Mac mini is failing, ordered new one

[tennlabs]

Have the 2018 Mac mini that I bought in 2019.
Getting problems
Keyboard has to be unplugged and replugged once a day
Sometimes when I turn it on the display does not work.
If I Command + R the display will come on, but half the time it goes into recovery mode and I have to hit restart.
Ordered a new Mac mini - The M2 pro and upgraded the ethernet to 10gig
kept the basic 512 SSD storage and 16GB unified memory

But since I upgraded the ethernet the mini is not in stock and is coming from China.
So it's hoping the old one works until then or use the iPad.

But when it comes in should I use the migration assistant? Worry that something is wrong with the old one and it will pass it along to the new one. Or is that even possible?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

But when it comes in should I use the migration assistant? Worry that something is wrong with the old one and it will pass it along to the new one. Or is that even possible?

I'd use Migration Assistant - yes, it COULD pass problems along but it might not and if it doesn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's the simplest solution.

If it does, erase & do a manual migration.

 

[okkibs]

I'd just leave it on and avoid reboots, the Mini barely uses any electricity in idle and essentially none in standby mode.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Sometimes when I turn it on the display does not work."

If that happens (as it does with my own 2018 Mini and Dell display), try this:
a. power OFF, all the way off
b. hold down the OPTION key CONTINUOUSLY
c. press the power on button (keep holding down option).

This should invoke the startup manager.
Even if the only drive is the internal one, it should boot to the startup manager and then you just hit return and it "continues on" in a normal boot sequence.

If even that doesn't work...
a. power OFF, all the way off
b. press and HOLD the power on button CONTINUOUSLY. Don't let it go until the Mini chimes at least once (may take several seconds)
c. once you hear the startup chime, if the Mini has not powered on, press the power on button again
d. NOW hold down the option key to invoke startup manager.

First suggestion has become my normal "boot up routine". Takes only a few extra seconds each day.

Second suggestion works when the Mini (occasionally) gets balky.

I've come to the conclusion that the Mini's problems with external displays (at boot) may be based upon information that is not properly recorded AT SHUTDOWN time.

Re migration:
I would use an EXTERNAL DRIVE for this process.
I recommend creating a cloned backup using SuperDuper (free for this job), but a time machine backup works if that's what you have.

Connect the backup drive before pressing the power on button for the very first time. Then follow along with setup assistant...

Final thought...
If I were you (I realize I'm NOT "you"), I would cancel the order, and wait for the new m4pro Mini that looks to be arriving at the end of this year, probably late October.

 

[brofkand]

Have the 2018 Mac mini that I bought in 2019.
Getting problems
Keyboard has to be unplugged and replugged once a day
Sometimes when I turn it on the display does not work.
If I Command + R the display will come on, but half the time it goes into recovery mode and I have to hit restart.
Ordered a new Mac mini - The M2 pro and upgraded the ethernet to 10gig
kept the basic 512 SSD storage and 16GB unified memory

But since I upgraded the ethernet the mini is not in stock and is coming from China.
So it's hoping the old one works until then or use the iPad.

But when it comes in should I use the migration assistant? Worry that something is wrong with the old one and it will pass it along to the new one. Or is that even possible?

Thanks for any advice.

Just have Migration assistant move over your user profile. Manually reinstall apps etc.

Hardware issues won't transfer from one machine to another in any case.

You will probably have similar issues with the new Mini, especially waking up from sleep. Macs (and computers in general) have issues with sleep and have since sleep modes were invented.

Disable sleep - let the monitor turn off, that's fine - but don't let the Mini sleep. It uses less power than a night light anyway so it's not like you'll feel the difference on your power bill.

All this to say I'm not convinced there's actually anything wrong with your old Mini - so don't send it off to the recycling center just yet.

 

[tennlabs]

I'd just leave it on and avoid reboots, the Mini barely uses any electricity in idle and essentially none in standby mode.

The mini is getting really hot. I even have it on a trivet to allow air flow

 

[tennlabs]

Just have Migration assistant move over your user profile. Manually reinstall apps etc.

Hardware issues won't transfer from one machine to another in any case.

You will probably have similar issues with the new Mini, especially waking up from sleep. Macs (and computers in general) have issues with sleep and have since sleep modes were invented.

Disable sleep - let the monitor turn off, that's fine - but don't let the Mini sleep. It uses less power than a night light anyway so it's not like you'll feel the difference on your power bill.

