Mac mini Core Solo is a great deal slower then 1.5ghz mac mini G4??

I have two mac minis, one has a 1.5 Ghz G4 and the other has a 1.5 Ghz Core Solo. Both have 512mb of RAM and OS X 10.4.7. I have the same software installed between them. They both have the latest updates for Office 2004 installed, both have the latest system updates, latest Firefox updates, both have latest Adobe Reader updates, and both have Quark 6.5 installed.
The Core Solo mac mini is WAY slower then the G4, Entourage in particular is almost slow to the point it is unworkable. Is this due to the Rosetta emulation? What can I do to improve this, will increasing the ram to 1 GB clear these speed issues or am I going to have to return this mini and get one with a Core Duo?
The current sluggishness on the Core Solo mini is unbearable, literally my Powerbook G4 667mhz with 768mb of ram is loads faster then this mini is. I'm thinking more RAM will do the trick, but wanted to bounce this off of some other experts here first. Thanks.

Entourage in particular is almost slow to the point it is unworkable. Is this due to the Rosetta emulation?
Yes, almost certainly. Microsoft Office is not yet Intel-native, so it's gonig to run more slowly than a native edition would. The same will apply to any PowerPC-only software.
What can I do to improve this, will increasing the ram to 1 GB clear these speed issues
I can't say for certain, but other users have reported that increasing the RAM to 1GB (or beyond) has made significant improvements in performance.

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10.6.8 Wifi Mac Mini Core Solo Problems

Hi All,
I have had my beloved Mac Mini core solo (1.5ghz) since 2007 and have had regular upgrades to keep it alive (upgraded hard drive, ram etc.).
A couple of days ago I upgraded the airport card - it previously was only 802.11 a/b/g, but I now have the atheros 9280 802.11 a/b/g/n successfully installed into the machine.
The main reason for doing this is that my previous airport card just never seemed to work at all; I have an iphone and ipad and they both successfully connect to my Orange livebox router with no problems whatsoever, yet my Mac Mini did not connect at all having tried everything I can. Therefore my final solution was to arrange an update of the airport card to the new atheros one suggested by my local Apple dealer.
I brought the Mac home, and tried to attahc to my wifi router to immediate success. It had full signal strength and was working flawlessly. I then turned the machine off, went out for a while and then came home to find it was not working again and kept searching for the wifi router and asking for constant passwords. After a long time, it seemed to work again but after I turned the machine off it lost the settings (depsite me asking network settings to save via the locked button) and I am constantly repeating this process.
I am therefore wondering if anyone can help. The atheros 9280 airport card information is as follows (from the system profiler):
Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.2.2 (622.2)
configd plugin: 6.2.5 (625.6)
System profiler: 6.0.1 (601.1)
Network preference: 6.2.2 (622.2)
Aiport Utility: 5.5.3 (553.20)
IO80211 Family: 4.0 (400.40)
Card Type: Airport Extreme (0x168C, 0x8F)
Firmware version: Atheros 9280: 2.1.14.6
Locale: FCC
Country Code: DE
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Supported Channels: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,100,104,108,112,116,120,1 24,128,132,136,140
Wake on Wireless: Supported
Status: Network Service Inactive
Just to also add that its Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Intel Mac Mini core 1.5ghz solo, and my Orange Wifi router is quite old (around 2006) so supports a/b/g - I was thinking that this may be the fault but why would all my other apple systems have no problems with this connection?
Any help would be really appreciated as I'm going a little nuts here!
fdsbh

Really? I thought Sno was supposed to be more efficient?
I'd say that SL is more efficient on a machine it was made to run on. Apple didn't exclude the single core Intel processor, probably because they didn't have to change their code like they would have for a PPC processor but part of the efficiency is it's ability to split services to the separate cores in the CPU. You only have one, so that part of the improvement is of no use. All of the processes the OS handles and splits to multiple CPU cores are worthless and your programs will just have to wait until the CPU has time for you.
Meanwhile, the programs you are running are more powerful and provide higher quality and really need the extra core. The speed of the ram, the buss, and the hard drive are not as fast as your MacBook either. All of this data has to be moved around quite a bit from the drive to ram and then back to the drive.
Christmas is coming
WinXP will run on a 600Mhz PII processor with 128MB's of PC100 ram, but you wouldn't want to. It's not a lot of fun to work with or work on.
Unless there is some whiz bang program or technology that you need from SL, I'd take the machine back to Leopard or even Tiger, which it probably ran pretty well.

