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HDMI Detective Plus requires PSU attached with Mac Mini 2012??

post #1 of 9
12/27/12 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 
I recently upgraded to the two of the 2012 i5 Mac Minis and am noticing that I can no longer use the HDMI Detective without power supply attached. I have tried a brand new unit and multiple short HDMI cables and can't get display output without power attached to the detective. I haven't yet tried on my second mini because I'm waiting on new SSD to arrive tomorrow before installing it. Latest Mac Mini firmware update installed.

I have tried programming with Wii U attached as source and then connecting back to Mac Mini and it still doesn't work without power. The Wii U will work without power to HDMI detective.

Is anyone else noticing this?
Edited by Joseph S - 12/27/12 at 7:22pm
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post #2 of 9
12/28/12 at 10:23pm
I only have a Late 2009 Mac Mini with HDMI Detective Plus, and it works fine without power supply, used only once for programming.
I would have expected as you did that behavior to remain with the 2012 revisions.
Did you try Gefen support ?
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post #3 of 9
12/29/12 at 5:39am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I haven't needed the PSU on the HDMI or DVI Detectives for my prior 2006 and 2010 minis.

Gefen support says: "The power supply is not only used for programming the device but also used in rare occasions when the source device does not provide enough power on the HDMI out. "

I checked last night on a fresh 2012 Mini as well and it's the same story. I guess the new ones don't put out enough power with HDMI to support the extra device. I wonder if that may be behind some of this display flickering and other items people have had issues with.
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post #4 of 9
12/29/12 at 6:21am
Quote:
I guess the new ones don't put out enough power with HDMI to support the extra device.

That's an interesting observation. Perhaps test Thunderbolt out to the HDMI Detective? Might be worth trying the Detective with this $7.50 miniDP to HDMI adapter and your 2012 Minis to see if you still need the power supply.
Quote:
I would have expected as you did that behavior to remain with the 2012 revisions.

I wouldn't have...the HD 4000 graphics and drivers were new to the 2012 Minis, the first version of something major like that is always a roll of the dice with Apple...and there had already been reports of similar behavior on the Intel forums being noticed by Windows PC users w/ the HD 4000.

http://communities.intel.com/thread/30096?start=0&tstart=0
Quote:
I wonder if that may be behind some of this display flickering and other items people have had issues with.

Right, not just display flickering, but random black screens, blank screens and snowy screens:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1478837

and not too long ago Apple released an EFI update, which cleared some, but not all, of this up. Was this already updated for you?

Are you seeing any of that behavior with the Detective plugged in? Or is your main issue not wanting to keep the Detective plugged in?
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post #5 of 9
12/30/12 at 9:44pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I have done a decent amount of testing since:

1) The HDMI output from Windows requires PSU for HDMI detective with Vizio 3D HDTV and through Denon 1913 Receiver.
2) The HDMI output from Windows isn't sensed by older Onkyo receiver regardless of whether I use default 1080p Gefen EDID, Vizio 3D HDTV, or older Onkyo receiver.
3) The HDMI output from Mac OS 10.8 DOES NOT require PSU for HDMI detective and is sensed by Onkyo receiver as well as Vizio 3D HDTV and Denon 1913 Receiver.

Done on Base Mini 2012 model (2 separate machines with original firmare and latest update). So I'll be using the PSU on the HDMI detective for now, but I wish I didn't need the extra plug in use. Both upgraded with internal SSD in second bay, one with 16GB RAM and second still with base RAM.

I am not seeing display flickering, snowy, or black screens others have noted... so far.
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post #6 of 9
1/1/13 at 2:58am
I am not too sure I understand the actual tests you did. By "from Windows" do you mean Mac Mini 2012 w/ Boot Camp or Parallels ?
It is a bit hard to believe that the HDMI actual power supply depends on the kind of software driver used, especially since all the lower layers are managed by hardware/firmware common to OS X and Windows...
The infinite variety of exotic bugs... rolleyes.gif
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post #7 of 9
1/1/13 at 3:54am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
By "from Windows" do you mean Mac Mini 2012 w/ Boot Camp or Parallels ?
Bootcamp (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit)

If I boot into Mac OS 10.8 it's fine throughout boot and after.

If I boot into Windows 7 without PSU there is no display.

If I boot into Windows 7 with PSU and then pull the plug the HDMI output dies, but comes back with PSU plugged back in.
Edited by Joseph S - 1/1/13 at 3:59am
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post #8 of 9
1/1/13 at 11:54pm
Ah, then I would suggest it is unrelated, or at least not directly related, to the HDMI Detective Plus !
There is some bug in the HDMI Windows 7 driver for the 2012 i5 Mac Mini (driver supplied by Apple), but (un)plugging the PSU into the HDMI Detective Plus somehow forces a reset of the HDMI connection, thus this curious behavior.
Not too surprising a Mac used as a Windows PC has some glitches; most of us complain even more loudly about OS X native glitches ! wink.gif
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post #9 of 9
1/3/13 at 10:45pm
Are you using the Apple supplied drivers from bootcamp?
It sounds like a device driver in MacOSX 10.8 turned on the power on the HDMI chip but windows did not.

It may be a matter of keeping it plugged in until there is a new update that fixes the problem.
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