All this to say I'm not convinced there's actually anything wrong with your old Mini - so don't send it off to the recycling center just yet.

Never had a problem with it waking up from sleep. But now it does get hot. Usually turn off every night and storm. But never had an issue like the past week not even loading. Screen sometimes turns on then goes black. Like my old Thunderbolt Display though

 

[eldho]

The main thing you should do right now is make sure that you have a couple of secure external backups so that if your Mini breaks down altogether you at least have your information secure for your new machine. Your reporting of your Mini getting hot makes this a matter of some urgency.

 

[tennlabs]

The main thing you should do right now is make sure that you have a couple of secure external backups so that if your Mini breaks down altogether you at least have your information secure for your new machine. Your reporting of your Mini getting hot makes this a matter of some urgency.

Thanks. Makes me feel better for placing the order instead of waiting. I waited before and the 5 month wait ended up being a 16 months wait.
I have copied everything to an external drive.
Need to make a list of programs to keep as well as my email set up.

 

[ignatius345]

Have the 2018 Mac mini that I bought in 2019.
Getting problems
Keyboard has to be unplugged and replugged once a day
Sometimes when I turn it on the display does not work.
If I Command + R the display will come on, but half the time it goes into recovery mode and I have to hit restart.
Ordered a new Mac mini - The M2 pro and upgraded the ethernet to 10gig
kept the basic 512 SSD storage and 16GB unified memory

But since I upgraded the ethernet the mini is not in stock and is coming from China.
So it's hoping the old one works until then or use the iPad.

But when it comes in should I use the migration assistant? Worry that something is wrong with the old one and it will pass it along to the new one. Or is that even possible?

Thanks for any advice.

If you see any of the old problems on the new Mini after migrating in your user accounts from the old Mini, start a brand new user account, which will basically be a fresh start.

 

[sparkhill]

Thanks. Makes me feel better for placing the order instead of waiting. I waited before and the 5 month wait ended up being a 16 months wait.
I have copied everything to an external drive.
Need to make a list of programs to keep as well as my email set up.

That was 100% the correct decision. You don’t have time to wait around for the incrementally better next model when your current computer is threatening to fail.

 

[eldho]

It is also very unlikely that migration assistant would be passing anything on. Your problem is probably to do with a hardware fault. In any case, your new computer is Apple Silicon with the operating system in a separate silo from your user data - so your user data gets copied over via migration assistant but the operating system does not - that is already on the machine when you buy it.

 

[0339327]

Have the 2018 Mac mini that I bought in 2019.
Getting problems
Keyboard has to be unplugged and replugged once a day
Sometimes when I turn it on the display does not work.
If I Command + R the display will come on, but half the time it goes into recovery mode and I have to hit restart.
Ordered a new Mac mini - The M2 pro and upgraded the ethernet to 10gig
kept the basic 512 SSD storage and 16GB unified memory

But since I upgraded the ethernet the mini is not in stock and is coming from China.
So it's hoping the old one works until then or use the iPad.

But when it comes in should I use the migration assistant? Worry that something is wrong with the old one and it will pass it along to the new one. Or is that even possible?

Thanks for any advice.

First thing I’d recommend is installing a fresh OS on an external drive and see if that fixes your problems. It’s an easy way to test software. Also, clean the dust out and follow these instructions:

10 Minute Mac Fixes.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Let me know how it goes.

 

[tonmischa]

Lots of good advice here.

One more suggestion from me:

The mini is getting really hot. I even have it on a trivet to allow air flow

Have you ever checked for dust inside the machine?
Opening the bottom cover is easy and cleaning out the dust might help with the temperature. (While you are waiting for your new mac.)

Mac mini Late 2018 Bottom Cover Replacement

Use this guide to easily remove or replace the plastic bottom cover on your Mac mini.

www.ifixit.com

You can use any Flathead Screwdriver.

 

[Corefile]

The mini is getting really hot. I even have it on a trivet to allow air flow

Open it up and vacuum the fan. The thermal paste might also be going so replace that.

 

[tennlabs]

No dust. I was reminded of when I first got it the mini would get hot. So much so that I placed the thermometer gun near the computer. And I bought the trivet to put it on. Geez, even using the mini now I had to replug the keyboard a couple times to get things working. The new mini has left Alaska. Hopefully it will get to Knoxville soon.

