Help! I seem to have broken my Intel Mac Mini

do you mean that orange, flexible cable or that board attached to the cd-drive? however, go and order a new one at your local apple store. it will cost you a bit, since apple won't replace it under warranty

ps: see here for instructions on how to disassemble the mini:

http://www.applefritter.com/Mac_Mini_Take_Apart_Guide

Yeah, the oraneg cable!!!

So, do you reckon this is the reason why nothing apperas on the display? I mean everything comes on, cd spins etc... Im going nuts!

If it's the flexible cable in the last picture of that article, then the only ill effect of not having it connected should be that you'll have no sound.

he might not have grounded himself and fried the mobo too.

Ouch. Torn FFCs really suck. I've got more than a few devices that have been completely bricked because of them, and others that have only diminished functionality. I wish there was an easy way to splice them back together, but there isn't, and replacing them more often than not means buying a replacement for the expensive components that they connect to. There are home PCB-etching techniques that could theoretically be used to produce replacements by scanning the pieces, photoshopping them back together, and printing them, but I don't know of any source for the raw materials needed to create a cable instead of a board.

I just got a 1.5GHz Single Core Mini and did the same thing when adding RAM. I even read this thread before doing the upgrade ! Be very very careful when taking the Intel Mini apart. The ribbon cable pops out way too easily. I don't even know how it happened but it did.

I guess it time to get the wallet out......

If you just bought the thing, bring it back and say that you NEVER touched it. EVER, you took it out of the package, went to boot it up and blammo, no workie. Pleading ignorance usually works...you are a mac user after all and my experience with tech support for mac stuff is that they tend to think their users aren't the most technically inclined folks. Lying sucks and all, but so does replacing a part that should be out of your way for a user configurable upgrade. it's simple design sense. If you allow your customers to upgrade their boxes, you should design it so they can without stuff like that. Otherwise, you're running the risk of being accused of all sorts of stuff as a company.

why would they put such a flimsy part in the mini in the first place since you have to remove it to install ram. i think it should be noted as a design flaw . if ram is a user's right to install they should have made that cable better so user's could remove it without the fear of ripping it.

on the Intel Minis, RAM is not listed as a user replaceable part.

Is that still legal? It seems that a few companies got in trouble for that a few years ago.

Also, even if the ram ISNT upgradeable, you've got to go through the same steps for ANY user upgrade, and that part runs the same risk.

This bodes very poorly for apple's future in the upcoming computer market...course there are those of us that believe that's not a concern for the sartorially challenged and personality damaged Mr. Jobs

After the initial G4 mini release and subsequent kerfuffle about upgrading memory vs. warranty, Apple did state that - for that first model at least - users could upgrade their memory without invalidating the warranty.

If you break something else while performing said upgrade, well...

Read your warranty and see if you're covered.

Of course, y'all should have done that *before* you did the putty-knife fandango.

well i thought adding ram was a user upgradeable part. no matter they should not put a part in the mini that is just cheap on apples side

90%* of end users never upgrade anything in their machine, even the OS, they just trade it in and buy a new one. Repeat after me, power users are -not- Apple's target market for the Mini

*(wild guess based on some figure I read yesterday I can't remember exactly. But it was high)

RAM is the one thing Mac users tend to upgrade. (Many a PowerMac spends its whole life with empty PCI slots, but it probably gets RAM stuffed into it at some point.)

I really fail to understand why Apple didn't design the Mini with a little hatch on the bottom for adding RAM. At worst laying the RAM sockets flat along the bottom of the motherboard like a laptop would of increased its height by a 1/4 of an inch. (Of course, if they'd done that they wouldn't of had to allow for the height taken up by standing the RAM vertically, so there's a good chance the net result would of been *zero* external form-factor change.)

--Peace

is to be a disposable mac. By making the machine non end user friendly, Apple is throwing the little guy (apple resellers and shops) a bone. Considering that the profit margin for a reseller on a mini is razor thin, they need to make money somehow. Labor on a ram upgrade is an easy way to do it. Then again, I've never been too big of a fan of the mini. For most people I've seen wanting one, an iMac or an iBook/PowerBook is a better alternative.

Frankly, the mac mini is what I consider to be the first disposable desktop mac. Just toss it when you're done with it. It's been pre shrunken so it doesn't take up much space at the landfill. Considering the fact that the independant apple shops are gradually being squeezed out of existence, is it really so much to pay a little bit extra to have it put in by the shop and have damage be their liability?

RAM upgrade on the Mini is User servicable, but if anything is broken the Warranty is voided.

The small ribbon connection is really cheap plastic crap that should not have come out so easily. It should have been easily put back into the holder but it's not which really sucks. I was very careful when doing the upgrade and I have never broken anything while building Macs or servicing them which makes me think this thing really is a throw-away disposable Mac.

And I just got my XP SP2 CD in the mail the day after I broke the Mini. Maybe buying M$ software for the first time in my life was the catalyst for breaking the Mac. The Mini knew I was going to put Windoze on it and commited suicide by cutting it's throat.

Well written.

yea i hear you on that one lol

What's wrong with installing windows on your mac? You guys don't like games, I assume?