Intel Mac Mini constantly resetting then kernel panic

I've got a Mac Mini that on start up just constantly resets, I've tried to boot from the OS X install discs but as soon as the installer starts to load I get a Kernel Panic.
Can't think of anything else really, the machine's not been fiddled with or opened up. I've done the usual disconnect the cables and hold the power button reset but that doesn't help
Picture of the panic is here:
http://lenore.newmeja.com/stuff/panic.jpg

It's definitely not been opened, its kept in a locked room with a kensington lock on it. It's definitely the original Apple RAM.
I've tried booting from some other Mac Mini install media and I get the same kernel panic.
Need to get the machine back up quickly so I've been in touch with Apple who are just going to repair it under warranty.

Similar Messages

MAC Mini A1176 (MA607B/A) Kernel Panic / Not Booting

Hello,
I have a mac mini MA607B/A 1.66/2x1GB/60GB HDD, that is not booting. It Chimes and hands on the apple logo.
I searched this forum and I performed every solution I found. The mac is still doing the same thing.
I also changed the battery but no joy.
I inserted the CD that came with the MAC mini and it does exactly the same while booting from the cd.
I did a H/W check by holding the CMD+D keys and all tests were passed successfuly !!!
I booted in Verbiose mode and I have attached the log as a photo in this thread.
I really have no clue why it gives a kernel panic on CPU...
Temperature seems to be normal and the fan is working.
Any suggestions how to resolve this?

Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
I tried to boot in Open Firmware mode but it crashes almost imediately.
I have also Installed OSX 10.6 on an external usb hard drive of mine and tried to boot from that and it does exactly the same. I noticed that the external hard drive's light is on and binking while the computer is loading which means that it reads OS files. and after a while when the MAC freezes, the light goes completely off like there is no power supplied to it.
It does exactly the same thing even if i put the original disc that came with it and try to boot from that.
I entered Verbose mode again and now it always freezes after the "AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: Ready" line
Also the keyboard is not responding and the lighs of the keyboard are off as well.

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.

Intel Mac mini as a faxserver with more then one USB-Modems?

Hi there,
does anybody have a clue if this idea will work?
We plan to buy a Intel Mac mini and someone had the idea to use it additionally as a faxserver - BUT, we'll need more the one fax-line. So, I wonder if it is possible to buy 3 or even 4 external USB-Modem from Apple to use all of them.
Does anyone tried this before?
Any comments are welcome!
Thanks in advance, Chris.
Mac mini Core Duo, 2GB, 120GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hello Chris,
incl. a four line fax-card. Why isn't it a good
choice?
From my experience the Mac's make a terrible fax machine.
I have tried receiving faxes with a 1.8 GHz iMac G5 (with built-in modem), a 2.0 GHz iMac G5 (with built-in modem), and my 1.25 GHz Mac Mini (with built-in modem).
In every single case, and experiment, they dropped the fax after the first page.
So, that means that I've gone round and round trying to get beyond the first page received without trouble.
I do have a real fax machine, and never have any trouble receiving faxes on the same line with it. So, I only use the computer as a fax when I want to only receive the first page (for example the many local doctors who send me their customers private details).
In the case of the doctors, my phone rings frequently with customer's private details. All I want is the first page so I can call the doctor and tell them to quit sending me faxes.
They will send, send, and re-send until a fax machine answers. It keeps the phone busy all day if I don't receive the fax.
But, it costs money to receive the 30-page faxes just to stop the phone ringing. So, I let the computer capture the first page, and then call them and demand that they quit calling me (which works for a couple of days).
You wouldn't believe the information they have sent me. And, with an older doner-film fax, a 30-page document is mighty expensive.
What really gets me, is when they had the nerve to request me to invest even more money and pay to mail the fax back to them. I tell them their free to drive here and get it, otherwise, it's going in the garbage.
I can tell you from experience, that your medical records are not safe with a doctor. They just assume they are dialing the right number, and will send your entire personal history (and even family history - I've received generations of information) to just about anyone with a fax machine.
Anyway, now that I explained how I use mine, I hope you can better understand why a real fax machine is going to serve you better.
The tolerance of a real fax machine will prevent you from constantly trying to receive the same fax over and over and over again.

