Chosen Solution
I have been having issues with my Mac Mini 2011 (A1347) recently. Here’s a list of the issues: The Mac Mini will usually not boot up all the way. The progress bar gets to about 60-70% and reboots. After about 3 times of this, the fans get loud and there is no display output (I can fix this by resetting the SMC).If the Mac Mini does boot (rare), it will reboot after about 10-15 minutes. I can usually get it to boot after resetting the OS or running hardware diagnostics. Here’s what I’ve tried: Different surge protectorReplaced the PRAM batteryReplaced the drive (replaced it with an SSD)Reinstalled the entire OS (multiple times)Disabled the Dedicated GPU by following this article: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/750…. After doing some research, I’ve seen people that have had similar issues, but fixed them with one of the following: Applying new thermal paste. I feel like this probably isn’t the issue because I would think that the CPU/GPU wouldn’t overheat right when the computer boots up, but I could be wrong. Even if this isn’t the issue, I should probably reapply the thermal paste at some point.Resoldering / reflowing the graphics chip. I have discovered Radeongate, but not all of the symptoms match mine. For example, a lot of people have said that they see a green apple logo, have a distorted output, etc. but I am not experiencing any of that. As I said above, I have tried disabling the dedicated GPU, but that didn’t seem to help. I do not have much experience soldering, but it’d be worth a try if this is the issue.Replacing the power supply One last note, safe mode works fine. This makes me think it may be an issue with the dedicated GPU. If so, is there a better way (than what I tried before) for me to disable the dedicated GPU to ensure that this is the issue? Thanks for the help!
Your system is not completing POST, then SMC has latched in the failed state at which point the fan is ramped up. Your GPU is failing! The GPU can also fail like yours has, The green screen is just one symptom of a few different ones as different sections within the chip will fail.
Press and hold the power button on your Mac for at least 10 seconds, then release. If your Mac is turned on, this forces it to turn off. If you see no change on your Mac, press and release the power button normally
