Mac Mini video problems

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
There is currently a 130 entry thread on the support forums at Apple's website describing video problems with the Mac Mini (Apple uses sessions, so providing a direct link is difficult):



Apple.com --> Support --> Discussions --> Mac mini > Displays > Mac mini VGA output very dark...



When using the DVI connector directly to a DVI capable monitor, the video is darker than a PC, but acceptable. When using the supplied DVI-VGA adapter and hooking it to a VGA monitor, especially a CRT (non-LCD) monitor, the output looks awful. Whites look gray, colors are washed out, text isn't sharp.



Apple stated to me that there is no point in sending my mini in for repair since the new unit or motherboard would have the same problem. The Apple product support person told me they have no plans to modify the motherboard to fix this problem. They also won't take my Mac Mini back or give me a refund. I'm basically screwed.



I wanted to warn others to read up on this problem if they are thinking of purchasing the Mini. This is my first Mac. I'm an IT manager and was even considering buying some of the XSERVE's. However, if this is the way that Apple treats its customers, my organization won't be spending any money with Apple.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Do USA consumer laws feature requirements that goods must be "fit for the intended use(s)" ?
  • Reply 2 of 21
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    I've been reading up on stuff like this because I'm going to be ordering a mini for my mother soon. It's got me thinking twice. Apple is basically admitting it is a problem but they aren't going to try and fix it.



    I'd give this more time to develop before swearing off Apple forever, though.
  • Reply 3 of 21
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Stoo

    Do USA consumer laws feature requirements that goods must be "fit for the intended use(s)" ?



    I think it is a US Federal law. But I would have to sue them in federal court and it would cost many times what the Mini does in court costs. I still hoping for a peaceful solution.



    Does emailing Steve Jobs directly ever help?
  • Reply 4 of 21
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Buckbeak

    I think it is a US Federal law. But I would have to sue them in federal court and it would cost many times what the Mini does in court costs. I still hoping for a peaceful solution.



    Does emailing Steve Jobs directly ever help?




    I use the DVI to VGA connector, and all is fine with my CRT monitor. It must be a little darker than my PC, though, because I ajusted the monitor to make the mac look good, and the PC looks a little washed out when I kvm over to it.
  • Reply 5 of 21
    fawkesfawkes Posts: 80member
    I have a mini, and I've found that it really depends on your monitor. On my spare VGA CRT at home, it looked great. On my 21" Trinitron at work, it looks dim, and I had to bump up the gain on all channels to make it look better.



    Incidently, I had the exact same situation with my old Pismo, which the mini replaced at work--in fact, I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between them on the same CRT.
  • Reply 6 of 21
    trouttrout Posts: 21member
    Well I have to disagree fully!



    I purchased a mini yesterday and hooked it up with the adapter, to my Dell 19 inch trinitron. And it is absolutly fabulous.



    Actually my mini is the 1.42 variety and I installed 3rd party Corsair 512meg RAM and this thing litterly flies! No noise other than the CD DRive makes noise. But the monitor is very bright and on this page for instance, appleinsider, there are four differnet shades of grey on the screen and they all look fine to me.



    I guess im the only lucky one, but man am I happy with my Mini. This little sucker is very fast, responsive, and I can have imovie and iPhoto, and safari open all at once and this thing still runs like a champ!



    Trout
  • Reply 7 of 21
    mmmpiemmmpie Posts: 628member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Buckbeak



    When using the DVI connector directly to a DVI capable monitor, the video is darker than a PC, but acceptable. When using the supplied DVI-VGA adapter and hooking it to a VGA monitor, especially a CRT (non-LCD) monitor, the output looks awful. Whites look gray, colors are washed out, text isn't sharp.




    Have you calibrated your display ( in the display preferences )? It makes the world of difference. It is pretty normal for monitors to look much darker when a mac is driving them, but once you calibrate they are nice. I just hooked up an LCD to my old B&W and it was unusable until I had run the calibration, dark and undersaturated.



    As for sharpness, it is certainly possible that the mini's analogue signal isnt suitable for all monitors, particularly older ones.
  • Reply 8 of 21
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mmmpie

    Have you calibrated your display ( in the display preferences )? It makes the world of difference. It is pretty normal for monitors to look much darker when a mac is driving them, but once you calibrate they are nice. I just hooked up an LCD to my old B&W and it was unusable until I had run the calibration, dark and undersaturated.



    As for sharpness, it is certainly possible that the mini's analogue signal isnt suitable for all monitors, particularly older ones.




    Yes, calibration was one of the first things I did. I also played with the gamma settings.



    I'm glad that some people's glass monitors are working okay. But there are a lot of people who are having trouble. Maybe if Apple didn't try so hard to keep these big secrets before product roll-out they would have tested it better, for example, they could have let a few hundred of their employees take it home for a month. Maybe they would have unearthed some of these problems since it appears they didn't test it with very many monitors.
  • Reply 9 of 21
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Any word on how they work when hooked up to a 1080i HDTV? I'm thinking about getting one for that purpose.



    As far as XServes are concerned, it's hard to hate them, because they're so much darn cheaper than Windows Servers (don't forget software), and so much darn easier to deal with than Linux Servers. If you get the service plan, you're still paying a lot less than you would for a comparable Windows system. SBS and Exchange are terribly overpriced.



