Mac mini overheat?

I have a mac mini with an intel core 2 duo 1.83 ghz and 1 gb of ram. Last night I was making a movie as I have done before using imovie 08. After I was done it has to render and all that stuff during this time the motherboard started beeping, so I check my temperature monitor (3-rd party) and it read 85 degrees Celsius. I was wondering if this was to hot. Should I have it looked at?

I have the exact same mini as yours, except with 10.4.11. I do video encoding quite often, so my processor is usually running at maximum capacity for 2 or 3 hours at a time. According to iStat menus, while encoding video the processor gets up to 90 or 95 degrees Celsius, and it stays like that the whole time. Also, the fan doesnt go higher than 2300rpm, unless I use smcFanControl to run it faster.
My mini runs fine even at these temperatures, and I haven't had my motherboard start beeping or anything like that. You may want to call Apple or take it to the Apple Store if it is still in warranty.

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Mac mini optical audio failure

Hi, I ask for help regarding a problem that is affecting me about my Mac Mini 3,1 with Lion 10.7.1 connected to an amp with optical cable Sony HT minitoslink -> toslink.
Until a few days ago, everything has always worked perfectly. In these days, after turning on the mac mini, the audio comes easily to the amp, so I can see DVD movies and MKV in multichannel audio mode. After about 10 minutes, while the video continues, the sound stops. I try to restart the mac mini but the problem remains.
In addition, when i disconnect the optical cable from the amplifier side, the red light is not present. If I link a headphone to macmini or set-up to internal speaker analog audio works fine.
If I turn off the mac mini and power back up after fifteen minutes, the optical digital audio back, but it turns off after 10 minutes.
I tried to connect the cable to another macbook: it works regularly and the red light is turned on regularly for some time.
I did a clean install of Snow Leopard 10.6.7 on a USB drive and unfortunately there are the same audio issues.
In your opinion can be a problem with cable or there is a problem on macmini sound card?
I tried to reset the PRAM and SMC, permission repair, delete audio preferences, but nothing changes.
I also tried the Apple Hardware Test and the Apple Diagnostic Disk and the result is okay.
Can you help me?
Thank you for your attention

Hello, I solved the problem. I moved the Mac mini in a ventilated place, then I turned it on and I put the headphones into the "audio out". I restarted the computer three times, then I put the optical cable and everything works as before!
The CPU temperature was 72 ° C. I used the software smcFanControl and the temperature dropped to 52 ° C. I think the Mac Mini overheats so much. Now is okay, I have seen many movies in Dolby Digital and DTS.
I hope that you solve the problem.
Goodbye!

How reliable is the Mac Mini or iMac (2009) models?

Greetings to you all. I have a question directed at anyone who owns the 2009 Mac Mini or has recently bought a Mac Mini either last year 2009 or this year, 2010. My Acer Aspire L-100 finally died on 29th Dec 2009 as a result of USB failure caused by a windows auto update. Fed up with Microsoft, I am thinking about switching over to Mac and thought the Mac Mini or iMac would be a good start. I am however troubled by the numerous complaints I am reading on the Apple website posts regarding the 2009 model Mac Mini loosing sound after a month or two of use and some posts claim that the sound on their Mac Mini is distorted, crackling and some had broken systems out of the box. How many of you have had similar sound issues with the Mac Mini? Also, is it better to get the iMac 21.5 inch instead? Has anyone had hardware issues with the Mac Mini and or the 21.5 inch iMac in less than 2-6 months of use? If so please let me know so that I can make up my mind, whether to purchase Mac computer platform or just build my own customized machine. What I need to know is, how reliable or durable is the mac mini computer, especially the 2009 model and how does the mac mini, especially with its small size, handle temperatures? Does the mac mini overheat? Please help. All information will be highly appreciated.

