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Help! Mac Mini M4 LED is flashing orange 'SoS'

JemTheWire

JemTheWire

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2012
294
192
Manchester (UK)
Help, panic mode set in.
I have two Mac mini M4's, one M4 16/512 and a M4 Pro 24/512. I want to sell my base M4 Mac mini and set about factory resetting setting it. I signed out of everything, FindMy etc and followed the 'Transfer or Reset/Erase all content and Settings' option.

Mac did its thing and rebooted. I got the usual Mac startup sound but my display just had a message 'No HDMI input detected'. I noticed that the white LED on the front of the Mac mini was lit up white, but then went off. It then came back on but still nothing on the screen. The LED seems to do this a few times, on a while the off etc.

However, after a few more cycles of this, the white LED on the Mac mini went orange, but was strangely pulsing out the morse code 'SoS'. which I assume is pretty fatal. It stays in this state and without any screen output indefinitely.

I have obviously tried power cycle, etc. The device is only 6 weeks old and did buy AppleCare+.

Thankfully I have my other Mac mini M4 Pro setup and working fine.

Please help.
 
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I will do. I have booked an Apple Genius visit tomorrow afternoon (UK) as the online tech ran out of ideas! As the Internet is not inundated with users asking about this, I guess it is an unusual occurrence. I read somewhere it could be a security chip issue. Either way I couldn’t get any screen output and the Mini just boot-looped a few times and then settled on the orange LED flashing the SoS message.
 
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If you have a Apple Store nearby go there and let them Restore your Mac if possible.

If you have a Thunderbold Cable on hand and you have a working 2nd Mac as you stated you could restore if no Hardware issue is the reason with the Apple Configurator:

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Rarely, a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip might stop responding and need its firmware to be revived or restored by another Mac.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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Thank you, but I do have an Apple Store nearby and have an appointment with them tomorrow afternoon [UK]. At this time I would rather leave it to them. These are the first two Macs i have owned, but am well into the Apple ecosystem system. I do like the Mac mini and macOS having come over from the Windows environment i find it a refreshing change. Everything i could do with my PC, i have found I can do on my mac albeit in a different way.
 
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I'd say unplug it for 10 seconds or so, and after plugging it back in, press and hold you power button for at least 10 seconds. My M4 Pro did this LED flashing and no display thing to me once when I was trying to get into boot security options the second day I had the machine. It scared me, but this long hold (for me a second time) did the trick to get display back. Also try startup key combinations. If you can get startup key combos to work I'd use the restore feature to do a network macOS installation and then you're factory reset and ready to go.
 
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Plug your two Mac minis into each other and use Apple Configurator 2 to reset the firmware and disk to a base ipsw image. Use a the right usb-C/thunderbolt port on the machine or it won’t show up. I forget which port it is on the mini but trial and error or Google will get you there.
 
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chabig said:
Configurator is no longer a standalone app. Its functionality is built in to macOS. All the OP needs to do to revive the dead Mini is follow Apple’s instructions.

How to revive or restore Mac firmware - Apple Support

Rarely, a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip might stop responding and need its firmware to be revived or restored by another Mac.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
Huh. Cool. Didn’t know they’d rolled it into macOS baseline. But configurator still is a standalone app. Regularly see it getting updated on the developer download portal
 
While on the call to Apple tech support they had me do all type of button combinations, press and hold etc. But nothing that I did changed anything. No screen output, it didn't connect to my wifi [as confirmed by my router] and apart from the 'SoS' orange LED, it was a brick.

I have a Genius appointment this afternoon [UK].

Sorry, but I think it is wise of me now just to box it up and take it to them.

I have AppleCare+.

Plus the visit will give me a chance to look at my favourite sweet/candy shop, aka the Apple Store! I bet my wallet is lighter when I leave, lol.

Thank you all for your advice I will report back later after my visit to the store.
 
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OK. All sorted. Seems like the firmware got corrupted during the ‘Erase & Reset’ procedure. I used this procedure on many devices before without issue but this is my first Mac, pity it failed. It makes me very wary to do it again if I have cause to.

I am sure that I could have followed the procedure your good selves linked to, but to be honest that’s what I got AppleCare+ for. Hindsight is a great thing, it could easily have been hardware problem, thankfully it wasn’t. Now, at least, I can sell it fully working.

Thank you all.
 
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