Mac mini 2014 won't wake monitor via HDMI

Yeah it is not monitor specific. I've had the issue both on a Benq monitor as well as with Apple's Thunderbolt Display.

About a week ago I changed my Energy Saver settings...checked the box "Prevent Computer from Sleeping automatically when the display is off" and haven't repro'ed the issue since. Fingers crossed. I don't think it's really going to be that simple though.

Anyone who hasn't already bugged Apple about this should do so. The more they hear about it the more likely they will try to fix it, one hopes.

I took Andvari's suggestion and turned off my "Prevent Computer From Sleeping Automatically When The Display Is Off" option

and it now seems to wake dependably. However, I still have the problem mentioned by only a couple of the others.

That is, when the monitor comes on, the colors are "weird". It almost looks like "invert colors" is selected in the accessibility panel.

They look very overdriven.

If I unplug the monitor at the computer, at the adapter or at the monitor, the problem clears when I plug it back in.

I've been snooping around the forum a lot in the last week, looking for answers, or direction or something, particularly

since I read (but can't confirm) that 10.10.3 release notes said that there was a fix included for the monitor not waking

problem. Somewhere in all that reading, I saw mention of a speaker system causing or affecting the color and the

not waking the monitor problem.

I tried unplugging my speakers before sleeping the computer, and what do ya know!? It wakes properly and with normal color.

I plug the speakers back in and go on my merry way. This only works if the speakers are unplugged from the headphone jack.

If I power them off or unplug the power supply, the computer still comes back with the wonky colors.

While thinking about the similarity between what I'm seeing onscreen and what the screen looks like with "Invert Colors"

activated, I decided to take a look at the accessibility panel while the colors were wonky. I clicked "invert Colors" and I'll

be darned if it didn't clear up the color issue. Curiouser and curiouser!

I haven't entirely ruled out a compatibility problem between the Mini and my Sharp monitor. It IS an older 17"

4X3, or whatever 9X16 isn't, LCD display.

However, it has worked just fine with several other computers. And given the variety of monitors that folks are using

with their Mini's and still having problems, I rather doubt that the Sharp is the real issue.

I guess I'm going to have to call Apple and at least try to get them to open a case. Maybe my findings will poke an

engineer in a brain cell and he or she will come up with a VOILA moment.

If this is a known problem with the Mac mini and the second level support staff and the Genius bar have no clue about it. I bought a Mac Mini from Amazon and used an older Asus HDMI monitor. It would take minutes to wake up so Apple Care convinced me to buy another monitor. The new Samsung monitor was actually worse and after another call to Apple Care they had me reinstall the Operating System to no avail. I returned the first Mini, got a new one and went to the Genius bar. We tried everything and the only thing that worked was the Mac monitor at $1000. I'm close to buying an iMac but I'm very dispirited in Apple. If I didn't know better I'd swear I was dealing with Microsoft.

I have a workaround I tried that others may be interested in🙂. The problem might be with the monitor's compatibility with an HDMI cord (and possibly with OS X).

I noticed that my monitor didn't have an HDMI input in the back (possibly because it came out in 2007). The make and model number of my monitor that was experiencing the problem was an HP W2207. I was using an HDMI cord out the back of the Mac Mini into a DVI converter and then into the monitor's DVI input. I'd put my Mac Mini to sleep using that setup and the machine would stop blinking when woken up, indicating that the system is back from sleep, but my monitor didn't come on when I pressed the spacebar or wiggled the mouse.

I then bought a Mini Display Port to VGA input adapter for the Mac Mini. I hooked up my monitor using the adapter and a regular VGA cord into the machine and now the monitor comes on when I wake the Mac Mini from sleep (and shows the welcome screen quickly). Problem solved for me! The screen cut off some of the top of the OS X desktop, but it auto adjusted just fine after a few seconds.

