The system was working last month just fine. Went to power it on today and nothing happened. Tried a different outlet to no avail.

What are the steps to figuring out what has happened?

TJH

@ Travis_H - I've got a few Mac Minis & I've never had a PSU failure ... up to now!

I do have a couple of spare PSUs - for just such an eventuality, as you never know when that might occur. Better to be prepared for such a situation I usually find!

That said, if there is no sign of life when you switch it on, as-in, the white LED doesn't light up at all, then I'd suspect the PSU has failed, and you need to replace it with a functioning one. That's the cheapest option, I would think!

That is, unless you have a multi-meter, and you know what you're doing, as the terminals inside the PSU connector, where it plugs into the Mac Mini, are hard to access, unless you open the Mac Mini and directly access the power lines inside it, to see if there is any power getting into the device power circuitry.

If anyone else has better advice I'm sure they'll add something extra onto this thread soon enough!

PMU (Power management unit) may have corrupted settings, maybe caused by a empty batterie. Check battery voltage: 2,6-3V! and change, if too low.
Load down technical manual (http://uploads.benguild.com/blog/blogger/uploads/macmini.pdf) and look how to reset PMU.
Reset PMU and try again.

@ Amigaharry2 - That link http://uploads.benguild.com/blog/blogger/uploads/macmini.pdf seems to be only available via the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) but the link I've added is for that website.

I suppose your option is worth a try, but I'd have thought that was a "long-shot", somewhat remote chance, of regaining functionality of the Mac Mini!

OK, thank you!


[ Editiert durch Amigaharry2 06.09.2025 - 16:01 ]

Thanks for the tips. A used, but tested, power supply will be arriving from ebay shortly. I'll report back with an update.

Quote:

yes,I have the same idea with you.

Unfortunately, the new power supply did not bring the Mac Mini to life. I'll be looking into tearing it apart using the .pdf above as a guide.

@ Travis-H - That there's no apparent life in it, even with a replacement working PSU, is a pity!

I take it, there's no chime or sign of the white LED illuminating?

It's fairly easy to open (slide a thin knife into the gap between the white plastic "basket" and the aluminium frame of the MacMini, and gently prise the two sections apart slightly, bit-by-bit, until the basket part slides out, and you can then disassemble the insides of the MacMini.

As I've said I've not had a total failure of a MacMini, though I have had one of the "silent" upgrade Mac Minis get to the point where sometimes, when I boot it from cold, only 32MB of VRAM is recognised, but if I let it warm up for a short while and warm reboot then it finds the additional 32MB (total 64MB) on the GFX chip circuit.

Might be worth checking the Mac Mini's button power switch on the back panel. and spraying that with some electrical contact cleaning fluid (Servisol), or something like that or WD40 as a substitute if you've not got time, or consider it worth it to purchase contact cleaner. Some systems do have problems with the momentary power switch contacts getting oxidised or tarnished and as a result not making contact as they should.

I'd be interested to know what you find when you do open it, if there is anything different than you should expect to find inside the Mac Mini.