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Very old Mac Mini now just booting to blue screen.

W

Wozza2010

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2010
102
0
Hi.

I have a very old Mac Mini from 2007 that is now just booting to a blue screen. It gets through the white Apple screen then goes to the blue screen like normal but I just see a loading circle that just disappears and repeats every few seconds like its stuck in a loop.

It happened this morning so I thought why don't I change the HD because the Mac Mini has been noisy lately (which I put down to being the HD) so I swapped the HD and installed a fresh install of Snow Leopard. Set everything up and did some updates. Switched the Mac off for a second then booted up again and I am greeted with this blue screen exactly like before. So it mustn't be the HD!

Do you think it could be the PRAM battery? I am hoping its something along these lines because that would be a quick and easy fix! The Mac Mini is never plugged into the wall when not in use, that's why I'm thinking maybe PRAM, but it could be something else.

Cheers.
 
It runs fine off your Snow Leopard CD, and install gives no errors?
Have you tried installing to an external drive?
 
Hi.

Yes it boots from the DVD. As far as I can remember I got no installation errors when I installed snow leopard yesterday.

What would installing snow leopard on an external drive reveal?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Hi.

It was just the usual Apple updates, but there was a few big packages. Nothing 3rd party. Well I did install Teamviewer but I've been using that with the Mini for years without a hitch.

I will take a look at that link - thanks.

So I pressed C button on boot with the DVD inside to get to the installation screen. Are there any other keys I can press for other functions or diagnostics?
 
Wozza2010 said:
What would installing snow leopard on an external drive reveal?
Click to expand...
Trouble might be in internal drive control hardware. I had a 400MHz slot loader iMac go bad that way. Intermittent too, so some times I'd get flashing question mark or worse, sometimes it'd boot, sometimes after booting it'd just freeze. Only way to get it to run reliably was with an external drive.
 
Hi.

Just a little update.

I had some spare time yesterday. So I installed SL again but without doing any updates from Apple. The system works fine. So now should I do the update again??

Could it be a bad update?
Thanks.
 
Wozza2010 said:
Hi.

Just a little update.

I had some spare time yesterday. So I installed SL again but without doing any updates from Apple. The system works fine. So now should I do the update again??

Could it be a bad update?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Well, if it's working fine, don't do the update again...
 
Hi.

I tried the update because I am curious and now everything seems fine. Very strange. I have yet to install teamviewer though yet. Could that of messed it up?

What is the best VNC I can use to control a Mac with an Android tablet?

Thanks.
 
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