Intel Mac Mini stuck in reboot loop

I just upgraded the hard drive in my 2007 intel mac mini core duo. Drive formatted successfully, contains GUID Partition Table.
OSX 10.5 installed successfully.
Machine rebooted, I ran software update to 10.5.7 successfully.
Upon installing Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, machine began to react slowly to commands.
Rebooted machine, went to Grey Apple Screen with spinning dash wheen icon.
Machine rebooted itself, once again going to the grey apply screen with the spinning wheel.
After about 15 minutes of letting the continual reboot cycle happen, I inserted the installation DVD for 10.5, held the power button in to power off the machine, and booted from the disk.
I ran disk utility. Disk Utility shows the hard drive, shows the partition (GUID Partition) correctly.
I Verified Disk, which verified as "OK"
Repaired permissions.
Restarted machine.
Once again, it loaded to the grey apple screen, stayed there with the spinning dash wheel for about 3 minutes then continued to reboot over and over (everytime it reboots it sticks on the grey apple screen for 3 minutes before rebooting.
I once again powered off the machine and reset the PRAM.
Machine stuck again on reboot cycle.
I powered off the machine and reset the mini's SMC.
Machine is still stuck in reboot cycle.
I have also taken the mini back apart and verified that all RAM and connections are seated properly.
Any advice on what to do at this point will be very helpful.

+And I promise I will not download and install a hundred different programs this time.+
Good idea.
Any time you install software in OSX, there is a small, but finite, chance that the installation process won't be able to access a needed file because it is in use. This can mess up pre-binding, or even prevent files from being updated.
So the best advice is not to run any other programs while doing software installs or updates. And when in doubt, run DiskUtility afterwards and fix permissions one more time.
I cringe whenever I think of a post I read a while back about a Mac user who boasted about what music he likes to run in iTunes while doing system software updates. Not a good idea. It's "Russian roulette" with maybe 99 blanks in the "gun", but one real bullet that can kill your Mac's installation.

Need help with Intel Mac mini... potential logic board failure...

Hey everyone! For the past couple years, I've been using an Intel Mac mini which I was able to afford before rough times hit for me. It has been a champ for a long time, until recently. In the past week, the clock would lose time ever so often, and last week, whenever I'd try to power it up in the morning (as I shut it down every night), it wouldn't start up most times (meaning, you hit the power, nothing... no LED, no fan, nothing on screen, nada). After a while, I would somehow manage to get it to start. I assumed at this point, the lithium battery (coin type CR2032, not the traditional 1/2 AA purple battery) was shot. Since I'm in the middle of a job transition, I was waiting until I had time to put in a new battery, which I was planning to do this weekend. Then Wednesday happened...
I go to start it, nothing... A week before this, I started losing time and sometimes it would not boot. I figured eventually I would be able to start it since I was able to sometimes get it to start after a half hour or more. That didn't happen. So I decided to go ahead and swap in the new battery. I do that, power it up, nothing. I reset the SMC (same as PMU on the PPC Macs), to no avail. I reseated the RAM, and did everything I could think of, but it's deader than Elvis. I also had took the power supply to a guy who had a voltimeter. He said voltage was getting to all pins.
I went back and read some of the archives on this board. Someone mentioned something about a repair exception. It mentioned that sometimes if you call AppleCare (even if you don't have it) and ask for a repair exception, sometimes they'll agree to have the logic board replaced due to it being a documented problem. How true is this and who should I contact?
Can anyone suggest anything here? If I can't revive the mini, I may have to drag my iMac back out and try to set it up to run OS X. I can't no where near afford another computer at this point. I'm praying the mini can be fixed. I would appreciate any and all suggestions!
Thanks in advance!
Tommy

It does sound like the logic board has gone bad. However, there are no current repair extension programs open on the Mac Minis.
This page lists the open extensions:
http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/
So that's not an option. I assume that the Mini doesn't have AppleCare (whoops.), so I would not count on Apple covering it, but it's always worth a shot. You can call AppleCare (1-800-275-2273) or visit your local Apple Store

