Inherited a "skinned" Mac Mini 2011

[frontlinegeek]

I was given a Mac Mini 2011 that had the boot drive and RAM pulled from it. I have oodles of spare parts around so I decided to toss a drive and some DDR3 into it and see if I could at least boot to recovery and maybe even get OSX back on it.

Being a PC guy with Windows and Linux, I did make an effort to see how to get this all going and even watched a full teardown on this model so I could get at the CMOS battery to replace it and make sure all the connectors were firmly in place. I have also tried the SMC reset.

No dice.

All I get is a power light and a fan that eventually goes to full speed. I don't have a Mac keyboard but I assumed Command = CTRL and Option = ALT on a PC keyboard, so the various "hold these keys" suggestions were tried and didn't work. If that assumption is wrong or if there is something else to try, I am game. It would be fun to have a Mac in the house (Even though I did see that security updates for this model are now ending), if not just to refamiliarize myself with the Apple ecosystem (I used to sell Mac WAY back when it was still Motorola CPUs in the early 1990s).

Thanks in advance!

 

[djc6]

Was it a wired windows USB keyboard? Did you try different USB ports?

I used a wireless (with proprietary dongle) microsoft sculpt ergonomic pc keyboard with my 2011 mac mini - I always had to grab a wired mac keyboard to do those startup key combinations.

What if you remove the RAM / SSD and try and boot it? You should hear some beeps indicating RAM issues:

If your Mac beeps during startup - Apple Support

Certain conditions related to memory or firmware might cause your Mac to beep once or more during startup.

support.apple.com

 

[Kaida]

Command = Windows, Option = ALT + P + R

Mac mini 2011 has a mid model with Radeon that has made it easy to fail in the recent years too. So check if you have the Radeon model too. There is an additional ATI chip under the heatsink. I often wonder if ripping out that chip will make it go to the intel HD3000 , I can try it tonight, i do have a few 2011 with faulty Radeon..

Why the mid-level 2011 minis burn out

It took me a while to track this down, so I thought I'd explain why the macmini5,2 MC816LL/A mid-level mid-2011 mini burns out. I would appreciate anyone who can refine or correct the story. All the apple mac minis and mac books (and probably other apple products) have heat sinks installed with...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[frontlinegeek]

Well thank you all for the responses so far!

I tried no RAM and disconnected the SATA drive. Booted and got a single beep every probably 5 seconds. I assume that meant no RAM found.

I then put in one stick of DDR3 (2GB) of the same speed rating as what the MM would have shipped with and the beep then goes away. Unfortunately, it went back to a slow fan spin that eventually ramped up to the fan going full speed and staying that way.

The power switch does accept pressing and holding for 4 seconds to power it back off so that is at least an additional glimmer of hope.

The one thing I noted after trying the keyboard again (Thanks for the key mapping clarification!) and thought to check if the kb was powering up at all or not. It is not. I get no numlock or caps lock light when I plug into any of the USB ports. Makes me wonder if this means the worst.


I should note that I know that the keyboard works as it is my daily for use with work.

The only new question I have at the moment is a carry-over from days gone by. When Macs went Intel, I assume that RAM DIMMs only need to match the general spec (PC3-10600 in this case) and they should work "fine", correct? So far, I have tried a 4 GB Micron 10600 and a few Samsung 2 GB of the same speed ratings. These all work in an HP laptop of similar vintage. (Yes, I am a bit of a hardware archivist I still have a functional C64 with tape and floppy disk)

 

[djc6]

(Yes, I am a bit of a hardware archivist I still have a functional C64 with tape and floppy disk)

During the past couple months I've picked up 2 broken C64 breadbins, 1 C64C and 1 C128 and fixed them all up I have a tape drive and two 1541s that I haven't tried to even power up.

Take a picture of the 2011 mac mini board an post it here? Mine was low end model, no ATI Radeon - just curious about Kaida's post above.

 

[Kaida]

Here you go, i failed miserably trying to rip off the ATI chip off the mainboard lol

And here's a bunch of failed 2011

 

[dmccloud]

During the past couple months I've picked up 2 broken C64 breadbins, 1 C64C and 1 C128 and fixed them all up I have a tape drive and two 1541s that I haven't tried to even power up.

Take a picture of the 2011 mac mini board an post it here? Mine was low end model, no ATI Radeon - just curious about Kaida's post above.

I still have my first computer - a Commodore VIC-20 with the tape drive and a bunch of game cartridges (Frogger, Q*Bert, Jupiter Lander, and Tutankham(en) among others). I also have my Apple IIGS with GSOS on floppy. I wish I still had my Powerbook 145B, but that laptop got destroyed by a cat that hated me.