Over the past few weeks, my Mac mini has been getting less and less responsive. The kernel_task has been spinning up taking up ridiculous amounts of CPU time and dragging my system to its knees.
I did what anyone would: I ran hardware diagnostics (passed). I ran SMART diagnostics (passed) and then I web searched the hell out of the interwebs, and there I found an unusual suggestion. Several sites suggested that I may have built up dust accumulation in my mini and that the fan control was trying to mitigate this.
Fortunately, I’m one of the lucky ones (for very low values of “lucky”) with a self-serviceable 2012 Mac mini instead of the upgrade a few years later that removed the service hatch. (*shakes fist*. *darn you Apple.*)
I opened it up and sure enough it was pretty dirty in there. I vacuumed and then I used compressed air to finish (after finding the child who had “acquired” it for an “important project” several months ago and never returned it). I performed a thorough vac and dust of the work area where it rests along with my many backup and external data drives.
Plugged it back in and for nearly a week so far I have not had the same issues reoccur. It seems a tiny bit black magic but it also seems to be working (fingers crossed).
I thought I’d write up a quick post to share my experience and see if anyone else has been through this and has advice or suggestions. For me, it’s like having my Mac back again. I still need a refreshed mini (hint Apple hint) but I have serious concerns about buying one without a self service hatch.
Apple’s move away from self-service products has cemented its appeal as a “computing appliance” provider but it also means expensive service calls for any problem. Much as I’d like them to give us a Mac Pro Lite, at a lower price point than the Pro and a higher one than the mini, with lots of configuration options, I just cannot see that kind of product ever existing in today’s Applesphere.
A lot of us mini owners cling tenaciously to our six-year-old hardware (or, for some, 4 year old), but I’ve seen no indication that the mini has a future at all in the lineup. If it’s not a product appealing to the BMW owner set or essential for internal Apple use, I don’t really see it having a place in Apple’s marketplace.
One indication against this gloom is Apple’s magnificent iPod line, which has at least gotten semi regular updates. The iPod touch is about the best value you can buy with an Apple logo on it outside of the core iPad released this past March. Both fit into if not BMW owner appeal, then at least BMW owner’s kids appeal. I just don’t see the Mac mini doing that.
Is the mini dead forever? I’m not sure. I like bringing my own displays, my own mechanical keyboard, and thousands and thousands of dangled USB add-ons. That’s what a desktop does for me and why the (self service) mini is the perfect fit.
If you want to point at one change Apple made that said to me: “No mini for you, move to the left!” a la that Seinfeld episode, it was the death of the escape key. The escape key philosophically services a self-reliant power user. And I’m just not sure that Apple is in that market anymore.
Will I get my mini pro? Probably not. Will there be a paradigm shift so profound that customized dev systems can co-exist with mechanical keyboards using a new desktop system? Maybe. What do you think? Are you a mini devotee? Share your thoughts.
16 Comments
If your Mac Mini has a hard drive, an SSD will give it a real shot in the arm.
The real issue with Mac hardware obsolecence is the dropping of support for hardware in OSX revisions.
It’s a fusion and I love it to pieces!
My wife’s iMac is the first gen 5k, but with a hard drive, not SSD. after a few months, we both complained that the thing was slow as molasses compared to our work MacBooks, which we realized were only SSDs despite being older.
Ordered a 500GB USB3 SSD off CostCo’s website and suddenly it feels zippy and nice. Just don’t unplug that drive when the backlit mechanical keyboard acts up
I’m a happy 2014 Mac Mini i7/16 GB user at work. The Mac mini is enough for working on smallish Xcode projects. I’d much rather have the Mac Mini (or a new one, pretty please) than the 2013 Dell quad core beast I have now. It’s just too big! Dumped Windows for Linux, but I’d rather have MacOS on a Mac Mini. Not too cold, not too hot, just right.
16GB really helps. I’ve got a 2.6 Core i7 with 16 GB and a fusion drive.
I had the exact same problem recently with my 2012 Mac mini, and applied the exact same solution. Two and a half months later, it’s still going strong.
As for my next Mac, when the time comes and the mini is truly dead, I think I’ll get a MacBook Pro, if they fix the keyboard. Otherwise, I don’t know what to do next.
I prefer mechanical keyboards — and also I prefer when my palm doesn’t keep doing things I don’t intend on the trackpad
I was thinking of using a MacBook Pro basically like my mini, so BYODKM, but with the option of using it in the backyard when the weather is nice.
Unless of course by some miracle there will be a new mini that appeals to me, in which case I’ll buy that instead.