My guess: the monitor simply didn't support an HDMI converter or HDMI cord because the monitor was older and didn't have an HDMI port built into it. It could be a problem with DVI connection between the Mac and the HP monitor or something to do with the HDMI to DVI conversion between the two. I came to this guess because the Mac Mini woke up a recently new Vizio HDTV and displayed the login screen within a few seconds of waking the machine. However, The monitor I was having problems with in OS X woke with no problem when plugged into the HDMI port of an Asus laptop running the latest version of Windows 8.1. I might add that the fastest spacebar press/mouse wiggle to monitor waking up time of the 3 tried methods is with the Mac Mini using the Mini Display Port to VGA.

I hope this can help somebody!

This is my third post. After abortive trashing of selected User Library files as advised by Apple the other week and then another session with Apple helpdesk which was escalated to higher powers (no reply from them...) ...what has happened is that THE PROBLEM HAS GONE AWAY. I have done nothing new.

About a week or so ago, to my astonishment, my machine woke-up straight away from sleep and has been doing so very day since, so now I am confident enough to post this news. Doesn't help people still suffering - but my mac mini (late 2014) <HDMI> ASUS monitor is - for no apparent reason - now working fine. (?)

My problem, since I took the MacMini 2014 out of the box last fall, is that it will not reliably send a signal to any of 3 monitors that I have tried. It fails to do so 85% of the boots. I have tried 2 different HDMI cables. Also I have tried 2 different mini-display port to DVI cables.

So I took it to the nearest authorized Apple service location. They diagnosed it as a failed motherboard and replaced it. Immediately upon bringing it home, it failed to boot to show up on the display. After several tries, the Apple logo showed but it would dim and then disappear midway in the progress. After a few more tries of shutting down, waiting 10 seconds, then re-starting, it finally got past the Apple logo and eventually got to working. After a few days, partial self-healing took over and it gets past the Apple logo consistently but then fails to display. Current montitor is an expensive Multisync EA244wmi that has both DVI and HDMI ports, selectable from the menu. It usually reports "no signal" until I reboot a few times.

I have not tried the Library manipulations described above in one post. I am planning to take this unit back to the Apple authorized service and let them try again. I am upset at running into this ongoing problem with Apple, after using Microsoft for 25 years and then dropping them due to mysterious problems like this one. I strongly regret buying a MacMini as I previously owned MacBook Pros which never had any problems. I wish I had bought the iMac. I don;t like to store anything in the cloud and the new MacBooks have skimpy hard drives so that is why I switched to the MacMini to have some portability to go on extended out of state visits. It is extremely frustrating to have a problem where I cannot see the cursor, cannot see if the keyboard is working, and cannot see anything when the display is non-functional. If Apple is listening, this is a big-time serious problem for MacMini users - think about ti - if it cannot display anything, how can I go online to Apple Support to work on this problem?????

Hello,

Does your monitor allow a VGA connection in the back?

You could try hooking up your monitor to your Mac Mini using a mini display port to VGA connection. Try buying a mini display port to vga adapter (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/B/mini-displayport-to-vga-adapter). I bought an Inland brand adapter for $15 and it works. I know it's an extra few bucks, but now my monitor wakes when I wake the Mac Mini quick and snappy. I'd go to a local computer store to buy the cables so you can take them back if they don't work. Make sure you have a VGA cord to plug the mini display port to VGA connection from the adapter to the monitor. Hope this helps!

Can anybody who has had this issue confirm if it is still happening with 10.10.4?

I am having a similar issue via a thunderbolt 2 dock to a dell monitor via HDMI only on a new retina iMac. my previous 27" iMac did not have this issue.