Someone tell me why is it so difficult to print from my Intel Mac Mini

I'm so frusrated at this Intel Mac Mini of mine. I wish honest to God that I never bought this evil little machine.
I have the following printers:
HP Photosmart 7550
HP Laserjet 1012
Canon MP830
I can't get anything to print! It so **** frustrating. I switched my wife from her WinXP to a Intel Mac Mini (10.4.6). She hates the Mac Mini because she can't print anything.
Why is it so difficult? Please someone enlighten me.
After months (not kidding) of searching on the web I was able to get the Photosmart 7550 to print using one of the gimp drivers, but I couldn't get it to change the paper type or quality. So that tells me I can't print any photos from my Mac. Need to use the WinXP box.
Then I was able to get the 1012 printing by selecting "open using rosetta" for the Printer Setup Utility, and selecting the "HP LaserJet 4 series - Gimp-Print v5.0.0-beta2". So now I could at least print BW docs. Great the Mac Mini is not a total waste. Then I updated software, which include the Mac mini SMC Firmware Update. I don't know what did it, but now I can't print to the 1012 anymore. ARGHH!
I tried deleting the Library/Printer/HP directory, Reseting the Printing System, Restarting the CUPs, Installing PDDs, Installing the gimp drivers. What the ****! Why do I need to do any of this? I thought the Mac was suppose to be so easy. With all those **** commercials talking about how the Mac can do anything a PC can do, you would think one of those things is being able to print.
Those people making those commericals should try using the "Printer Setup Utility" program. That will change their tune. First you have to search for your printer, then pick the Printer Model, and then pick the specific model. And God forbid you click to fast, oops you've now picked a generic printer, needs to start all over again. There's no back button. You've already committed to the generic printer type. Now you have to open the Printer Setup Utility again and delete the generic printer and go search for your printer again. Lame.
Don't get me started with the Canon MP 830. I thought, ok maybe its because the 1012 and 7550 are older printers. I'll go buy a new printer - they must have current drivers for that. Canon tells me that the MP 830 is only a single OS machine, meaning you can only connect it to a windows machine and only other windows machines can print from it, or connect it to a Mac, and only other Macs can use it - Again, Lame.
Really I wanted to love the Mac OS. When I first got it, I was loving it. But what good is it if I can't print. I searched the web and it seems I'm not the only person having issues with printing.
I hate this Intel Mac Mini with every fiber of my being. Ok, maybe my printing woes are only because it's a Intel chip, and the PPC macs are golden. But come on, if you can't print from a computer, what good is it?
Please, someone help me. Otherwise, anybody want to buy a Intel dual core Mac Mini?
mac mini duo core Mac OS X (10.4.6)

You have two different issues: HP and Canon.
I don't know if I believe the Canon people. Windows XP has lots of different print options. Try installing Bonjour on Windows and then setting up a networked, Color Apple Laserwriter PS printer using "http://macmini.local:631" (assuming macmini is the name of your Mac). I have done this before (though not on a Canon). I am sure Canon will only support a standard configuration and this is not quite standard. Give it a try. It doesn't sound like it can hurt anything in your current setup.
For the HP, you might have to just wait for an updated driver from HP. HP has always had this problem. They are a huge printer company and I'm sure they get Apple hardware and OS versions before anybody else in the world. And yet, it seems as if they don't even begin working on their drivers until Apple officially releases a new OS. HP drivers are always the last to show up for a new OS and the first to break. If you get it working under MacOS 10.4.6, and then upgrade to 10.4.7, it is very likely that the HP drivers will stop working.
Unlike some of the other big companies, HP seems to have made the transition from Classic MacOS to MacOS X seamlessly. Their printer driver software works just as well on MacOS X as it did under MacOS.