    The mini is a first-gen product. This is just something you have to expect, and you see it in all industries, even computing. Don't forget when Intel just shrugged off the fact that the Pentium made math errors, or how many countless times Microsoft did something stupid, only to make everyone live with it. The fact of the matter is that Apple does deserve some blame, but they don't really deserve more than anyone else.
  • Reply 10 of 21
    jasenj1jasenj1 Posts: 923member
    XLR8 Your Mac has a good page of user reports on this issue.



    From the anecdotal evidence, it appears the VGA output signal on the mini is weak - and out of spec. From the reports, it is hard to tell whether all the minis are weak or just some/many.



    If this problem gets big enough, I smell a class action suit. If it can be shown that a large chunk of the Mac minis' VGA output is not compliant with the VGA spec I'd think consumers would have a good case.



    I'd think if you had the equipment to measure the VGA signal and could prove that it was bad, Apple'd have to take the machine back.



    *Sigh* I'm getting ready to buy a mini when Tiger comes out. I'd hate to get burned by something like this and have Apple tell me "tough-o".



    - Jasen.



    Update: People are also reporting "sparklies" in black regions with the DVI connector. So it looks like the whole video output on the mini is suspect. I wonder if Apple just got a bad batch of cards from ATI or if there is something more systemmic going on. *sigh*
  • Reply 11 of 21
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Wow, this seems to be a growing problem for allot of people. Is this problem happening with Apple monitors as well? Apple can avoid any legal action if they?ll admit the problem and return or repair the Mac Mini?s, only time will tell.
  • Reply 12 of 21
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    maybe in effort to make Mini as power-savvy as possible it skimps out on the video? Or maybe just the DVI connector supplier sucks?



    Hope its something that can be addressed by a (hopeful) future firmware update
  • Reply 13 of 21
    jtblqjtblq Posts: 86member
    my logic board fried while watching an avi in VLC.

    stay away from VLC, mac mini users.

    beware.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    dvd_junkiedvd_junkie Posts: 113member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jasenj1



    *Sigh* I'm getting ready to buy a mini when Tiger comes out. I'd hate to get burned by something like this and have Apple tell me "tough-o".







    Just an FYI:



    Much of the new eye candy in Tiger will require a beefier system than the mac mini. TIger's demanding requirements for Core Image may rule out the mini and many other macs out there with anything less than the video cards indicated on Apple's web site. See http://www.apple.com/ca/macosx/tiger/core.html



    edit: I was looking into getting a mini too but after hearing of such possible limitations with Tiger, I've decided to pass on the mini unless Apple upgrades the video card by the time Tiger comes out.
  • Reply 15 of 21
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JTBLQ

    my logic board fried while watching an avi in VLC.

    stay away from VLC, mac mini users.

    beware.




    Why? Did it get too hot?
  • Reply 16 of 21
    jtblqjtblq Posts: 86member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by groverat

    Why? Did it get too hot?



    probably..lol



    was watching a MST3K avi in VLC player...

    and poof.



    everything is fine now.
  • Reply 17 of 21
    the cool gutthe cool gut Posts: 1,714member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DVD_Junkie

    Just an FYI:



    See http://www.apple.com/ca/macosx/tiger/core.html





    Not too many NVDIA cards on that list huh? Guess I have to replace may geforce4 mx.
  • Reply 18 of 21
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    I'm trying to figure out how Apple could've screwed this up when the components are all so old.



    Anyways if I'm reading correctly, it's only VGA monitors that are effected. Perhaps you should try a different adapter. I've always found Apple's to be really weak.
  • Reply 19 of 21
    jasenj1jasenj1 Posts: 923member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DVD_Junkie



    edit: I was looking into getting a mini too but after hearing of such possible limitations with Tiger, I've decided to pass on the mini unless Apple upgrades the video card by the time Tiger comes out.




    Well, of course there's more to Tiger than Core Image, but from what I've read, Core Image will use the CPU's AltiVec if the GPU isn't powerful enough. Which kind of adds insult to injury: you have a low-end machine (wimpy GPU and CPU) and Core Image will steal cycles from the CPU. But it sounds like Core Image has graceful degradation.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by slughead



    Anyways if I'm reading correctly, it's only VGA monitors that are effected. Perhaps you should try a different adapter. I've always found Apple's to be really weak.





    Nope. VGA seems to have the dim and blurry issue. DVI has some sparkly problem on dark regions. Check some of the reports. People are troubleshooting this very thoroughly.



    - Jasen.
  • Reply 20 of 21
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jasenj1

    Well, of course there's more to Tiger than Core Image, but from what I've read, Core Image will use the CPU's AltiVec if the GPU isn't powerful enough. Which kind of adds insult to injury: you have a low-end machine (wimpy GPU and CPU) and Core Image will steal cycles from the CPU. But it sounds like Core Image has graceful degradation.





    Nope. VGA seems to have the dim and blurry issue. DVI has some sparkly problem on dark regions. Check some of the reports. People are troubleshooting this very thoroughly.



    - Jasen.




    Kind of defeats the whole approach of using more GPU cycles to offload the CPU. Anyway I slice it, the current mac mini, and older macs, will be left out in the cold with Tiger.
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