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Announced on October 16, 2014, identifiable by the model number A1347 and EMC 2840.

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Upgraded to SSD, Mac starts but no boot ... No display, no keyboard

Hello I did'nt find better suggestion searching here. Here is the issue I've got with the late 2014 mac mini I've purchased second hand.

  • It was working when i bought it ( 2,5 ghz processor, 8go Ram, Apple keyboard)
  • carefully switched the internal 1To HDD with a samsung Evo SSD ( 500 gb)
  • Did start the mac and heard the POST " chime" sound once. Did shut down ( I had no screen nor keyboard connected).
  • After that , on next startup the "chime" POST sound never came back. I assumedthere was connection fault so I've checked everything and teardown/ remount several times since...
  • connected it to a display with hdmi or mini display to vga ( both working with another mac) : no display whatsoever
  • The power LED is working, no blinking
  • The MAc mini heats but the Fan doesn't start
  • caps lock of the USB apple keyboard doesn't work
  • USB wired mouse does get power from usb and blnks
  • external HDD mounted on a SATA / Usb 3 adaptor does get power and blinks
  • no way to reinstall mac Os or to boot on the recovery , as I get no display and no keyboard access.
  • did tryed to clone my MBP SSD to the internal SSD ( one more disassembly / assembly) , but no result.
  • and now I just can't put the WI fi antenna back , maybe I've pinched the small connectors.. but I can live without WIFI :)

  • So I've heard about bootloader damaged or something like this, that could be helped with another mac and target disk mode start the Mac mini... That could work using a generic wired keyboard rather than the Apple USB wired keyboard, but it sounds weird.

* Does somebody know how I could fix that mess , or did i have bricked this cheap mac mini ? Is there another way to restore the system ?

  • by the way thanks your for your helps and toolkit and advices.
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Try your SSD in a different Mac to see if the SSD is defective. I don't understand what your problem with the Wifi is, so please elaborate on that in greater detail. Try connecting to a different display to make sure your display is not at fault.

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Hello thanks for your answer and your help. here are some precisions

SSD : the SSD is working on my other Mac ( can boot / restore my MBP 2009 with ). I've put different mac system on it and also tryed a =ALT boot using another mac Os bootable HDD .

Wifi : After the first disassembly it was quite easy to connect back the small wifi antenna to the Air Port board ... After the second it is quite impossible, I've tryed to look with a magnifying glass to see if i've bent the connectors, but it's not obvious.... So just I can't put wifi antenna back but it's not a big deal as I just can't restore/ boot the Mac mini for the moment

Display : I've tryed unsucessfully with a Tv with both VGA and HDMI inputs....Also with a video projector ACER with both VGA and HDMI inputs.... These two displays work good (same cables) with my MAc book pro...

Thanks for any further advice, have a nice day

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Try resetting the SMC and NVRAM. You can do this by pressing the power button while holding CMD+ALT+P+R, and holding until you hear the boot chime twice. This resets the NVRAM.

However, I am 99% sure that your problem is with the SMC, as the SMC controls

Responding to presses of the power button

Responding to the display lid opening and closing on Mac notebooks

Battery management

Thermal management

SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor)

Ambient light sensing

Keyboard backlighting

Status indicator light (SIL) management

Battery status indicator lights

Selecting an external (instead of internal) video source

Since most of these are problems you are experiencing, resetting the SMC may fix them. To reset the SMC, do this:

Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cable.

Wait 15 seconds.

Plug the power cord back in, then turn on your Mac.

Let me know if the problem persists.

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thanks a lot @mc niner , I just did it several times but nothing happens, still no keyboard action nor "caps lock" light, no display . ( i also tryed the old 2011 way with keeping pressed the power button while unplugged to discharge the capacitors , but also unsuccesfull) . Mac Mini is getting hot but the fan doesn't spin.

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I think the problem is your power supply (PSU). Buy a new one here: Mac mini A1347 (Mid 2011-Late 2014) Power Supply Then follow the instructions to replace it here: Mac mini Late 2014 Power Supply Replacement

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@eucador Hello ! thanks for your suggestion. Is there a test i can make to be sure it is the PSU ?

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(Pardon me if my questions and offerings are unhelpful. Not for any lack of goodwill, I assure you.)

First, does your old HDD still boot up normally when reinstalled? If not, you have new problems.

