a MacMini still isn't exactly cheap, and we waited a long time for the last product cycle to end (530 days if I remember correctly). It is normal that people get very upset when it is not working.

You might have been referring to me too, when you were talking about FUD. I can assure you I'm not affiliated with any company. Can't prove that of course, but look at my profile and other posts, why would I try to help people if I have some spare time. My rather long posts were intended to make something clear to people who just discovered this thread, and won't be reading all 50 pages. For the last 20 pages or so, everybody has been talking about a firmware fix, as if it is certain that it is firmware related. I just wanted to add a counterwheight by stating that nobody knows for sure if its hard or soft. My own feeling -personal opinion- is that this could very well be a hardware problem too, not fixable by any update. That's not pessimism, rather realism. Of course I don't know this for sure, but it's an important thing to consider, if you're still in the 14days return period. I'm not speculating anything, just warning people who might derive from the last pages of this ultralong thread, that it will certainly be fixable.

As for the calming down: I'm very calm right now :-) heartrate 60BPM. I've returned the **** thing a while ago, and have no more sleepless nights. yay. Patience: check. I'm waiting patiently for the fix. :-))

Hey dsmith, sorry to bother you again.

some things about the first two possibilities you write about, I don't fully understand :

dsmith35124 wrote:

...three possibilities.

1) The specification is faulty. That is, it may be possible to design two devices, both of which meet the specification, and have them not work together. If this is the case, it is not Apple's fault.

we're talking about the HDMI specifications here, right?

aren't these around for a while now? and proven to be designed well by now?

Or are the many handshake issues between devices a manifestation of the specs not being written very well after all?

I'm not an expert on this, but I've been reading a lot about HDMI, and handshake issues are often a problem in the professional video industry (I'm a sound/light engineer, and sometimes hear video engineers complaining about it)

2) Many displays may not meet the specification. Manufacturers of displays may be cheating the spec in a way that allows them to work with most, but not all, compliant computers. If this is the case it is not Apple's fault. As before, Apple would have no responsibility.

This worries me. I thought if a device doesn't meet the HDMI specs, they wouldn't be allowed to sell it. How can they cheat the specs? Just stating that it meets the specs, while it actually doesn't or only partially, is enough? No official instance is checking this? Don't know anything about this, maybe you know more?

As I've said, I followed this thread from the beginning. I noticed a lot of MM users here have Samsung monitors. Including myself.

Is Samsung so popular right now? I don't know. I find it a bit suspicious. Anyhow, if the second possiblity of your theory is true, how can a major brand like Samsung get away with not meeting the specs?

Wouldn't they have compatibility issues with other devices too then?