Mac Mini G4 start up issues, help please?

If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably a bad/cold solder joint somewhere, and it would probably be a relatively easy and cheap fix... IF you happened to work for TSA or something and can run it through an x-ray scanner to find the bad solder joint.

I just KNOW someone's going to pop up like the spanish inquisition guy in all those monty python skits when I say this, but it's probably time to take this thing out back and shoot it in the head to put it out of its misery. Whatever it is, the symptoms seem to be getting worse as time progresses. Add to that that it's a G4 model, so will pretty much definitely be on the Vintage list. That means getting parts would become a game of scrounging ebay and craigslist, hoping that the person you buy it off of labeled it correctly, knows how to avoid ESD damage, packs it well, that the shipping carrier doesn't play a game of warehouse soccer with it or drive it through an artillery range (you laugh, but you should see the condition of a few packages I've gotten), and a myriad of other potential problems.

You can probably repurpose the HDD, and then just sell off the rest on ebay yourself, make a few bucks to cover the cost of the external enclosure for the HDD.

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could be true

by ashtaylor007 - 2/3/12 3:55 PM

In Reply to: If I had to guess by Jimmy Greystone

Thanks for that...

That does sound logical - the one really strange thing is there is a pattern of the longer you leave the mini unplugged, then the longer it works for you when you turn it back on... and that suggests me it is something to do with the PRAM battery getting a charge or something along those lines...

Really need to access the software and bits on this mini, so not as easy as putting a bullet in it, and getting another one, but as they say worse things happen at sea!

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If the worst comes to the worst,

by mrmacfixit - 2/4/12 5:46 AM

In Reply to: could be true by ashtaylor007

and the machine finally gives up the ghost, all your data is still available on the hard drive.

Simply remove the drive from the mini, put it in an external enclosure (or one of those SATA Docks), and attach it to your next Mac.
It will mount as a drive and allow you to access and recover your data.

You may even be able to boot from it.

P