Mac Mini USB keyboard and mouse problem.

[Athol5]

I hav3 a late 2012 Mac mini with the following problem.

When power has been disconnected from the computer ( disconnected completely from power) it loses its connection with the Apple usb keyboard and mouse, and will not fond them when the power is turned on and they are re-booted. It takes a second re boot to find them.

I have reset both the PRAM and SMC to no avail.

Is is there a battery on the motherboard that is Dead?

Any ideas gratfully revived

cheers

Peter

 

[treekram]

There is a battery for the NVRAM/PRAM. But if the battery is dead, it should not be able to keep the correct date/time and at least some of the System Preferences. However, the date/time can also be set by connecting with the Internet. To see if your system can retain the date, in the System Preferences, under "Date & Time", in the "Date & Time" tab, there's a checkbox to set the date and time automatically. If you unset this, remove power to the Mini for a while and then turn it back on you can see if the battery is still working.

Instructions on replacing the battery:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Late+2012+PRAM+Battery+Replacement/11725

Caution: It's not trivial to do. People come to this forum on a regular basis with their problems when working with Mini internals - mainly when doing a disk replacement.

I turn off my 2012 Mini and cut power completely using a power strip and maybe once a month the computer won't recognize the keyboard on first boot. I've never done a remote login to the computer to see if it's only the keyboard or all USB ports.

 

[Boyd01]

What kind of keyboard? Is it the Apple USB extended keyboard? If so, there are some known weird issues. I have one that works fine on my 2012 mini and it usually works fine with my MacBook Air, but every now and then it will fail to be recognized from one of the USB ports on the MBA. Plugging it in to the other port usually fixes this. Then, randomly it stops working again. Sometimes a reboot fixes this. Other times it takes multiple re-boots. Switching USB ports again sometimes works.

I thought there was a problem with the MBA until I did some googling and found many people have had similar intermittent problems on many different Macs. Very strange.

 

[ActionableMango]

I hav3 a late 2012 Mac mini with the following problem.

When power has been disconnected from the computer ( disconnected completely from power) it loses its connection with the Apple usb keyboard and mouse, and will not fond them when the power is turned on and they are re-booted. It takes a second re boot to find them.

I have reset both the PRAM and SMC to no avail.

Is is there a battery on the motherboard that is Dead?

Any ideas gratfully revived

I wouldn't expect a 2012 battery to be dead yet. Also, there's nothing the battery keeps stored that would prevent the Mini from recognizing a wired USB keyboard.

If the keyboard is a slim aluminum Apple keyboard, most likely it is a flaky keyboard known for connection problems. Getting a different keyboard would help.

I have no explanation for why the mouse wouldn't work too, unless of course it is plugged into the slim aluminum keyboard, in which case it's again the keyboard that is the problem.