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everlong24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2014
7
0
I don't know what's going on. I added 8 Gb Ram with a Samsung SSD, and I keep getting the most annoying high pitched noise now. I had to take the whole thing apart just to get to my hard drive bay. I have the 2012 model too. Is there something I'm missing? I've plugged it into 2 different outlets, once by itself. I'd hate to get rid of it, but I can't even watch a tv show without wanting to pull my hair out.
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
I don't know what's going on. I added 8 Gb Ram with a Samsung SSD, and I keep getting the most annoying high pitched noise now. I had to take the whole thing apart just to get to my hard drive bay. I have the 2012 model too. Is there something I'm missing? I've plugged it into 2 different outlets, once by itself. I'd hate to get rid of it, but I can't even watch a tv show without wanting to pull my hair out.

Try swapping the ram back as it's the easiest thing to do
 

Chancha

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2014
2,095
1,896
Before taking it apart again, if you have a can of compressed air, try blowing it through the vent, something could be stuck in your fans. But for a "high pitch noise" I suspect it is something more electronic I am afraid...
 

everlong24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2014
7
0
Well, I have some terrible news. This morning,I went to plug it in to the wall after checking out the ram and fan. I saw a couple of sparks shoot up and now my Mini won't power up. I'm totally screwed because I have opened my Mac Mini up and literally took the thing apart. I've had the thing for a total of one month.
 

Jambalaya

macrumors 6502a
Jun 21, 2013
714
151
UK
The tough part is this could have been a manufacturing issue un-related to the RAM/SSD upgrade. You could try a return to Apple.
 

tom vilsack

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2010
1,880
63
ladner cdn
-Try putting it all back to stock and see if it will boot.

-If it doesn't then guess you have a few options
a: sell it as parts
b: take to apple and tell them whole story
c: take to apple and pretend you know nothing
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,348
12,464
Folks, here's one more post from someone who "thought it would be easy" to open up the Mini and replace the internal drive -- and things didn't turn out as well as planned.

That's why for some time now in this forum, I've recommended that the quickest, easiest, and least-hazardous-to-the-health-of-the-Mini method of adding storage is by way of an external USB3 drive.

One gets nearly all of the internal speed, with none of the dangers of things going wrong. And it's actually -cheaper- to do it this way, as well...
 

product26

Cancelled
May 30, 2005
777
9
Agreed. I added a second drive to my mini and found some of the headers to be quite fragile. Trust me when I say that I have plenty of experience with this stuff. I did not cause any damage but could see someone easily botching the process. Proceed with caution!

Folks, here's one more post from someone who "thought it would be easy" to open up the Mini and replace the internal drive -- and things didn't turn out as well as planned.

That's why for some time now in this forum, I've recommended that the quickest, easiest, and least-hazardous-to-the-health-of-the-Mini method of adding storage is by way of an external USB3 drive.

One gets nearly all of the internal speed, with none of the dangers of things going wrong. And it's actually -cheaper- to do it this way, as well...
 

Cape Dave

Contributor
Nov 16, 2012
2,297
1,567
Northeast
I'm gonna come right out and say it. These things are a BEAST to work on! I broke off a tiny black plastic piece so small I could hardly see it when swapping the RAM. All works fine, but it bugs me.

So, eve with just a RAM swap, be CAREFUL! Putting in an SSD in the lower slot is not for the feint of heart. No sir. BRAIN SURGERY.

Of course, if I did this like 100 times I would think it was easy. But that is unlikely. I only need one, maybe two mini's at most :)

Which is one BIG reason that I hope the refresh has PCI SSD so I will only need to do the RAM thing. (soldered if they have to, but would prefer not) And need I say I want the 512GB SSD and I want it to be REASONABLY priced for a change. I could get by with 256GB, but I do not want to.
 
Last edited:

tom vilsack

macrumors 68000
Nov 20, 2010
1,880
63
ladner cdn
hope they make mini similar in design (or at least as easy to upgrade) as my new asus chromebox.

asus-chromebox-open.jpg
 

madrag

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2007
371
92
I had a similar problem yesterday!

In my case the high pitch is hardly noticeable but depending on the my position relative to the Mac, I can notice it…

Maybe your noise is more noticeable?

I disassembled it several times and in each step I tried to see where the noise came from, and I can tell you (in my case at least), that it came from the processors! each emitting a different level pitch noise.

I checked if every cable and connector was properly connected and assembled it again, the noise is there, I am not sure if it was like that before disassembly, I will have to ignore it, most will find the noise ridiculous, but I have a really good earing and it bothers me to ear that high pitch.

I tried changing the plug to 180 degrees and no change.

P.S. adding a second drive is really hard, I've disassembled it four times (completely) and it turns easier, although it's still hard to put some parts, but the benefits of a second drive pay off.
 

mneblett

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2008
369
0
FWIW, I've had a couple pc's that emitted a high-pitched whine. With my ear nearby, I could correlate the high-pitched sound with CPU activity. It may be that the sound you are hearing was always there, but now that you are paying particular post-modification attention you are only now noticing it.
 
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