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...
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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.
I get blackouts on my Lenovo rarely, maybe once a day. But the MSI blacks out dozens of times a day to the point it's unusable. Which is a shame because it's a really nice 32" gaming 4K monitor. I tried all refresh rates, no difference. MSI tech support said they don't even list the Mini's on their compatibility list because they are so problematic with their monitors.
I have been having issues with my Mini M2 blacks out, no sound or no video output for a short second, sometimes when it comes back, there is no audio, from the Mini for an extended time, it is very frustrating and seems like it's getting more frequent, I captured a video of it happening twice within 3 minutes.
I have tried USB-C to HDMI and HDMI to HDMI. There are no issues with the monitor; I have no blackouts when using my Xbox on it.
@Brian Hartmann: Have more-or-less the same setup. However I've swapped monitor positions, swapped out HDMI and Thunderbolt cables, swapped out which monitor uses which cable to no avail. It's always the left ("main") monitor that blacks out.
Just a reference point. For me, that tells me it's not the monitor(s) nor the cable(s).
I got a Mac mini m4 base model a few days ago, and I am having the same issue on an Lg c2 TV, I tried several 2.1 HDMI cables and the screen kept randomly blacking out for a couple of seconds. I will be returning this mini PC tomorrow.
I have tried multiple monitors and multiple cables and the issue still happens with variable frequency.
Screen goes black which appears to be the connection losing sync. If I have sound playing through the display speakers it will be interrupted for the time that the screen is black.
I have tried:
They all exhibit the issue.
Talked to Apple support and still no official word on this one. Might end up sending the computer back for no reason. If it's a software thing I don't care much, just the fact that warranty is about to run out and I don't want to be down a port if it is a physical problem. I know they won't find an issue, diagnostics return fine and it pops up like once every 1-2 days, basically impossible to test for.
I bought a Mac Mini M4 in November 2024. I have the screen go black randomly problem right from the beginning. No matter what monitor or HDMI cable i use, it resists. Sometimes its a couple of times per hour, sometimes all 2-3 Minutes. I am very, very unsatisfied, especially because there ist no way to fix this, at least with reasonable money. I think this may be a power problem of the Mac Mini M4. An active Thunderbolt Hub may fix this, but is to expensive for me, especially when compared to the comparable low price of the Mac. I now finally decided to downgrade to my old mac mini 2012, that runs fine without issues. Its rock stable and i appreciate stability more than the M4s high performance, that i do not need anyway. So finally it looks like i bought a Mac Mini M4 that is not capable of driving a HDMI Monitor with its HDMI plug. Well done Apple.
This is what I thinking about a lot. To change the cable to displayport cable, not just for this reason because this isn't an issue for me just more of an annoyance but I want to change my setup orientation. But I can't find a decent USB-C Displayport 1.4 cable..
Thanks for the confirmation. Yes it is clearly some kind of driver issue or something like that. Also as I wrote before you can kinda reproduce this phenomenon when you change the refreshing rate value in SystemSettings of your external monitor. What also interesting when this phenomenon happens (if it happens) my MacBook's display is rock steady, no black out nothing, I've never had any problems with my MacBook and its display since I've had it. Thats why I think this is not a hardware issue at all.
Using a one-year old M4 Mac Mini Pro (14c/20g/64 GB/1TB) connected to an LG 32UN880-B 32-in 4K display. This screen was purchased in Nov 2000 with my M1 Mac Mini. Using Belkin High Speed 4K HDMI cable.
Beginning with Tahoe 26.1, the screen will periodically blank to black lasting about 2s and then return to normal view afterward. Not very frequent throughout the day, but beginning to raise questions about whether it is this release of Tahoe, the mini, or the five-year old display. I have another display that I can swap to narrow the source of this issue.
Have a 6K 32-inch LG display in mind for a replacement if complete display fail, but holding off on that for now.
can you please share the brand of the usbc c to display port cable you are using? thank you
Those same cables helped me with a very finicky PS5 connected to a Vizo 4K TV.
I have had the same experience. It clearly is a driver issue, since it seems to change with macOS versions.
I thought I have it fixed with an 8K HDMI cable. Then it came back with Tahoe.
Is your MacBook display connected via HDMI?
Which cable? Please include the referenced cable in your reply. It's not easy to track back.
Mac mini M4 screen go black randomly
