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Mini Won't start

O

Omnius

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
562
30
I have a 2,1 Mac mini. It was on and suddenly off.

It does not react in any way when i press the power button. I went through resetting the power supply etc.

My question is this. Is this likely a power brick issue, internal power issue or a motherboard issue?

Can I rule any of them out?

I'll be testing a brick at the local apple store this weekend.
 
dasx

dasx

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2012
1,107
18
Barcelona
So you press the power button and NOTHING AT ALL happens? I'd say power supply then, mainly considering it suddenly turned off.

I don't how much would Apple charge your for that repair. You can always try the iFixit route (would be my choice if I knew for sure what the problem is) or you can always get yourself a new Mac if you have the money. ;)

EDIT: Gotta say it, chech the power cable. It might be somehow broken (bit by a dog for instance or cut in two by a kid with a pair of scissors, lol).
 
O

Omnius

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
562
30
The Apple Store Genius believes the mini's motherboard died.
 
F

freebasen

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2007
7
2
If apple said the logic board is bad, there is a a likely fix you can do. the capacitors on the underside of the motherboard next to where the power adapter plugs in are likely bad. I believe they are 10uf caps. I have attached a pic of my repair.
 

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Tulani

Tulani

macrumors 68000
Dec 6, 2012
1,783
761
freebasen said:
If apple said the logic board is bad, there is a a likely fix you can do. the capacitors on the underside of the motherboard next to where the power adapter plugs in are likely bad. I believe they are 10uf caps. I have attached a pic of my repair.
Click to expand...

Can one desolder those surface mounted components?
 
F

freebasen

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2007
7
2
Yes. The only concern is that the solder on these seems to have a pretty high melting point, so make sure you have a good iron. You'll notice my repair looks a bit ugly, but it started right up and has been going for 2 weeks with no issues now. The caps themselves should cost you < $5 with shipping, or if you have any dead computer parts around, this is a common value that you could salvage. I took mine from a dead imac g5 board.
 
O

Omnius

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
562
30
That repair is probably outside my league. I am considering selling the various parts to my mini and hopefully recouping enough to put a dent in a new machine.

I've got max ram and max supported ram. I've got the cpu, fan, the power brick, the wireless antennas and cd drive. I've seen the 110w brick sells for 50-75 dollars each. As far as I know, the power brick is fine because the apple store confirmed that the issue was the motherboard had died. (their power brick couldn't get the machine to power up either).

Think its a decent idea?
 
C

chipchen

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2002
605
247
Ebay all of it... start bidding at $1. Include full disclosure of what you know. That will probably net you the most back aside from parting each piece out individually (then you'd be into the cost of your time and labor).
 
O

Omnius

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
562
30
chipchen said:
Ebay all of it... start bidding at $1. Include full disclosure of what you know. That will probably net you the most back aside from parting each piece out individually (then you'd be into the cost of your time and labor).
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good idea. The only thing I'd keep is my 256GB SSD from that machine. I might put that in my newer mini as the boot drive for it.
 
O

Omnius

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2012
562
30
I'm going to test the waters and put the adapter on ebay and see how it works out. This might warrant a long post on the buy/sell advice.
 
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