Bought a Mac Mini M4 in Dec. 16 mb Ram, 250mb SSD, 2 TB External. Sequoia 15.2-15.3. My Mac Mini will suddenly go solid black while using it. Lasts for about 2-3 seconds and is fine with no changes afterword. I upgraded to 15.3 and it still continues to do it, maybe 1 or 2 times a day. Not a real detriment to using it but...
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Mac mini
I got a new Mac Mini M4 in January, and it behaved normally until I upgraded the system to 15.3.2, after which the momentary black screen issue began. I am having a hard time believing that it ran for months without any problem and started blacking randomly because of a hardware issue. My old Dell monitor is connected to the HDMI port on the Mini via a conversion cable to the DVI port on the monitor.
I bought a Dell S2725QC monitor a few weeks ago when I ordered my Mac Mini M4. The monitor kept blanking out randomly and sometime even the speakers cracked. I switched out three HDMI cables without success.
This monitor has a usb-c port to use instead of an HDMI cable. A usb-c high speed cable came with the monitor. I connected it to one of the 40 Gbps ports on my M4 and I think this problem might be solved.
If Apple would ad a few more high speed ports it would be nice.
Scott Harrison wrote:
Bought a Mac Mini M4 in Dec. 16 mb Ram, 250mb SSD, 2 TB External. Sequoia 15.2-15.3. My Mac Mini will suddenly go solid black while using it. Lasts for about 2-3 seconds and is fine with no changes afterword. I upgraded to 15.3 and it still continues to do it, maybe 1 or 2 times a day. Not a real detriment to using it but...
What make and model monitor do you have?
How is it connected to your Mini?
What ports does the monitor have?
What fixes have you tried already?
Same here on Mac Studio M4 Max. Worked fine for a month. Havent updating anything. It seems only to happen just after booting. Using two 5k Asus monitors at 60Hz. It would be scary if this is a bandwitdh thing.
One monitor HDMi and the other USB-C. Both with the ASUS included cables. It cant be a cable issue.
For what it's worth... I changed from USB-C cable to Thunderbolt 3 cable and so far no glitches... Mac Studio M4 Max. ASUS ProART 5k display.
Glad to hear that's working for you.
Unfortunately I've been using a Monoprice 8K Certified Ultra High Speed HDMI 2.1 Cable on one of my LG UltraFine UHD 27-Inch 4K 2160p monitors since purchasing our Mac Mini M4 and am still encountering the random blackout issue.
Currently I'm using that HDMI cable on the #2 monitor and an Anker USB C Display/USB 4 Data Cable (40Gbps, 8K HD) on the #1 monitor. Per another member's suggestion I switched the USB C cable to the Thunderbolt port on the Mac Mini M4 and no longer encounter the random blackout issue on #1.
So the problem "moved" from the #1 to the #2 monitor. Less annoying since I use the #1 monitor primarily, but still...
As mentioned previously, I've tried all sorts of cables, connections, monitor setup configurations, etc. and the random blackout problem persists. What I have now is the most stable, but it's still there.
Reported the issue to Apple a while back.
Same problem with my new Mac Mini M4. I'm up to Sequoia 15.6 and it still happens. Tried different HDMI cables. No help. Seems like it is a Mac Mini thing, or Mac OS thing? I hope an OS update can fix it. Otherwise are we looking at a lot of recalls or repair?
Yeah it seems obvious that there's a defect with the HDMI and M4 Mini with a lot of different monitors. There's been plenty of OS updates since it came out and nothing has fixed it. I suspect it's a hardware problem that's not fixable short of replacement.
So that would indicate it is a problem with the Mac Mini's HDMI port? I just connected a USB-c to HDMI adapter.
So USB-c to female HDMI adapter to a regular HDMI cable. We'll see if that solves it for me. Maybe better to get one cable and no adapter - USB-c to HDMI.
I use an M4 mini Pro with a Dell U3818DW. The frequent blanking forced me to use on the of the scarce Thunderbolt/USB-C ports.
After testing a range of high quality 4K HDMI cables and almost giving up, I finally tried an Anker 8K HDMI cable.
It solved the problem.
I have tried multiple monitors and multiple cables and the issue still happens with variable frequency.
Screen goes black which appears to be the connection losing sync. If I have sound playing through the display speakers it will be interrupted for the time that the screen is black.
I have tried:
They all exhibit the issue.
As I mentioned in my earlier note, after swapping four or five high-quality HDMI 4K cables with no luck, I bought the Anker brand 8K cable. The basic version is not expensive. I have not seen a blanked screen in two weeks since installing it. I suspect the issue is that the HDMI chip is losing sync with my Dell.
I also see this with my Switch/Switch 2 and a 4K Vizio TV. I am now trying an Anker 8K cable on it.
Will try that. Should be here tomorrow.
FWIW, there are two different Anker 8K cables. I went with
B08MZYQ43S
Anker HDMI Cable 8K@60Hz, 6.6FT Ultra High Speed 4K@120Hz 48Gbps Ultra HD, HDMI Cable Support Dynamic HDR,eARC,Dolby Atmos,Compatible with PlayStation 5,Xbox Series X,Samsung TVs
mainly because it had more reviews and slightly higher rating.
Had monitor connected to an older Mac Mini, worked fine, and has fixed cable, can’t replace.
Does not have a Display Cord. Somebody else was also having blackout issues that replacing the unit didn’t help.
Mac mini M4 screen go black randomly