Apple Wireless Keyboard on Mac Mini Core Solo CANNOT be found !

Hi,
My Apple Wireless Keyboard (non-aluminum)was working perfectly with my Mac Mini core Solo. I had to change the battery and after that I cannot connect to my Mac Mini.
I tried:
1. Update the Bluetooth software (from the downloads from Apple.com).
2. Remove all the keyboard definitions in the System Preferences, Bluetooth.
3. When I try to connect by selecting Keyboard in the Bluetooth Assistant, I won't get any device.
4. When I try to connect to any device in the Bluetooth Assistent, I'll see the only Apple Wireless Keyboard I have, but then pairing failes.
5. Only by using a USB keyboard I could enter my MacMini.
Questions:
a. How all of a sudden this can't work ?
b. How to I "reset" the keyboard ?
c. What can I do ?
Thanks in advance.
Rokesh

i am having this exact same problem. Keyboard isnt seen if I select "Keyboard" in the bluetooth setup assistant, but if I select "Any Device" then after a moment "Apple Wireless Keyboard" shows up in the device list but it will refuse to pair, saying it doesnt have any configurable services.
Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

Will OS 10.6 work on my mac mini core solo?

Will OS 10.6 work on my mac mini core solo?

Yes, if it has at least 1GB of RAM.
(81677)

10.6 on Mac Mini core solo?

I want to confirm that the $29 version of OS X 10.6 that Apple sells will install properly on an Intel Mac Mini core solo. The specs say it should, but I get a "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer" message when I try to install that OS with the disk from another computer.

It will it the mac meets these specs. Note 1 gig of memory required.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575
Captfred
Edit: Yes, the $29 retail version will work

Mac Mini Core Solo with Logic Express 7.2.1 ?

Hi
I am just curious to know how well will perform Logic Express 7.2.1 with the new Mac Mini Core Solo.
Thanks

Hi
Guys thanks for the response. I own a trusty G5 which is doing an AMAZING job at the main studio running Logic Pro 7.2.1. Its just I need a small Mac such as the most basic Mac Mini Solo fully expanded memory to be used as a "Musical Notepad" and wanted to know if the recent advances with Apple Intel Mac Minis with faster bus speeds has actually given this model a boost over the previous Mac Mini G4. Surely there must be performance increases.
Apple Keep it Up!
Thanks!!

Mini Core Solo Processor Information

Apologies in advance for the arcane information and semi-intelligible post.
I wrote a short little program in C that calls out to CPUID (borrowing heavily from documented implementations on the web... which do not implement or describe very well a solution that avoids the register clobbering problem!)
I was curious what features were enabled in the Solo, and dmesg doesn't print it out for me. I'm sure this info is documented elsewhere, but in case it's not, this is what CPUID returns:
CPUID.1:
Features (values in EDX):
fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cxch8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clfl dtes acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm1 pbe
Misc Flags (values in ECX):
SSE3 MONITOR VMX EST TM2
Processor Brand String (for CPUID.0x80000002-0x80000004):
Genuine Intel(R) CPU 200 @ 1.50GHz
Happy to see VMX enabled!
Cheers,
John
G4 Cube, Dual G5, Mac Mini Core Solo Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Apple Developer Forums
There isn't much more to say. This really isn't the
right place.
Am I the only one who finds it strange that it is against the rules to let people know about things they learned if someone doesn't specifically ask about it?
I for one welcome this kind of information. It is to everyone's benefit to learn more about the details of our machines. This information is actually quite useful, and should be appreciated.
O.K., so I'll ask the question so that everyone can let the guy be:
Does anyone know what features are supported in the Intel Core Solo? I'm sure others here would like to know what technologies their new Intel Mac supports.
Thank you for any info you can provide.

