Background:
I came across two more cheap Mac Mini A1347 (one is late-2014 the other is a mid-2011) that I can use for my projects. While restoring them, I came across a few things that’s worth noting.
Issues:
- The mid-2011 model has great difficulty with drivers (particularly display and sound) with Windows 10/11.
- The mid-2011 model gets very hot when just under normal workload.
- The late-2014 model automatically turns on after applying power (which is something I want to disable).
- Install 16GB RAM and a second hard drive to the mid-2011 model.
Solutions:
1. The mid-2011 model has great difficulty with drivers (particularly display and sound) with Windows 10/11.
The mid-2011 model (the 2.3Ghz variant) has the Intel HD 3000 graphics card and the Cirrus Audio CS4206B sound card, both of which don’t have official driver support for anything beyond Windows 7. Plus, if Windows is installed using EFI, the screen is going to go black as soon as HD 3000’s display driver gets applied, and installing the Cirrus Audio driver will not work either. While you can force Windows to use the Basic Display Driver (Microsoft Basic Display Adapter) by uninstalling the display driver using DDU and blocking the Hardware Ids using Group Policy (will explain in the last section of this post), it’s not an elegant solution after all and you’ll still suffer from no audio (from both HDMI and Cirrus Audio).
According to some research, it seems that there might be a solution by using DSDT modification/override so that the hardware can be properly “seen” and handled correctly by the OS under UEFI. But it’s not worth it for me to go down that rabbit hole to figure it out, so I just opted for Legacy BIOS mode (which also means that Windows 11 is not the best option).
After installing Windows 10 using Legacy BIOS mode, everything works fine except the Display-Audio via HDMI despite the fact that all drivers have been installed and are showing that they work “correctly” in Device Manager. There is nothing indicating errors but HDMI and Thunderbolt ports both output no sound to the TV. But it’s acceptable in my case to use as a “media player” for my treadmill, which accepts a 3.5mm audio input to the treadmill’s speakers.
Download:
Additionally, Intel HD 4000’s driver seems to also work for Intel HD 3000, and its Display Audio driver is a newer version which supports “Windows 10”, but I still wasn’t able to get sound from HDMI/Thunderbolt.
2. The mid-2011 model gets very hot when just under normal workload.
I guess this was somewhat “by design” because I’ve done my due diligence to check, clean, and restore everything I can think of – heatsink, thermal paste, fan, etc.. It’s been restored to a condition that’s almost like new. After some Googling around I think it’s just how this particular model is, because the aluminum case is designed to act as a “heatsink” to dissipate heat, I guess I’m just used to newer model’s cooler and quieter designs.
3. The late-2014 model automatically turns on after applying power (which is something I want to disable).
One of the late-2014 models automatically turns on after applying power, and judging from what was originally installed on it, it seems to be used as a display device at a medical facility that runs a 24/7 slideshow. Disabling it was easy:
Get into Recovery Mode by Option/Windows Key + R , and open Terminal under Utilities, and type the following command:
# To disable:
pmset autorestart 0
# If you want to enable "Power On After Power-Loss", set the value to 1 instead.
pmset autorestart 14. Install 16GB RAM and a second hard drive to the mid-2011 model.
RAM and a second hard drive are one of the most popular upgrades done on this model, ifixit has very well made instructions.
Forcing Windows 11 (in UEFI mode) to use Microsoft Basic Display Adapter without automatically installing drivers.
Find the “Hardware Ids”:
Device Manager -- Display adapters -- Properties -- Details tab -- Select "Hardware Ids" from the Property drop-down -- Copy them to a text file.Block them using Group Policy:
Open Local Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration -- Administrative Templates -- System -- Device Installation -- Device Installation Restrictions -- "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs."
Enable it and add the Hardware Ids you found from Device Manager.Additionally, you can configure the following to stop Windows 11 from automatically updating drivers:
Open Local Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration -- Administrative Templates -- Windows Components -- Windows Update -- Manage Updates offered from Windows Update -- Enable “Do not include drivers with Windows Updates”Open Settings -- System -- About -- Advanced system settings -- Hardware tab -- Device Installation Settings -- Check "No (your device might not work as expected)"During the process, if the screen goes black after Windows 11 automatically applies a display driver (Intel HD 3000 in this case), you might need to get into Safe Mode to use DDU to remove the driver. You can force powering off the machine three times to get into Advanced boot options (Recovery) mode, or you can try the following trick (because the OS is not frozen or dead, it’s just the screen that’s gone black, so you can still do things “blindly”):
Windows + R (Run) -- type "shutdown /r /o /t /f 0"Assuming there is nothing else blocking the reboot, it should go to the Advanced boot options menu upon restart.
If you need to install anything while in Safe Mode, enable Windows Installer using the following commands in a command prompt:
REG ADD “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\MSIServer” /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D “Service”
net start msiserver