Q: Mac Mini 2012 video blinking out

Folks:

Possible solution for some of you:

I was having the same blinking issue with my 2012 mac mini.  Using connectors I had and free ports on the monitors, I connected in the following way:

Mac Mini Display Port:  Rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter, HDMI to HDMI cable to monitor

Mac Mini HDMI Port:  Apple HDMI to DVI-D adaptor, DVI-D to DVI-D cable to monitor

The blinking had gotten really bad, happening once every 2-5 minutes.   Mavericks didn't help.  I decided to change up how I connected the monitors to see if that would help. 

Mac Mini Display Port:  Generic Mini DisplayPort to DVI-D Adapter, DVI-D to DVI-D cable to monitor

Mac Mini HDMI Port:  HDMI to HDMI cable to monitor

Blinking has now stopped completely for over a week.

Hope this helps some of you out. 

Thanks,

Anthony

Actually, the blinking issue is getting worse in Mavericks once per hour.

(Mountain Lion: I didn't see this issue. Lion: I saw this issue once a day.)

I connect the 28 inch display via a Mini Display Port to Display Port cable, so unfortunatelly it's not feasible to convert Mini Display Port to DVI because of the capacity.

Hope it will be fixed soon.

The stupid work around I found is,

1. Set a hot corner to sleep the display

2. Trigger it when the display starts blinking

No more black screens for the last 3 months on my Mini after applying the Thunderbolt firmware update, switching over to using a HDMI to DVI adaptor, and updating to 10.8.5

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 too have this problem. Got a new monitor today and it went black twice for a second. On the old monitor it didnt happen as often but I got snow and had to turn it off and then on again. Only happens on my mini but not my PC.

Does anyone know if the 10.9.2 update fixed this problem?

I know they did update the Intel HD 4000 drivers but I'm lazy

to attach the HDMI cable for fear that it might black out again.

If anyone has any experience with this, please reply.

Thanks a lot. :-)

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.

I got this yesterday and today twice after I installed the latest Mavericks update. Before it was fine for a month.

I've always had video glitching from the beginning on both connected monitors. I've had three different monitors connected and they all glitch. I've accepted that Apple will not admit to the problem or issue a recall. It's just the way they do business.

My suspicion is that it's a hardware race condition with the CPU and GPU sharing memory. The CPU is busy with the memory when the GPU needs it, can't get it, thus the video glitch. I see the glitching more frequently when the CPU is maxed out doing HandBrake, or I have Parallels running a VM, with other apps busy. The busyier the CPU and the more memory in use, the more frequent the glitching. YMMV.

Only Apple knows for sure what the issue is. I'm just saddened that they chose to ignore the problem. A hefty trade-in allowance on the next mini would be a nice gesture. I'm not holding my breath.

10.9.3 with P-ram restart - no flickers when just web browsing and other general stuff.  As soon as I open an app like Ableton Live 9 and start playing fairly intensive arrangments (using quite a few plugins, etc.), or start watching multiple videos on the desktop, it flickers it tits off.  Using a short 0.5m HDMI to HDMI to Samsung monitor.

The blinking just started a week ago. I bought the mini about 14 months ago. late 2012 i7.

no difference if I use the HDMI or MDP.  OS 10.9.4. this *****

I just bought my Mac Mini i7 2.3ghz.  Fitted with 16GB ram, 2 hard disk drives.

I noticed the blink out / black out more often when there is some CPU intensive tasks.  The blackout is happening to the MDP --> DVI port.

Just an update and details:

My Mac Mini late 2012 specs:

2.3 GHz Core i7

16GB

10.9.4

Macmini6,2

The problem doesn't seem to be happening today... I'm trying to download some benchmark / stress test software, but... can't seem to find any.

If anyone can suggest, please let me know.