Blinking Green Light! Mount & Unmount on Intel Mac mini

Hi all.
This is my sister's iPod shuffle, lat night she plugged into her new Intel Mac mini Core Duo, and the shuffle mounts, everything appears to be in working order, she said today she still listened to it.
Just now she accidently plugged the shuffle while in our Dad's account (on the Mac mini as well), then seemed like "all well broke loose", this is what she told me, first iTunes was not responsive, colour wheel, so she restarted but only arrived at the blank desktop and only the shadow of the Top Menu Bar
I reset the iPod shuffle, was successful in plugging it in, quit iTunes (all in her own account now) and update the shuffle software.
When inside iTunes, once I started Autofill, it suddenly unmounted by itself, followed by the red exclamation error message when you accidently remove an external device unproperly.
When I tried plugging in again, it refuses to mount. Just blinking Green, or pull out again, blinking Yellow.
Now I plug it into my own iMac G5, and it mounts and is blinking slowly with yellow light, what seems to be normal charging.
Has this something got to do with the Intel Mac??
Thanks and cheers

This probably has nothing to do with the Mini, but everything to do with the Shuffle. Like all flash memory, it is susceptible to damage if unplugged at the wrong time.
For the shuffle, you cannot remove it while it is updating or in Disk Mode. This warning is presented in the User's Guide and is repeated in several other places throughout the Support pages as well.
The general rule is: If it's blinking amber, don't unplug it before you unmount it. Unmounting can be done either in iTunes or in the Finder.
About all you can do, given the symptoms you're seeing, is try to Restore it. See the instructions in the User's Guide and/or on the iPod Shuffle Support Page.

Blank screen, Intel Mac mini, Samsung P23700 LCD monitor; HELP!?!

I just got a new 23" Samsung LCD monitor and hooked it up to an Intel Mac mini. Turning on the system results in a blank screen with the monitor simply displaying a dialog box that seems to show that it is trying to figure out if the incoming signal is digital or analog. This dialog box is on for a few seconds and then the monitor goes to sleep. The monitor realizes that there is a signal coming in; As soon as I disconnect the DVI cable I get the standard "Check Signal Cable" on the monitor's screen. I don't even get the initial white screen on the Mac boot up. nothing. just the monitor's confused signal identifying dialog.
I've tried connecting the Mac mini to the monitor with a DVI to DVI cable and a DVI to VGA to DVI connection, with the same result.
I've also tried the monitor with an older PowerPC based Mac mini with the same result.
Both Macmini's work with out a problem when connected to my 32" LCD TV with a DVI to HDMI cable.
I also tried the Samsung monitor with a little Windows XP running laptop using the VGA to DVI cable and the monitor worked like a charm; I think that fact has been the most painful part of the process up to now.
The windows machine's screen set up that worked was 1280x800 at 40Hz. I can't get a resolution like that on the Mac's display settings. I've only been able to hook it up to the LCD TV, and the display settings when hooked up to the TV are limited to LCD TV settings; i.e. 1080i. I've also tried setting the mac mini to 800x600 but still get no picture.
Resetting PRAM etc. didn't help either.
I'm stuck... any ideas people?

I've tried connecting the Mac mini to the monitor with a DVI to DVI cable...
That should work.
and a DVI to VGA to DVI connection...
That won't work. Once you go from DVI to VGA from the mini, you need to stay VGA. There is no going back to digital. So try DVI to VGA and then a VGA cable to the Samsung.
I also tried the Samsung monitor with a little Windows XP running laptop using the VGA to DVI cable and the monitor worked like a charm;...The windows machine's screen set up that worked was 1280x800 at 40Hz.
I wouldn't call that working like a charm. 1280 x 800 at 40Hz is a completely bizarre resolution for a 23" monitor, or any monitor. I would begin wondering if you got a bad monitor if that's the best it can do.

Dead Intel Mac Mini - any electronics geniuses?

Hi all,
Shortly after powering on my personal 1.66 GHz Intel Mac Mini last night it went straight off not to turn on again.
It made the startup chime and began booting but that was as far as it got. Now completely dead.
Luckily I am an independent Mac repairer and have access to a known good power supply so that was the first thing I checked but no luck - still dead.
Have obviously reset PMU and SMC as well as every other trick I know but it resolutely remains lifeless.
Have removed all peripherals (HD, SuperDrive, AP and BlueTooth) and shorted across the power button switch (just in case it was a duff button)
I have arrived at the conclusion it is something power related - a dead GPU or CPU would usually still give a glimmer of life but there is absolutely nothing happening - plus the fact that it started to boot then went straight off rather than froze.
I'm handy with a soldering iron and know how to use a multimeter but need a helping hand locating/testing for dead components at board level
Does anybody know what component/components might be causing this? Any help gratefully received as always
Ryan

