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Should we return MacMini2012?

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hr10

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2009
304
143
Hard drive sound

Just got my mid model mini!
Been using the retina mbp. This machine is faster than i thought even without SSD
Just one question, since everyone is saying how quiet it is
I do hear processing sound coming from the hard drive. Is this normal? Is your mac mini dead silent when opening applications....etc

Thanks
 
D

dogmusic

macrumors member
Oct 28, 2012
39
0
Ontario
hr10 said:
Is your mac mini dead silent when opening applications....etc

Thanks
Click to expand...

No, it makes processing sounds. I have it right beside my keyboard and hear it easily.

But I'm not sure whether installing more RAM (16 GB) made the fans louder, i.e., they run more continuously.
 
S

Snowcake

macrumors regular
May 18, 2010
187
0
hr10 said:
Just got my mid model mini!
Been using the retina mbp. This machine is faster than i thought even without SSD
Just one question, since everyone is saying how quiet it is
I do hear processing sound coming from the hard drive. Is this normal? Is your mac mini dead silent when opening applications....etc

Thanks
Click to expand...

Read these threads: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16252659#post16252659

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16261382#post16261382

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philipma1957 said:
you are correct it is an error I listed as possible because i could not burn the cd for memtest86 +. I was only able to run a 1 hour apple test and a 15 pass rember test. So i knew i could not be certain if the cpu or ram was bad. Since then I put in 3 sets of 1600 ram 2 oem sets of 2x 2gb sticks of ram and the after market set of 2x 4gb sticks of ram.


all failed the aftermarket ram failed on 3 of 8 cores in under 15 minutes with cooling in place ie under 180f . the two different sets of oem mac mini ram failed on 4 of 8 cores in under 10 minutes at temps under 180f.


my 2010 mac mini passes this test with flying colors

my 2011 mac mini passes it

as does my 2 core 2012 mac mini

my 2 core 2012 mac mini passes with all 3 sets of 1600 ram.

so the sticks are good.
my 2012 quad core has an issue
maybe the mobo
maybe the ram slots
maybe the cpu/gpu

at this point it goes to the local apple store to be looked at.

I do not want it back so we will see what they tell me.

Well at least I only did one upgrade ram and it is back to stock.

glad i did the testing before I put in a ssd.


this is one reason I no longer like to put in ssds right away.

in defense of mac minis this is my third or fourth out of the box bad mini since 2006.

over 450 upgraded and 4 bad right away is very good stat.

I hope these quads are not lemons due to heating issues. I hope I just got a bad one. here are my 2010 core 2 duo marks after 7 hours in a 77 f room. all good and it runs cool since it is a low watt c 2 d processor. the 2.4 c2d cpu uses 15 watts while the 2.3 i7 quad uses 35 to 37 watts.

this is a lot more heat to dump. personally my gut tells me if you own a quad it is going to want a lot of space to keep cool and consider 3 year apple care as a must.
Click to expand...

I am really curious, What are the temperatures of the i5 dualcore Mac Mini 2012 under full load? (Cputest)
Because maybe i want to buy this one.
 
C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
Garden4Gods said:
That settles it for me. I won't be buying a Mini.

It's either an iMac, a windows based HTPC, a Mini PC or a laptop now for me.

I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...

I RMA'd my Mini today, not going to take a chance on Intel fixing the HD4000 GPU issue because I was going to use the Mini as an HTPC and need a fully functional HDMI port. Will probably wait till Haswell before buying another Apple product, and stick with my trusty 2010 13 MBA. In the meantime, I may take a look at the Intel NUC with Thunderbolt if offered in an i5 version .
 
kdoug

kdoug

macrumors 65816
Jun 2, 2010
1,025
195
Iowa City, IA USA
hr10 said:
Just got my mid model mini!
Been using the retina mbp. This machine is faster than i thought even without SSD
Just one question, since everyone is saying how quiet it is
I do hear processing sound coming from the hard drive. Is this normal? Is your mac mini dead silent when opening applications....etc

Thanks
Click to expand...

