Mac Mini 2012 won't boot

Breezer

Anyone like to play doctor and tell me what my Mac Mini 2012 is trying to say to me here? I restarted it, it now won't boot. I hear the startup chime and then repeated buzzing noises. See the video linked below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hldy8vhryvrc2j/IMG_2103.MOV?dl=0

For some background, I recently upgraded it by installing a new 8GB RAM module alongside one of the 2GB units it shipped with. Both are the same frequency. I also installed a new hard drive to replace the original one, and added a second SSD. The SSD is the boot drive.

The Mac had been functioning fine for the past week since I upgraded it, except one partition on the new hard drive (of two partitions) had unmounted itself. The second partition was a time machine backup which seemed to be taking forever to encrypt. The reason I restarted was I suspected an issue with that drive and I wanted to boot into recovery and use disk utility to erase it and start again.

I've opened it up, taken the RAM out of the slots and put it in again, disconnected the hard drive and SSD from the logic board and reconnected them again, and disconnected and reconnected the antenna. Same result (other than when I didn't put the RAM back properly at first I didn't get a startup chime, just the buzzing). I haven't the energy tonight to play around inside anymore.

Any ideas? Please nobody say "logic board failure"...

Type 17

Remove the new RAM units & try booting, then the new (second) HD & try booting, and then the new boot HD and replace it with the original one and try booting.

If/when you get it to boot, try adding the RAM only (with the original HD), then add the new (secondary) HD, and then finally change the boot drive - you'll be able to see which item(s) is/are causing the issue.

brav

The sound in the video is like the HDD not functioning correctly, however normally you would then see a flashing folder on the screen to indicate the boot volume not found.

Are you able to perform a NVRAM reset? https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT204063

If it does(you hear the chime a second time after a few seconds), if you hold Alt key, do you see anything on the screen offering a choice of where to start?

If not, then I def go with the previous reply and put in the original HDD and RAM and start from there.

Breezer

Type 17 wrote: »

Remove the new RAM units & try booting, then the new (second) HD & try booting, and then the new boot HD and replace it with the original one and try booting.

If/when you get it to boot, try adding the RAM only (with the original HD), then add the new (secondary) HD, and then finally change the boot drive - you'll be able to see which item(s) is/are causing the issue.

Thanks. This was the kind of obvious, calm, logical approach I was completely incapable of last night after a day of work, an evening of study and then my computer that I need for both refusing to boot.

Done that now. It boots if I disconnect the hard drive, so at worst it's a bad hard drive. At best, it's a bad hard drive cable. That's a lot better than a logic board!

Thank you!!

DeconSheridan

Breezer wrote: »

Thanks. This was the kind of obvious, calm, logical approach I was completely incapable of last night after a day of work, an evening of study and then my computer that I need for both refusing to boot.

Done that now. It boots if I disconnect the hard drive, so at worst it's a bad hard drive. At best, it's a bad hard drive cable. That's a lot better than a logic board!

Thank you!!

Restarting during encryption process can corrupt the drive and make it unrecoverable. Its also more difficult working with encrypted drives is it really necessary if so great, if not then don't encrypt. The process of encrypting can take and extended time as can wiping drives let the process finish and don't panic or you can as mentioned destroy the drive and its contents unrecoverable.