MacOS – Suddenly can’t access Mac Mini

mac-minimacos

I'm posting this from Windows laptop, because I lost access to Mac Mini.

Yesterday, everything was fine. I did not upgrade or update. Though I remember Mac asking if I want to update right now and I pushed it further into future. It was either yesterday or few days before. Don't know if it updated when I shut it down.

Today when activating Mac, following happened:
– Tiny power light burns, showing Mac Mini is active.
– Philips 223V monitor blinks, showing monitor is active, but there is no connection between Mac and monitor.

After waiting long enough, disconnected power, shut Mac down, pushed CMD+R on keyboard, pushed Mac's power button again.

And nothing. Could not even get Recovery Mode.

So right now, I have NO access to Mac. I see it is working, but it seems to have zero connection with monitor. I can't access Recovery Mode, I can't do a thing.

I have no other monitors to attach there and it is Saturday so local Mac support center is also closed for 2 days.

Any ideas what this could be caused from?

Best Answer

While you're unable to see what's on the screen at present, you'd still be able to use the keyboard to reset the NVRAM and SMC, so I'd try doing that to see if it has any impact.

Reset the NVRAM

Your Mac mini uses Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) to store various settings. You can reset this as follows:

  1. Shut down your Mac mini.
  2. Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work. (In your case, since you may not get to see the grey screen, all you need to do is press the keys immediately after powering up)
  3. Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again (i.e. a 2nd time) and you here the startup chime.
  4. Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Resetting the SMC on a Mac mini

Your Mac mini's System Management Controller (SMC) can be reset by following these steps:

  1. Shut down your Mac mini
  2. Unplug it from power
  3. Wait 15 seconds
  4. Plug the power cord back in
  5. Wait for an additional 5 seconds
  6. Press the power button to turn it back on

Once you've reset the NVRAM and/or SMC, let me know how you go.

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