I sold my Retina MBP and purchased 2, 2.6 17's with 16GB Ram and the standard 5400 HD. Other than boot times, I see little or no difference in speed between the two. I really haven't heard much noise coming from either but my hearing sucks.
 
R

rayhigh

macrumors member
Mar 27, 2012
89
0
I've have the base model 2012 here for about 2 weeks. It driving a Samsung 51" plasma and a dell 2405. I've seen no problems with either display (often used simultaneously). I've watched a few hours of hi def video on the Samsung (from the Mini, it is my only source for video, having displaced a 2012 Air), and I have noticed no anomalies or degradation of any kind, and I am particularly alert to video issues. The only upgrade I've made so far is to throw 16GB of Corsair Vengeance in it.

It sounds like there are some bad units out there, as with any hardware, this happens. If it were me, I'd exchange for replacement.

I should add, I have HDMI-->Samsung, Thunderbolt-->DVI converter-->Dell. I actually had it connected in the opposite manner for the first week or so. There were no problems, but it seemed to make sense to have it going direct HDMI-->HDMI. It does seem as if the handshaking with the Samsung is faster now.
 
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A

applemike68

macrumors regular
Mar 18, 2011
113
0
Mid mini blurry screen

Hi all,

Just purchased the new mid range mini from the apple store yesterday. I'm getting the blurry screen like the others when connected via thunderbolt to HDMI. This is not accepatbable. Probably will return this one but not sure if the others will have the same issue. We shouldn't have to compromise other connections because one isn't working. Not sure if this can be fixed via a software or firmware update!!!!

On another note, I don't see any major increase in speed from the 2.3 I7 i bought yesterday to the I5 version from last year. Maybe I'm just mad because of the screen issue.

One more, since i only use the Mini for Iphoto and music, do I really need a mini, since I have an Apple TV, Ipad 3, iphone 5, 4s and 4? We have a few windows laptops that get us through any word or excell needs and no games as we have two xbox's.

Thanks for letting me vent a little...:)
 
D

DitteVilladsen

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2012
43
0
calvol said:
Have you checked with HDMI->DVI or HDMI->HDMI?
Click to expand...

I'm using mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort now. I got that cable on Amazon after getting my mini. I used HDMI to HDMI for a week or so, with no flickering, but the mini didn't support my monitor's 2650 x 1440 with that cable, thus the DisplayPort.

I initially used the mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter to connect to Dells dual DVI cable, and although I thought that should get me the higher resolution, it wasn't showing up in the menu. But it didn't flicker either.

What I'd like to know now is can I get audio via the DisplayPort cable from the mini, and if so, how do I get it out of the Dell, which seems to have a digital mini jack (that won't work with analog headphones). The Mac mini is showing the Dell display in the list of audio devices. But the display itself has no built-in speakers.
 
B

Big Boss Man

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2006
134
0
knight1 said:
On a side note, did anyone else notice how little they showed the new Mac Mini at the launch event, compared to the imac and ipad. Could apple have known about the issue before release and were nervous?
Click to expand...

How could they not have known?
 
K

koyeung

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 5, 2012
17
2
Just exchange another mac mini late 2012. Same issues.

koyeung said:
Unfortunately, unlike mba or mbp, most people rely on external display on mini (other may use remote desktop).

This revision removes discrete graphics and make proportion of using intel HD + HDMI becoming higher.

It may be same issue on mba/mbp using intel graphics+hdmi (via mini-displayport). (see https://discussions.apple.com/message/20247181#20247181 ) Perhaps Apple has investigated on that too and didn't think it would occur on mac mini when they released mini few months later.

