Mac Mini suddenly stopped working with my tv via HDMI

December 29, 2010 2:32 PM

I've been using a Mac Mini plugged into my Panasonic HD tv for a little less than a year. A few nights ago I watched a tv show on it, then had a party, and now when I turn it on the screen is black.

My Mac Mini originally was plugged into the tv with the standard s-video plug. A few months ago, I bought the DVI-HDMI cable and it worked beautifully right away.

A few days ago, I successfully watched a tv show on the Mini/tv combo. Now when I turn it all on, the screen is black/blank. I had a party recently and am wondering if someone touched the keys on the wireless keyboard (like one of the visiting 4 yr olds) while the Mini was on, but the tv was not and managed to do something weird to the machine.

The tv works fine with the cable box (via HDMI). The Mini works fine with the tv with the s-video plugged in. One weird thing happened--I moved the plug to a different HDMI port on the tv and it worked! And then I clicked on "overscan" in the system prefs and when it refreshed... it was back to the blank screen!

I have restarted in safe mode, accessed the Mini remotely from my MBP and tried to change the resolution, plugged and unplugged a ton... all to no avail.

Now I'm stuck. Any ideas?

posted by jdl to computers & internet (3 answers total)

It's a long shot, but have you used Disk Utility to verify/repair permissions? On more than one occasion I have solved a seemingly unrelated Mac issue just by running that simple routine. No idea why, but it's not for us to question His Jobsliness.
posted by dougrayrankin at 2:51 PM on December 29, 2010

Thanks dougrayrankin, just tried that and it didn't solve the weirdness.
posted by jdl at 3:50 PM on December 29, 2010

Two ideas.
posted by Cogito at 4:29 PM on December 29, 2010