Hmmm maybe time to accept my 2012 Mac Mini is beyond saving!

Donnie

Donnie

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Basically got one of these as they were the last you could upgrade yourself, threw 16gb ram and a 1tb ssd in it a few years ago and it's been only used as a media server for films etc, but recently has gone to a dead crawl and crashes.

Activity monitor shows no high CPU or memory usage at all, there's about 180GB free so it's not at the point of being full, check disk utility seems to throw up no problems. So now thinking the ssd may be on the way out itself!

Anyone else running a 2012 mac mini getting similar issues?
 
I had very similar with my 2015 iMac recently, I tried all sorts of things but eventually wiped the Fusion disk and reinstalled the OS, then restored apps from Time Machine (reinstalled a couple though from scratch), and it's fine now. Obviously one of the newer OS updates knackered it.
 
what SSD is it? look to see if the maker does any software to check? samsung and crucial do
 
I remember you had to enable TRIM support via one of these 3rd party tools for non-apple drives. However it is pretty dated... no 4K support, GPU probably scraping the bottom of the barrel, etc
 
Had similar issues with both Macs and PCs that are old - try replacing the thermal compound under your heat sink, because as it dries out it becomes less effective at transferring heat. If you're seeing slow performance and crashes then it could be caused by thermal throttling and overheating. When I treated my Dell XPS at about 7 years old it was like a new machine.
 
Had that with an i5 iMac since new. Crashed randomly for no reason. Never got to the bottom of it. Also had it with an i7 but it went longer between failures. That died with hard drive failure on new year this year. Gone back to the i5.

Always had temp sensors running and the i5 never got hot. I7 overheated a lot and I think the way they are made aggravates the issue.

If you can reinstall from scratch and put back what you had from fresh installs you should avoid returning something that upsets it.

Is it crashing when idle or when it’s active?
 
Donnie said:
Basically got one of these as they were the last you could upgrade yourself, threw 16gb ram and a 1tb ssd in it a few years ago and it's been only used as a media server for films etc, but recently has gone to a dead crawl and crashes.

Activity monitor shows no high CPU or memory usage at all, there's about 180GB free so it's not at the point of being full, check disk utility seems to throw up no problems. So now thinking the ssd may be on the way out itself!

Anyone else running a 2012 mac mini getting similar issues?
Click to expand...

You can easily disconnect the SSD's cable from the logic board and boot from an external drive running 10.13.6. If the crashes cease it's most likely the SSD failing, if not then swap out the memory to isolate that. If it still continues to crash then it's likely the logic board. To isolate the the SSD remove the black circular base, then the metal cover under it. Be careful with the antenna lead. The hard drive cable connector is, with the rear facing you, at the back of the logic board to the left side. Some years back I fitted to a friends 2014 Mac mini and 2011 21.5" iMac 1TB Crucial M500 SSD's, then about a year later the Mac Mini SSD started failing, then a few months later the same to the iMac. Both were replaced under Crucial's warranty and as far as I know are still running perfectly. For years I've been using Crucial SSD's, both 2.5" M500's and the. external small X6, never had a problem. I assumed the problems must have been associated with a bad batch.
 
srichards said:
Had that with an i5 iMac since new. Crashed randomly for no reason. Never got to the bottom of it. Also had it with an i7 but it went longer between failures. That died with hard drive failure on new year this year. Gone back to the i5.
Click to expand...

If your iMac was a 2009 - 2011 model they naturally ran very hot. The skinny 2012 onwards used to run cool but the bottom vents could clog with dust and fluff, same as the rear vent behind the stand. I've seen them with fluff hanging out of the vents causing temperatures to rise.. That was an unforeseen issue relating to the design. The most effective way to clear the dust and fluff involves removing the display and blowing the dust and fluff out from the inside with a blower outside. Hard drives can fail at any time, especially the spinner in a Fusion Drive.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Had similar issues with both Macs and PCs that are old - try replacing the thermal compound under your heat sink, because as it dries out it becomes less effective at transferring heat. If you're seeing slow performance and crashes then it could be caused by thermal throttling and overheating. When I treated my Dell XPS at about 7 years old it was like a new machine.
Click to expand...

Good call. From my computer days I can confirm that sometimes old heat sink compound is the cause of problems.
 
Donnie said:
mainly when active as far as i can tell.
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Check how hot it is getting too with something like itstats menu.

There's quite a lot of mac refurb places around so a newer one might not be that expensive.

If the memory is easy to access then it might be worth reseating it and also seeing how much dust and crud is in there.
 
Well been trying again today and have an external ssd which ive formatted and is viewable in finder
But thought i'd see how to put a fresh install of Catalina on this disk but cant even find it on the app store, is there some trick to this?
 
ancient_mariner said:
Frustrating.
Click to expand...
Very! Still, I've ordered a 1tb Samsung ssd drive and a kit to add the 500gb Samsung ssd I already have and will do a fresh install and see if I can get a few more years out of it. :)
 
:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: Guess who's back up and running!!!???

Stripped the mac mini right down, new 1tb Samsung EVO ssd plus a 500GB Samsung EVO ssd installed, all cleaned, new thermal paste and a fresh install of catalina!
Happy happy happy!
 
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