If so, have you tried installing OSX onto your SSD as an external drive using the internet?

If that succeeds, you may then be able to substitute your SSD for the HDD.

I have discovered in trying to reinstall OSX on various Macs that with older ones, it is essential to

clone only from machines using the version the target Mac uses and not a newer one. The target

system will not boot with a newer version.

Good luck!

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Helo and thanks a lot for your help ! your suggestion looks very good, and make me realize how stupid I've been:

I've bought the Mac Mini second hand so the seller just wiped it's "Big Sur" datas and resetted the BIg Sur system to zero. When I've upgraded to SSD , the tutorial I've followed said to format the "new" SSD to " HFS+, GUID partition table" and reinstall Mac os from a bootable USB drive. So I've erased the original "late" HDD and put a bootable Monterey ( last supported version) on it ... And then the Mac mini doesn't recognize any drive ( internal ssd or external bootable hd , or Usb bootable 32 go drive ) , the USB bootable HDD does run and the Sata/ USB Adapter gets some light but as I have no display nor keyboard I just can't run it :( Maybe there is something to do with the seller ? thanks again

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Hello just read your question. Here is my response. Hope it helps.

You say the mac mini is a late 2014, have you checked the serial number on it, base panel;

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup...

Secondly, if you've never opened a Mac Mini or other Apple product, did you use a proper tutorial like this one?

Mac mini Late 2014 Teardown

If you did, and swapped the HD over and put all the wires back correctly , then the machine should boot to a white screen with an onscreen 'flashing folder'. Telling the user there is no osX installed. (Flashing folder can mean other things too, not discussed here). Example picture.

Block Image

Reinstalling any fresh osX from a usb flash pen drive is very easy, you don't need to connect to the internet at all.

All osX operating systems are time based. You have to set the date/time via terminal according to the osX your installing. Otherwise you will get error messages onscreen, telling you there are 'no packages available'. Causing you to scratch your head!! Example pictures.

Block Image

Block Image

If you haven't done it before it can be challenging.

The Mac osX filing system from Snow Leopard 10.6.x to El Capitan 10.11.x was HFS+.

BUT.......

The Mac osX filing system changed with Sierra 10.12 osX to Sonama 14.1.x from HFS+ to APFS , default for SSD drives. But HFS+ can also be used too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS

Without confusing you. Right now if you turn on your machine, the screen lights up, and there is no flashing folder with question mark, and there is no bong chime. Then something is wrong.

When you put everything back together. Turned on. Did you press the four special keys on the keyboard to reset the PRAM or NVRAM?

Did you reset the SMC?

These two things are basics with owning Apple Mac products.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102605

https://www.macworld.com/article/224955/...

Lastly did you put the old HD back in correctly and if so, did it boot back up and work properly as you stated?

Regards

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Hello and thanks a lot for your answer.

- It's a late 2014 MAc Mini (Mac mini 7,1)

- There is no display working:no video signal going out from the mac!

- I've resetted SMC

- I can't properly reset PRAM as the USB apple keyboard doesn't works, but a USB mouse and the USB Hdd connected do receive power from the "bricked " mac mini. I did disconnect/reconnect the internal CMOS battery to force PRAM reset.

- As I have no display can't check if it's displaying the image you showed me ( Did succesfully upgrade a MBP 5,5 of 2009 with SSD and of course it was easy to reinstall MAc OS on it, from a USB drive or from Internet)

- Worst : at first boot after reassembly with the new SSD : I had the "chime" POST sound , but at second boot, it had disappeared :(

- I've tested the displays, keyboard, power cable and the external bootable driveswith my MBP and it works. Mac mini power on with static LED on. Fan don't spin.

no keyboard so no way to cmd + R boot. any way thanks a lot for your helps

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( Also I've followed a tutorial to replace HDD by SSD )

never had display since the reboot after upgrading ,

never had a USB pple keyboard "caps lock light" working.

always had USB wired optical mouse red light blinking and also the connection to USB with SATA / uSb cable or dock do work.

... The 2 displays and cables (Minidisplay / VGA , HDMI) work with my mac book pro 2009 (running Mojave with a patch) . Also do the keyboard.

thanks again for taking much time to try to help me , the problem is that i've never got display nor keyboard since the upgrade, so now way to ALT boot or Target mode boot or any restore... must have damaged the Logic board though I did it very carefully ( and succeed on other machines)

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