Apple Releases Mac Mini EFI Firmware Update 1.7 to Fix Flickering on HDMI External Displays

[MM123]

Originally Posted by Robertsmania

I was excited to see this update, but sad that it does not fix my primary problem.

With the 2012 Mac mini, every monitor I have access to does not display properly when connected with HDMI. The colors appear washed out - and the whites are 'crushed' (light colors appear white). Thats the symptom, and I believe that the real issue is that the computer thinks it is working in the RGB color space (as shown in the display profiles) but the monitors get a signal that tells them to work in the CMYK color space.

We have other Mac computers and laptops, and they all work fine with the same monitors/cables.

If you use HDMI with your 2012 mini, try this - open up a finder window and switch to the list display. Do you see the alternating light blue and white lines or is the whole window white? If it does look white, drag another window on top and see if the drop shadow reveals the alternating lines.

This has been reported on the forums and apple support, but I have not heard of anyone finding a real resolution. Most people seem to drop the HDMI and use DVI or Display Port. Some report improvement after using the calibration options in the System Preferences Displays Color options. I have not been able to get a satisfactory calibration, and believe that its not really possible since the computer and display appear to disagree about which color space they are using.

If you use HDMI, please check. If you do see the alternating white/blue lines properly I'd be curious about what kind of monitor you are using and what display profile is selected. If your mini shows the crushed whites - send Apple a message at apple.com/feedback.

I did enter a bug into bugreporter.apple.com and it has been tagged as a duplicate of an existing bug and remains open. I believe they know about the problem but dont know if it really does affect all 2012 Mac minis using HDMI or if its just some...

Image

I have exact the same issue, calibrating doesn't help much, I have to switch to a TB-DVI cable (adapter) which gave me all my colors back. The firmware "fix" didn't help for me.

The strange thing with this HDMI issue is,that my Hackintosh with HD4000 has no issue at all, so it makes me think a little different about all the "pain" with an Hackintosh

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Originally Posted by mwong61

The new firmware has not fixed the "crushed whites" poor gamma issue for me using HDMI to HDMI on my Samsung P2450.

Using the DP/TB port to DVI=>DVI solves the issue for me but I would
like to see a true fix and have an operational HDMI port for my new Mac Mini.

Michael-

Do you have the problem with HDMI output to DVI with the included adapter or is it a straight HDMI cable? I'm using the adapter with an LG 24" monitor right now and colors are dead-on. I get no flicker, but I have gotten an occasional blank-out (although it hasn't done it today yet and I've been on here for many hours and I have NOT installed the firmware update).

[Westyfield2]

Well a day later... do we reckon it's "fixed"?

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

I haven't seen any issues since applying the firmware fix. Seems to have resolved my snowy screen problems.

[briandc17]

Mac OS X 10.8.3 (12D38) completely fixed the bright white issue on my 2012 Mac Mini i7. So I no longer need to use the HDMI to DVI/Thunderbolt adapter to get the proper color. Everything is working great with just HDMI!

[briandc17]

I take that back. Huge improvement in color with 10.8.3 with just HDMI but my screen colors are still more accurate (richer and sharper) when using the Thunderbolt port... The bright white issue has been minimized greatly though through HDMI.

Examples: I can see the slight grain pattern in the Safari toolbar background, and the traffic lights look richer, etc. when using the Thunderbolt port. This isn't noticeable through the HDMI port, but the list view stripes are viewable when connecting through both HDMI and Thunderbolt now.

[Milquetoast]

I installed the patch yesterday, have been on a few (2-4) hours since then and have seen no glitches since.

[pinthea]

Originally Posted by Robertsmania

I was excited to see this update, but sad that it does not fix my primary problem.

With the 2012 Mac mini, every monitor I have access to does not display properly when connected with HDMI. The colors appear washed out - and the whites are 'crushed' (light colors appear white). Thats the symptom, and I believe that the real issue is that the computer thinks it is working in the RGB color space (as shown in the display profiles) but the monitors get a signal that tells them to work in the CMYK color space.

We have other Mac computers and laptops, and they all work fine with the same monitors/cables.

If you use HDMI with your 2012 mini, try this - open up a finder window and switch to the list display. Do you see the alternating light blue and white lines or is the whole window white? If it does look white, drag another window on top and see if the drop shadow reveals the alternating lines.

This has been reported on the forums and apple support, but I have not heard of anyone finding a real resolution. Most people seem to drop the HDMI and use DVI or Display Port. Some report improvement after using the calibration options in the System Preferences Displays Color options. I have not been able to get a satisfactory calibration, and believe that its not really possible since the computer and display appear to disagree about which color space they are using.

If you use HDMI, please check. If you do see the alternating white/blue lines properly I'd be curious about what kind of monitor you are using and what display profile is selected. If your mini shows the crushed whites - send Apple a message at apple.com/feedback.

