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Random Black Screens
- Thread starter harvester32
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In automotive industry, there will be massive global recall if there are incidents reported by consumers, covering up a problem has more legal implications in auto industry.
Seriously, Apple makes luxury toys for adults, people can live without it. Apple does not have to admit that Mac Mini has a problem, people can live with it. Anyhow it is not a safety issue like Toyota faulty window switch. Toyota recall 7 millions car.
No, that's mini-DVI to DVI. The new Mini has a Thunderbolt port which for this purpose is the same as a mini-DisplayPort port.
Indeed, I'm not a lawyer but as soon as Apple admits a problem with one of their products I assume it opens them up to all sorts of fitness-of-purpose lawsuits. Maybe not even in the US but Apple sells products worldwide and other countries may have different recourse for products with known defects.
So it's no wonder they're not discussing the problem far and wide, and training their staff to... do what? Apologize?
It's not like Apple is the only company that behaves this way. Any publicly traded company would (and does) behave the same way. They are not public services. They have a responsibility to their shareholders to not do anything boneheaded financially. It took Dell years to admit their problems with faulty capacitors/motherboards and years for any computer company to sort out how to respond to those defective Nvidia chips with bad solder or whatever their problem was.
That doesn't mean Apple won't do anything. Apple can and does fix problems with all their products all the time. So it's *ridiculous* to assume so early that they will just ignore or deny the problem indefinitely.
How about Apple stop selling Mac Mini until they have a solution?
Comparing Apple to Toyota, I received a letter from Toyota regarding recalling my car. The letter says that my car may have a faulty window switch. I ignore the Toyota letter because the window switch of my Toyota is good. Can Apple do something like Toyota does? Mac Mini is a luxury PC, customers deserve better customer service.
Mac Mini HDMI is a marginal design hardware issue, just like the Toyota window switch. Can software, firmware fix hardware issue? I don't know.
And how long do you think Toyota knew about the window switch issue before they ordered the recall that cost them millions of dollars? My guess is that it took them several months to exhaust every other possible option.
Apple may eventually issue a recall (more like a service bulletin) with the Mini, just like they did with the plastic MacBooks due to the top case chipping.
I hope your suggestion that Apple stop selling Minis was made to be funny. That's some very subtle humor. Maybe Toyota could have also stopped selling cars while they were sorting out the window switch issue.
All Macs get the same service. The mac mini, while it may be a luxury computer compared to PC desktops, is not a Mac luxury model. It is the bottom line Apple desktop. The iMac and Mac Pro are higher up the food chain.
Yes but this chip is not made by Apple, it is made by Intel and their drivers typically suck. Hopefully Apple can tweak them for their firmware, but so far Apple hasn't said anything about a new firmware, just 10.8.3 within 30 - 60 days.
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Excellent point!
Not sure what kind of 'logic' it would be to stop selling the product
I'm not a Toyota fanboy. I don't mind Toyota stop selling car, my car is still running fine. If I need to buy another car, I can buy Honda, maybe a BMW.
Apple is in Cupertino, Silicon Valley, center of the hi-tech world. If Mac Mini HDMI is really a software firmware issue and the engineer cannot come up with a new code to fix it in two weeks, he/she will be fired.
This comment shows you know next to nothing about programming.
First of all, even if the fix took 5 minutes to make, it still has to go through Apple's release procedures and this may take several weeks in and of itself to make sure the fix doesn't accidentally break any other functionality.
But considering that this is an intermittent problem that even dozens or hundreds of users haven't been able to reproduce consistently, it seems like it might be an extremely subtle timing bug that might take a very long time to track down. We are talking about signals that transfer hundreds of megabytes per second and it might take minutes or even hours for them to go wrong... if you are logging the signals and other information about the computer that's gigabytes of data that's being recorded every minute (possibly second) with somebody waiting at the machine for the screen to go black and then freeze the recording, then they have to sift through all that data. I am definitely not jealous of the job. The fact is that sometimes problems are hard to identify and solve. Or are you also annoyed that nobody has spent two weeks to cure cancer?
You are correct. I don't know programming.
