New Mac Mini -- permanent screen dims after installing Mavericks

Hello -- hope you can help. We just purchased a Mac Mini and installed Mavericks on it. It's driving a Panasonic Viera Plasma TV via HDMI, which is its only monitor/display.
As soon as we finished the install and authorized it as a computer for my iTunes account (I did these nealy at the same time so can't be exact at what time the event occurred), the screen dimmed drastically -- from quite bright to very dull. Has any one experienced this, and have you come up with a solution for it? Or do you have any ideas?
I have ensured that the radio buttons in Mission Control are off for multiple display options.
Thanks so much. Look forward to your response.

Some people have experienced problems with monitors attached via HDMI. Most of them are having issues of the windows resizing to an un-responsive window.
For some, the fix was to do a SMC reset. Since you have a Mac Mini, it's pretty easy. Power it down, unplug it for 15 seconds and plug it back in. Wait 5 seconds and turn it on and it should be reset.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Here is the thread where peope have resizing problems.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5499569
Page two was the "fix".
KOT

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I have a new MAC MINI and I want to install a second monitor. I have one connected to the HDMI and it works. I can't get a signal to the other one. It is connected from the thunderbolt to its HDMI port. How can I make it work?

I have a new MAC MINI and I want to install a second monitor. I have one connected to the HDMI and it works. I can't get a signal to the other one. It is connected from the thunderbolt to its HDMI port. How can I make it work?

Could be a bad cable or bad Thunderbolt port.
You have 90 days of free telephone support on a new device. You can call them at 1-800-MY-APPLE. Have your Mini's serial number handy
You can also make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Mac Mini won't start after installing OS X 10.6.3

My Mac Mini won't start after installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3. When I turn it on, the Apple logo appears and the initialization line starts to fill, but it suddenly stops. It does that again and stops at the same point, but this time it shuts down. What should I do?

If you are coming from 10.5.8, hopefully you backed up your important data first. Your mini will need at minimum, 1 GB of RAM to install Snow Leopard and at least 5 GB of storage remaining on your boot drive.
I treat 10.6.3 as a fresh, full install over a 10.5.8 system. That means I choose Disk Utility from the Installer's menu and repartition the boot drive as a single partition, Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) format, and use the GUID partition scheme from the options button. At this point, while still in Disk Utility, I would verify the drive under First Aid.
Then I turn the installer loose, and reboot into a working 10.6.3 system, ready for the software updates that take the machine to 10.6.8.
So, following the above guidelines, reinstall 10.6.3.

Mac Mini Won't Sleep after installing 10.4.6

My Mac Mini wakes itself up after just 1 minute of putting it to sleep mode. I've tried restarting my mini, and tried quitting all apps and disabling airport and bluetooth- but it still won't sleep! Anyone else experiencing this problem, I didn't have this problem with 10.4.5 and I've installed no other software since then...

This is for a Mac that won't sleep.
First, read things in Apple doc.#25801 on sleep settings.
USB devices and hubs often cause Macs to not sleep or wake quickly from sleep (notably HP printers and scanners, HP all in ones, and Cannon scanners). Disconnect all USB except for keyboard and mouse and try. If it sleeps, add one back at a time testing after each one to find the culprit.
If you've set your Mac to recieve faxes, it may not be able to sleep. It might also have a damaged preferences file.
If you use your Mac for faxing, open System Preferences. click Print & Fax, click the Faxing tab, and uncheck the Recieve Faxes On This Computer box.
If that does'nt work or you've never faxed on your Mac, go to Finder/Hard Drive /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist and com..apple.AutoWake.plist files (if your Mac asks, type your admin. password).
If the latter file isn't present in the folder, go to user name(probably your name)/Library/Preferences, delete the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file, and reboot your Mac.
Hope this helps!
P.S. One member here reported this (Michael Gleason);
"I have had this problem with my IMac G5. It is surprisingly irritating. LaCie's Silverkeeper backup software was the cause. By default it gave itself permission to wake up the computer to check if a backup was needed. Do you have this or a similar program installed which has scheduled activities including wake-up permissions as an option?"
Dave Hamilton provided this link, xlr8yourmac.com, to a member, which addresses failure of deep sleep with some users that updated and added new FireWire and USB cards.
tomhorvat adds this; After few days of messing around I found out that I had desktop background (wallpaper) set to change every 1 minute.
After unchecking "Change picture..." in system preferences (under Desktop/Screen saver), my powerbook went to sleep all by itself.
Cheers!
DALE

Mac Mini - Weird screen colours after update - Help!?

I just updated to Mavericks on my Mac Mini and my colours have went really weird. The reds and oranges are now greens, and the blues are now purples. I just thought this was the new colour scheme (LOL) then I realised the colours had effected everything. Panicking abit as the colour is very important for my photography work.
The screen I have plugged in is just a bog standard 21". I tried the standard calbriation test but it was useless, it ended up extremely bright and still badly coloured, and there was no way I was saving that as a profile - Should I try the 'expert mode' calibiration?
Any advice would be great! Thank you kindly! :-)

Update: I am trying to boot from the mac osx install disc; holding down C or alt/option upon startup isn't doing anything....

Write permissions issues / lots of "ACL found but not expected" errors / hardware failure? on brand new Mac Mini (still within warranty). OSX Mavericks 10.9.1.

I was hoping that I could receive some feedback from you fine folks here
My situation:
I bought a 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7 from the online Apple store. It came with Mavericks 10.9.1 pre-installed and was delivered two days ago (I know, the mini update is evident but I needed the machine).
I noticed that I had to enter my password every time I created, moved or deleted a folder. I did not think much of it.
I did, however, think much of not being able to install files from certain developers. I received the "The installer is damaged" notification as shown in this topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5541793
This screenshot is someone elses, I tried to install audio software.
Based on that error, I contacted the developer of the software. But then I noticed that I got the same error for other developers too.
I tried the solution that the topic starter marked as solving his issue in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5541793. It involves booting in OSX Recovery (command+R) and excecuting the 'resetpassword' command. That did not work for me. It also looks like my password data isn't stored as I do not see the 'obfuscated' password dots that the screenshot shows in that topic, even when I entered and saved it multiple times -- but I'm not sure if that is part of the main issue (which I'm gettting to).
I also made sure gatekeeper allows applications to be installed from unidentified developers, as shown here: http://www.instantteamspeak.com/static/en/img/mac-gatekeeper-anywhere.png That didn't help either.
Next I opened up Disk Utility and ran a check on write permissions. That got me worried.
The check ran for a long time, spitting out "ACL found but not expected" errors.
I proceeded to restore write permissions. That took 20-25 minutes.
Once it finished I checked write permissions again. An equal amount of permissions needed to be restored! It's as if Mavericks didn't remember anything it did.
The good news is that I could now install the files I previously couldn't, but the fact that I've restored write permissions three times now, and each time it seems as if nothing of that is remembered, has gotten me worried.
I've made a video with some explanation here http://youtu.be/a0hKQvy-Km8 - my sincerest apologies for the shaky camera.
I then checked the hard disk and the partition above it. The Macintosh HD gave me the green 'ok' light, but something weird happened when I checked the partition on the level above it. It will take ages to finish and I see Disk Utility doing some strange 'jumping around': http://youtu.be/hyLAEhLRnKc (warning - long video so you might want to skip through it. The point is to demonstrate how long it takes).
When I checked the hard disk for a second and third time, I got 'everything ok' results pretty quickly.
Checking both the HD and the partition above it again, this is what happens (and what now worries me the most): http://youtu.be/4l2Fb2RvOW4
Edit: I sum up my findings at the end of the video, might be better to skip here and then watch the full thing only if it's not clear yet.
There is some further explanation in the video. It basically comes down to Disk Utility not finishing/not providing any conslusion, while Activity Monitor shows it's not doing anything -- please bare with me when watching the video, I know it's not the most exhiting video ever posted on YouTube but it does bring my point across (there is some more talk in this one; not sure if that's an improvement in terms of entertainment value though ).
** Is my hard disk failing? In that case I'll return the Mac immediately.
** Or just a software issue?
As said, this Mac Mini is brand new. If at some stage anyone would feel the wise thing to do is to return my Mac, please do let me know. There is a 14 day return policy in The Netherlands (on top of other warranties) and I'd rather return it in case of doubt, than end up with technical issues with this machine once I've started working with it. I'm ok with doing some troubleshooting if the machine is fine, but I'd rather not take a gamble with a 1200 € machine under warranty.
Thank you so much in advance - your help is highly appreciated.
Paul