Not exactly your same problem, but an interesting thread here that might help:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9524465#9524465

Bluetooth Not Available on Intel Mac mini

I keep losing the Bluetooth wireless connection between my Apple wireless mouse and keyboard and my Intel Mac mini (which is running Mac OSX 10.5.5)
Tried re-booting but it doesn't always come back.
Looked in System Preferences, but if the connection is lost, Bluetooth has disappeared as if not installed. If the connection is present then all seems OK. You can check battery levels etc.
Left to itself Bluetooth can re-appear sometime later as mysteriously as it disappeared, maybe after half an hour or so. Very annoying as I have to result to using an Apple USB mouse and keyboard when the connection is lost.
Tried running Bluetooth Updater but it says I haven't got Bluetooth if the connection is lost! But it came pre-installed on purchase. Problem only seems to have started since upgrading to Leopard. Never had this problem with Tiger.
Any thoughts would be most welcome.
regards,
BJ

Ok, I've resolved this on my machine, at least for the time being.
Here is what I did. I am not advising anyone else to do this and I am in-no-way stating this will fix your problem. I'm just relaying what worked for me. If anyone chooses to try this then it's on their own head!
I opened my Mac Mini and located the Bluetooth circuit board just in front of the rear power button. I removed the small phillips screw holding the board in place and noticed that the connector that connects the board to the main motherboard was not seated well. I removed the connector and reattached it, making sure I felt the 'click' as the connector was pushed home.
I had also read on the net that the routing of the bluetooth ariel cable may cause problems due to interference from the USB ports. I took the opportunity to extract the ariel and run it over the disk and away from the USB ports. Before putting the lid back on I booted up to check Bluetooth was working again.
So, I now have my Mac Mini with Bluetooth working again. We shall see how long this lasts - perhaps the root cause was a loose connection, in which case it may be fixed permanently now. I shall report back in a few weeks.
Be aware that opening your Mac is going to invalidate any warranty. Mine was out of warranty anyway so I was not bothered. I've also got a degree in software and electronic engineering so know my way round the insides of computers. Please make your own assessment of your level of expertise before deciding to try what I did. It may not work for you anyway!

Need Advice: New Intel Mac Mini Still In The Box

Hi!
Okay.. I know... I have several posts going here as I have several issues I am trying to solve rather simultaneously. Thanks for being patient with me.
I have my old 1.25 Ghz PowerPC Mac Mini running 10.4.11 and all was well and happy. Then Security Update 2007-009 happened and all went to ....well... you know and, yes, it was bad! Went to Apple, got it running of sorts as they re-installed the OS, but they used an old version of OS X. (10.4.7. Can you believe that?) This caused other problems. It continues to have all sorts of difficulties, as I have had to get applications to re-recognize that the computer is back up to 10.4.11. Currently, I am struggling with trying to get iTunes to access it's music folders on the external hard drives. Realized that I hadn't even gotten around to figuring out whether or not some of my other applications work, like some of the games and third party, etc.
The thing is I got a new Intel Mac Mini for Christmas and it's still in the box because as I suspected I need to get my old mac perfect again before I can even think about migrating stuff over to the new Mac. But.. here's the thing... it's starting to look pretty much like 2008 will come and go before I can get the old Mac ready enough to take the new Mac out of the box. This really is rather silly!
Now... I can't get the old Mac to see the music and it made me think. I have all of my iTunes music and iPhoto backed up on an external hard drive (I used Apple's "Back-up" software to do it) and in addition to this two complete copies of the iTunes music and iPhoto photos albums on two separate external hard drives. Should I just forget using migration assistant? Can I get my music and my photo albums into the new mac directly from the external hard drives?
Or...can I use "back up" to restore the music and photos into the new Mac?
I am starting to think that the best way to get my new Mac running is not risk it by attaching it to my old Mac. What do you think?
Thank you so much for any advice or experiences you can give. -Charlotte

