2012 Mac mini - Won't wake monitor via DisplayPort

[TheGenerous]

This is a problem since the Late 2012 Mac Mini. I've been using with it a 4K monitor through display port and sometimes I get that black screen since 2016. I have to change to HDMI and restart. When I had a HDMI to DVI monitor I didn't have that issue

 

[monkeybongo]

Just found this thread, I'm have the same issues with the mini-Displayport to HDMI adaptor on a 2012 Mac mini over to a 2K monitor. No issues over HDMI, but I'm limited to 1080P resolutions which isn't optimal.

I'm able to remote into the machine to reboot which brings it back on.

 

[livmatus]

I have the same issue on my 2012 Mac mini ... I run two identical 24" Philips 243V7QJABF and the one connected via miniDP often refuses to wake up from sleep... only reboot helps.

There seems to be no other solution than finally connect my custom Thunderbolt 1 eGPU (RX 460 2GB) to the Mac mini.
(I use it for some light gaming with my Thunderbolt equipped ThinkPad T430s)

 

[sublunar]

I have the same issue on my 2012 Mac mini ... I run two identical 24" Philips 243V7QJABF and the one connected via miniDP often refuses to wake up from sleep... only reboot helps.

There seems to be no other solution than finally connect my custom Thunderbolt 1 eGPU (RX 460 2GB) to the Mac mini.
(I use it for some light gaming with my Thunderbolt equipped ThinkPad T430s)

I used to have that happen sometimes on my 2012 connected to a 30" Dell using MDP to Dual Link DVI. The 2012 is mainly used headless at the moment so I don't know if it's a continuing issue but if I ever decided to run it on a monitor I'd use the HDMI port with a 1080p screen.

If this is a theme connected to Apple's graphics implementation on headless machines like the Mini (including 2014 and 2018 models) I wonder if headless Macs with onboard GPUs such as the 2013 Mac Pro have similar issues?

Perhaps Apple could be persuaded to make a beefier Mini with onboard graphics?

 

[DanielSun]

Hey folks, having same problem with my Late 2012 Mac Mini quad core i7, 16g RAM, and new 1T SSD and brand new LG 27UK850 4K monitor connected via Mini Display port. The weird thing is it seemed to be working fine with Mac OS 10.15.2 but after recently upgrading to 10.15.3 the wake issue seems to be back. I've had to remote into the Mac Mini to wake the LG monitor. Sometimes the Mac Mini is fully awake (iTunes is playing music) yet the LG monitor detects no signal and remains black screen.

As a test I've set my Mac Mini's hard drive to Never sleep and Dsplay set to Never sleep. As a safe guard I am using a Mac OS screen saver set to come on in 30 minutes of inactivity. So far no issues but not sure if this is healthy for the hardware. On the LG I have Display SleepMode turned off and Automatic stand set to 4h.

So is this an Apple or LG issue? Either way someone needs to fix this problem...

 

[DanielSun]

So yesterday I set my 2012 Mac Mini to never sleep and set the LG to use Standby (4 hours) and Deep Sleep mode. Seems to working ok, as this morning I had to manually wake the monitor (using the knob) but this is much easier than having to reboot or login remotely to activate the display.

 

[mr.steevo]

My 2012 2.5Ghz started not connecting to my Benq monitor a week ago. The cat brushed the cables and the monitor blanked out and scrolled No Connection.
HDMI to DVI adapter was unplugged and plugged in multiple time before the monitor connected.
Maybe it’s time to upgrade

 

[A4orce84]

Hello Everyone,

First off, thank you to everyone for responding to my post. Unfortunately, I am still struggling with this issue and have not found a solution. However, I wanted to ask everyone who responded a clarifying question.

Question:
So, just to clarify is everyone who is having issues with the MDP port not waking up your monitor, are you running Dual monitors (utilizing monitors for both HDMI and MDP ports)? I am curious if I scale back to a SINGLE display connected over the MDP port, if I would still have this issue or not.

Thanks again to everyone who responded so far in this thread. All of your time and help is greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
Asif

 

[Neodym]

Running a dual-monitor setup under Mojave, and am more or less stable with it. In the past (High Sierra, Sierra and even El Capitan iirc), problems would occur usually after switching inputs on the MDP/Thunderbolt-connected monitor multiple times during a session on multiple computers connected.

 

[iHack13]

This seems to be a bug in macOS that Apple doesnt care about.

Everything works fine under Bootcamp.
But in macOS I have to put the Macbook to sleep and turn off the monitor. Turn on the monitor until No Signal appears , then quickly wake up the Macbook.
EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I am sick of it.

 

[A4orce84]

I ended up scaling back to one large monitor instead of dual displays. However, it looks like there are a lot of us experiencing this issue with no solution in sight. =(

 

[Fishrrman]

I normally put only my display "to sleep".
I have the Mini set to NEVER sleep, because there's next-to-no power differential between "awake, but idle" and "asleep".

