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...
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Mac mini
It does depend on the quality of the monitor, but HDMI is, first and foremost, a TV connection. And by quality, I mean cheaper monitors often limit HDMI to the original HD resolution of 1920x1080, regardless of any higher resolutions the monitor can support under a DisplayPort or USB-C Thunderbolt connection.
That, and over the years, I've seen far too many posts here by folks trying to use HDMI. Issues which disappeared when they used their monitor's DisplayPort option.
I have an EIZO monitor that allows me to use DisplayPort, USB-C or HDMI. Given the cost of these monitors, I know HDMI would work (with a proper high speed HDMI cable), but I'm still going to use a connection meant for computer monitors before I'd even consider HDMI.
Having an HDMI port is intended for video work. It eliminates the need for a break-out box. You use DisplayPort or USB-C to a monitor for your work screen in Final Cut Pro, Avid, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, etc., and a separate HDMI output to a reference monitor (TV) to see how color will appear on a TV as you simultaneously work in your video editor.
USB-C to HDMI cable?
New Mac mini m4. 24/512. Hooked up to an LG 34" wide monitor. Monitor works great with laptop. HDMI cable is good, Input port and power plug is fine. Monitor works flawless with my laptop.
Using the Mini: monitor goes black 3-4 times an hour, for about 5 seconds. Computer seems to run fine, no processes get ruined. But the screen blacks out. Keeps happening all; day.
I took machine to Appel Store, they actually replaced my Mac mini. The NEW Machine does the same thing!!!
Wow.
I was wrong when I said it had a fixed HDMI cable! It has a DVI display female port on the monitor back which is connected to an adaptor that turns into HDMI male and on to the Mac Mini. My Thunderbolt ports, there are only 2 on the rear, are both being used but the front 2 are clear. I could rewire the cable from a DVI out on the monitor to a Thunderbolt in on the front of the Mac but I would need to purchase the cable to do so. Is it an issue that I need to do this and would it solve the problem? Maybe, but the infrequent interruption isn’t that big a deal, yet...
I got a new Mac mini m4 today, and I've noticed the same issue. The screen goes black randomly for a second or two and comes back again. I upgraded from a Mac mini m1 and switched it back and forth. Doesn't seem like and issue with the cable or the monitor to me. Still trying to figure out!
I am dealing with same issue as written below HOWEVER, I have been on phone with Apple and Dell Support and NO ONE seems to be able to offer a fix for this problem (Dell U2724D) Mac mini M4 16 mb Ram, 250mb SSD, 2 TB External. Sequoia 15.2-15.4.1. Is anyone at support working on this problem, my solid black screen will go away for an hour or two then back with a vengeance -- it's not even predictable! I have tried every single solution offered me - I have $100+ in new cables (troubleshooting!) and nothing works. Apple Support PLEASE GET ON THIS!
Happened again today. Again during disk activity with an external USB hard drive (spinning up from sleep, I believe).
FYI: only the one display, USB-C high quality cable (swapped out with another just to be sure). The hard drive(s) are attached via a different USB-C port to a separate USB hub.
I'm 99% sure this is not a cable issue now.
Following up again - happened again once after update to 15.5 (24F74) build. I quietly count to 3 or 4 and it's back. It's really intermittent kind of thing. It was while during use. I might try making sure my drives are set not to sleep when not in use and see if that changes anything (just a hunch).
Got an M4 Mac mini. Get horrible blackouts with AOC 4K 32" monitor, wasn't getting any on my older Dell 27" 4K monitor but now it's started doing it on this one too.
Have bought numerous certified HDMI cables, USBC>DP, nothing helps. Really frustrating.
Interesting! So I guess it isn't my display after all. I'm experiencing this issue as well. Mac Mini M4, macOS 15.5 (24F74) and an iiyama ProLite XUB2792UHSU-B1 connected via HDMI. My second display is a Dell U2711 connected via DisplayPort and only the iiyama is going dark for about 2 seconds every once in a while. It's not too frequent but still very annoying because it almost feels like a brown out. I don't have a USB-C port to spare, don't want to buy an expensive dock and the Dell has issues with an HDMI connection so I'm kind of stuck with HDMI for the main display. Would be nice if Apple could figure out the issue …
I got an issue that was never presented before on my mac mini m4. After external booting i got stuck on loop trying to boot normally with external SSD unplugged. When it successfully boots it says (SOCD iboot panic error).
I was using an USB c display and after i unplugged the display the mac mini restarted. Is there any possibillity of motherboard failure?
The HDMI doesn't work anymore or rarely. Does anybody have a solution or should i take it for a repair?.
Since swapping, I've noticed a significant decrease in the blackout. Maybe only once or twice over the past three weeks or so. Like @richsadams it's still the main/left monitor, but much less blackout in this configuration. Still, should be a better experience.
@Brian Hartmann, it sounds like the only difference between our setups is that you're driving your main/left monitor with a Thunderbolt cable connected to an external Thunderbolt hub?
I have tried both HDMI and Thunderbolt cables on both monitors with the same, periodic blackout results on the main/left monitor (never on the right one). However in my case the Thunderbolt cable is connected directly to the Mini.
Above my pay grade as to why a hub in the mix would change things, but I'm glad it's working for you. I guess I need to come up with a good excuse to add one now. 😉
That's true will try to make a post. I already contacted the Apple support but their advice of reinstalling MacOS didn't fix the problem and now i am thinking of trying DFU reset because i think that something was messed up on the software i hope so
And... I jinxed myself. 3 times this morning within 30 minutes. To be clear, i'm utilizing a thunderbolt cable on the USB-C port on the display to the Mac Mini M4. I've tried other cables, no change/correlation that I can tell. I *DID* have a backup in progress at the same time, which gets to my theory of traffic handling on the ports could be an issue - even though the drive handling the backup is on a different port (and not fast either, so it should not be maxing out the bandwidth on the ports). But i'm just grasping at straws about what could be causing it.
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.
Mac mini M4 screen go black randomly