This note is listed:

- Addresses an issue that prevented some external displays from functioning properly

Mac Mini 2014 i5

2.8 GHz 8GB Fusion

Acer K272HUL 27" display @ 2560x1440 60hz

Mini displayport to Displayport cable (no adapter)

OS 10.10.3

This monitor sleep/wake/no signal problem has been happening with me since I bought the mac and display two weeks ago. But not just when waking from sleep mode, but when I power OFF the Mac in the morning and powering ON when I get home from work. I'm having to fiddle with the cable, unplug, replug, force shut Mac, power back ON, fiddling with monitor input selection on display. No solid method or combination works but my monitor eventually gets a signal. And because I'm force shutting the Mac I'm having to go through the "select language" and "reset password" hoops just to get Yosemite up and running. It's been a joy. <sarcasm>

I've read through all the scenarios in this thread. No real solutions from what I've gathered. I do not want to "downgrade" to VGA or DVI with my native resolution. The technological genius of the current Apple Macintosh should be able to drive a less than 4K display. Any "fix" should have been addressed and fixed within weeks, let alone before launching an "updated" Mac Mini. This is on top of text blur issues all over the place running at 2560x1440, but image and video are amazing on this monitor.

I'm about to update to 10.10.4 which comes with a teaser about a display compatibility fix. We shall see.

MacMini 2014. Due to virtually identical problems and attempted solutions since I bought my unit in Dec 2014, I have taken it in to authorized Apple service and twice, the logic board was confirmed faulty, and replaced, the most recent a couple days ago. Then I installed toe 10.10.4 update yesterday. It is too soon to see whether the combination of a new logic board and the update will resolve the problem, because of the random nature of the failures. I was having 75% or more attempts at booting up end in failure. Very frustrating.

By the way, I tried DVI, HDMI, two different monitors, bought new cables, and tried innumerable suggestions in this forum, and nothing worked. I suspect that some solutions "seemed" to work because of the random and intermittent nature of the failures to boot up to the monitor.

I delayed too long at the beginning because I trusted Apple products so much that I believed it must be some flaw or flaws in my cables or monitor. My advice to you is that if the latest update does not totally solve your problem, then to return the Mac Mini immediately to the seller for a refund (not an exchange), and buy something else. Just print out these pages and take them in with you. I regret selling my MacBook Pro 2010 to get a larger drive and better specs.

Mac Mini 2014 i5

2.8 GHz 8GB Fusion

Acer K272HUL 27" display @ 2560x1440 60hz

Mini displayport to Displayport cable (no adapter)

OS 10.10.4

I'm bummed. No dice with the update.

I still have a week within the 14 calendar days to return the Mini. I've made some settings tweaks to amend the blurry text issues to a level I can be live and be happy with, I just wish things were different. I love my 27" display and the Mini was the cheaper (not cheap) option to a big iMac. This machine should perform the most rudimentary tasks like connecting to the display at will. I also at one time experienced the technicolor weirdness when waking my monitor/Mini from a short sleep. This is not a $1088 machine out of the box. It's more like a $300 machine and should have had a disclaimer that jerry rigging and slapping the top of the Mini case is mandatory to see anything.

I wonder why there are no youtube videos out there about this problem. Do you think it is a customer wide problem?

I tried a different cable. It helped, for awhile. Now back to the same old stuff.

Thee is no predictability to what causes or remedies the problem.

Apple has a problem though and it's a shame they cannot resolve it.

I have this issue too but I'm such a novice at Mac that I didn't realize it wasn't "normal". What I do is hit the enter key on the keyboard. This wakes the monitor. Moving the mouse wakes the mac but not the monitor I guess.

NJ

This is not a HDMI related problem:

wakeup problem since 10.10.4 update Mac mini 2012

This was a claimed solution to the image distortion on wake-up : QUOTE "

Andychap3782 Jul 8, 2015 6:56 AM Re: mac mini (2014) displays wrong colors after wake-up

Re: mac mini (2014) displays wrong colors after wake-up in response to tstpilot

I have solved my problem of colour problems after wake up by using a HDMi cable with ferrites fitted to both ends. This was purely by chance as I kept trying different leads and I got a spare one with my Tivo box and just gave it a go. " UNQUOTE

There's logic in it. Whether it's an ultimate solution and whether it also can rectify wake-up issues -- ???