Timing bug is a marginal digital circuit design. I don't think Intel chip is a FPGA, the circuit design in the Intel chip is not programmable, it's hard wired. Apple can write application program to use the Intel chip, but Apple cannot write a program to alter the circuit design,
My work Mac mini 2012 blanks the HDMI-to-DVI connected secondary monitor maybe once or twice a day for a couple of seconds. Obviously it's not working as it should and it's going to be fixed, but it's not inconveniencing me in the meanwhile.
From the sounds of it some of you guys have it worse and are for some reason using the HDMI port for your primary (and only) monitor. Do you use the Thunderbolt port for something else?
From the sounds of it some of you guys have it worse and are for some reason using the HDMI port for your primary (and only) monitor. Do you use the Thunderbolt port for something else?
My mistake, will this work?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thunderbo...ablesConnectors_RL&hash=item5d362beb66&_uhb=1
I've had my base dual core 2.5Ghz Mac Mini since Friday and just now while in the middle of playing CS:GO, I got a brief blank screen of about 1-2 seconds. I'm using a third party HDMI to DVI cable I had lying around. I'm guessing using the HDMI to DVI adapter provided by Apple and using a standard DVD to DVI cable won't make a difference?
I don't mind buying a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter to be honest, but I hope I won't get any more blank screens for now
I don't mind buying a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter to be honest, but I hope I won't get any more blank screens for now
I'm using my old mini display port to DVI cable, it works in the thunderbolt port, and I have never had a screen issue. It sounds like the HDMI port on the mac mini is the common culprit.
I've had my base dual core 2.5Ghz Mac Mini since Friday and just now while in the middle of playing CS:GO, I got a brief blank screen of about 1-2 seconds. I'm using a third party HDMI to DVI cable I had lying around. I'm guessing using the HDMI to DVI adapter provided by Apple and using a standard DVD to DVI cable won't make a difference?
I don't mind buying a Thunderbolt to DVI adapter to be honest, but I hope I won't get any more blank screens for now
If you have a HDMI monitor or a HDMI TV, try a good quality 3-feet HDMI cable. Not 6-feet because longer length hurts signal quality.
A luxury PC works well with a luxury cable.
For example :
Amphenol 28 AWG Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable [16.0 Gbps] + Gold Diecast HDMI Connectors + Nylon Net Jacket (1m / 3.3 ft)
http://www.cablesondemand.com/categ...MHMM-001/URvars/Items/Library/InfoManage/.htm
Quality of cable does matter for digital signal error rate, no cable adaptor and straight-in is the best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIw6lrghOt0
My PC monitor only has a DVI and VGA port, so I'll have to go for a MDP to DVI cable or adapter instead.
Just wanted to say that I appreciate y'all mentioning that Apple's got a extended return window due to the holiday. I was willing to ignore the black screen issue (though it's more often a snow screen for me) when it happened a few times, but either it's happening more often or it's just getting more aggravating lately
In any event, back to Apple you go. Maybe next time.
In any event, back to Apple you go. Maybe next time.
Have you ever seen the BIOS screen for a 3rd party motherboard? You can change all sorts of things about the signal timing for the CPU, RAM, PCI-e bus, etc. etc. This is all absolutely programmable.
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Sorry you have been suckered into believing this. That video you posted is clearly garbage... they are trying to show you that a *digital* signal is inferior with a particular cable by showing you waveforms on an *analog* oscilloscope? That should raise giant red flags immediately.
If you want to see if digital data is being transmitted correctly, the test is very easy. Have one computer send data to another computer and verify that it arrived at the destination correctly. The fact that they aren't doing this means the whole test is BS and they are selling snake oil and nonsense.
No, the equipment in the Youtube video is not an *analog* oscilloscope. Please take a look at 2:43 in the video. It looks like it is Tektronix DSA8300 Digital Serial Analyzer Sampling Oscilloscope.
Please read this data sheet from top to bottom.
http://www.tek.com/datasheet/oscill...rial-analyzer-sampling-oscilloscope-datasheet
This equipment is made for BER analysis(Bit Error Rate) for serial data link.
I'm not trying to promote Monster Cable. But the Youtube video is not 100% BS. There are a lot of cheap price good quality cables in the market, Monster cable is too expensive, so is Apple cable.