I’m in the same boat with the Mac Mini. I dusted mine when I moved a couple of years ago, so it never got that bad. I sold two 2011 Mac Mini’s and replaced them with a refurbished small form factor Dell (i7 quad core), because I needed usb 3.0 ports and I just ran VM’s on them. I still have one 2012 i7 quad core Mac Mini. I’m still waiting to upgrade it. If Apple would make an updated Mac Mini with a quad core. I would buy a couple.
My mid 2011 mini will be declared ‘obsolete ‘ in the fall.
I would love to add an ssd but dn want to over improve an obsolete mini
I have a 2012 Mac Mini with 2.7GHz i7, 16 Gb RAM, 2 500 GB SSDs, and a 27″ Thunderbolt Display. I had more of my share with Sierra bugs. Some prevent me from using Sierra features, such as “Documents and Desktop”, which caused random data loss in random folders. Anyhow, I started looking to get a repayment computer form Apple. To make a long story short, when I went to an Apple store, and tried out all iMac models. No iMac was as fast as my Mac Mini (they had no iMac with a builtin 5000 GHz SSD). The iMac model I would need to be more ore less than my 1812 Mac Mini, but I would have to hand over over $2,999.00 CAD to $,3599.00 CAD. This would give me only one 500GHz SSD and a beautiful Retina display. Ridiculous!
I really do not like It, but I have only one solution: build a small case Mackintosh. For ~ $1,200.00 CAD (using the two SSD’s I already have), I get a computer not much bigger than the Mac Mini, but one that will run circles around the most expensive iMac.
I have the 2012 i7 quad-core that is media server and molecular modeling simulation host, though my son is now using it while he is in school. The new ones with their anemic processors are deal killers for me, and used 2012s are the same price as I paid for mine 5 years ago, which should be a big hint to Apple, if they are paying attention. My primary is a MacBook Pro i7 quad-core (mid-2014), but I think instead of my 4 yr replacement cycle, I will be using it until the hardware dies, (partly for the cost-performance increment, or lack of, and partly for the loss of escape/function keys-muscle memory is just too strong). And then I have no clue what I will do. Even if they make the Mac Pro upgradeable to spread the price out over, say, 6 years, just the bottom end is out of my price-performance range, since I don’t have corporate deep pockets funding me.
I like the MacOS (I have used Macs since the 1990s), but the “heavy lifting” work I need to do doesn’t fit in the iOS/MacOS app store model-it fits in the Unix terminal model, with the ability to run nice GUI programs for generating graphs and writing journal articles and reports. I’m not seeing indications that Apple sees that as a priority, in their drive to make computing appliances. I may have to build a Linux machine… But I would rather not…
I bought a refurb 2011 Mini in 2012 and have upgraded memory to 16 gig and to SSDs. My only hope for the future is for a mini Mac Pro. I agree that the cheap Mac era is over, partly because the PC-switcher era is over, so the $499 Mac Mini is history. I can imagine a modular Mac Pro that goes low, though. It would be great to have iMac-level components in a modular Mac Pro case at around $1200. I am not holding my breath for this kind of paradigm shift, however.
I am not sure where to go once my Mini dies. And the Mojave OS update, excluding my 2011 Mini, is the first nail in its coffin.
I bought a refurb 2011 Mini in 2012 and have upgraded memory to 16 gig and to SSDs. My only hope for the future is for a mini Mac Pro. I agree that the cheap Mac era is over, partly because the PC-switcher era is over, so the $499 Mac Mini is history. I can imagine a modular Mac Pro that goes low, though. It would be great to have iMac-level components in a modular Mac Pro case at around $1200. I am not holding my breath for this kind of paradigm shift, however.
I am not sure where to go once my Mini dies. And the Mojave OS update, excluding my 2011 Mini, is the first nail in its coffin.
We at CogSci Apps have three of them (2012 and 2014). The one I use at home for testing (late 2014) is normally excruciatingly slow. It’s been that way with macOS 10.12 through macOS Mojave. Such a constrast when switching from my high-end MacBook Pro 2017.
I was in an Apple Store a couple of weeks ago and a customer, who must have been approaching 80, was complaining about Apple’s lack of commitment to the Mac Mini. Hear, Hear! The Mac Mini is super important for businesses and individuals committed to macOS.
> Fortunately, I’m one of the lucky ones (for very low values of “lucky”) with a self-serviceable 2012 Mac mini instead of the upgrade a few years later that removed the service hatch. (*shakes fist*. *darn you Apple.*)
The 2014 model can be serviced. To remove the inner plate one uses a T6 Torx Security screwdriver.