 

[tennlabs]

The main thing you should do right now is make sure that you have a couple of secure external backups so that if your Mini breaks down altogether you at least have your information secure for your new machine. Your reporting of your Mini getting hot makes this a matter of some urgency.

Thanks. I was even thinking it might be a virus, but I know Mac does a good job and I always update.

 

[tennlabs]

Need help - have a dongle attached to the Mac mini - can not figure out what it is for. Where do I go in systems preferences to find out? I went to bluetooth and just got the keyboard and mouse.

 

[okkibs]

Open System Information via spotlight (on older MacOS versions it was called System Profiler) and in the selection on the left choose USB.

So I double checked power usage of the Mini and I was wrong, the Mini can draw over 100W. The inefficient old Intel chip will be easily overwhelmed and get quite hot from simple tasks. The heat is not an issue on its own but since the Intel chip is awfully slow nowdays you'll want that replacement regardless. These chips throttle down to prevent overheating anyways so the hardware won't die from the heat.

Closing all apps down overnight should reduce power draw and heat. You can verify it with the app Activity Monitor and look at the CPU usage. You probably won't get less than 10-20% as just running MacOS is no longer trivial for the old chip but below 20% the power draw should remain relatively low, maybe 15-35W. Nothing that will make an impact on your power bill while you wait for the new Mac to arrive.

 

[tennlabs]

Need help - have a dongle attached to the Mac mini - can not figure out what it is for. Where do I go in systems preferences to find out? I went to bluetooth and just got the keyboard and mouse.

Figured it out. It’s for my old fit bit

 

[tennlabs]

Got the new mini - working great. The only thing I can not figure out how to do is go into photos and import an album from an external drive. I can import the pictures but not organized into albums.

 

[tennlabs]

Well since I only have one monitor I could not use migration assistant. But I saved everything to an external drive. Thank goodness I don't have many programs as it was pretty easy to download again. Did order new "APPLE" adapters for usb to usb c and thunderbolt to usb c ports. Figured out how to import pictures as albums. Had to do it one album at a time, but it is done. All set. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[ashleykaryl]

I am curious to hear how this panned out @tennlabs. I also have a 2018 i7 mini and there was a thread in the forum a couple of months ago where I was having performance issues, where some even suggested it might be headed for hardware failure.

I waited until WWDC just in case an M4 appeared, then ordered the M2 mini pro recently, which is a big improvement. Just a couple of days ago I started seeing the i7 mini go into recovery mode during startup sometimes, which is obviously not normal, and seeing your thread made me think there might be something more to this.

Regarding migration to the M2 mini, I followed some advice I read here on the forum and made a backup of the i7 using carbon copy cloner. During the M2 set up, I had it import the users, settings, and iCloud from the external drive, however I installed the apps separately. That makes sense, not least because some apps have silicon specific versions that should run better than universal ones. There are always a few tweaks to make, but it worked great.

Any updates on your Intel mini?

 

[opeter]

Open it up and vacuum the fan. The thermal paste might also be going so replace that.

Sometimes vacuum is not enough. I am using a thing similar to this + brush:

 

[tennlabs]

I am curious to hear how this panned out @tennlabs. I also have a 2018 i7 mini and there was a thread in the forum a couple of months ago where I was having performance issues, where some even suggested it might be headed for hardware failure.

I waited until WWDC just in case an M4 appeared, then ordered the M2 mini pro recently, which is a big improvement. Just a couple of days ago I started seeing the i7 mini go into recovery mode during startup sometimes, which is obviously not normal, and seeing your thread made me think there might be something more to this.

Regarding migration to the M2 mini, I followed some advice I read here on the forum and made a backup of the i7 using carbon copy cloner. During the M2 set up, I had it import the users, settings, and iCloud from the external drive, however I installed the apps separately. That makes sense, not least because some apps have silicon specific versions that should run better than universal ones. There are always a few tweaks to make, but it worked great.

Any updates on your Intel mini?

New one has been working great. Had to get a new display. Then cut the cord (not power) on the old thunderbolt display and just used the thunderbolt plug cord into one of the ports on the display with my old adapter to the USB c and it works. Still keeping the new display though. Boxed up the old one and keeping it as a back up.
Had an issue with losing some photos when my phone synced. Glad I had a back up of them as some of the family has passed.
Mac mini is running great - does not feel hot at all. Old Mac mini was not dusty inside, so no clue what was wrong with it. Remember when I first got it it ran hot enough for me to put a kitchen trivet under it.
All is good.
Wish you luck with yours.