Remember, Apple offers a 1 year hardware warranty and 90 days free software support, both of which can be extended to three years from date of computer's purchase. This means if you appear to have what is a technical issue with your machine off the bat, Apple will cover the lemon issue, if it is obvious it is not an issue you the user could have caused. Mind you, if issues appear much later during the ownership, it gets harder to justify that it is a manufacturer issue. As long as you don't upgrade the internal hardware, the hardware test CD that comes with the machine will be able to tell if there is a manufacturer issue with the machine. All bets are off, if you change the RAM, or hard drive beyond the specs of the machine. Apple publishes the specs of the machine on http://support.apple.com/
Your machine shouldn't overheat unless you excede the published specs.
The advantage of the Mac is that malware and viruses are practically a nonissue, and everything you usually could desire is already built-in to the machine. So while you could build your own machine, you can't really get the integrated hardware and software as you do with the Mac.
Yes, the 27" iMac has been hit hard with issues, more around the display than anything else. I for one, if were forced to get an iMac, would get the 21.5".
I've not seen any specific Mac Mini issues really come to the fore.
If sound is lost on a Mac Mini, it usually is due to the fact that minijack connectors themselves are fragile to begin with, and endusers tend to jiggle them a lot in the connector, causing the connectivity to get lost. If you are careful to follow these directions about cables*:
http://www.macmaps.com/frayguide.html
You should avoid most of those issues. Thankfully there are 5 USB ports on Mac Minis, and USB audio is frequently better than the built-in audio, except when adding your own 5.1 speaker system with mini-Toslink connector speakers.
Don't forget the number of posters to this board, don't even amount to 1 tenth of a percent of all purchasers of iMacs, Mac Minis, or MacBooks any one quarter. Thus the remark you said was "rude" is not. It is factual. You are basing your information on what amounts to less odds of happening than a space program disaster with NASA. Mostly people who have problems are posting, and those who don't rarely do post.
I recently had a hard drive die after the three year warranty was spent, but hard drives I've seen die on Acers and Dells on the first day of ownership too, so that's nothing new. Backing up your data is the best way to deal with data loss*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Mac mini occasionally overheats, goes to sleep itself

I have a Mac mini from late 2005.
For a couple months, the mini would occasionally turn the fan speed up incrementally and eventually, reach the max fan speed and just go to sleep by itself. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, loading music into iTunes or checking my email or anything else. The problem has been growing more frequent and has recently began to just instantly shut off instead of falling asleep. The Apple Hardware Test can't find any problems with it.
We've already gone through one logic board. Is this perhaps a sign we need another?
Jon

How is the ventilation around the mini? If it lacks enough air flow, it could cause the overheating. Carpeting or other soft materials around the bottom could cover the intake slots around the base and cause such overheating. Dust is also a possibility, of course.

Mac Mini Freezing Issues

So, I recently bought a refurbished Mac Mini, late 2009 model. It worked fine for the first few months, but after moving back to school, it started acting oddly. First, it had problems booting. It would freeze up during the boot up, or occasionally right after if finished booting. After messing around with it, it started working fairly reliably again. However, every once in a while, under moderate use, it would freeze up and would have problems restarting. I came to the realization that it was probably overheating, and tried a few tricks to get more air to it. This worked…
For a while. Last week, it died. It would get to the gray screen with the spinning wheel, and then freeze. It couldn't get past this step. In desperation, I took it into the Apple store, as it was still under warranty. After several days, they fixed it, but in the process, had to replace the hard drive. Luckily, I had a back up. Reset the computer, reloaded the back up, and started to use it… only to have it freeze again.
I noticed that every time it crashed, it seemed abnormally hot. I think this may be an overheating issue, and I have taken steps to monitor it (I currently have a temperature monitor watching over the CPU temperature). I just wanted to know what other people thought.
My current set up is thus:
Late 2009 Model Mac Mini, 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Dual monitors, connected via adapters to the Mini-display port and mini-DVI port
Ethernet internet (limited wireless here in the dorms)
Apple keyboard and Logitech mouse
Verbatim external hard drive, 320 GB, connected via Firewire 400/800 cable
My current thoughts are that it's either due to the dual monitors stressing out the video card, or the external hard drive. I've noticed that the external hard drive is constantly on when it's plugged in to the computer (it gets it's power via the firewire cable), and that if I leave the external drive plugged in overnight, the computer can occasionally act sluggishly.
If anyone has any further insight into this or can verify my hypothesis, that would be great. Thank you for your time.

After looking around online some more, found that there are many complaints with this specific hard drive. The main issue, it seems, is that it has limited ventilation, and therefore has issues staying cool. Unfortunately, due to the length of my firewire cord, the external hard drive typically has to sit fairly close to the Mini, usually resting on top of it. So, if this is right, then it's the poorly designed external HD overheating, which in turn overheats the Mini to the point of failure. I'll look into getting a better external to replace this one, and for the time being I'll only have it connected for brief periods for backup.

