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No HDMI signal on Mac Mini after reboot or wake up with High Sierra

I upgraded my Mac Mini 2011 from Mac OS Sierra to Mac OS High Sierra


During the upgrade process my screen went black. I was able to get it back in disconnecting and reconnecting the HDMI cable on the Mac Mini.


Every time, I wake the Mini from sleep, the screen stays black. The same also happens after a reboot. Dis- & reconnecting the HDMI cable brings it back to work. Turning my TV off and on is not sufficient.


I did a reset of the PVRAM How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support with no change

I had to recalibrate my display as some of my e-mails were showing up in black: Re: Conversation view in Mail broken in High Sierra


Any hints?

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Sep 30, 2017 7:15 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 14, 2017 1:17 AM

I found a more convenient work-around than plugging out and in the HDMI cable or connect through Screen Sharing to change the display settings back and forth to activate the HDMI signal:


I now connected a Thunderbolt to VGA-Adapter (My screen offers 3 HDMI and 1 VGA adapter) and connected the Audio connector with the screen as well. I don't like the approach as I now have additional cables to hide and VGA is rather old technology. However, the convenience to turn the Mac Mini on as I did before is more important to me.


I still hope this signal issue gets resolved with the next OS X update so I can switch back to HDMI.

42 replies

Dec 25, 2017 6:18 PM in response to mfehr

I have a workaround. It involves running a script at login that changes the display resolution twice.


Download cscreen from http://www.pyehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/cscreenIntel.dmg and unpack cscreen to somewhere convenient, like /usr/local/bin.


Open up a terminal and find out what the allowable resolutions are for your hdmi monitor using cscreen. For me it looks like this:


/usr/local/bin/cscreen -v


DisplayID Index Depth Width Height Refresh

21541882 1 32 1366 768 60

21541882 2 32 1280 720 60

21541882 3 32 1920 1080 60

21541882 4 32 720 480 60

21541882 5 32 640 480 60

21541882 6 32 800 600 60

21541882 7 32 1024 768 60

21541882 8 32 1024 576 60

21541882 9 32 1344 756 60


Make a shell script somewhere that runs cscreen twice, first with a resolution you *don't* want, and then with the resolution you *do* want. For example lets call the script hdmionhack.sh and put it in /Users/MyUserName (replace MyUserName with your user name):


#!/bin/sh

# hack to fix hdmi blank screen at login

/usr/local/bin/cscreen -s 1 -d 32 -x 1366 -y 768 -r 60

sleep 10

/usr/local/bin/cscreen -s 1 -d 32 -x 1280 -y 720 -r 60


Make sure you use correct values for your monitor! Make the script is executable and try it out from the terminal command line:


chmod a+x /Users/MyUserName/hdmionhack.sh

/Users/MyUserName/hdmionhack.sh


You should see the display resolution change twice (but only once if you picked your current resolution for the first one in the script).

If that worked then you need to make the script run on login. So make a text file called /Users/MyUserName/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.loginscript.plist (replace MyUserName with your user name in the filename *and* the script) with this as the contents:


!!!!!!!

For some reason Apple Communities won’t let me post XML in my message. You’ll have to look up how to put a bash script in a launchd login configuration file on you own. (The script is the one you just made)

!!!!!


Reboot your machine. You should see the gray boot screen with the apple logo and the progress bar, then the screen goes blank for a couple of minutes, then the display will change resolution twice and you should see your desktop.


I am very new to mac os, I just got this old mac mini recently. Let me know of any improvements to this procedure and if it works for you or doesn't.


This is a pretty ugly hack so I can't wait to get the real fix from Apple.


If you try it and don't like it or it doesn't work you can just remove these files:


/Users/MyUserName/Library/LaunchAgents/com.user.loginscript.plist

/Users/MyUserName/hdmionhack.sh

/usr/local/bin/cscreen


Good luck!

Jan 22, 2018 8:20 PM in response to NewmanD82

Are you continuing the work-around by switching HDMI sources?

I have the same setup (but OS 10.13.1) and possibly the same issue. - Upon wake up/restart/power on receive a black screen with white pixel line in top, left corner.

It seems your work around is the most convenient.

I also think I had a similar issue with Mavericks, except it was a blue pixel. I don't power down the mini that often.

Jan 26, 2018 1:35 AM in response to petralyn

I Have a Mac mini mid 2011 which I have upgraded to SSD in order to be able to upgrade to High Sierra. Now I had the problem that while booting, when the process reached the middle of the progress bar, the display went dark... Thank you for the hint, it solved my problem, even if it's a little boring to disconnect the HDMI cable before using the Mac.

Feb 10, 2018 4:11 PM in response to mfehr

Are there any news on this?

I have exactly the same problem, so i updated to high sierra after replacing hd with a new one


My Mac-Mini (Late 2011) is connected to a LG-TV 49UJ6300

via HDMI worked fine with Mountain Lion. With HighSierra the Screen is just black with a tiny white line in the upper left corner.


Replugging the HDMI-Cable brings back the screen, until the next boot of the mini.

Feb 11, 2018 11:42 AM in response to mfehr

FWIW, this is my workaround. I have a Late-2012 Mac Mini running Sierra which has this same problem: no HDMI output after reboot. Unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable does not work for me.


In my case, I have to disconnect my external USB hard drives and force reboot (hold the power button for several seconds). Once the Mini reboots with no external drives attached, I have a normal video connection (ie: I see the Apple logo, progress bar, and then login screen).


Hope this workaround is helpful to someone.


Cheers

Feb 22, 2018 5:40 AM in response to balsaie

As your Mac Mini is brand new, you are covered with a warranty so you can request a replacement. Your case is different. In our case, the physical HDMI adapter is working. A display driver seems to deactivate the HDMI display after a reboot or wake up after sleep. Re-plugging the HDMI stimulates the drivers do what it is supposed to do. However, this is not convenient and will also have anegative impact on the HDMI adapter and the cable as they are not designed for frequent re-insertion.


I now use a Thunderbolt to VGA adapter plus an audio cable to get what I should receive through HDMI in better quality.

No HDMI signal on Mac Mini after reboot or wake up with High Sierra

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