Mac mini is unresponsive,

Question

The first thing that was going on was, the machine would start up like normal, the desk top would pop up and the dock, but the icons on the desk would not show up and the tool bar at the top would not fully load then the machine shuts off? We then made the update for safari and iTunes and that did not seam to do anything earthier.We tried to use the safe boot to start up the mini to try and fix it from there and that made things worse. The system starts up like normal, we heard the chime and then the apple screen came up and the gear started turning, but then the machine would not stop thinking and just stayed in that mode. We then tried resetting the the PMU, so we went through that procedure and now it starts up gets to the apple screen starts thinking ( small gear turning ) for a moment and then shuts off. Help, we are stuck now and not sure what to try next. I know it must be something pretty simple??? Right?

Answer 1

Do you have the original install disc that shipped with your Mini?
Is your data backed up? Or do you need to rescue it?
Is the Mini operating in a dusty or hot environment? One cause for spontaneous shutdown, is that the CPU is overheating, and the Mini shuts down to protect itself from frying.
If you have the original install disc, I would start up from it and use it to do hardware diagnostics. You do this by inserting the disc while the Mini is "on", then restart the Mini and hold down the D key as soon as your hear the startup chime or beep. Keep holding until you see the "gear" spinning.
You can do a similar procedure to verify or repair your hard drive. Hold down the C key instead of the D key. Then once booted into the install disc, don't re-install, but instead select DiskUtility from the Utility menu at the top of the screen.