Mac mini and the powerbook, connecting the two

Hi Everyone,
I'm currently on the move, so the convenience of portability is extremely important.
I'm a PowerBook user, with only little remaining hard drive space to spare. But, I also have an external hard drive to ease the matter. Now much of the space on my PB has been taken up by applications, but a large sum has also been used up by music. And by way of preference, I would rather not have to turn on my external in the event that I want to listen to music, which, really, is everytime I'm on my computer. So I'm looking to free up some space on my PB, which has lead me to consider a Mac mini. Whereas the PB would serve to house all my work applications and the external for all my work files, I anticipate that the mac mini would house all my music and other non-work related files.
But going back to the issue of portability and convenience, I wouldn't want to have to lug around a keyboard and monitor with the mini, and which that in mind, I was wonder if it's decently possible to connect the mini to my PB, and effectively running the mini and all its applications from my PB.
Thank you all.
Regards,
Jeremy

Thank you for the facts and suggestions everyone. With all the information gathered, I've arrived at the following.
So, I do have an external, as mentioned, but with all the sensitive data on its drives, I'd rather not have to turn it on whenever I feel like listening to music. I normally power it on three-four times a week to work on my projects, and after each respective session, I turn it off, concerned that it may possibly overheat.. or break down, as it's happened to me before with another external, a few years back.
And I've come to agreement with you all, in that the mini with its current specs, isn't the most cost-effective and portable path I could take, with particular regards to my on-the-go lifestyle.
And I would rather not have my PB opened up at this point... then it occurred to me... my iPod. I'm currently at the office at the moment, so I'm unable to test this out, but is it possible to run music off the ipod through the PB's speakers, while it's (obviously) connected to the PB? Or I suppose I could wait for Apple's iPod Hi-Fi.

Iomega MiniMax for Mac Mini

HI all
I am going to be getting the minimax iomega for my mac mini. But I have heard a lot of mixed reviews. Some people say it overheats with the mac sitting on top of it? Some people say its too noisy.
Can anyone tell me their own experiences with the iomega minimax?
Thanks

Is this an older Mac Mini? (F400)?
I'd recommend a [Newer Technology MiniStack v 2.5|http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2MSVS2> that would be cheaper than the Iomega and probably more reliable. If you have a newer Mini then you can buy the version 3 model that includes F800 and eSATA. You are able to choose what drive you want to put in there and switch it out if you ever need to.

Mac mini crashing when booting up

Hi, does anyone know why the mac mini crashes at bootup. it gets teh strart up ping, then the loading screen, then the harddrive turns off. any ideas why this is happening

I had a similar problem recently, my mini froze during a backup, held the power button down left it for a few mins and rebooted, only got the grey screen with apple logo and the spinning gear and that was it, could not get past that so I installed OS X on an external drive, the internal HDD took upto 10 mins to mount then vanished copletely a day or so later, in the mean time the optical drive stopped working as well!!, took it to the Apple store who thought it ws a dodgy interconnect board, but they called yesterday to say that both the hard drive and optical have conked out, and that the machine was packed full of dust, and possibly caused everything to overheat!! (am allergic to dust so keep my flat quite clean!!), to replace both costs about the same as a new machine so not worth it!. So off to collect it today and buy a new one. Have had the machine barely 2 years! and thought it would outlive my Dell PC!

Why my new mac mini 2011 so hot?

Hi, im from Venezuela.
2 weeks ago acquired a new mac mini, but I noticed that when I have open Virtualbox processor overheats and the fan cooler notcooling, it is this? fails some pictures
Cold:
Hot:
My mac mini is damaged?

I'm seeing same problem - new mini mac dropping internet randomly during the day.
I bought the 1-year Mac program where I can go in for classes. I'll schedule one to talk through this.
I'll also do all the software upgrades.
Seems like a pretty general problem. Maybe it'll get some attention.
My wife hates the mac as a result of these problem.
Most of the time we end up cycling power on the router downstairs, which is a 2-5 minute fix, that's a pain 3 times daily.

Overheating Mac Mini after Mavericks update

After I updated my 2012 Mac Mini to OS X 10.9 Mavericks, it started to overheat when no apps were running. Please help. Much appreachiated

Open Activity Monitor in you Applications Utility Folder and check to see if you have a non-responsive or failed process.
Example:

Overheating Mac Mini

I recently bought a used Mac Mini G4, 1.25 gHz. It has been working great. It does often overheat when doing anything demandingly graphical or when burning a CD, however. It's fan becomes exceedingly loud and the computer goes to sleep.
This is mostly an annoyance; no damage has been done to the Mac Mini, but I am wondering why it is happening. I am currently a college student living in an air-conditioned dorm. The room is not hot, and the Mini has plenty of room to properly ventilate.
Could the heat sink be loose or slightly off, or is this a problem with a temperature sensor? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

