Question for Mac experts

[bif]

My Mac Mini is starting to act up. It takes forever to boot up. And there's a light grey blank screen for the first five minutes or so. Any ideas what's wrong? Would zapping the P-Ram help? If so, how do you do that again? I'm running system 10.5.7

[HopeHoops]

1. Mine overheats sometimes - might be related if you mean "reboot".

It has completely frozen a few times and occasionally forgets how to talk to the mouse and/or keyboard. About 20 minutes in the timeout chair to cool off seems to fix the problem. It is out in the open so ventilation isn't the issue. If yours has been sitting for a while before you have this problem, that sounds like a hardware issue - warranty service time.

[ZombieNixon]

2. Here's instructions on how to zap the parameter RAM

http://www.ehow.com/how_2269385_zap-pram-mac.html

That might help. If you hear no strange noises emanating from the computer, like a loud fan, or the hard drive or CD drive spinning extra fast, then it's probably not a hardware issue. Any weird sounds and it probably is. However, if nothing works software-wise, I'd call Apple Tech support or take it in for servicing.

[bif]

4. Solved

After working through various issues with tech support, it turns out it's my external cd burner which is dying.

[TommyO]

7. I wouldn't have thought of that one initially.

Though disconnecting all peripherals is a good troubleshooting strategy.

[NewJeffCT]

3. The solution is obvious

buy a PC!

:hide:

:evilgrin:

[begin_within]

5. I would call up the nearest Apple Store if you have one near you, and make an appointment

to talk to someone at the "Genius Bar" about it. If that is not possible, you could try looking at this page:

http://www.apple.com/support/macmini/

And try posting your question on this forum:

http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=158

[TommyO]

6. Make a backup to an external firewire drive using SuperDuper

If you're paranoid, make backups to two different drives.

Restore your internal drive to its original config using the system disc that came with the Mini

Restore your data files from the backup.

This is just one solution among many.