Macos – Can’t Get Mac Mini to turn on – no screen, no beep, only the fan, power light, and optical drive noise

macmac-minimacos

I have an Intel-based Mac mini mid-2007 (Model A1176). This is the computer my kids use so I don't use it regularly. The computer had been working fine until one day my kids told me that it no longer works. The computer will not boot up. When I turn it on the fan turns, the white power light in the front turns on, and there is a sound that appears to be from the optical drive (rather than hard drive). I don't get anything to the monitor, nor do I get any dings or other start up sounds from the computer.

Here is what I've tried thus far to no avail:
1) Swapped out the monitors early on since I figured that was my weak link – no change
2) Reset the PMU – no change
3) Tried to boot up from the System Disk – The mini loaded the dvd into the drive, but nothing else (I can't eject the disk so I can put it back)
3) Start up the computer in target mode connected to another mac – I tried this too, but I never received a chime or the disk show up on the other mac.

I'm about out of ideas apart from scraping the computer. Does anyone have any ideas that I can try? Again, nothing has been done to the computer in at least 6 months when I upgraded the RAM. I'm also still on Leopard. Thanks.

Best Answer

I know this is an old post, but one side issue you mentioned re: not being able to eject your DVD. If you hold down the mouse button while booting, an eject command is sent. This is a holdover from floppy disk days, but it still works with DVDs and CDs on the latest Macs.

Related Solutions

Macos – How to force the Mac Mini to eject a DVD

There are a few methods depending on how "stuck" it is:

Method 1 : Use Disk Utility to eject The first and simplest method, if you only want to unmount a single volume on the disk, is to use Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities. In Disk Utility, simply select the volume you want to unmount and click Eject.

Method 2 : Hold Down the mouse button at startup In some cases holding down a connected mouse button at startup will cause a misbehaving optical drive to eject its media.

Method 3: Boot into Open Firmware and eject If you have a Mac that will not startup properly and has a stuck disc, try booting into Open Firmware by holding down Command, Option, O key and F key during startup. After booting into Open Firmware, type the command eject-cd.

Method 4: Using the Terminal. There are two commands that can be used in the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities) which can be used to force disk ejection:

drutil tray eject.

Simply type in the above command and press return.

Last resort method (Danger, Will Robinson!):

Also knwon as, Ye olde screwdriver method.

Turn the CPU upside down and lay it flat on a desk or table. Use a flat-edged knife or small pry bar to gently and carefully lift the bottom panel off the unit.
Use a small Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the four screws at the corners of the large, flat, shiny metal panel directly below the bottom panel. Lift off the panel to expose the CD drive and remove the CD carefully with your fingers.
Replace the metal panel and its screws, then snap the bottom cover back into place. Reattach all of the cables and boot up the computer.

If you still can't it out using the last method, then you a really, ahem, stuck. Call the fruit company.

;-)

MacOS – How to upgrade OS on Mac Mini with external USB Drive

On a PPC Mac such as your G4 Mac Mini, you have to use a Firewire drive. USB booting wasn't really supported before the Intel Macs. You can use a Firewire optical external drive, a Firewire harddrive that has the OS Installer restored to it, put the Mac mini into Target Disk mode and install OS X on a Mac with a working optical drive, or you could even use NetInstall on a MacOS X Server machine.

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