I know that I am vacillating back and forth as to what to do. Thanks so much for being patient with me. All of your advice is really appreciated and I am at least closing in on deciding on my strategy. Probably will follow your first response advice, especially considering that some of the third party apps may not have updates to handle Leopard quite yet. Anyway... it's a good strategy since everything is on the externals anyway.
You can say that fine.
Ha ha ha.... yes, I've been messing around with computers since my parents bought our first Apple computer back in 1979. Just like you, I've never had a serious problem with any of the computers and we've had them all, running all sorts of things from the Original Apple and Apple IIc (which my parents still have and it still runs!) to the Commodore and all the Windows permeations and then on to the Macs running Jaguar, Panther and Tiger, probably because we've always been careful with the machines and what we install in them and how we update them. I have always kept my computers on UPS' and un-plug them when storms brew outside. As it is I am still using my eight year old Windows 98 computer, (for games mostly) and it still runs quicker than most peoples windows pcs and it's only a 740 Megahertz.
I haven't had to re-install anything, especially on this lovely little Mac Mini until now and wouldn't have in this situation, had I known more. I had taken the little Mac Mini in for a Procare "Tune-Up," only four days before the big up-date disaster. Not sure what they did to my mac in the tune-up but the guy gave me back the machine assuring me that the computer was perfect with no problems in answer to my asking "were they sure?" Even after the Genius Bar techs at the Apple Store re-installed the OS to fix the big problems it seems that no one ever thought to run verify disk. Had the Genius Bar techs at the time of the tune-up done this, or at least told me to do this, the last security update would not have wrecked so much havoc. It was only after I got the machine back from Apple that second time that I found that the directory had been corrupted when I ran disk verify. Actually it is amazing that I have had this little Mac Mini for so long and so not have had any problems on it that I would be able to go so long without having to know this really pretty important aspect of keeping one's mac in good running shape. I had been running maintenance scripts and permissions verify and repair and thought that was all there was to it. Silly! You know... that really is a testimony of how nice these little machines are.
Anyway... experience is a good teacher and I have learned so much it's actually been great! This stuff is pretty interesting.
Now... on to Leopard!
Thanks so much and you have a great New Year! -Charlotte

Best app for QT on Intel Mac Mini kiosk?

Hi all:
I've sent variations of this message off to various folks and fora pertaining to Flash, Director, Livestage, etc., so I thought I'd ask here as well.
I'm working on a very high profile exhibit here in NYC, which is opening to the public on Sept. 11th (draw your own conclusions). It involves a number of standard definition (not HD) video-based kiosks.
These are running on bottom of the line off-the-shelf single-core Intel Mac Minis w/ 512MB RAM. No, we cannot change the platform. We have to make it work with what we have.
We built our prototype in Director. Unfortunately, using QT in Director projects on Intel-based Macs is a non-starter, because Director executables are not Universal Binary yet.
The app is very simple -- a black background that just waits to trigger the video on a mouse click and returns to the black background when the movie is done playing.
The key thing is we need to display the highest possible image quality. We had hoped to use H.264. We've also tried 3IVX and Motion JPEG B, all of which play beautifully in the QT Player but stutter noticeably once in Director. This turns out to be a known problem, and a Universal Binary version of Director isn't due until next year.
I've also tried making a QuickTime Media Link (QTL) file that allows us to "quit when done" so that we can use BuddyAPI to open the program with the QT Player and then drop back to the Director app when done.
That works great, except for the fact that as of OSX 10.3, you can't hide the menu of an app when switching to another app, which looks terrible. Arrgh.
Flash's Player v9 (which is Universal Binary) only runs in a Browser, not as a standalone. So unless there's a browser that will run fullscreen with no chrome, that's out for the foreseeable future as well.
So now I'm thinking about building the whole thing as a self-contained QT movie in Livestage.
Livestage only runs in Rosetta, so I don't know if the QT file I build run natively in the QT player, so that I can use h.264 or 3IVX or whatever without it stuttering. I'd be perfectly happy w/ 3IVX, by the way...
Any help or direction appreciated. We have to have this up and running on site by next Monday, the 14th.
best,
FBC

Right -- well, I'm not concerned with editing the video (I use FCP, too).
I completely understand the role of bitrate in making videos look good, and for the record, I've gotten decent looking videos from Motion JPEG B at the Medium (default) quality settings...
But that's not my question here. The problem is playing back any QT codec as an asset in a larger application (eg, Flash, Director, Livestage) running specifically on the Intel Mac Minis. At the root of the problem is lack of universal binary projectors.
At the moment, the best option I have so far is using SAFT to put Safari into Kiosk mode (no title bar, etc.) and using that to play back a Flash SWF file (which give me the needed interactivity) as the default home page.
We're also going to try to roll our own Cocoa app as a wrapper for a 3ivx file. That will almost certainly look better than even a very high bandwidth FLV/SWF.
Any other ideas appreciated...

