Mac mini will not restart

My friend has a mac Mini, i think it was the last one with an optical drive.
Anyway, he keeps getting mesages to update his software from Software Update, an when I checked it out sure enough there are over a gigbyte of updates 12 in all waiting to be downloaded and installed.
I went through the process and it said to restart the machine to perform the updates, I clicked restart, but all it did was log off and present me with a log in screen with username and password fields. This happened at least 6 times. In the end I turned the machine off manually, and it restarted normally, but when you ask it to restart from the Apple menu, all it does is log out and go back to a login screen as before.
Any idea why and how do I get the machine to update software?

Try going to Disk Utility and repairing the startup drive.

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Mac Mini will not restart when told to

Hello everyone, I'm having a bit of trouble with my Mac in terms of restarting. Occasionally, and mostly after it hasn't been turned off in quite some time, I will hit restart from the Apple logo and once clicking the "Yes I do want to restart it" box, nothing happens.
This has happened quite a few times and I will usually get so frusterated that I'll yank the power cord from the back and turn it on from there. I don't know exactly what's causing this problem, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's sometimes the case that if a Mac won't sleep or shut down, it's because it is running something that it can't interrupt.
First thing I'd look at is Activity Monitor (in the applications/utilities folder). With this running so you can see all the processes the system is running, try shutting down, and then watching Activity Monitor to see if any process is actively loading the CPU.
Let us know what that shows.

MAC Mini does not restart after Yosemite update

I bought my MAC mini in 2011 and I successfully updated to Mavericks with no problems. I am not sure why my MAC Mini will not restart after I updated to Yosemite. The completion bar gets stuck around 30%.
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Okay, this is strange. I tried restarting three times yesterday with the same results. In fact I left it go overnight only to find the next morning that the bar was still stuck at 30%. I did a hard boot a little bit ago and waited a few seconds. I restarted an it booted up fine.
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My Mac Mini will not read TDK disks from my iMac G3.

My Mac Mini will not read TDK disks from my iMac G3.
I used an iMac G3 (2001) -- the ones that looked like a big pod -- running on OS X and saved files to TDK CD-R, 700 MB disks, which worked fine. Now that I have a Mac Mini (model number A1347) I cannot get this computer to read those disks, made on the iMac G3. Once inserted each disk will open and I can retrieve files for a short period, then the problems start. The computer makes some noises, the beach-ball/pinwheel goes around and I cannot get the files to open or the disk to eject. After a while the disk does eject -- to my relief. I keep using Control+E until ejection happens.
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DJG

Try disconnecting everything attached to the Mini except the monitor.
If that doesn't work, try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later. If successful, copy the files to the original account Public/Dropbox.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode - About
Safe Mode

My mac mini will not shut down. I need to manually shut it off with the power button.

My mac mini will not shut down or restart. I need to manually shut it off with the power button.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the timestamps of those log messages, which refer to the times when the system was booted. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the last boot time after you had the problem. Select the messages logged before the boot, while the system was unresponsive or was failing to shut down. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). Please include the BOOT_TIME message at the end of the log extract.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the entire contents of the most recent one, if any. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please don’t post any other kind of report — it will be very long and not helpful.

Mac mini will not complete shutdown-closes desktop, goes to blue screen, and spinning icon just spins forever, so must power off to reboot.

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Have you tried with
Control Option-Command-Eject

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Hi,
Thanks.
It is running 10.5.8.
I am trying to boot up an external drive with 10.5.8 on it. It works on my Macbook Pro which is running 10.5.8, runs on my IMAC running SL. But doesnt work on the mac mini?
It had been running SL, however there are a number of programs I have like Windows Live Sync which are not yet compatable with SL so i downgraded to 10.5.6 which came with the Mac Mini then loaded all updates.
It seems to just go into an auto reboot as soon as i click on it.
i thought it might be the firmware? Is it possible to downgrade them and then re-install?
I have reset the PRAM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

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Go to boot menu (press option button or button left to your space bar while booting) > Select Recovery drive > Disk utility > Verify the volume on which OS X is installed.

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Sounds like it. Try booting from your OSX restore DVDs - startup and hold down "C". This will take AGES! Then run Disk Utility from the menu.
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Sorry for the second post..
I currently do not have an older version of iPhoto to test this on, but you might also try coping the Originals from the iPhoto Library of iPhoto 11.
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Connect it to another Mac with a FireWire cable and start it up with the T key held down.
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Clone
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.bombich.com/
Create an OS X Lion Install disc
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
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Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc
http://www.coolestguyplanettech.com/how-to-make-a-bootable-osx-10-8-mountain-lio n-disc-or-drive-from-the-downloaded-mountain-lion-app/
General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form
General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Creating a temporary account to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account
To resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance, use Disk Utility.
Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode

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Message was edited by: macjack

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Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
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Mac mini will not restart

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