Mac Mini 2012 video blinking out

An update from me. I return mine and got a new one. 6 days of medium use and no flickering issue. Weird...

The first one began flickering on the fourth day on it's minidisplayport (not the hdmi). Swapped cables en used the hdmi en again the flickering en even snow.

No word from Apple yet, but at the store they where shure that there was a fix coming.

I am in Australia and the option on my display refresh rate within mac os gave me two options 60hz NTSC or 50 hz PAL, my display is a BENQ GW2450, maybe it depends on the type of monitor you have? I am not too savy about this. All I know is that it solved my problem, I know this is not perfect but it works and I know that Apple should make it foolproof with any type of HZ, but the mac mini embraces the world of third party monitors and periphrals so it is more difficult to pinpoint, but we all love macs because they 'just work' so I dunno exactly.

Also I made sure all my connections within my monitor and mac were all set to proper HDMI inputs, this can create snow if you do not set your monitor inputs corrrectly.

patsarge, the 2012 Mini is a nice machine, but has an unresolved graphics issue mentioned in this thread that affects use with HDMI (to TV or monitory). Probably you should wait until this is resolved, otherwise, buy a refurb 2011 Mini and save some money and lower your risk of ownership if it doesn't get fixed. (I bought a 2011 with Radeion GPU for $450 and saved about $500 from the 2012 Mini 2.6 I returned, and find the graphics are better in performance tests I ran.) I use VM/Fusion for Windows apps, and go back and forth between Win and OSX. Overall, a great machine for general use.

Just another report of getting the problem solved after the firmware upgrade. I was 99% sure it was my monitor (a bran new Samsung S27B550V), since the flickr was very "hardware-ish", and always happened a couple minutes after the monitor/computer woke up.

I didn't know about this thread and was just about to return the monitor to the store, when the firmware update popped up and solved it, out of know here. Happy now! 🙂

I returned my first mini in early November because the Thunderbolt port died and the HDMI port was flaky. After hearing that the blinking issue was fixed with the firmware update, I ordered another mini. It arrived yesterday afternoon and, in less than 24 hours, the Tb port died again. The first mini's Tb port lasted about a week or so.

Tried the usual troubleshooting dance of reseating the Tb->DVI cable, swapping monitors, log in as another user, reset SMC & PRAM, boot in safe mode. Still dead.

Called AppleCare and was escalated to a senior tech. He was great but had no other suggestions. He suspects it could be a bad adapter cable. Why the cable would work on the first mini and then die permanently, work on the second mini and then die permanently seems unlikely to be the cable, but I agree that the mini needs to be tested with a new adapter so …

… the phone rep called a local authorized repair center and they didn't have the ability to verify the adapter. Wow! So much for being Apple authorized.

My only choice is to go to the Apple Store in a mall that's under major construction so parking is horrible. And it's the last weekend before Christmas. Ain't gonna happen. Besides, this is the same store where a genius turned me away the first time without even looking at the mini or the adapter saying he'd seen it before and it was a common problem. If he would have tested the mini with a new adapter and tested the adapter with another computer and monitor, I wouldn't be facing another 40 km round-trip and an hour of my time.

My bet is that the Tb port has indeed died. Am I unlucky to get two minis with the same problem? Is this endemic to the mini? If so, I would have expected another report on this thread. Is my monitor somehow damaging the port even though it's buffered by the adapter? It's the same monitor I've used for 4.5 years on my 2008 MacBook and on several other computers.

On the bright side, I haven't seen any HDMI flickering so far although I've only used it about 6 hours.

I'll get the mini and adapter tested at the Apple Store between Christmas and New Years. If the mini is declared dead I'll have to decide whether to use the three strikes rule and give a third mini a chance, or to see if I can cough up the money for an iMac, which I really don't want.

I've never been more upset with Apple than I am today. I pre-ordered the 2012 mini the day it was announced. I canceled that order before it shipped because others convinced me to wait and see how the FusionDrive works before committing $1000. I have a 2011 mini, a 2012 MBP, and the latest iPhone/iPad, etc. Heavy Apple user, have spent a lot of money on Apple products.

On December 28th I finally ordered a 2.3Ghz stock, mid-level mini, no FusionDrive. I waited to order it until after Apple announced the patch that would fix the video issues.

Less than 3 weeks after using the mini, it's video output died. It would only give a scrambled variation of black checkered lines (sometimes pink or green instead) upon boot. It would not reach the desktop and would constantly reboot itself, only to show the scrambled video. I tried 3 different monitors, 2 different HDMI cables, and one MDP-DP cable. I did NOT try the Thunderbolt cable as I do not have a Thunderbolt monitor. (it's also important to say that the picture quality of the 2012 mini is awful. The colors are washed out, the whites are overblown, it's like the contrast is much too high. I moved the mini from a 24" 1080p Gateway monitor to a Vizio HDTV, no luck, same awful image. I then bought a $700 Dell 27" 2560x1440 Hi-Res display. I chose the Dell over the Thunderbolt display because the Dell offered multiple inputs so I could connect other computers, an XBox, etc., otherwise I would have bought the Thunderbolt display if it offered the same versatility). So no video on any of the 3 monitors using HDMI or Mini DisplayPort. I used two different HDMI cables to rule out the cable, but only have one MDP-DP cable (I'm not using any adapter).

So I take the mini in to my local Apple store, they hook it up to a Thunderbolt display, no problems. Can't get it to have any issues. They run diagnostics and can't find any issues, it passes every test. I convince them to keep it and run more tests on it. They do. Two days go by, no word from Apple. I call, am told it passed every test and there are no problems, it works perfectly. I pick it up, take it home, and the very first boot it gives me the checkerboard scrambled screen. Constant reboots on the boot screen, never reaches the desktop. I try it again on 3 different monitors using 3 different cables on 2 different outputs. Same issue.

