Mac mini 2011 Pink stripes over boot screen

I Took my mid 2011 Mac bought in March 2012 to Apple Store at Village pointe Omaha at 4.30pm my case id 747399216 the genius connected it to a V7 17 inch monitor and told my logic board is dead!

even though I told him it was working each time I booted with Pram reset by comm and + option + p +r he snubbed!

HE simply connected a Mac air through the same Thunder bolt to via and say see this laptop display is picked up by the v7 monitor yours is blank because the display is dead. I told him I was using a hdmi to a Visio 26"tv at 1360x768 resolution at 60 hz and never uused any adapters he won't listen.

I did contest him how he can expect a Mac mini to adjust to a new external display like that of a laptop, as laptops do adapt since they need to plug to any projection output. He simply joked what difference both are computers!

i Also reasoned why they don't change the pram battery as it is 3 years old and apple puts in only a regular CR2032 battery! He again snubbed " no in your case it doesn't seem to be the problem". You see the logic board I'd dead, it's the most expensive of this least expensive Mac mini either pay $300for the board and $90 for the labour total $390 and you will get it in 7 days as I have to order it, Alternatively buy a new 2014 Mac mini for $499 only, only thing is you can't put RAM into it as it's not removable! Consider your options and let me know!".

At this moment I decided to try the battery replacement myself told him I will think over and come back in 1-3 days. I headed straight to L street Walmart picked up TS99818A ultra tough ultra steel 44 piece precision screwdriver bits set $6.97 and energizer 2 pack CR2032 batteries $4.97 so with taxes for less than $12, I wanted to fix it myself!

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Mid_2011 I used the instructions and in 1hour as I was over cautious, I got it done! Plugged in and switched on not even the lights came on! Then I opened again to know I forgot to plug the fan connector. So did that and finally closed the box and plugged hdmi and power cord, well I say the white screen then the Normal Mac boot it was fixed!

I did login and play a few itunes videos, then you tube, rebooted, shutdown multiple times in various intervals to be very sure.

Waited over night and tried today morning 2/15 and it is working just as normal!

I just would say Apple check your Genius's IQ please we can't be paying for their dumb brains!

All who face this problem of pink and white vertical stripes, pink and white bars, pink and white lines with AHT no problem, change your PRAM batteries! 2011 models the PRAM dies in 2014-2015 that is all you need fixing, if apple can't help you can do it yourself!

Thanks and Regards,

Shankar Raj.J

hello sir, I too own a mid 2011 mac mini with ati radeon h6630m discrete graphics card. I did what you posted here and replaced the pram batteries. however, the issue still persisted and just this morning, it still shows a pink screen and by the time it successfully boots up, it still shuts down itself. i hope you could respond to my inquiry for a little help... thanks.

*{^%#^]* and now my Mini 2011 with i7 processor is doing the same thing. Pink stripes over bootscreen and then freezes.

What if you boot to Safe Mode?

What if you boot to Recovery and repair the the startup disk?

OS X: About OS X Recovery

What I have done already:

- SMC and PRAM reset

- New SSD and reinstall

- New RTC battery

- Changed thermal compound for CPU and GPU

And tried Safe Mode. No luck. Goes into boot, reboot cycle.

Once it worked and I got the system running but after a GPU intensive task it crashed again and stripes were back.

Seems like a GPU failure. Replacing the GPU requires replacing the logic board.

Yep. That's what I thought too. Just posted here if somebody else is encountering the same problems in the future.

I'm a little bit disappointed the quality of Macs today. In the past they were built to last...

Components fail all the time. I have not seen a rash of GPU failures in the 2011 Mac Mini. Some Mac laptops have had real problems

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Couple of minutes in the oven (7 minutes at 175 °C):

Aaaaaaaand at least something happened (fingers crossed!):

Well this problem resurfaced for me last week. I tried my own PRAM battery change that still did not help matters this time around.

I still keep getting the pink stripes and as system keeps live for 3 - 4 minutes it shutsdown again.

Took to Apple care here in Omaha, they were able to network boot and confirm its a failure of the logic board more seen on the mac Pro but not these.

I am yet to decide on whether to pay $399 + taxes just to get the logic board replaced or buy a new one. Note my Mac Mini is a 2.4GHz 4GB version, and that then itself costed $799. The $499 model available now is not having replaceable RAM and is a 1.4GHz version. $699 would be the 2.4GHz version with 1TB and 8GB RAM. I may hence get back to replacing the card.

However shouldn't Apple be recalling this faulty Graphics card component for the Logic board, ie replace it for free for it goes out in just 3 years.

We have them do the same for MAC PRO may be because their more expensive deep pocket customers had sued them with class action law suit?

So if their product sells for just $500 and this is the max apple would do to keep you in peace, don't think of buying the $350 Apple watch you will get no help after 3years!

Certainly we need to sue them for this graphics card debacle and leaving out Mac Mini owners as it sold in low volume, compared to the stance they have taken to just protect their Mac Pro owners!

Regards,
Shankar Raj.J

This still working for you by any chance? My mini works ok after letting it warm up for an hour or so, but then crashes after more intensive use.

How much did you strip away from the motherboard to put in the oven? Taking heatsink off would mean applying more thermal grease etc, so feel the oven method is last resort for a couple of reasons!

Some random booting started to occur on heavy load last month. Not rely reliable anymore but at least the stripes are gone. I'm considering to try again with more time and heat.

I took everything away from logic board what I got: memory, battery, heatsink, etc. Then I cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol so there were no thermal paste anywhere. After the reflow (the oven trick) I let it to cool down and assembled it again with proper (better than original) thermal paste. Not very big job.

A heat gun might work also. Then the affected area is narrower and propably not needed to disassemble the whole logic board.

Thanks for the update - so it is as expected... once it happens, it's screwed. Don't think I'm mean enough to get working and sell before it dies again, so may need to give up on it... although the reflow sounds fun anyway.

Sounds like you went all the way with this reflow - you gave it every chance and still only lasted a few months. Tempting to consider the heat gun option. Out of curiosity - what is the affected area on the motherboard? Is it actually around the GPU, or elsewhere?

I have a gut feeling that the problem is either bottom of the GPU/CPU or even inside them.

I have the same issue on my 2011 i7 Mac Mini. The system crashes, reboots, and freezes during reboot with the pink stripes. I have tried everything I know to recover. When it's in a bad state, I can't get anything to boot except for the Hardware test, and this comes up as normal. The only partial success I've had is to try to boot into recovery by holding down Apple-R. It will eventually switch to a gray screen, without the pink stripes. If I let this run for an hour or so, I am able to boot the system normally. If it successfully boots to recovery, I run the disk check, and then reboot with success.

At this point, the system will run from a few hours to a week without issue, and then crash again. From there, I can do the recovery mode procedure from above, and it will start again. It bothers me that I don't have a logical explanation as to why the recovery mode seems too help, but, it seems to be related.

I haven't tried the baking method, and I haven't tried taking it in to the Genius bar, but, that's next. I just bought a new Mac Mini because I need my computer at this time of year.