Anyone having issues with their external displays with their Mac mini? My 2018 running Catalina 10.15.7 is in need of an exorcism. I thought I would appeal to the group before I purchase a chicken to sacrifice.
I have two external monitors: The LG has an HDMI Cable directly to the Mac mini. The Dell has a micro display port to display port cable running from my Thunderbolt dock. Both monitors display data and images.
However, my screens go black at random moments. I can shake the display awake with the mouse but the frequency that this issue is recurring is a real pain. 5 times during this posting.
Diagnostics have been run and we are clear. The video purge (option/command/R/P contortion) has been done. We have restored the OS. The display sleep setting is turned off. I have new cables coming.
I would love to bring it to my local apple store however… all the Houston area stores are closed and the closest store open is in Austin (whole soapbox rant about this).
Thoughts, suggestions, incantations, spells, appreciated.
Don
Maybe check your Energy Saver settings?
Do you have Mission Control Hot Corners setup by chance? I sometimes get too enthusiastic with the mouse pointer and hit the upper right corner of the display… boom…black screen
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Thanks - Energy saver is set for an hour. No hot corners to put the display to sleep. I am going through programs to see that I am up to date. Scratching my head on this one.
Did you try disconnecting one monitor and see what happens? May be able to troubleshoot by doing various combinations of inputs.
Right now we have both displays operating and have not had a black out this morning. The system OS restore may have finally completed after a series of restarts - during which I would have one or the other monitors working and some programs hanging. I think I am through with those gyrations and have not seen a beachball since the last restart.
One piece of hardware removed - an external WD Passport that was not working. Not sure that it was the culprit -but when dealing with the mysteries, I am not discounting anything.
I have a series of cables coming in: Mini DisplayPort to HDMI, Mini Display to Display Port, Thunderbolt to Display Port, Thunderbolt to HDMI. We will add them to see if there is any other issue.
Until then all I will keep the cables accessible…
Well even after working through all of the display issues with service online, I am still having intermittent display drops. I don’t lose power during these events, but I occasionally see notifications that my external drives were not ejected properly when I wake the machine. This does not bode well.
It appears that my best option is to get this in for service. Still trying to get an idea of when can I get to the genius bar. The Houston area Apple Stores are opening with limited functionality. Online support shows that the stores are open for selling new phones but do not have any Genius Bar appointments available.
Calls to the store number first route you to the apple AI assistant who can’t answer the question then pushes you to the wrong representative when you finally get it to understand “speak with a human”. Disconnections are common.
I am still trying to get direct contact with the store to see when I might be able to schedule an appointment to get this thing fixed. Driving over a 150 miles to a store is not a solution when I am in Houston which is the 3/4/5 largest city in this country.
Having to depend on a machine that is obviously having problems is at best an less than ideal situation. Machine failure for my business in not an option. It would be nice for this product to work as designed, or at least have access to the Apple Care that I have paid for.
If it is an unfixable repair - then give me a replacement or replacement credit towards a laptop.
And please have a human answer the phone.