New Intel Mac Mini Start-up Problems

I've recently purchased a new Intel Mac Mini (my first Mac after switching from a PC). Several times (probably once a day), the mac mini won't start-up.
I've noticed it happens after I've used iPhoto or iDVD. The mini becomes busy and performance seems to slow. After the software has finished its task, I can exit the application fine and shut down the mini.
When I then go to boot the mini, the little blue light comes up, but nothing else happens. It's almost as though it's in sleep mode (which it isn't). I've tried different ways to wake it using the keyboard, mouse and start button, but nothing.
The Mac Mini will only start-up again if it is unplugged from the mains and left for several minutes.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is there something I'm doing wrong that my lack of Mac knowledge may not be aware of?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I have been frustrated by the same issue. My (admittedly non-professional) diagnosis is that the problem is related to heat build up. I am able to boot normally only after forcing a hard shut down and waiting for "a while" (5 minutes is not enough, 30 minutes does the trick). Thus my hypothesis that an appropriate cooling down period is needed.
Any similar thoughts? I'm calling Apple today...

Intel Mac mini vs PowerMac Dual G5 storage server

I would like to setup a server to store family pictures, iTunes purchases and other media. Also I would like to use it as a backup for important documents and data.
I have a Intel Mac Mini 1.66 and a G5 PowerMac dual 1.8GHz.
I have purchased 4 400GB drives and I am trying to figure out the best solution for the money.
I would like to put the drives into external enclosures like OWC 2 drive FW800/FW400 and use the first pair as either RAID 0 or use the hardware spanning, and the 2nd pair as the backup.
Will this be too much for the FW400 bus of the Mac Mini, seeing I also use an EyeTV 500/200 solution to capture TV and burn DVDs. I will do video editing, iMovie, iPhoto stuff.
I would like to sell the G5, but would it make more sense to install 2 drives in the G5 and use 1 external enclosure with FW800 for the backup? I would like at least 1 external enclosure for the backup?
Any suggestion would help.
Thanks!

I have both of the systems to which you refer. I am typing to you on my G5 dual 2 ghz. I have an older G4 dual with 4 drives in it that I use for backup purposes, I do not use a fileserver at home in the sense of what you are talking about. My mini is my entertainment system with 1 TB of storage, my purchases are made on the G5 then transferred to the mini (giving me a backup of all purchases) and the G4 is used to back up the entire library from my mini (not as often as I should though! )
I know Wiebetech used to make an internal setup that expanded the G5's drive capacity from 2 to 4. While you said you wanted at least one external enclosure, that option would eliminate the need for an external case, another power cord, etc. so it may be worth looking into. I do not recall the name of the product but I know wiebetech manufactured it. Perhaps someone else knows the name or you could go to the company website. It is also possible in the G5 forum there is someone who owns the product as well.
As to which one to use, selling the G5 and having just a 2 drive or 4 drive enclosure hooked to the mini is most certainly a significant space saver over the G5 (not to mention not having to either have 2 separate machines with 2 monitors, keyboards or a KVM or VNC type setup) There are many good enclosures on the market, not just single but multiple drive enclosures which could be a better/smaller footprint/economical way to go vs. 4 individual enclosures (again, wiebetech is a noteworthy manufacturer of such items...no, I don't work for them
I too have eye tv hooked to the min as well as the 2 external drives I mentioned (250gb and 750gb) all via firewire. There should be no problem with the setup you mention as far as firewire is concerned and the mini. At least, not in my experience.
Good luck, let us know what you decide and feel free to ask more questions. I will gladly help if I can (can't say I helped this time, probably gave you more questions than answers!)
Message was edited by: CaptTB

Intel Mac Mini constantly resetting then kernel panic

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