I was hoping that I could receive some feedback from you fine folks here
My situation:
I bought a 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7 from the online Apple store. It came with Mavericks 10.9.1 pre-installed and was delivered two days ago (I know, the mini update is evident but I needed the machine).
I noticed that I had to enter my password every time I created, moved or deleted a folder. I did not think much of it.
I did, however, think much of not being able to install files from certain developers. I received the "The installer is damaged" notification as shown in this topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5541793
This screenshot is someone elses, I tried to install audio software.
Based on that error, I contacted the developer of the software. But then I noticed that I got the same error for other developers too.
I tried the solution that the topic starter marked as solving his issue in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5541793. It involves booting in OSX Recovery (command+R) and excecuting the 'resetpassword' command. That did not work for me. It also looks like my password data isn't stored as I do not see the 'obfuscated' password dots that the screenshot shows in that topic, even when I entered and saved it multiple times -- but I'm not sure if that is part of the main issue (which I'm gettting to).
I also made sure gatekeeper allows applications to be installed from unidentified developers, as shown here: http://www.instantteamspeak.com/static/en/img/mac-gatekeeper-anywhere.png That didn't help either.
Next I opened up Disk Utility and ran a check on write permissions. That got me worried.
The check ran for a long time, spitting out "ACL found but not expected" errors.
I proceeded to restore write permissions. That took 20-25 minutes.
Once it finished I checked write permissions again. An equal amount of permissions needed to be restored! It's as if Mavericks didn't remember anything it did.
The good news is that I could now install the files I previously couldn't, but the fact that I've restored write permissions three times now, and each time it seems as if nothing of that is remembered, has gotten me worried.
I've made a video with some explanation here http://youtu.be/a0hKQvy-Km8 - my sincerest apologies for the shaky camera.
I then checked the hard disk and the partition above it. The Macintosh HD gave me the green 'ok' light, but something weird happened when I checked the partition on the level above it. It will take ages to finish and I see Disk Utility doing some strange 'jumping around': http://youtu.be/hyLAEhLRnKc (warning - long video so you might want to skip through it. The point is to demonstrate how long it takes).
When I checked the hard disk for a second and third time, I got 'everything ok' results pretty quickly.
Checking both the HD and the partition above it again, this is what happens (and what now worries me the most): http://youtu.be/4l2Fb2RvOW4
Edit: I sum up my findings at the end of the video, might be better to skip here and then watch the full thing only if it's not clear yet.
There is some further explanation in the video. It basically comes down to Disk Utility not finishing/not providing any conslusion, while Activity Monitor shows it's not doing anything -- please bare with me when watching the video, I know it's not the most exhiting video ever posted on YouTube but it does bring my point across (there is some more talk in this one; not sure if that's an improvement in terms of entertainment value though ).
** Is my hard disk failing? In that case I'll return the Mac immediately.
** Or just a software issue?
As said, this Mac Mini is brand new. If at some stage anyone would feel the wise thing to do is to return my Mac, please do let me know. There is a 14 day return policy in The Netherlands (on top of other warranties) and I'd rather return it in case of doubt, than end up with technical issues with this machine once I've started working with it. I'm ok with doing some troubleshooting if the machine is fine, but I'd rather not take a gamble with a 1200 € machine under warranty.
Thank you so much in advance - your help is highly appreciated.
Paul

My Early 2009 Mac Pro won't restart after installing Mavericks

I have installed Mavericks on my Early 2009 Mac Pro and all seemed to install just fine but when I restart the Mac then it won't get past a grey screen with Apple logo. It seems that it does get reasonabley far into the startup, it gets passed the grey screen with cricling progress thingmy under the Apple logo, then it flashes very quickly and after that it is a grey screen with the Apple logo and no further.
I did try installing Mavericks when it first came out and I had this problem so I just abandoned and reinstalled Mountain Lion from my Time Machine backup. However I thought that with Mavericks now at 9.1, maybe it would work okay this time but no change. However this time I do want to get it working because the lastest Final Cut Pro X requires Mavericks and I do a lot of video editing.
Here are the things I've tried which have made no difference:
Removed all peripherals, so that now nothing is plugged in except the original Apple Keyboard, my Apple trackpad and my Eizo monitor.
I tried starting it in Safe Boot mode but this made no difference.
I started it up in Recovery mode and it will start in Recovery mode. While in Recovery mode I checked the startup hard drive with Disk Utility, the drive is fine, as and I repaired disk permisions which made no difference.
I zapped the PRAM.
I connected it to my MacBook Pro in Target Disk mode and used ProSoft's Drive Genius 3 to check over the startup hard drive again and check disk permissions and all is well.
It still will not startup
I would be most grateful if someone could assist.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 3
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 4
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 5
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 6
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 6.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 7
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 8
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 9
Repeat Step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 10
This step applies only to older Macs (not current models) that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery. Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 11
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Brand new Mac Mini will not boot after 10.6.6 Update

Problem is exactly as described here: http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1069909,1070656
The 1st restart was fine then it restarted for the 2nd time & it got to the gray screen with Apple logo & spinner. It sat there much longer than it ever had before then the Apple changed to a circle with a slash.
I tried booting into single user mode and it is hanging "waiting for root device"

Sounds like maybe your disk died.
I suggest that you boot from the install DVD that came with your Mac and run AHT to check it out.
Allan

TS3173 If I install win 7 on a new Mac mini, do I need to install video drivers as well?

See above

You need to install the entire Windows Support Software Package that you downloaded using Boot Camp in step 1.

