Should I gamble on a 2009 mac mini that is not detecting HDD / dvd drive?

kmax86

kmax86

kmax86

Associate
Joined
8 Sep 2011
Posts
1,972
Location
Northern Ireland
Well I spotted a 2009 mac mini that has all the cables and leopard OS.
the seller said that it is not detecting the hard drive and the dvd drive

Now if it was an ordinary pc I could easily swap the HDD and dvd drives or their cables to make it work if not change the board.

But since this is an Apple can the parts swap technique work? or I have to buy special hard to buy parts that its not worth it anymore

thanks
 
if it cheap enough.. :)

A standard dvd and hdd will work, the dvd wont support booting from unless it has the apple firmware and they may be some sensor issues with the hdd but I've swapped those parts many times. The only issue is if its the mainboard, then its a pain getting the part.
 
thanks I already bought it for £25 not bad i think lol :D

it managed to boot up but only displays a white screen with nothing on it
I tried to eject the dvd drive since something its in there but failed
so I opened up the dvd drive to find a Mac OS X cpu drop in dvd

tried booting up without the optical drive and still stucked on white screen. im hoping that the hard drive is to blame.

Next step is to rip open my netbook and test the hard drive :D

Also will a pc keyboard / mouse work with the os x or do i have to buy the expensive apple version?
 
kmax86 said:
Also will a pc keyboard / mouse work with the os x or do i have to buy the expensive apple version?
Click to expand...

Pretty much any usb mouse/keyboard should be fine, may have to get drivers for the more 'complicated' mice but I've never had an issue just plug and play. ;)
 
There's an interconnect board on the Mac Mini that means that if the drives are ok, the next step isn't the dreaded logic board replacement.

£25? If it turns out to be fubar I'll give you what you paid for it for spare bits for mine lol definitely good buy.

Part number for interconnect board is 922-8807 if it's early 2009.
 
d_brennen said:
Have you tried resetting the PRAM or whatever Apple call the CMOS settings?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2183
Click to expand...

Tried that 3 times and still white screen on boot sadly

PardonTheWait said:
There's an interconnect board on the Mac Mini that means that if the drives are ok, the next step isn't the dreaded logic board replacement.

£25? If it turns out to be fubar I'll give you what you paid for it for spare bits for mine lol definitely good buy.

Part number for interconnect board is 922-8807 if it's early 2009.
Click to expand...

cheers for the part number. Apple website said its an early 2009. hopefully it wont be a fubar :p
 
ok managed to plug in my netbook's hdd with win7 on it

plugged all cables and started it up I heard a sound from the mac mini which is like a welcome sound this is a good sign i guess :D

also for some reason it can start win 7 but after loading screen it just goes to a blue screen lol

just need to find out how to boot from the dvd and reinstall os x


EDIT: woohoo!!! currently installing os x leopard :D
original hard drive is broken since my netbook cannot detect it
optical drive is broken since it cannot eject
had to open up the optical drive and force the dvd in lol
 
Last edited:
£25 Mac Mini.

tumblr_lltzgnHi5F1qzib3wo1_400.jpg
 
Not bad indeed. :D

just found out that the 'button' i was pushing to eject the dvd isnt a button but the receiver for the remote lol

dvd drive seems fine as it can eject via os x whenever I use right click > eject

time to buy another ssd / hdd and search a caddy for 2nd storage
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom