Mac Mini (2012) HDMI losing sync (blank screen/snow)

Ess aitch eye tee. Spoke too soon. Got the snow upon wakeup from sleep this afternoon. (No blackouts yet, though.)

However, I experienced occasional snow with the 2009 mini under the same circumstances. This may not be specifically a 2012 mini problem.

Simply turning the monitor off, then on gets rid of the snow.

If it happens only every other day or so I can live with it.

As I have stated previously that going into the Energy Saver folder and increasing the sleep time from 10 to 25 mins should cure the snow issue on any monitor if you're using the HDMI adapter that came with your Mini.

But there is another issue that will need to be taken care of if you've upgraded to OS X 10.8.3 and that is your Java, JRE 7-17 which is the lastest version of Java needs to be reinstalled after taking the OS X 10.8.3 upgrade because that upgrade for some reason blocked the Java even though it may say you have the lastest version.

This lastest version should be in your download folder already.

After reinstalling your lastest version of Java, Just go to java.com and click the link that asks (Do I have Java), if you see a plugin image blocked go ahead and click on that anyway so you can run the Java conformation test.

Of course you need to have your Safari browser opened because Chrome doesn't use the 64 bit encryption.

Thanks for the tip waltk, but it simply did not work. Even if I put the energy saver into never sleep mode the screen flickers, heck it flickers during boot up! Unacceptable, and lucky for me I am within my return window and Apple is standing by the return policy.

Similar solution worked for me too, connecting my 2011 mini to viewsonic hdmi

I am getting the blank screen but only when I boot via BootCamp to the PC side of the operating system. Mac side no issues. All of this happened when I did the 1.7 update to my Mac Mini. 5.2

Model Name: Mac mini

Model Identifier: Macmini5,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i5

Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MM51.0077.B10

SMC Version (system): 1.75f0

Serial Number (system): C07G60S3DJD1

Hardware UUID: A5BFEA7F-6ECD-5A58-87F5-71ED283BCA

Can anyone help me with the PC side of this?

My blackout/snow problem only occurs if the screen have been going to sleep/switch off and back on😢

The more, the merrier, if it encourages Apple to do something about this fault.

I have a late 2012 Mac mini (bought in the Spring of this year). Here are the details:

I at first used it with an ancient Samsung 17" monitor with VGA connection and had no blacking-out problem. Last week I bought a Dell 'professional' P1913S 19" monitor and connected it with a DVI-D to HDMI adaptor. The sharpness of the picture and the blackness of blacks are quite good, though not perfect. But I am now getting the blacking-out of the screen.

In my case it does not happen often — maybe once in a day of fairly continuous use — and it does not lead to 'snowing', but to a rather sweet, Victorian-greeting-card video! Is that Apple's built-in welcome screen?

Would I be better off with a DVI-D to mini DisplayPort connection, or a DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort one? The Dell monitor has DVI-D and DisplayPort outputs and the Mac mini has HDMI and mini DisplaPort inputs.

Wow, kind of glad to see I'm not alone, but also very bummed that there are 23 pages of people experiencing this and there hasn't been a real fix.

I bought a brand new 2012 Mac Mini yesterday and am having the same issue. I have the 2.3 Ghz i7 model with the standard 4GB of RAM. HDMI direct connection (no adapter) to my 27" ASUS monitor which has been a flawless performer with my previous Windows PC. Twice yesterday the screen went black and resolved on it's own after about 5-10 seconds, but the third and last time it happened, it did not resolve at all, and I had to switch the monitor input to DVI then back to HDMI for it to come back on. This is crazy for an Apple product. So very bummed that I might have to return my Mini. I was so excited for it.

I was also quite disappointed with Apple and returned my 2012 Mini. Since then I have installed a larger and faster hard drive in my 2010 Mini (which has never given me any trouble except having to replace the DVD drive) and have been quite happy.

For what it's worth, the 2013 Mini should be out before the end of the year with the new HD 5000 graphics that should address this problem. And you'll get the new processors.

Curioser and curioser. First of all, I had no trouble of this kind at all for two whole days. By then I had ordered a DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable and am now running with that. Again no trouble today. Is it the change in the weather?

More seriously, I have had my late-2012 Mini since April 2013. I don't suppose I can return it now. In any case I have installed many applications and created a huge amount of stuff on it already and it would be devastating to lose all that. But most importantly, if there is a bug in this generation of Minis, should Apple not provide people who have bought the current Mini in good faith with an upgrade — a software one or a new graphics card? Should we not all be pressing for this?

It is curious. I will mention again something I said earlier in this discussion, for what it's worth. I got my late 2012 Mini (2.3 i7, 16 GB ram) at about the same time. I have had no problem at all with the display. The only difference between my situation and yours is that I am using the hdmi out. I am not using the Apple supplied hdmi to dvi adapter, as I had a very expensive Auvio brand hdmi to dvi cable. (My Viewsonic VP2365-LED display has only dvi or vga inputs). I had bought the cable 3 years before to use in reverse with a Windows box to connect the dvi on the computer to a monitor with hdmi-in only. I have never thought that expensive cables made much, if any difference, but now I am starting to wonder if this cable is contributing to my lack of problems. I also wonder if the higher ram is helping to avoid problems as the video ram goes up to 768 mb when there is 16 GB of ram. Anyway, I'm not going to rock the boat by using the thunderbolt port for display purposes as I'm saving it to use with a yet to be determined thunderbolt raid array for backing up. That, in turn, will be used with a future iMac or Mac Pro. If unsolvable problems suddenly do arise, I will be firmly requesting an update to that new Mini with the HD 5000, as I purchased Apple Care.

Bobmepp, thank you for that information. Admittedly I did not read all 23 pages of this thread. I will be upgrading my RAM to 16 GB tomorrow and will see if the problem goes away. If not, I really don't want to return the computer and I'd be willing to use a Thunderbolt-to-DVI adapter as that seems to be the "fix," but then my one TB port is used up. I know the right thing to do is take it back but the thought of waiting for the next line of Mini's to come out is not a good one as I just retired my last PC to the graveyard yesterday and replaced it with the Mini. So if the new Mini's don't come out in 30 days, I'm w/o a home computer.

stpete111, I do want you to know that I didn't have the problem with 4 gb ram either, for about a month before I upgraded to 16 gb. Multiple variables can make it hard to figure out causes and effects.

Ok thanks, good to know.

More information: I have now been running with the DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable, and this evening the toublr recurred. So no different from the HDMI connection.

Very curiously, as I said in an earlier post, my screen does not go into a snowstorm, but into a little video; and I have identified it as a Jacqui Lawson musical greeting card.

My graphics card is Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB.