M1 Mac Mini Won't Wake Connected Displays, Some Owners Complain

[MikeLangford]

Was having a bunch of sleep/wake issues with my M1 Mac mini 16gb and LG Ultrafine (not the Apple versions, newer one) and external hard drives. I had to adjust some energy saving settings (Prevent the computer from sleeping when the display is off: checked, Put Hard disks to sleep when possible: uncheck). Plus my monitor I believe was causing kernel panic crashes when my mini went to sleep it would just crash and reboot. SOLUTION was to change the DisplayPort settings on my monitor from 1.4 to 1.2.

Apple needs to play better with non-Apple external monitors (unless they intend to start making their own that aren't more than a Kidney) OR LG needs update their software and drives, I don't know who to blame for these problems. Getting the reality check on not being able to control brightness and volume with keyboard since replacing my iMac.

Also having audio issues with FaceTime. The speakers in my monitor don't work. the only output that works is the mini’s speaker which are… not great.

Hey @JOLoughlin, making the change to DisplayPort 1.2 did the trick for me. Thank you so much for this suggestion. Since I made the change last week my Mac Mini M1 has been able to wake the screen every time.

As for the speaker issue you are having. I actually have a set of Bose Companion 2 speakers plugged into the headphone jack on the back of my Mini. It sounds amazing and works with FaceTime or any other app.

 

[Deej]

Failed at the first hurdle - my 2012 Mac Mini can't drive HDMI at a high enough resolution for my screen, so I won't have much more to add

 

[ascender]

Just received a new M1 Mini today and the screen won't recognise the machine using the included thunderbolt cable or a DisplayPort to HDMI cable.

Works every time with HDMI to HDMI though.

 

[oxyd75]

I have a 2017 15 inches Macbook Pro and since I've updated to MacOS 11.0x I never been able to connect my TV back to it and get 4k@60hz with chroma 4:4:4... I've tryed all sort of combination and the best I've got was 4k@60hz with a chroma of 4:2:2. It's pretty sad that when you connect a cheap PC notebook to it and boom by default no problem.

It is a MacOS problem... I've tryed so many dongles and cables... now I got HDMI 8k cable that support 4k@120hz and still the same. The only I get 4k@60hz it with a free app call FreeRES but still no chroma 4:4:4.

 

[vegetassj4]

I’m wondering if this is a Thunderbolt/Big Sur issue. Im having sleep/wake issues in conjunction with my raid box on a 2020 Intel iMac.

 

[LillDrutten]

Has toggling the KVM switch a similar effect as unplugging (& repluging) the display or do you also have unplug the monitor to get things working?

Usually not. A few times the only way is to power off-on the display.

 

[Jeffchoa]

Yes, happened to me today. Mac mini was on, and suddenly could not be detected by my LG ultra wide monitor which has 2 HDMI input ports. When I switched to the one for the Mac mini, it was just a black screen and detected No Signal. I had to power off my Mac mini by pressing the power button for a few seconds and restart. Without doing anything with the HDMI cables, the Mac mini was detected upon restart! I feel Force Shutting Off the Mac mini is not an ideal long term solution here...hopefully, this problem does not keep repeating

 

[Berc]

My M1 Mini with Samsung 34" Ultra Wide does a similar thing, but on wake after sleep. The monitor power button does not respond and the screen is black. I can recover by unplugging the monitor or bouncing the Mini's power. Not consistent, maybe once or twice daily.

 

[Neil Harrison]

Happened to me again today, 1st time in a while

 

[Think77]

At this point in time, is there anything that suggests that this issue is NOT related to a faulty hardware design? Wouldn’t Apple have resolved the issue by now, had it been a software problem?

 

[edubfromktown]

No display issues of any sort on wake, startup, etc. with my 16 gb refurb M1 (purchased from Apple).

I have an LG UltraFine 21.5" connected via USB-C and 27" 4k AOC connected via HDMI (at times I only use one of the two as well).

 

[martynhare]

At this point in time, is there anything that suggests that this issue is NOT related to a faulty hardware design? Wouldn’t Apple have resolved the issue by now, had it been a software problem?

M1 Mac mini 16GB/2TB running Big Sur. Not even been a month of use yet and Apple are already issuing a replacement.

I have an issue where resuming from sleep gives me something resembling an old analogue TV fuzz 20% of the time. It doesn't sleep/resume reliably when the Lock Screen or logon screens are involved.

The issue only occurs when using a USB-C<->HDMI adapter (Belkin one from the Apple Store) but not on the direct HDMI connection. But as I am dual-screening, that's no consolation. Switching the screen off and on a couple of times or unplugging/replugging fixes it. The monitors are both AOC Q3279WG5B (1440p@75Hz) which we also tried running at 60Hz just in case. Thankfully these are the type of screen where pushing the power button on the front to power them off and on again acts the same as disconnecting and reconnecting the display cable, so it could be worse.

I'll let you guys know if the offered replacement hardware does anything to help resolve the issue.

 

[Neil Harrison]

At this point in time, is there anything that suggests that this issue is NOT related to a faulty hardware design? Wouldn’t Apple have resolved the issue by now, had it been a software problem?

If it’s Hardware, should I not be able to get a replacement?

 

[Think77]

If it’s Hardware, should I not be able to get a replacement?

Absolutely (I believe). However, I wonder whether the issue is due to a faulty design on the hardware/chip level or just a bad early batch. I wish Apple would recognize the issue and bring out a statement as to what we, the unlucky customers, can expect from Apple and what action we need to take.

 

[Neil Harrison]

Absolutely (I believe). However, I wonder whether the issue is due to a faulty design on the hardware/chip level or just a bad early batch. I wish Apple would recognize the issue and bring out a statement as to what we, the unlucky customers, can expect from Apple and what action we need to take.

My issue is I bought on Amazon, might log a ticket with apple

 

[Neil Harrison]

I decided to see what Apple say, went on to chat support. They said this

• Alright. So at this point, I'd recommend shutting it down, giving it 30 full seconds while powered off, and then if you want you could even unplug the power and other devices and give it a bit more time just to be sure, then plug it back in and power on.
  
  
• 
  This basically resets and refreshes the hardware related to power, and should fix this issue in many cases. It's kind of like a SMC reset on older models.

 

[vegetassj4]

Has anyone been able to see anything on screen when using boot options (booting into recovery mode) while connected via TB/USB C? I had to use HDMI to be able see the boot options screen.

 

[JSL1]

Happy to say that upgrading to 11.3 Big Sur fixed most of the wake sleep problems with a MacBook Air M1 with an external UltraWide display LG34WK95U running USB-C/TB to USB-C/TB. It seems to work well except if I start using my MacBook Air M1 before the LG34WK95U external monitor (running in Display Port ver 1.4 mode) wakes up which seems to take 10-20 seconds. Better than it was but not 100%. If I start typing or moving the cursor before the LG34WK95U external monitor has woken up I loose the resolution and Arrangement of the external Display in relationship to the MacBook Air M1 screen, and I have to restart the MacBook and redo the resolution and Arrangement in System Preferences > Displays. Wondering if someone has found a better solution than a restart.

 

[bdsmith63]

I am excited to report that 11.3 appears to have fixed my sleep/wake and system crash issues with my LG 4K 32UL950 and M1 16GB/256GB. I had to initially change the monitor DisplayPort setting from 1.4 to 1.2 in order to have a somewhat stable system. After the update was completed last night I set the monitor back to 1.4 and have been testing the system and it’s all good SO far. I am running USB-C/TB to USB-C/TB.

 

[Think77]

After updating to 11.3 two days ago, I haven't had any display wake issues. My M1 Mini has been put in and out of sleep 5-6 times during that period (both for whole nights and a few hours during the day), and so far my 30" Apple Cinema Display comes back to life every time. I will report back if anything changes.

 

[martynhare]

After updating to 11.3 two days ago, I haven't had any display wake issues. My M1 Mini has been put in and out of sleep 5-6 times during that period (both for whole nights and a few hours during the day), and so far my 30" Apple Cinema Display comes back to life every time. I will report back if anything changes.

Less than 1 day after my replacement Mac mini (M1, 2020) came and I updated it to Big Sur 11.3... it had the same suspend/resume issues as before. Data is now being collected to send to engineering to see if a fix can be issued.

So no luck here I'm afraid, neither with the new OS version or replacement hardware.

 

[Think77]

Less than 1 day after my replacement Mac mini (M1, 2020) came and I updated it to Big Sur 11.3... it had the same suspend/resume issues as before. Data is now being collected to send to engineering to see if a fix can be issued.

So no luck here I'm afraid, neither with the new OS version or replacement hardware.

Sorry to hear that! So, you’re in contact with Apple engineers in order for them to understand when the problem occurs? Out of curiosity: do you get the impression that they are aware of how widespread the issue is (do they know about threads like this)?

 

[martynhare]

Sorry to hear that! So, you’re in contact with Apple engineers in order for them to understand when the problem occurs? Out of curiosity: do you get the impression that they are aware of how widespread the issue is (do they know about threads like this)?

I think they know a problem exists but their primary concern is collecting data to work out what causes it. I’m doing my best to timestamp when the problems occur so that they can use sysdiagnose to collect appropriate info. I’ve also told Apple that I’m willing to run debug builds and/or tools which may reduce performance but allow for better instrumentation if it helps them to fix the problem.

On Friday, I will be getting a call back to discuss the issue further as their engineering team (rather than an advisor) will be looking into the case as plist deletions, full OS reinstall, replacement Mac mini, factory defaulting screens, using a different screen, testing with different refresh rates and updating to 11.3 has all yielded no fix.

I will be following this through from beginning to end with Apple support, especially since I’ve seen worse from other OEMs (at work, I have longer standing cases with Microsoft and HP).

 

[Think77]

I think they know a problem exists but their primary concern is collecting data to work out what causes it. I’m doing my best to timestamp when the problems occur so that they can use sysdiagnose to collect appropriate info. I’ve also told Apple that I’m willing to run debug builds and/or tools which may reduce performance but allow for better instrumentation if it helps them to fix the problem.

On Friday, I will be getting a call back to discuss the issue further as their engineering team (rather than an advisor) will be looking into the case as plist deletions, full OS reinstall, replacement Mac mini, factory defaulting screens, using a different screen, testing with different refresh rates and updating to 11.3 has all yielded no fix.

I will be following this through from beginning to end with Apple support, especially since I’ve seen worse from other OEMs (at work, I have longer standing cases with Microsoft and HP).

Wow, that sounds fantastic! Great to hear that Apple works directly with (tech savvy) customers on such a deep technical level in order to identify and solve issues. That, for sure, is reassuring. I had almost lost faith in Apple’s willingness and ability to make sure that every stone gets turned in order to secure a premium product lineup and a premium customer experience.

Please don’t hesitate to write here again with new info 😊

 

[minisector]

My M1 Mac Mini (bought on Nov '20) occasionally fails to wake up my AOC Q3279 32" display after sleep. The display works fine with many other Macs and PCs.
It happened more frequently with earlier releases of Big Sur. With 11.3 the problem seemed to be resolved, but today it happened again
Pulling the video cable or turning the display off/on does not help. Only reboots solve this issue. I can SSH into my Mac (at least I can do a "safe" reboot instead of power cycling it) so I know it's just a video problem... I reported the issue several times since November, and my disappointment is growing...

Do you guys know of any command-line utilities (that I can invoke via SSH) that could reset the video port *and* work with M1 hardware? Maybe something used to change resolution?