Mac Mini 2012 video blinking out

Had the same problem. I am using the standard HDMI to DVI cable and an ASUS 22" (DVI, VGA) with 1650x1080 max resolution monitor. When turned on it worked ok but after 5 to 10 minutes the problems started. Blinking and red snow. I was furious. This was not a premium class product.

I installed snapshot and tried to use my ipad as a secondary monitor. And then i noticed that while i was using my ipad with snapshot my aSUS monitor was working great, in a low resolution of course (1024x768).

So i started checking different display resolutions (without snapshot and my ipad) and some worked for me perfectly.

It is a compromise since i do not get my max resolutions (1360x768 the best i could get) but until my DP to VGA cable arrives i am good.

I hope this was helpful to others.

Cheers

*PS Perhaps it is important, perhaps not. In my conf i also have an external usb3 backup TOSHIBA disk sitting on top of my mac mini. When i installed Jettison to auto unmount it before sleep the blinking stopped and the snow changeg to green. Perhaps an interference problem from usb3 or the disk?....

Mac OSX Montain Lion 10.8.3 will address completely these issues. The 10.8.3 is just few days away from the final release. I know a lot of people are disappointed, it seems to me it was a complex situation with more parties involved (hardware, drivers, firmware, Intel, Apple, etc).

I'm pretty confident (I'm quite sure) 10.8.3 will address any HDMI problem since Apple is perfectly aware of these issues and they are working very seriously on it since early December. They didn't come out with a temporary fix because the fix itself is buried under OSX graphics driver and have to be carefully tested and packaged with the 10.8.3.

Stay tuned for the upcoming OSX release.

Howdy folks!

Thank you for sharing all of your stories. It helped me finally start digging in the right direction.

There are SEVERAL issues going on. I have a Apple LED Display 24'' and an Acer 24'' monitor.

If you have the old Apple displays with the mini port Apple DOES HAVE a firmware update.

This is if your display is flickering. There IS NO easy way to see which firmware version you are using.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4045

For those of you with the Mac Mini 2012 there is a KNOWN issue with the HDMI driver supplied by Intel.

They have shipped Apple the fix and we should see it in the next version of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57556171-263/flickering-mac-minis-to-get-a- fix/

I will try to post this as a seperate thread just in case anyone needs this info.

Kind regards,

Ed

I'm having the same prob as everyone else it seems. Just got a mac mini (the $599 version) and one of my monitors turns black and blinks constantly. The only way it will work is if I lower the resolutions of BOTH monitors to something low, like 1280x720. Also, one of my monitors is rotated 90 degress. If I try to rotate just one monitor, they BOTH rotate. There is no way to rotate just one.

These monitors work just fine with my PC running Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.10. Here's the best part, I installed OSX on my PC using the MultiBeast patch, and both monitors work fine as well - full resolution, and 90 deg. rotation for one screen. Mountain Lion is not stable on my PC, though, so I want a 'real' mac. Unfortunately, my 'real' mac is apparently a busted pile of junk.

This is not an OSX problem, it is a Mac Mini / Intel 4000 problem.

I have a 2012 i7 mac mini w/256GB SSD that I have been having the exact problem with as described on this site with 16GB OWC RAM installed. I am running it with dual thunderbolt displays that would flash every few minutes making the computer nearly unusable. I took out one of the memory sticks (to run on a single 8GB stick of RAM) and ALL flashing issues have resolved. I'm hoping someone smarter than me can figure out why this solves the problem....

The only solution I have found is to use the Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter,

if you have a monitor with a VGA port on it. I have no issues with that but

if I try to use HDMI --> HDMI from my late 2012 Mac Mini, it will have a black

screen for a few seconds and this happens randomly -- perhaps a few times

a day.

I use VGA now and it is good enough but we shouldn't have to do that.

It should just work.

Intel released updated drivers for Windows 8.1 and 7 which fixed this issue

but for some reason they won't do that for Apple.

It makes no sense. Shame on Intel.

I have found the solution!!!!!!!

God, this was driving me crazy, I had just bought this brand new Mac Mini and it was tripping out!!

But here it is guys:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379?viewlocale=en_US

It's called a NVRAM and PRAM reboot, don't know why it works, and I don't really care either!! but it fixed my problem, hope Apple still releases a bug fix for this, it would save a lot of us a lot of headaches!!