I have Aperture 2 in CD and want to install it in new mac mini

Hi,
I have Aperture 2 in a CD which I installed in my old "white" mac book about 6 yeas ago.
I have now bought a new mac mini and I want to install Aperture again. Of course the new mac mini does not have a CD port.
Question is: how can I download Aperture 2 from the Store so that I enter the software serial number and buy the required upgrades on top of it.
thanks
ratoslibres

If it is new and is running Yosemite you cant run Aperture 2, it is not compatible and ill not run.
In addition Aperture 2 is not available anywhere as a download. If you what to run Aperture you will need to purchase Aperture 3 from the Mac App Store.
regards

New mac mini and wireless keyboard

how do I set up a new mac mini and wireless keyboard at the same time?

Since the Mac Mini does not come with a Monitor, Keyboard or Mouse those are needed when setting up a Mac Mini. I don't know what brand wireless KB you have or if that even matters.
I have an Apple wireless keyboard (bluetooth), Apple magic trackpad (bluetooth), and Dell DVI monitor. When I initially booted my new Mac Mini, the screen showed it searching for bluetooth devices. It found the keyboard first and then a few seconds later, the mouse. So, I had all devices to finish setup of the Mini.

New Mac Mini won't recognize passcode for wireless keyboard

Just unboxed my new Mac Mini and have started the install process. Made it to the wireless mouse ok, then the keyboard. It finds the keyboard, gives me the passcode, then I enter it and press enter as requested, and nothing happens. It just spins through the process again and again. I have installed new batteries, turned all things on and off at random, and turned off bluetooth on all other devices that might be interfering. Any ideas?

Take the batteries out of the keyboard
Turn off the computer
Put batteries back in keyboard and hit the power button on the side
wait 5 seconds
turn on mini
go back through the setup process
works every time for me

Will new Mac Mini match/outperform my '04 PowerMac Dual G5/1.8?

Hello,
For the past couple of years I've run a small video editing business using Final Cut Studio and my trusty PowerMac G5 1.8. I'm about to get out of that business, but want to still be able to edit using Final Cut from time to time. I want to be able to do all of the consumerish word processing, web, photo (iPhoto or Aperture), etc. I also play Unreal Tournament sometimes, but I'm not a hard core gamer.
My G5 -- with 3 GB RAM and the ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM video card -- has been fine for all this. My question is: would a new Mac Mini let me down for any of the activities above, relative to my G5? Would I be able to run all of my Final Cut Studio apps? And, would UT run at least as well?
Thanks!

Agreed the new macmini's especially with the new Nvidia cards blow the old macs out of the water when it comes to games!
"Even with just 1GB of RAM installed, the new Nvidia graphics performed much better than the Intel graphics of the previous Mac mini. The older Mac mini couldn’t even run our Call of Duty test, and struggled to get just 5.6 frames per second in our Quake 4 test. The new Mac minis, with 2GB of RAM installed, were able to push through nearly 7 times as many frames per second in that test.
http://www.macworld.com/article/139267/2009/03/macmini2009.html?t=109
Also here's a chart comparing just about every videocard ever made so you can see that the 9400 card is faster:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-gtx,2270-6.html
p.s. Just make sure you get yourself at least 2GB of ram with it
Message was edited by: davi angel

Mid-2010 Mac Mini - black screen after installing boot camp drivers

I successfully installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 on my new Mac Mini. The display worked without issue in XP at this point.
After doing this, I proceeded to install the boot camp drivers. They installed and automatically rebooted the machine.
After reboot, Windows XP no longer has a functioning display. The display is a black screen and eventually the monitor shuts off.
Things I've tried:
- Reset PRAM
- Reset SMC
- Tried both Mini DisplayPort and HDMI connections to connect to the HDMI port on the monitor
- Booting into Safe Mode. Holding down F8 successfully brought up the Safe Mode options, but again the display was blank after choosing the Safe Mode option and attempting to load Windows.
Message was edited by: mullingitover

Update: Other stuff I've now tried--
- Swapping out RAM modules. I've tried it with the stock 2GB sticks in place, also with a single 4GB stick. Same result.
Other interesting/troubling problems:
- Unable to boot into Safe Mode with command line. The text-only interface with safe mode options that is reached by pressing F8 during windows startup is displayed. However, no matter which option I choose, the result is a dead display.
- Unable to boot with Windows XP install CD (?!). After choosing the CD at the boot selection screen, the display blanks and never wakes up.

After attempt to install windows 7 via boot camp onto Mac mini, my screen reads "no bootable devise--insert boot devise and press any key. However, disk still in reader, and not using a Mac keyboard

After attempt to install windows 7 via boot camp onto Mac mini, my screen reads "no bootable devise--insert boot devise and press any key. However, disk still in reader, and not using a Mac keyboard

Reboot your Mac, as soon as you hear the chime press the option/alt key and hold it until the boot manager appears, select OSX to boot from.

New Mac Mini -- permanent screen dims after installing Mavericks

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