On the other hand, there are reports in this forum that no issue on using HDMI on the Mac mini-late2012, i.e. they could see all gray levels on page: http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php . That may imply replacing the unit may be helpful.
Click to expand...
 
costabunny

costabunny

macrumors 68020
May 15, 2008
2,466
71
Weymouth, UK
well I have seen the blank screen a few times (using hdmi->DVI). I also have the mDP->DVI which is perfect and as I only have the one screen for now its not really an issue for me.

I Will wait to see if there is a fix as to me its not a big problem (I have been using the hdmi port for two weeks now just to collect logs for apple service peeps; but I rarely see the snow/blank screen).

All the talk of how using the mDP takes away that port for other uses I feel is a bit overblown as most TB devices have a pass through anyways.

I am curious if a thunderbolt device or display supports the mDP->DVI daisychaining - perhaps someone with such peripherals could test it for us?

otherwise I am very very happy with my mac mini - its a little gem (faster than my old octobeast and a helluva lot quieter).

perhaps if I could have afforded to I might have considered exchanging for a MBP, but I really like my SSD+HDD combo being internal.
 
L

LaunchpadBS

macrumors 6502a
Nov 11, 2008
653
5
iLondon/iDurban
http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php WOH just tried this on my work machines 2nd monitor and couldn't see the greys(they were merged/flat) and my external monitor doesn't always wake up from sleep with my laptop.

Should I tell my boss I want a replacement??? ;)

Then again I work with this every day and haven't tried to off myself yet, they're minor niggles.

Seriously though it's shocking the quality control these days.
 
Acorn

Acorn

macrumors 68030
Jan 2, 2009
2,642
349
macrumors
that intel thread is scary. The only solution they have talked about besides the updates that doesnt work is to remove all your dims except 1. sigh. I have a feeling intel and apple are going to skirt around this issue until the next gpu release. This is not a new problem.
 
K

knight1

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2012
9
0
London,UK
I returned my Mac Mini last week and received a refund few days ago. I'm glad i sent it back, I and other users have paid alot of money for a product that doesn't function as it's designed to do and should'nt have to put up with a clearly defective product until/if Apple release a fix.
 
huck500

huck500

macrumors 6502
May 10, 2004
386
29
Southern California
I got the base mini a couple of weeks ago. The HDMI color/sharpness issue is a big deal, if it affects you... the screen looks terrible, it's not useable for watching content. I have a bunch of tvs and monitors, and on my Samsung 1080p plasma tv and a Samsung 1080p LCD monitor the issue is present. For those, switching to another video output, even using the HDMI>MDP adapter, solves the problem.

I have a Vizio tv, which happens to be the one I wanted the mac mini for, and HDMI looks perfect.

I'm keeping the mini, because it works on the TV I wanted it for, and I don't have the snow problem. I hope Apple fixes it, though.
 
B

blanka

macrumors 68000
Jul 30, 2012
1,551
4
Just get a decent screen with Display Port like the Dell U2713 and enjoy your Mini.
 
C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
sauria said:
http://communities.intel.com/message/171244

What Firmware do the problem macs have? This thread talks about MRC 1.5.0.0 or newer in BIOS as a remedy.
Click to expand...

Nope, read to the end of the Intel thread... users still have issues with MRC release 1.5 and 1.6. Supposedly, Intel coming out with 1.7 soon.... we'll see. I think Intel is stabbing in the dark here, been going on 6 months with no fix. Probably a hardware issue with the hd4000 GPU.
 
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C

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
Acorn said:
that intel thread is scary. The only solution they have talked about besides the updates that doesnt work is to remove all your dims except 1. sigh. I have a feeling intel and apple are going to skirt around this issue until the next gpu release. This is not a new problem.
Click to expand...

Yes, Apple (and PC OEMs) are trying to plug the damn as larger number of users find out about the issue and DENY, DELAY, and DEFEND, and come up with a workaround, OR NOT, and move on to Haswell as quickly as possible. I think Apple's learned a costly lesson about hitching their product design to Intel graphics. Should've offered an ATI option as in 2011.
 
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