A right-click of the mouse wakes the display up.
A few times (not often) I've found it wouldn't wake, for some reason.
I've found that reaching around and giving the Mini's power-on button a quick "press/release" can liven things back up.
Not always.
But... worth a try.

 

[TinkerTenor]

So, just to clarify is everyone who is having issues with the MDP port not waking up your monitor, are you running Dual monitors (utilizing monitors for both HDMI and MDP ports)? I am curious if I scale back to a SINGLE display connected over the MDP port, if I would still have this issue or not.

I'm experiencing the same problem on a 2012 Mac mini with a Samsung Ultrawide at 3440x1440 using mDP-DP - but it's the only monitor I have running. No dual setup. I find the idea that there's a timing disagreement between the Mac and the monitor pretty compelling. It wakes from sleep successfully about half the time. Glad I have an SSD so restarting doesn't take forever.

 

[Fishrrman]

Re TinkerTenor's post 38 above:

Why not set it up as follows?
- In the energy saver pref pane, set computer sleep to "never"
- Also check the option to "prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off"
Now the Mini will NEVER sleep, whether the display is off, on, or in screen saver mode
Then...
- Set up a screensaver with a "hot corner" (I picked "upper right")
- When you're away from it, just shove the mouse to the upper right. The screen will go to screen saver mode, while the Mini sits there "awake, but idling". Since it has an SSD, it will use very little power while idling.
- Or... as I do sometimes... just reach forward and TURN OFF the display.

When you come back, either turn the display back on, or "right click" on the mouse, and the screen should liven up again (in my case, to the "enter password" to recover from screen saver).

 

[jamesborr]

Some additional detail on my related (same ?) issue. I also have a macMini 2012, hooked up through displayPort. Exact video path is: macMini <-> OWC ThunderBay <-> ioGear dP KVM <-> Dell S3219D Monitor. Everything great almost all of the time -- except every 10th to 20th switch via the KVM, the display complains about not receiving any signal and proceeds to go into sleep mode -- and at that time, it will not re-establish a connection until the macMini is restarted.

Interestingly, if I remote into the macMini, everything looks correct, and About this Mac -> Displays still shows the monitor connected. If I then disconnect the display, About this Mac acknowledges this disconnect and the loss of the monitor. If I then reconnect the display, then About this Mac shows the monitor reconnected -- but still doesn't not send any signal to the monitor, and when switched to the macMani, the monitor promptly goes back to sleep.

My read on this is that the macMini sends and receives data over the displayPort cable -- until it doesn't, and from that point moving forward, only receives, but does not write video data to the display over the displayPort cable -- at least until one restarts the macMini.

Based on this behavior, to me at least, this feels like a software/OS problem. I also have a Windows 10 machine hooked through the KVM which has never experienced a problem, and 2 Mac laptops connected via thunderbolt to 2 different OWC docking stations -- which also work correctly 99.9% of the time (very, very occasionally, I need to disconnect/reconnect the thunderbolt cable at the laptop end which always causes the display to again work properly -- i.e. no OS restart required).

Unfortunately, machine restarts can be exceedingly inconvenient -- particularly if I have a lot of windows open, and thus, today, I typically just leverage a remote connection until such time that a reboot becomes convenient. Wish there was a better solution to this problem -- but I have been unable to find it as yet...

 

[eliasemiliano]

Hey Guys,
is there anybody who fixed this issue for themselves ? I have the exact same problems: my mac mini (late 2012) is connected to a LG Ultrawide monitor via MDP - DP and sometimes, after it goes to sleepmode automatically, it wont send any signal to the display. I noticed it wakes the screen but all i get is the "No Signal" message and it goes to standby right after. Sometimes if i plug the hdmi cable in and switch the screens input i get a signal through but as the mac mini cannot achieve the needed UltraWide resolution this isnt a fix. dis and reconnecting the monitor via displayport doesnt help either. i tried to buy and use a more expensive MDP DP cable but the same thing happens. I now changed the sleep settings of my mac to never so it doesnt go to sleep anymore but wont this be hard on my monitor considering ill forget to shut it down at times ? im thinking of buying a MDP to HDMI Cable, did anyone try this already ? I really would like to fix this but im running out of ideas. This is so frustrating 😪

 

[tomahafk]

Hi guys, I have the same problem with my Mini 2012 and Dell P2416 monitor (DP, HDMI, VGA inputs). I've tried many different mDP-DP cables, expensive/cheap, nothing helped.

Today I've found out when I plug mDP>HDMI adapter to Mac and HDMI cable to HDMI input instead of DP on my monitor - awaking works for both monitors. But it's not perfect because I can use only 1080p instead of 1440p like through DP...

So it looks like it's problem in monitor's DP input?

 

[bannerboy]

Same issue here Mac Mini 2011 mDP>DP Samsung 27" Gaming monitor. Mac doesn't reconnect to monitor after using other ports or after sleep/standby mode.