I did enter a bug into bugreporter.apple.com and it has been tagged as a duplicate of an existing bug and remains open. I believe they know about the problem but dont know if it really does affect all 2012 Mac minis using HDMI or if its just some...

Image

White crush is EXACTLY what I've been experiencing since buying the new 2012 Mac Mini this past Saturday. I thought it was this crappy monitor but I tried another one that I know not to be crappy and the same thing happens. Not only is white crush evident, VERY evident, but the text is blurry, like it's not operating at the native resolution but I know it is. This thing is going back, the video quality is terrible...

[Negritude]

Originally Posted by pinthea

White crush is EXACTLY what I've been experiencing since buying the new 2012 Mac Mini this past Saturday. I thought it was this crappy monitor but I tried another one that I know not to be crappy and the same thing happens. Not only is white crush evident, VERY evident, but the text is blurry, like it's not operating at the native resolution but I know it is. This thing is going back, the video quality is terrible...

Blurry text usually means A/V Mode (your monitor is acting like or being detected as a TV, instead of a monitor). Turn off OVERscan and UNDERscan and/or switch to what could be called "PC" mode. This is going to be a different setting on each monitor.

I don't know why the memo about this hasn't gotten around to more people. I had this exact problem with an HP 2311x and a 2011 Mini, and once I changed one simple setting on the monitor, everything was fine. This has been talked about numerous times, but folks still think it's a 2012 Mini specific problem. It's not.

[MM123]

Originally Posted by Negritude

Blurry text usually means A/V Mode (your monitor is acting like or being detected as a TV, instead of a monitor). Turn off OVERscan and UNDERscan and/or switch to what could be called "PC" mode. This is going to be a different setting on each monitor.

I don't know why the memo about this hasn't gotten around to more people. I had this exact problem with an HP 2311x and a 2011 Mini, and once I changed one simple setting on the monitor, everything was fine. This has been talked about numerous times, but folks still think it's a 2012 Mini specific problem. It's not.

Are you sure about it? I highly doubt it, anyway, no change in my case, still "crushed whites".

[nifmus]

Originally Posted by Squuiid

Color issue has been fixed in 10.8.3 Build 12D38 (Pre-Release) released on December 5th.

I can now use HDMI without blown out colors and without the screen blanking issue!

I can confirm that 10.8.3 fixes the color issue. A developer friend of mine helped me install the beta version after I explained the issue to him and all is back to normal.

Only issue we experienced though is that the color issue is still present when using the display port -> HDMI adaptor. If you connect directly via HDMI only, all is perfect again.

Cheers,
Steve

[Westyfield2]

I've ordered one online as most people reckon the fix is good .

[SeattleMoose]

Been holding off, got a mini last night. Gonna get it going this weekend now that I know a fix is "in the can" (at least for most folks).

[lawburr]

I updated the firmware and now I get kernal panics anywhere from 30 sec to ten minutes after booting up. Apple says reload OS but the mini will not stay up long enough to do it.

[agenda893]

Originally Posted by lawburr

I updated the firmware and now I get kernal panics anywhere from 30 sec to ten minutes after booting up. Apple says reload OS but the mini will not stay up long enough to do it.

Boot into safe mode (hold down shift at boot) and see if you can use Lion DiskMaker to make a bootable 10.8 USB installer to boot from. Once you have that, boot from it and do a clean reinstall.

----------

Originally Posted by MM123

Are you sure about it? I highly doubt it, anyway, no change in my case, still "crushed whites".

I hade the crushed whites with my mini-hdmi-samsung D8000 setup and it took adjusting all of the video settings on the TV, then calibrating with advanced setting on the mac and then fine tuning the settings on the TV. It was a huge pain in the ass, but eventually I got it looking good.

[adonis3k]

Well it didnt work for me!

Installed the firmware, connect hdmi up rebooted, black screen

Back to MD-HDMI (with gamma corrected settings!)

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I have yet to see the screen black/blank out since the firmware update (I would get them a few times a day on average before the update), but I did get snow on waking from sleep today for the first time for about 10 seconds (never was on there that long before the update, maybe a second or two at most, but then I have seen the same thing occasionally from AppleTV Gen2 when waking it from sleep as well through HDMI). I never had any color/rendering issues even before the firmware update, though. Everything looked normal until it blanked. But then my old PowerMac Digital Audio running an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with DVI output would also blank once in awhile as well (not quite as often as the Mac Mini did), so I suspect there's more going on here than JUST the hardware (maybe something in Apple's graphics drivers in general?)

[nMeOnEs]

I have just purchased my first Apple product (besides all my iPod's) last night, that being a iMac Mini. I'm not having any problems with my HDMI connection and I absolutely LOVE this computer. After reading all these post I am nervous to download the firmware upgrade 1.7 via the App Store (?) If I'm not having any HDMI issues I shouldn't worry about the update correct? Thank you in an advance from the newest and proudest Apple owner.