Mac Mini Doesn't Finish Booting

I have a Mac Mini (Intel-based, from about 3 years ago or so) and all was working fine (Snow Leopard) and yesterday it hung. After a reboot, it takes 15 mins to get to see the icons on the screen and never fully boots. There is an OS update ready for download as of a week ago or so, but not installed yet. (need to free up some HDD space to do the download). It seems to get to a certain point, moving VERY slowly, but never fully seems to boot up.
Can't access system preferences or any apps/icons on the bottom of the screen. No menu access at the top of the screen.
Pretty much a brick at the moment.
Didn't install Lion yet. I think I have 10.6.7 (didn't install most recent update yet).

About a gig or two left, out of 120GB. I was in the process of clearing up some space for OS and app updates, things seemed to hang and after a reboot, DOG slow. At this time (after a couple of hours of trying to finish booting), can't access finder or any other icons on the bottom of the screen. No icons on the desktop either.

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Mac mini doesn't boot

Hi,
My 2009 Mac mini doesn't boot anymore : all I get is a blank screen, I can't even chose to boot on the restoration drive.
From your experience, what do you think it could be linked with ? motherboard ? RAM ? It doesn't looke like a hard drive issue.
Thanks
Benoît

Hello! I'm having, what sounds like, the same issue. Everything was working fine, until I ran a combined update, as prompted, for 10.8.2. After the normal reboot, the computer boots to a plain, white screen with no Apple. The computer is not responding to any keyboard command at startup, be it any of the reset commands, 'C' to boot to the optical drive, or option to select the startup destination. When pressing the Caps/Num lock keys, I notice that none of the LED lights will turn on on the keyboard. The piggybacked optical mouse is not showing it's red light from the bottom either. These tested fine on my MacBook Pro, however, and have always worked with the Mac Mini. Connecting and reconnecting the devices does not help. I know how to run all of the hard disk repairs, the permission fixes, etc., but it appears as though something is stopping my USB devices from being utilized (or even powered) at startup. I work in IT, and I support Apple computers every day (point being, I do know my stuff).
I opened the case and disconnected the hard drive from the logic board, thinking a potential hard disk issue is to blame. Upon restart, I still get the BONG (chime), but the machine will still not respond to any keyboard commands. Plugging in a USB stick that was created as a Mountain Lion boot device in Disk Utility with the InstallESD.dmg doesn't yield any results (as I am unable to 'tell' the computer to boot from it). The system disc that was packaged with the Mini is in the optical drive, but the Mini won't boot to that either. I'm at a complete loss. This is a 2010 model which was purchased new in December in that year. I'm using HDMI directly to an HDTV. The cable is working, the TV is working, the optical drive works in another machine, and the hard disc makes the necessary sounds (but not anything out of the ordinary).
To reiterate, this happened IMMEDIATELY after installing the combined 10.8.2 update. I am seeing a lot of posts about this issue, but no actual solutions. The dialogue seems to die somewhere after, "Reset the PRAM."
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Mac mini doesn't boot anymore

Hello all,
all of a sudden my Mac Mini (Macmini3,1) stopped booting: no chime, black screen; nothing happens. I didn't upgrade the hardware.
Now I found out that if I reset (== hold down the power switch until powers off, power on again) the mini 3 times in a row when it is "stuck" like that it boots normally the fourth time.
If I then try to restart from Mac OS X the LED flashes fast then there is a long beep (kind of like when there is a firmware upgrade)... and the mini is "stuck" again.
I was wondering if someone had a similiar issue, or if maybe someone had an idea how to fix this.
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To be honest, I think it's over 60Gb of free space. The hard drive is either 320Gb or 360Gb.
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Message was edited by: Ert00044

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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227 explains what kernel panics are, and http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html and http://www.index-site.com/kernelpanic.html may give some assistance in working through the problem to determine the cause.
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Mac mini doesn't boot the first time i turn it on

hello,
i have a strange problem with my mac mini and was wondering if anyone had heard of it before.
when i turn on mac mac, the light comes on and i hear drive noise, but no chime. no video is sent to the display (the monitor flashes "no signal"). however, if i wait for 5 or 10 minutes, turn it off by holding down the power button and then turn it straight back on it again, it starts up as usual (with chime).
could this be a software problem or is it more likely a glitch in the hardware?
mac mini, 1.66ghz intel
mac os x 10.4.11
cheers,
jack.

That doesn't sound like a software/OS problem, because MacOS doesn't begin to load until after the initial startup, including the chime and the grey screen with Apple logo. Since you don't get the chime or display, it sounds like the system has a hardware problem, or perhaps an issue with PRAM.
As a first step I would reset PRAM as follows:
-Shut down the computer.
-Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in the next step but one.
-Turn on the computer.
-Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
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Mac mini doesn't booting

I got a problem with my late 2012 mac mini ( intel core i5 processor, 500GB HDD). I was playing "Call of Duty" when it stopped working(freezed). I tried to press any button on the keyboard but nothing happened. Then I shutted it down by pressing power button. But when I press the power button once again, my mac mini failed to boot. The indicator light is on but there isn't boot sound and the screen is blank either. I tried to restart several times but its still didnt boot. Anyone here can help me? thanks.

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In addition to what DaddyPaycheck said .... What does your Mini report in the window that opens if you do
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Mac Mini doesn't like Philips 32PF9830

Hi all,
I have a problem when connecting my Mac-Mini with the Philips LCD-TV via the DVI. I only get a blank screen, what ever I try.
Here is my history:
I bought a DVI-D (Dual Link, 3m = 10inch?) cable and connected it to the 9830. Immediatley I saw the Mac-Os desktop, but the image was flickering (it looked like a wrong frequency) So I changed the resolution to 1920 x 1080 60Hz. I got an Black screen. Then I rebooted the Mac and I saw the grey Startup screen (the apple with an circle) and then again a black screen. This was also the last time I saw an Image coming from the Mac Mini via the DVI output.
Then I switched to a VGA cable and connected the VGA Cable via 2 DVI-VGA adpaters to the 9830 this only works if I boot the mac without the VGA cable connected and then after the reboot is finished connect the cable to the Mac. What I then see is a 800 x 600 VGA resolution. If i then switch to another resolution I receive again a black screen.
The Mac Mini DVI output is working because I have verified it by connecting it to another LCD display.
I also verified the Philips DVI Input, by connecting it to a PC with DVI video-card also working fine (I experienced a bad image at 1980 x1080 too).
I also tried an DVI-I cable (Single Link, 1,8m) but no improvement. I played around with Switchres x and displayconfigx. Nothing really worked.
I use VNC, so I can easily switch the res at my MAC from my Laptop. I see that when I'm switch the input at my TV the Mac recognizes that there is a LCD display and switches automatically over to a 1280 x 740 resolution (I see this in the VNC screen) but the TV still stays black.
MacOS and Switchres and displayconfigx are detecting the LCD TV correctly. I get only those resolutions displayed in the System settings that are specified by Philips for this TV.
I really don't know what to check else .Every thing works fine but a MAC - Philips connection simply doesn't work.
Here is the DDC file, If anyone can have a look at this or maybe have another suggestion, that would be great.
BTW: It took me so long to convince my wife to buy a Mac Mini for the living room. Now it looks like my wife was all the time right. I hate loosing against my wife !
DDC block generated by SwitchRes X for display
Philips FTV
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 41 0C 00 00 01 01 01 01
1 | 00 00 01 03 80 40 24 78 0A E6 92 A3 54 4A 99 26
2 | 0F 4A 4C 21 08 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 1D 80 D0 72 1C 16 20 10 2C
4 | 25 80 80 68 21 00 00 9E 01 1D 80 18 71 1C 16 20
5 | 58 2C 25 00 80 68 21 00 00 9E 00 00 00 FC 00 50
6 | 68 69 6C 69 70 73 20 46 54 56 0A 20 00 00 00 FD
7 | 00 30 3E 0F 32 09 00 0A 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 E3
Valid DDC block: checksum passed
EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........PHL
Product Code........0 (0000) (0000)
Serial Number.......16843009
Manufactured........Week 0 of year 1990
Max H Size..........64 cm
Max V Size..........36 cm
Gamma...............2.20
DPMS Supported Features:
Display type:
RGB color display
Input signal & sync:
Digital
Color info:
Red x = 0.640 Green x = 0.290 Blue x = 0.150 White x = 0.289
Red y = 0.330 Green y = 0.600 Blue y = 0.060 White y = 0.299
Established Timings:
800 x 600 @ 60Hz
640 x 480 @ 60Hz
1024 x 768 @ 60Hz
Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
Standard Timing Identification:
Monitor Description blocks:
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 50Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............720 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............528 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........28.12kHz
Vertical freq...........50.04Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity
Descriptor #1 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1920 x 540 @ 60Hz
H. Active...............1920 pixels
H. Blanking.............280 pixels
V. Active...............540 lines
V. Blanking.............22 lines
HSync Offset............88 pixels
HSync Pulse Width.......44 pixels
VSync Offset............2 lines
VSync Pulse Width.......5 lines
Pixel Clock.............74.25MHz
Horizontal freq.........33.75kHz
Vertical freq...........60.05Hz
H Image Size............640mm
V Image Size............360mm
H Border................0 pixels
V Border................0 lines
Interlaced
Sync: Digital separate with
* Positive vertical polarity
* Positive horizontal polarity
Descriptor #2 is Monitor name:
Philips FTV
Descriptor #3 is Monitor limits:
Horizontal frequency range.......15-50 kHz
Vertical frequency range.........48-62 Hz
Maximum bandwidth unspecified
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Concerning "Shouldn't here also appear the video formats ? How does the Mac detects the other formats, if they are not in the DDC ?"
Those are standard video timings and they pre-exist inside Mac OS, though I don't know exactly which file contains them. Honestly I don't know how the Mac can know which video timings your TV can work from because DDC is not supported over video connections like S-Video and Composite Video as far as I am aware. Perhaps when you previously made a DVI connection and the EDID was read, the information about supported ranges in Descriptor #3 (near the bottom of the EDID file) was matched to the pre-existing video timings inside Mac OS and only those which matched up to your TV are presented in Display Preferences. I am just guessing.
I doubt cable length is giving problems. True the mini has poor drive out the VGA port but I have not heard the same of the DVI port. I use an inexpensive 3m DVI cable with my mini and TV it works without issue.
One other thing you might want to try since you are seeing video timings which you would like to access when making a DVI or VGA connection...as far as I know, if you boot a Mac and hold down Command-Opt-A-V keys all together while the Mac starts up, this will force the Mac to treat the attached display as an AV display. In that case the video timings you see may become available under Display Preferences even though you are making a "PC" connection (VGA or DVI) and not a video connection. I am not sure this will work but it is worth a try.

Mac Mini Doesn't Finish Booting

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