Found this

Improving Sleep on a Hackintosh (Wakeup, Freezes, Black Screens)

After installing macOS on a hackintosh there are some changes or things you should be aware of when sleep/waking your hackintosh so that you don't have it turning on in the middle of the night or waking to a black screen. Energy Saver Settings Open the Settings App Click Energy Saver Uncheck...

hackintosher.com

Not sure if there may some workarounds in the tip's above?

 

[kchai007]

Same issue here Mac mini Late 2012 mDP->DP Acer 31" monitor. From a Chromebook, I VNC into the Mac to continue to work when that happens. The Acer supports dual inputs. So I have Chromebook->HDMI->Acer.

The loss of video signal eventually randomly resolve itself. Yes, randomly.

 

[appleken]

Wow...I figured this was a hardware failure with either my 2012 Mac Mini or my monitor (B326HUL 2560x1440 over mDP > DP), but it looks like a design flaw with either Apple's hardware or software. What are the chances of them fixing this when this model will probably lose support next year?

Anyway, I've tried everything:

• unplugging one monitor
• unplugging the other monitor
• detecting displays
• changing the orientation of the second monitor
• changing the resolution on both monitors
• messing around with settings in switchresX
• using a miniDP to HDMI adapter (1080p max)
• using a miniDP to DVI adapter (1080p max)
• putting the Mac to sleep and waking it up again
• putting the displays to sleep and waking them up again
• powering off one or both monitors and powering them back on again
• switching the primary display
• turning display mirroring on and off
• disconnecting other peripherals

and NOTHING will restore the signal to the primary monitor until the Mac Mini is rebooted or powered off. Really frustrating. Today I disconnected the second monitor because I think it only happens when two monitors are connected...but I'll report back here if it happens with only one.

 

[A4orce84]

Hey Everyone,

OP here. First off, I'm glad (and sad as well) that so many people share the same issues with dual monitors working properly on the mac mini. It's sad that this issue has been going on for almost 10 years now. If anyone learns anything else, especially on how to resolve it, please leave a reply attached to this forum post, and I am sure lots of people will be in your debt!

Wow...I figured this was a hardware failure with either my 2012 Mac Mini or my monitor (B326HUL 2560x1440 over mDP > DP), but it looks like a design flaw with either Apple's hardware or software. What are the chances of them fixing this when this model will probably lose support next year?

Today I disconnected the second monitor because I think it only happens when two monitors are connected...but I'll report back here if it happens with only one.

Appleken - I updated my setup and 'scaled back' to a single large display due to not being able to use my dual monitors. It is a direct mDP to mDP connection (have the mDP connection on my Dell monitor) and I've had ZERO issues. There has been nothing related to sleep, and I have been able to wake up the computer + monitor on every single occasion.

It's also a good question around if this is something Apple can fix or not. But proof is in the pudding (as they say), since some of you with newer 2018/2019 Mac Mini models also have said you have the same issue. So, I'm unsure if Apple will fix it or not. It sure sounds like a software problem with MacOS, and not a hardware issue since so many of us have problems.

Regardless, thank you everyone who has commented and replied to this post so far. Your time, energy, and assistance is super appreciated!

Let's keep the replies to this post coming in!

 

[appleken]

Oh, another thing I tried: A second screen via a Displaylink USB monitor interface. So, not even using the HDMI port for the second screen. The primary screen still failed to wake from sleep randomly! So it seems to be something related to extended/mirrored display support, and not something directly tied to use of the HDMI and mDP port simultaneously.

 

[Deffoda Jonnyto]

just adding myself to the list.

Mac Mini late 2012 running Catalina 10.15.4
dual monitor 2x DELL U2414H one via HDMI one via DP.

the DP one has a 50% chance of coming back after sleep. once it's "stuck" there is no solution to get it back, no unplugging, no changing resolution, nothing. complete reboot of the mac mini does the trick every time, it comes back just before the login window, which means during the Apple logo OS loading phase it is still broken compared to the normal behaviour. this tells me the GPU driver does some sort of reset just before the login that fixes it.
it would be a piece of cake for apple to just execute the same reset at wake up.

Thanks for everyone that reported this

Regards

 

[Passy78]

Hi, I am also here to add myself to the list.

Mac mini late 2012, 1 display only (Asus P278Q, 1440p resolution). I am using a miniDP to DP cable. I always shutdown the Mac in the evening. When restarting the Mac in the morning, the display never wakes up. I have to use the on/off button on the display to wake it up. Then everything works fine. It is annoying, but my work-around (on/off on the display) is OK for me.

As this thread is quite old and no one has found a solution to this day, I guess I have to live with it.

On HDMI there is no issue, but of course HDMI and 1440p is not possible on a late 2012.

 

[Camila Cortés C.]

Also got the problem. Mini 2012, 16 ram fusion, drive. Samsung 4k monitor. mDP to DP cable, DP connection. 1080p HiDPI with Switchres X. Randomly won't turn on.