Intel Mac Mini Core Solo - Kernel Panic on Boot

I was wondering if anyone who has purchased the Intel Mac Mini is having issues with Kernel Panics during the booting sequence?
I got a Core Solo from the local Apple store (couldn't wait to play, I'm waiting on the Core Duo I ordered online to come still ). The first thing I did was fire it up check it out for a few minutes, then I put the install disc in and reinstalled a clean OS, with less options because I'm planning on hooking it up to my TV so I don't need space hogs like Garageband etc on my TV computer. I got the updates that popped up, then shutdown the computer. I took it out to the living room and hooked it up to the tv and I got a black message about needing to restart (a kernel panic) right when the blue progress loading bar comes up on boot. I spent a while with it trying to figure out what was wrong, ran the Apple Hardware Test, booted it fine in Safe Boot. Finally I got tired of it and reinstalled the OS again.
It was fine for a day, working fine out on the tv. I brought it back in my room to play with a few things like Darwine, etc. Shut it down, came back an hour or so later booted it up and got the kernel panic on boot. Safe boot still worked fine. I spent some time trying to look for panic logs but didn't see any. I ran the disk utility and did a Full erase and it worked fine. I reinstalled the OS again. Ran MemTestOSX and it worked fine. I left it running the Apple Hardware Test for about 6 hours or more, and it performed perfectly.
This morning it still seemed ok, except sometimes on a cold boot when the blue progress bar screen should come on... my monitor just shows black and the light on the monitor goes inactive. So, I press the button on the back to sleep it, then bring it out of sleep with the keyboard and the OS is sitting there booted.
It seems like a weird combination of software and hardware problems, but maybe it's all hardware problems. I can't get past Safe Boot working when the OS stops loading. Right now the computer is working fine.
I'm waiting for my Core Duo to come in the mail and verify that it works flawlessly, then I'll take the Solo to the store and ask them to look at it.
Anyone have any similar experiences so far?

It seems like the mini is doing alright so far. I think maybe the full erase solved whatever issue it was having. I also got my Core Duo Mini yesterday in the mail and it's performing like a champ. Definitely a nice machine.
I'll close my question for now, since the Core Solo Mini seems alright. But, as a warning don't get on Front Row's bad side. I tried force quitting it because it was taking too long to load the videos folder and then tried shutting down from a terminal and ended up having to turn the machine off.

Mac mini core solo running very slowly

Hi folks, long time reader, first time poster (sorry, couldn't resist):
I just got a nice shiny new core solo mac mini 1.5 with stock ram and it feels like it runs slower than my 450 mhz dual processor powermac. Activity monitor shows that if I try to run microsoft word and entourage at the same time I run out of free ram - is this normal? I'm thinking of upgrading the ram, but don't want to void the warranty if it turns out to be a hardware problem. Any ways that I could check it out?
Thanks
Mike

Yes.
Running Microsoft PPC binaries under Rosetta will take more memory. And the stock 512 meg is sufficient, but as with any modern Operating System, more memory means better performance.
I went to Best Buy recently and picked up these 2 sticks of RAM giving me 2 gigs of RAM in my Mac Mini Intel Core Duo:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7644196&type=product&id=1134699426 321
I replaced the preinstalled RAM in about 10 minutes. Undo the case (worst part actually), remove 4 screws, disconnect one onboard cable, replace RAM, reverse process.
It made a huge difference in just about everything, as was expected. It also seems to have cured my video bleeding problems too.