You're welcome,

Hedley Nelson

I switched off my Mac mini and unplugged it

for at least 5 or 10 minutes.

I then attached an HDMI cable to it and

connected that to my monitor.

I plugged in the Mac mini and did an NVRAM

reset and there are no problems whatsoever now.

Even the audio glitches are gone! :-)

I guess I can confirm that the 10.9.2 update

really works.

Previously with 10.9.1, SMC and NVRAM resets

did nothing to solve the problem.

🙂

Try a different cable, a new HDMI cable solved my issue. Both cables were identical cables from monoprice but one would never work right, the other, not a single problem.

funny thing. Seems like the monitor cable was a bit loose. That was the cause of my blinking and snow storm 😝

I contacted apple yesterday and the representitive let me know that this was a wide spread issue and that in the States they have started a voluntary program for people with the issue to submit their minis for further study of the issue. She also suggested that I hang on to mine as a replacement would most likely have the same issues.

> Do you mean the Thunderbolt port? The new Mac Minis have that or HDMI. No DVI ports to be found (aside from the HDMI to DVI converter dongle).

Thunderbolt and Mini Display Port (mDP) use the same connector.

I still haven't had any problems since I switched to a mDP to DVI adapter.

That's exactly my configuration, but pulling one of the DIMMs seems to have made all the difference. I haven't seen a problem since I pulled it on Saturday night.

I'm only using this as an HTPC server and client, so I (or one of my kids, or my wife) would definitely have noticed the hourly snow/blink/freeze. They've been home with it playing some video or music for much of the last few days.

I currently have all the sleep settings and screensaver turned off.

Next troubleshooting steps:

1) put the other memory module back and see if I can reproduce the original issue.

2) Turn monitor sleep back on and see if it makes any difference.

This seems like a sick place to be, but would it be a good idea to buy AppleCare for this in the event there ends up being a replacement program or some other fix they'll only extend to customers with AppleCare. I hate being extended warranties and never have bought AppleCare for any of these dozens of products for which they offer it. Never needed to before now.

I'm not so interested in returning it unless its for one that's confirmed to not have the issue. It works well enough at this point, but I would like to put all the RAM I bought for the dang thing in there at some point!

Tom Sheppard wrote:

As for a repair, I sincerely doubt an Apple tech is going to sit in front of the monitor for hours looking for a one second glitch. Unless they have another way of detecting the failure, I'm guessing it would be returned with the same problem.

Since I've hung on to my 3rd party memory upgrade and Thunderbolt to DVI adapter, I sincerely hope that Apple does come up with a solution. Their silence on this issue is deafening.

I heard Apple is collecting 200 Minis with the blank screen/snow defect for engineers to try to resolve the issue. Being a random occurence, I think this is a good idea to reproduce the issue. Here in the U.S., BTO's can be returned to a local store, so I'm going to use mine for a few more days in the return period, then take it down to the local Genius and return my machine as a candidate for the defect pool (if they are still collecting by then).

I returned my Crucial memory upgrade, but keeping my Samsung 830 SSD, and ordered a 2011 Mini 2.5 with the Radeon GPU. (I hear the 2011 will use 1866MHz memory.) I'll use the 2011 as a desktop for a year, then relegate it for use as an HTPC. No way I was going to stick with the 2012 as a HTPC with an unresolved HDMI issue that Intel hasn't fixed in five months.

Apple will deny awareness of the defect until there is a fix (if it's a firmware issue). If they acknowledged it without a firmware fix, there would be a potentially massive number of returns, which would be costly. The hope is that the majority of users will not notice it since it only affects the HDMI port, and it is a random occurence. If I were keeping the 2012, I would worry about resale value if it turns out to be a hardware issue.

just to let you all know, at least I tried removing one memory card, black-outs still happen just like before.

It looks like this is an issue that is caused by the Intel HD 4000 and it will need to be fixed with a bios update from the motherboard manufacturer (Apple).

Apparently there is a work around as noted in the post I link to, which says you can remove one of your sticks or RAM, but I for one will live with the occasional black screen and keep both sticks of RAM in. Hopefully Apple addresses this issue soon.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/30096?start=0&tstart=0