About 8 months ago, my G4 mini (bought new, and not moved about) started to shut down at random, about once a week, both when working and when sleeping; the only cure seemed to be to unplug the power adapter and leave everyting for a good while. This made me wonder if the problem was in the power adapter or one involving overheating in the mini itself. After about 6 weeks of this, it seemed to cure itself, and I thought little more of it. (btw, the label on the power adapter said it was Part Number 611-0398, made in Thailand, but when I checked this on-line, I get a different number for the 85W unit.)
Last week, when printing, I sent a document to the "wrong" printer, and aborted the print. Within a minute, the whole system shut itself down (with a click-sound from the LCD monitor I think.) Since then, it has been doing it more and more frequently. And the run-time is getting shorter and shorter. It's now unusable.
Remembering what I had read here during the previous problems, I reset the PRAM, used the vacuum cleaner to clear out all the slots on the back and on the underside of the mini, and reset the PMU. I have been unable to run disc utility or the hardware test as I can't get the mini to run for more than about 30 seconds, so I can't yet get any further info about what's going on.
Thinking that it may be an over-heating problem, I'm considering putting the mini and the power adapter into the fridge overnight to get them near the lower end of the temperature operating range, and thereby extend the running time (but I won't try this yet without some assurance regarding problems that may arise from condensation into the mini when I take it out into the room).
Any ideas, please.
Francis

Mac mini overheating

Hi my Mac Mini is overheating only when I stream video from any website like youtube, amazon instant video, Vimeo, etc. Can anyone help me with this? I installed SMC fan but still it overheats.Thank you.

Have you looked at the list of processes running on your Mac when you experience this issue ?
Use the Activity Monitor to see if there is a particular process that might be consuming too much CPU.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20379601#20379601#20379601

New Mac mini w/2.0 processor 1gig of ram getting REALLY HOT

o I just picked up this mini on Saturday, and it seems to be running at an idle at 58c ... is that normal for a mini? I know my imac runs around 35-38c...
Fully loaded (two terminal windows with yes >/dev/null) I get up to 84c!!!!!!
It's the 2.0gig mac mini with 1gig ram and 120gig hard drive.
If I crank the fan speed up to 5501 RPM's, then at idle I can get 38c, and 67c under a load using SMC control..... Is this normal for a mini, to get this darned hot?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
I would reiterate what Doug has said - that unless your system has shut down unexpectedly (it goes into protective shutdown if it overheats) then you don't have an overheating problem and you have no cause for concern.
The best advice is to stop monitoring system parameters that are of relatively little merit to monitor and where the results you see are both poorly understood and also easy to misinterpret out of context! Laptop systems typically run rather hotter than Mac minis and have less internal air space, smaller fans, less ventilation slots and thus lesser heat-dissipation capabilities than Mac minis - yet people have been using these sort of systems for years without heat-related failures.
As long as your mini is used in a well ventilated space, with a moderate ambient air temperature, the system has more than adequate capacity to cool itself sufficiently. The fan will run up to full speed under heavy CPU load and is certainly capable of shifting enough air.

Mac Mini As Server. Heat Problems?

I went to my local Apple store with the intention of getting a Mac Mini to use as a (very) low traffic file server. I am intending to leave the server on 24/7. The rep told me that I should not use the mini as a server because it would overheat.
I did some googling, and found many people saying how they have set up their Mac Minis as servers without problems. There are some similar posts to that effect on this site.
Do you think it is ok to use the Mac Mini as a server, and if so, are there any steps I should take to prevent any problems. (Other than obviously leaving the vents clear).
Are there any other good options for a low cost server?
iMac G5 (iSight) 20" Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I suggest someone may have been trying to upsell you to something a little more expensive..
I doubt Apple would design anything that would "overheat" in use. Keep the vents clear, away from heat and light sources and enjoy OSX's very strong serving capabilities.
Bear in mind the processor is not the fastest around and that the harddrive is a 2.5inch drive designed for portable/not continuous operation. So the bearings may not last as long as a full size 3.5inch or server designed drive. As ever backup is even more important!
Hope this helps.
carlo
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.4) + lots of other kit that would bore you...

New Mac minis' optical drives

Hello, today I've read in German Macintosh magazine, that the new Mac minis (released last month) would include a different optical drive (at least the model with a dvd burner inside) and that this drive would be much louder when reading dvds than the drive in the previous model.
I am really concerned about this issue, because I am looking forward into buying a Mac mini for my living room to hook it up to my TV.
So my question is: Does somebody know about the smaller mac mini model without dvd buring capabilities? Is it more silent or as loud as the model with dvd burner? Is it more silent or louder than the previous model without dvd burner?

Sound from optical drives is often a function of the quality of media. I've stated what you can do to avoid having low quality media in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5262710#5262710
That said, if you find the drive you get is too noisy, you can always put the Mini behind the TV. Just be sure wherever it is put it has enough air circulation so it doesn't overheat. You can get DVI cables as long as 50 feet if you shop around.

Mac mini overheat?

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