Mac mini core solo upgrade

hi
I have been reading about a Mac mini CPU upgrade from a 1.5Ghz core solo to a 1.83ghz Core 2 duo. I was wondering if I managed to get a CPU for it, would the genius bar at apple store be able to put it in for me as I don't want to take all the motherboard out in such a tiny such a tiny computer and I would also get 2GB ram for the mini as well. I need a core 2 duo due to it been 64bit for Mac OS X Leopard
hope to hear from someone soon
Thanks
Message was edited by: Mac User & Proud

I second Gordon's estimation of the genius bar's willingness to do such work. You might find an Apple certified technician at an Apple certified repair concern that may do such work, but that would probably not qualify it for warranty consideration. If you don't want to do it yourself or have someone not at the genius bar do it, you're probably better off selling it and getting a new Core 2 Duo Mini.

Mac Mini - Core Solo - Won't See Any Wireless network

I have a Mac Mini, first gen Intel, Core Solo, that won't see any wireless networks. However, it will see my extreme basestation, and my two airport express devices over bonjour, which makes me think that the wireless device is working.
I've reset the PMU, with no luck.
Any suggestions?

Does an Airport card show in the system profiler?
Is Airport switched on in your mini - the Airport icon in the menu bar should show at least grey bars rather than an empty white 'fan' shape?
With Airport on, when you click on the Airport icon, does it show any network?
If you click on 'Join Other Network' and type the name of the wifi network you run, what error message does the system give?
How far away from the wifi base station is the mini? What kind of structures and environment is it in?
If you move the mini to be in close proximity to the wifi base station, does it show any signal?
When you download a copy of AP Grapher (http://www.chimoosoft.com/apgrapher.html) and run it, what does it show for signals, noise etc?
How is the mini seeing any wifi devices via Bonjour - do you have it wired into your network? If so, the fact that the devices appear via bonjour doesn't mean they are transmitting wifi, nor that they are in range.
By the way, the Core Solo mini doesn't have a PMU to reset. If you used the PMU reset procedure it won't have helped, and may actually have caused problems. The correct procedure for an Intel-based mini is an SMC reset, as follows:
-From the Apple menu, choose Shut Down (or if the computer is not responding, hold the power button until it turns off).
-Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
-Wait at least 15 seconds.
-Plug the power cord back in, *making sure the power button is not being pressed* at the time.
-Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.
-Press the power button on the back to start up your computer.

Latest version that will work with Mac mini Core SOLO under Snow Leopard?

Latest Flash Player 11 versions will work with Snow Leopard, but they say they require a Core Duo or newer processor. What is the last stable version of FP that will work on my mom's Mac mini 1.5Ghz Intel Core Solo (running OS X 10.6.8)?
Have searched archives and web for this and still draw a blank. Thanks!

Fixed it!
I mounted it in target mode again and manually applied the 10.5.4 combo updater ad it now boots again.

Anyone running Parallels on Mini Core Solo?

I've seen widely varying reports (but only a few, not enough to come to a conclusion) about how well (i.e. acceptable speed, or too slow?) the Parallels Desktop virtualization software (which allows running Windows alongside Mac OS X, rather like Virtual PC used to do) runs on the Core Solo Intel Mac mini, which is the only Intel Mac without the Core Duo CPU.
We need to get a Mini for the office, to run QuickBooks (only, no games or anything else); the Core Solo is within budget, the Duo model is beyond it, and more than we need otherwise.
Anyone here tried running Parallels on a Core Solo Mini? Care to share your experience?
Andrew Main

