Weird Mac Mini booting up issue

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 18:41

All of a sudden today the Mac Mini M4 won't boot if I have the Sabrent 10gbps enclosure with WD SN580 2TB attached.

The rear thunderbolt ports

1- Caldigit (Keyboard, webcam, Mic etc.)
2 - OWC External 2TB
3 - Sabrent 2TB

At first I thought the Caldigit was causing the mac to endlessly stuck in a boot loop. The computer would basically go into the login page, password entered then it reboots....After disconnecting the Caldigit and still doing it, I started to unplug everything but monitor and keyboard left and through the process of elimination when I have the Sabrent connected, either rear or front ports, the machine won't boot.

What could cause this? The drive only holds my Steam library. When I connect the Sabrent into the machine after it successfully logged in, it works fine.

When trying to run Blackmagic on the Sabrent, it crashes Blackmagic too.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 19:46

Bah, it is the Sabrent

The Mac get stuck here, normally it breezes past it but it gets hold up here, and soon as I pull out the drive it works fine.

Jimbeam3678 · Tuesday at 21:37

Leave it turned on

visibleman · Tuesday at 21:42

Have you recently updated to 15.3 and if so, i'm guessing it was fine on 15.2?
I'd look at the Sabrent site and just double check there isn't a recent firmware release and the enclosure is fully updated.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 22:02

visibleman said:
Have you recently updated to 15.3 and if so, i'm guessing it was fine on 15.2?
I'd look at the Sabrent site and just double check there isn't a recent firmware release and the enclosure is fully updated.

It could be the SSD or the enclosure....I've ordered a 40gbps enclosure now and RMA the SSD so basically removing both variables.

Oh yes, I updated the Mac on the weekend. It was fine last week.

Raymond Lin · Tuesday at 22:15

Sabrent site only have windows drivers....and when I plug it into my windows machine, the drive doesn't show up lol since it's not formatted to windows.

edit - formatted the SSD (since I am RMA anyway) and updated the firmware on the enclosure. Let's test again!

Raymond Lin · 2025-01-29T00:02:08+0000

visibleman said:
Have you recently updated to 15.3 and if so, i'm guessing it was fine on 15.2?
I'd look at the Sabrent site and just double check there isn't a recent firmware release and the enclosure is fully updated.

Not sure if it's the firmware fixed it or that I formatted the drive (to NTFS then back to APFS), but I tested it and it boot fine.

I still don't trust it thought to leave it plugged in or the nvme. Startedf RMA so going to do it, not going to cost anything anyway.

Feek · 2025-01-29T09:28:38+0000

I have an external mechanical drive attached to my Mac Studio and every few months this happens. All I do is switch the drive off for a few seconds and then switch it back on again and it's fine again for ages.

Raymond Lin · 2025-01-29T10:16:01+0000

Feek said:
I have an external mechanical drive attached to my Mac Studio and every few months this happens. All I do is switch the drive off for a few seconds and then switch it back on again and it's fine again for ages.

I rebooted about a dozen times, one time it booted through but took ages.

All the other times it failed and did a boot loop.

I even booted in without it attached then attached it. The drive was acting slow and it kept crashing blackmagic, and ejecting it wouldn’t eject if that make sense.

It’s likely the firmware that fixed it but the enclosure is a cheap one and outside 12 months now but the nvme I got from Black Friday so will refund and get something else, probably a 4TB.

I’m thinking trying the RayCue 40gbps hub with the built in nvme inside. Put that under the wooden stand…I measured it and it just fits in place.

visibleman · 2025-01-29T13:02:38+0000

Raymond Lin said:
Not sure if it's the firmware fixed it or that I formatted the drive (to NTFS then back to APFS), but I tested it and it boot fine.

I still don't trust it thought to leave it plugged in or the nvme. Startedf RMA so going to do it, not going to cost anything anyway.

Just out of interest, and perhaps anyone else that comes across this thread, was it this enclosure - https://sabrent.com/products/ec-snve?

Raymond Lin · 2025-01-29T13:32:55+0000

visibleman said:
Just out of interest, and perhaps anyone else that comes across this thread, was it this enclosure - https://sabrent.com/products/ec-snve?

Yes, it’s that one.

cu3ed · 2025-01-29T14:08:18+0000

Try a different cable?...Sounds stupid but I got a bunch of brand new cables for mine and one turned out dodgy/ issues with connection etc.

Raymond Lin · 2025-01-29T16:11:03+0000

cu3ed said:
Try a different cable?...Sounds stupid but I got a bunch of brand new cables for mine and one turned out dodgy/ issues with connection etc.

I tried that, it's probably the enclosure with the old firmware clashing with the new Mac OS update.....but I am not taking chances with my data when the SSD is in warranty and the enclosure being relatively cheap.