2012 Mac mini LED Behaviour

[RobbieTT]

Does anyone have an explanation for the LED status on the Mac mini?

I have 2 x 2012 machines, both running HS, both with 500GB SSDs and both with 16GB RAM. The configurations are identical too...

But on one machine I get the steady light, the standby breathing light, followed quite quickly by no light when not being used.

On the other machine I get steady, breath and very occasionally no light. Almost exclusively when not being used the breathing light runs.

My Google skills can only find Apple's reference that no light = power off, when clearly this is not the case on my machines. Presumably this is a hibernate mode or similar?

 

[minik]

I believe this is normal. I have a late-2012 Mac mini and the sleep/power indicator light went away during hibernation. Not sure how much energy it will save for having the indicator light completely off instead of blinking. Since I connect the Mac mini to a TV without any keyboard/mouse, I often don't even know if it's on or not.

 

[for this]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/why-does-my-mac-mini-appear-to-hibernate.1548613/#post-16912312

The answer may be in this thread. It's quite confusing that some units seem to act differently but 3rd party devices may be the cause.

My 2012 mini's indicating light only goes away when it is turn-off. In Energy Saver, I set: Computer sleep = Never, Display sleep = Never, and all the check boxes such as "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" etc, are unchecked.

 

[RobbieTT]

The thread does explain it, along with the confusion therein. The 'hard disks to sleep' check-box may be the culprit or trigger on one of my minis.

Time for some experimenting and thanks for finding that thread.

 

[RobbieTT]

Cycling the 'hard disks to sleep' box on the non-hibernating machine now brings it into line with the other machine. The LED being off in this state does seem counterintuitive but as both these machines are used as media players the absence of light when in standby mode works well - especially for the one in the master bedroom.

I do wish Apple would bring back an upgradable Mac mini as they were (and still are) great machines - especially the late-2012 model.