I’ve installed Parallels Desktop and WinXP on my Core Solo with 1GB RAM. I also have a MacBook so I have compared the two.
The Good News:
The speed of Windows in Parallels is what you’d expect from a basic Celeron PC with integrated video from a couple years ago. In other words, if you will be using programs with modest requirements such as word processing, spreadsheet, or database with medium data sets you’ll be fine. Anything that requires graphics acceleration...forget it. Screen redraws are slow because they are done through the Mac. I don’t mean you can watch each pixel be written but you can watch the screen redraw.
I have two tasks that require a PC - one is accessing a .NET based website that only works in WindowsXP and Exploder 6. The day that company has a viable competitor that doesn’t require Exploder we jump. The second is a data mining program. My mini and Parallels Desktop handle this just fine.
The Bad News:
Installing WinXP was something of a challenge and it was only through Parallel’s fantastic forum and tech support that I finally succeeded. But remember - I was on the cutting edge at the time working with a beta product. Parallels ships with a disk image program. I’ve found that it is best to make a disk image of the installation CD rather than use the CD itself. This applies to all CDs.
I also found it impossible to update to WinXP SP2 - my computer always hung during the process. (That may have been a glitch with early beta releases, I don’t know.) Luckily at work we had a WinXP w/ SP2 install CD - and commercial license - that installed without a hitch. But be warned - installing WinXP on a core solo with Parallels is slow. Start in the morning and keep an eye on the screen as it progresses - and don’t expect to use the computer for anything else. The installation will be using 95-99% of the CPU.
BootCamp vs Parallels:
In a word, significant. I’ve not done any benchmarking but when you run WinXP natively you realize just how much horsepower Parallels and OS X is taking away from Windows. Not to mention how much faster the screen redraws.
Differences between Core Solo and Duo:
Night and Day. It is like the difference between running Windows with an older Celeron and a new Pentium (excluding screen redraws which are slow because they are done via the Mac’s graphics package rather than accessing video directly.) On the mini, when I am processing data with the data mining program I can’t use the mini for anything else. Running the same process on my MacBook I can surf, read email, play a couple rounds of Soduko, whatever.
Conclusions:
If your budget is for a core solo consider using BootCamp rather than Parallels. The speed difference isn’t as significant as between solo and duo but it is significant. The Intel Macs boot quickly enough that your downtime isn’t tremendous. Having said that, in my own circumstances I find the speed of Parallels on my mini to be sufficient that I chose it rather than BootCamp. You might also want to consider a refurbished rather than a new core duo. Hope this helps.

Anyone install SL on Mini Core Solo 1.83Ghz with 1GB Ram?

Has anyone done this, how's it working out? Thanks.

There isn't actually a core solo 1.83 mini. The only core solo model was a 1.5, in the first generation of Intel-based minis in 2006.
If you mean a core duo 1.83, then the system certainly meets the minimum spec for Snow Leopard, so the main concern wouldn't be hardware related, but whether or not your software is fully compatible. If you give a run down of the applications you use, that might help to get you some direct assistance!

Mac Mini Core Solo with Bootcamp

I am getting my dad an Intel Mac Mini to replace his PC desktop. He is more familiar with Windows and would like to run XP on the Mac from time to time for things like Office, Firefox, AIM, etc. Is the stock 1.5 GHz Mini sufficient? The Core Duo is a little out of my price range.
Amazon is selling the 1.5 GHz Mini for $599 plus a $25 rebate (no tax, no shipping charges). Anyone here ever bought a Mac from Amazon? How was your experience with them?
15'' 1.5 PB Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I am getting my dad an Intel Mac Mini to replace his
PC desktop. He is more familiar with Windows and
would like to run XP on the Mac from time to time for
things like Office, Firefox, AIM, etc. Is the stock
1.5 GHz Mini sufficient? The Core Duo is a little
out of my price range.
Amazon is selling the 1.5 GHz Mini for $599 plus a
$25 rebate (no tax, no shipping charges). Anyone
here ever bought a Mac from Amazon? How was your
experience with them?
15'' 1.5 PB Mac OS X (10.4.2)
I ordered my Mac Mini from Amazon and had no problems. It was $799 with a $25 rebate, plus no tax. I opted against the free shipping (it takes an extra 3-5 days) and paid for the two-day option. It cost around $17; I figured the no tax and rebate more than paid for that. My Mini made it to my doorstep in two days, as advertised. If you don't mind ordering the stock model, Amazon is a great option. Just do the upgrades later.
Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6) 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HD, SuperDrive, AP/BT

Mac mini Core Solo is a great deal slower then 1.5ghz mac mini G4??

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