By the way, BIOS setup can only do certain things. If this is a CPU timing, RAM timing, or PCI-e timing issue, mini display port should have the same video problem. But many users said that only HDMI has problem.
there is a solution that covers most users buy a mini display to hdmi cable. seriously I get one to two blackouts under 1 second each week. I use the hdmi to dvi adapter. If I hook up the mini display to vga or mini display to hdmi I get 0. Some people claim a lot more blackouts on their 2012 minis.
when i was selling a lot of minis in 2008 and 2009 the 2009 had this issue with the mini dvi to dvi adapter. 10.6 to 10.6.4 snow leopard and it was fixed. I had to give all my buyers a free mini display adapter their choice.vga dvi or hdmi. My customers were happy.
Apple took a while but they did fix it with the 10.6.4 patch
Really? That's a $28,000 Tektronix scope, who convinced you that it was analog? LOL
The problem with this "cheap as good as expensive" cable myth (started by cheap cable manufactures) is that it doesnt hold up under scrutiny. One of the things the nay sayers seem to forget is right in front of their eyes, which is while the signal STARTS out as being digital, the cable is still made out of the same material as a analog cable is made out of, copper. When a digital signal is run through copper there is (among other things) lag and the signal becomes minimized and distorted over time. The thinner and cheaper the wire used, the more pronounced the signal errors. The inductance and resistance of the copper also plays a part in this. The end result is washed out color, and what is known as digital blockage and drop outs. If you don't have a way to compare the original signal to what is coming through the cheap cable, then you may feel as they say 'ignorance is bliss' and all will seem fine. You will learn more about this as UHD becomes more prevalent because cheap cables wont hack it for UHD.
You are a good businessman. Apple should learn from you, gives customers free mdp-to-hdmi cables, and fix the bug also, because some users need to hook up two monitors.
I have a question, can mini display port on Mac mini send digital audio to TV hdmi input?
don't know as I am using hdmi to hdmi on my tv.
I then use an optical cable to my ht pre amp.
This setup gives me digital 5.1 for tv shows. But some internet content is sent at stereo. my ht converts it to 5.1
Mac Mini 2012 Review http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/10/apple_mac_mini_2012_review/
"I should say right up front that, much as I quite like the Mac Minis form-factor, looks and, more particularly, its operating system, I cant really recommend the latest version, at least not to anyone hoping to hook it up to an HD TV by HDMI, perhaps for media centre duties.
The thing is, you see, the new Apples HDMI performance is crap. Hook the Mini up to an ordinary 1080p TV as I did through an HDMI cable and youll think youve gone back in time to the 8-bit VGA era: dithered colours, jagged curves and diagonal lines, the lot. Some folk have said their HDMI output flickers too - something that past models have, some say, been afflicted by - but I didnt see that, just the poor colour quality."
...
"The woeful HDMI performance means I really can't give the 2012 Mac Mini the thumbs up. If Apple fixes this serious issue soon, Ill change my mind. I do like it. Its stylish, and while you might not want to pay extra for a good-looking box, youd surely not say no to one all things being equal. It is rather swish sitting next to a telly. "
Maybe now Apple will listen?
"I should say right up front that, much as I quite like the Mac Minis form-factor, looks and, more particularly, its operating system, I cant really recommend the latest version, at least not to anyone hoping to hook it up to an HD TV by HDMI, perhaps for media centre duties.
The thing is, you see, the new Apples HDMI performance is crap. Hook the Mini up to an ordinary 1080p TV as I did through an HDMI cable and youll think youve gone back in time to the 8-bit VGA era: dithered colours, jagged curves and diagonal lines, the lot. Some folk have said their HDMI output flickers too - something that past models have, some say, been afflicted by - but I didnt see that, just the poor colour quality."
...
"The woeful HDMI performance means I really can't give the 2012 Mac Mini the thumbs up. If Apple fixes this serious issue soon, Ill change my mind. I do like it. Its stylish, and while you might not want to pay extra for a good-looking box, youd surely not say no to one all things being equal. It is rather swish sitting next to a telly. "
Maybe now Apple will listen?