I make another Genius Bar appointment. I'd also like to point out that I take care of my elderly father who has dementia and heart failure and who is also about to have a very serious surgery. I also use my mini to run my business, which I work from home, which is the only way I can take care of my father because that in itself is a full time job. I do not have time to keep taking the mini to Apple when it should work properly to begin with.

So the second Genius Bar appointment features waiting at the bar for 30 minutes after I arrive. Then a nice person comes and starts looking at the machine. I show him pictures on my iPhone and video I took of it booting up to the scrambled screen at home. He hooks the mini up to the Thunderbolt display and it works perfectly. He tells me I should take it home, make another appointment, and this time carry my 27" monitor in with me and all of the cables I use. I ask if he has any other monitor there with a different input to check it on. He finds an old Acer monitor with VGA input, gets an adapter, and viola, it has a scrambled screen. So he goes to talk to the Genius Bar head Genius, and comes back very quickly and tells me, "it turns out this is a known issue with 2012 minis that sometimes they can only display clean video through Thunderbolt output. There is no fix. Apple engineers are aware of it, but we cannot exchange it for another mini." I ask him, "what?" he tells me again, that he is instructed to tell me that I have bought an $800 paperweight (my words, not his), with 3 years of Apple Care, and that there is no fix, I cannot use the mini unless I spend another $1000 on a Thunderbolt display, and even then, the mini cannot use the video outputs (HDMI, MDP) that Apple advertises. This mini is damaged, Apple knows it is damaged, knows that it is their fault, and refuses to do anything for the customer other than take my money and give me nothing. After a few minutes of talking to the Genius, I am offered to exchange it for a new mini of the same model, with the caveat that the issue is likely going to happen to the new model as well. I am also told I cannot have a receipt and there is no return on the new mini. (I bought the mini from an Apple certified distributor B&H Photo on December 28th, it's now January 31st, past the 30 day return policy, so there is no returning it there either). So I now have a new mini that I do not want to even turn on once because it will, according to the Genius, most likely have the same issue and there is no fix.

This is not acceptable. I have been a loyal Apple user for years. I have no interest in giving Apple another penny of my money for any product again. Nor will I become a Windows user. My other option I suppose is to switch to Linux, but I'm not the least bit happy with any of this. Right now I'm using my 2011 mini, which I had planned to sell to pay for most of the 2012 mini. I suppose I will now sell the brand new 2012 mini, which isn't helping anyone because all it's doing is passing this future problem onto another owner, all because Apple cannot engineer a proper, working mini, nor take responsibility for their failure.

Hi Igndry, I use the same HP and had the same issues. Problem is that by HDMI the MM doesn't support 1680x1050 that your w2207h is requesting. You should manually switch to a smaller resolution which is almost impossible with the flashing screen. You better hook on another display first, put the res to 1600x900 (so not auto detect screen!) and switch the monitors without shutting down your MM. Then it will work, although with a disappointing image....

Untill the update 10.8.3 is released I've connected them by MPD-VGA and this works sufficient. Hope it will for you too.

I guess I'm lucky ... once I turned off Sleep I haven't had any further problems (I'm using a HP w2207 with DVI). I do turn the computer off at night & start it up each morning. I learned this trick from some other poster to this discussion so I'm sure it will help others, helpfully Zunfolge.

Ok...apparently I owe Apple an apology. I called them up Saturday and the tech had me unplug everything, hold the power button down for 15 seconds, plug everything in, then restart whilst holding down Option+Cmd+ (I think) 'R' + 'D'. The computer restarted and I have had NO issues since.

It was getting so bad that I was having to turn everything off and back on a few times an hour; sometimes minutes apart.

Not sure what the issue was or what this fixed, but it worked.

My video blink/snow problems on the 2012 mini are present with both the stock OEM (4GB) & OWC (16GB) ram upgrade when hooked up to my 1080p TV via HDMI to HDMI cable. When hooked up to my 1080p Dell monitor (using HDMI to DVI adaptor) I haven't experienced problems. Interestingly, my 2011 mini also has rare blink/snow issues when hooked up to my TV as well.

I feel your pain, my first MM had this problem along with the grey noise issue. That MM Apple 'captured' and I was sent a new one, which arrived at the same time as the EFI update. So I installed that and mine has been fine since. I run dual monitor with an Eizo connected by MDP-DVI and a Formac connected by HDMI-DVI. Both monitors have worked fine.

It would seem as if this is not just a MM problem in itself but a combination of MM and monitor as some seem fine while others have these problems. I just count myself very lucky my two monitors both work without any problems.

One can only hope the next model of MM does not have this problem, as otherwise its a great little computer.

Same for me, I had no problem using the HDMI-DVI adapter with OSX 10.8.2. The problem was with the HDMI-HDMI connection without adapter. This has been corrected with OSX 10.8.3.

I have the same question that you concerning the Mac firmware revision.

Thanks Dave,

Just done it and repolaced my HDMI to DVI adapter (I had been working-around with TB to DVI).

All OK except that my desktop reverted to Default. Easily reset, but why?!!!

Bob

Updated the firmware in mine yesterday eve after a call from an Apple rep. Havent had any flickering since, have been using my two week old mini most of the day. On and off...hdmi. No problems. 🙂

My problem was solved by a PRAM reset in the Mini! The blinking every 10 seconds is definitely gone.