Mac Mini 2011 Issues

[KSti56]

Last year I purchased a Mac Mini 2011 to use as a home server. MacOS High Sierra was working great, for a while. 

 

Starting sometime late last year, the Mac would randomly shutdown and boot loop until I reset the SMC. Then, once I did get it to boot, it would reboot after 30 minutes of idling. This basically rendered the machine useless for me due to how I wanted to use it.

 

Last night, I set up Dual Booting on the machine for Ubuntu. It was working great for a while, and then, it started rebooting every 30 minutes just like MacOS. Today, it will not even start Ubuntu. It begins to boot Ubuntu, and then reboots.

 

I ordered a new CMOS battery to see if that fixes the issue, but I'm not very confident that is the issue.

 

Last note: I upgraded the RAM last year and put in an SSD a couple months ago, although these issues were occurring before I put the SSD in

 

Any help is appreciated!

 

Thanks

[WhitetailAni]

Have you reset the PRAM or no?
I believe the SMC is the boot-up part of a BIOS, and the PRAM is the settings part of a BIOS, so to fully reset the BIOS (so to speak) would require a reset of both.

 

[KSti56]

I'll try that, thanks for the quick response!

[KSti56]

@FakeKGBThat seemed to fix the issue (for now)

 

Thanks for the help!

[KSti56]

Hey @FakeKGB, sorry to bug you, but I had a quick question. It seems that once I reset the PRAM, the system stays online (it's been up for 7 hours today), but whenever I let it sit for a couple of days (not on), the issue re-appears and I have to reset the PRAM again. Could this be a CMOS issue? I bought a new battery a few days ago anyways, but I was just wondering if you had any other ideas as to why that was happening.

 

Again, thanks for the help!

[WhitetailAni]

5 hours ago, ThisLightMan said:

Hey @FakeKGB, sorry to bug you, but I had a quick question. It seems that once I reset the PRAM, the system stays online (it's been up for 7 hours today), but whenever I let it sit for a couple of days (not on), the issue re-appears and I have to reset the PRAM again. Could this be a CMOS issue? I bought a new battery a few days ago anyways, but I was just wondering if you had any other ideas as to why that was happening.

 

Again, thanks for the help!

Have you replaced the battery or not?
I believe the PRAM is the PC equivalent of the BIOS, with a few differences, so if the original battery was still in there it would have that problem.
If not, boot into Open Firmware by holding Command+Option+O+F and type two commands:

reset nvram

reset all

 

This will make all your settings - like the time, etc. completely default, hopefully getting rid of whatever problem there was.

[KSti56]

I have not replaced the battery yet, it hasn’t been delivered to me yet. I believe it is the original battery, so hopefully that fixes the issue.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[KSti56]

Hey @FakeKGB,

 

Thank you for all of the help you've given me. I totally understand if you do not want to/can't give me more assistance. I'm ready to give up on this.

 

I replaced the PRAM battery in the mac mini, but unfortunately the issue is still occurring. It is possible, although unlikely, that the new battery is also bad. I was going to try your suggestion from your comment above about Open Firmware, but it seems like that is only available on PowerPC computers.

 

Here's a summary of the issues now:

• If I try to boot the computer (from shutdown), most of the time, I have to reset the SMC by turning off the machine, unplugging it, plugging it back in, and starting the mini.
• After the computer is booted, it will boot into Ubuntu (or MacOS if I choose that), and then immediately crashes. I am able to get into Ubuntu by resetting the PRAM when the mini restarts, but it seems that I cannot do the same to get into MacOS.
• (This just started recently I believe) Whenever I plug the Mac Mini back in, it automatically starts up. I assume this is the start on power failure system, but it's just odd that it recently started.
• The power adapter doesn't feel like it plugs in right. It's kind of difficult to plug in. Maybe a bad power adapter or power supply? Although I kind of feel like this is more of a software/BIOS (equivalent) issue because I am able to get the machine running, just not easily/normally.

The only other thing I can think of is a complete reset of the PC equivalent of the BIOS, but I'm not sure if that's possible/how to do that.

 

Thanks again

 

[WhitetailAni]

I'm completely stumped here - I've never seen an issue like this.

 

Perhaps Apple support can help you? They helped me with my Power Mac G4.