I have a mid-2010 mac mini with 2 gb ram (not enough, but the Bethesda Apple store couldn't help me when I asked for more) and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I bought it around April 2011 with Snow Leopard pre-installed and it was fine - complemented my-2009 MacBook Pro nicely.
Since releasing the Snow Leopard out and bringing in the Lion, my mini has turned *****. It crashes out whenever it feels like it. And in a way I've not seen with other Macs and other species of OS X. The first time it happened with Lion, I was reminded of the curtain falling at the local dram center. Except there it usually elicits a sigh of relief. On your mac mini, it elicits a cry of frustration. This unannounced curtain-call sees a grey, opaque film scrolling down the screen blaring out in big white text of various different languages that your mac, like Monty Python's parrot, "is a stiff, bereft of life, fallen from its perch, rolled off its mortal coil and joined the choir invisible". Actually, being told the bleeding obvious was nice the first time: knowing the show was over saved me waiting for the fat lady.
Like the white flag of surrender, the text begs your forgiveness and then asks for your patience ("Yes! Of course!"), requesting you wait for the machine to re-start and the matinee resume. If, however, the Mac still hasn't got the show on the road after 20 seconds, then you get to play the role of organ grinder, by holding down the power button until it chirps back into life.
This comedy of terrors began immediately after I installed Lion in mid August. After a week, the guys at Apple kept it for two or three days and, while acknowledging the curtain had come down on them too, no obvious technical or wardrobe malfunction existed. So, "we've put down your Lion and put in our understudy. That may do the trick, but let's see what happens in Act III."
As fate would have it, Act III wouldn't unfold for some time, as this all happened only days before my two year contract in the US expired. I am now in Indonesia where finding an Apple store is the second most challenging aspect of living in an otherwise wonderful country. The most challenging? Finding an Apple store with Apple staff who know Apple technology. They're wonderfully helpful, but just not wonderfully informed about their product.
Suffice to say, the problem still happens almost once every hour. I am curious if other 2010 mac mini users have also been mauled by the Lion? And what can I do before my warranty expires, now I am half way around the world Rockville's Micro-center, where I bought it?
Since releasing the Snow Leopard out and bringing in the Lion, my mini has turned *****. It crashes out whenever it feels like it. And in a way I've not seen with other Macs and other species of OS X. The first time it happened with Lion, I was reminded of the curtain falling at the local dram center. Except there it usually elicits a sigh of relief. On your mac mini, it elicits a cry of frustration. This unannounced curtain-call sees a grey, opaque film scrolling down the screen blaring out in big white text of various different languages that your mac, like Monty Python's parrot, "is a stiff, bereft of life, fallen from its perch, rolled off its mortal coil and joined the choir invisible". Actually, being told the bleeding obvious was nice the first time: knowing the show was over saved me waiting for the fat lady.
Like the white flag of surrender, the text begs your forgiveness and then asks for your patience ("Yes! Of course!"), requesting you wait for the machine to re-start and the matinee resume. If, however, the Mac still hasn't got the show on the road after 20 seconds, then you get to play the role of organ grinder, by holding down the power button until it chirps back into life.
This comedy of terrors began immediately after I installed Lion in mid August. After a week, the guys at Apple kept it for two or three days and, while acknowledging the curtain had come down on them too, no obvious technical or wardrobe malfunction existed. So, "we've put down your Lion and put in our understudy. That may do the trick, but let's see what happens in Act III."
As fate would have it, Act III wouldn't unfold for some time, as this all happened only days before my two year contract in the US expired. I am now in Indonesia where finding an Apple store is the second most challenging aspect of living in an otherwise wonderful country. The most challenging? Finding an Apple store with Apple staff who know Apple technology. They're wonderfully helpful, but just not wonderfully informed about their product.
Suffice to say, the problem still happens almost once every hour. I am curious if other 2010 mac mini users have also been mauled by the Lion? And what can I do before my warranty expires, now I am half way around the world Rockville's Micro-center, where I bought it?
