Chosen Solution

Recently my mac mini failed critically while streaming videos. The screen started garbling, then went a weird pink colour. Now it wont fully boot, after showing the apple logo with the boot progress bar for a few seconds it flashes to a white screen with some faint vertical banding. I managed to disabled the discrete GPU (Radeon 6630M) and now it boots to desktop but the graphics are pretty awful using the integrated GPU. My options seem to be:

  1. Try to ‘reflow’ the chip. However, it seems this would only be a temporary fix. Or can anyone recommend a high quality repair service that could fix it in a more permanent way? (reball the chip?)
  2. Replace logic board. Second hand logic board $150 to $200 on ebay. Some risk that it would fail again.
  3. Buy a new system (most expensive, $800ish for comparable specs). Anyone else faced this? Any other options to consider? If you reflow/reballed, how long did it last?

Sadly you’re between a rock and a hard place ;-{ Reflowing or reballing doesn’t fix things. Replacing the GPU is your only option in saving your logic board. Not may people have the right gear to do this. Replacing the logic board I think is a good option but it will also limit you! You see this series had two versions of the board one with AMD Radeon HD 6630M and the other with Intel HD Graphics 3000. I would recommend you stick with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 versions of the board. The graphics are not as good as the AMD Radeon HD 6630M but you’ll less likely have a GPU issue.

I use L2 http://l2computerinc.com/ for all my reball needs. I just recommend reballing when placing an order. My experience when reballing is it can last to up to a year, and with reflow the results usually last about 30 days.

I think reflow + good thermal paste + Mac Fan Control to speed up fans + light use = over year usage

I’m having the same problem… Could an external video board (through thunderbolt) could possibly fix that ? Did anyone try this solution?

I thought windows 10 could not be installed on these macmini (macmini5,1 macmini5,2 and macmini5,3) due to a lack of Win10 drivers for HD3000 iGPU. -> black screen after windows tries to update the generic VGA driver Did I miss something? Best, -a- PS: macmini5,2 have a radeon hd 6630M dGPU but I don’t know if this can compensate for the issue with HD3000 iGPU drivers missing in Win10. Please let me know EDIT: Found out Win10 can be installed on those macmini with a dGPU as long as the unsupported iGPU (HD3000) is disabled and Group Policies are setup to prevent Windows Update to update the driver or anything.

Hello, How should I install Win 10 on a 2011 Mac mini with a broken Radeon 6630M GPU? Do I have to install bootcamp? (win 10 is not supported by bootcamp on Mac mini 2011). Thanks Max

Hi Ben, how did you switch to integrated graphics and be able to connect to an external monitor?

After months and years I have tried to use a DisplayLink usb graphic card and it works with High Sierra but the definition is low.

I have the same issue and I’m interested in the Intel integrated graphic logic board replacement but have a few questions which I’ve posted here: Replacing broken Mac Mini mid 2011 logic board with Intel GPU version?

I have had some issues with mine and what would happen is it would make the screen go static. It would be fixed after a restart, though

Hi @danj, I know 2020 is super late but I have a mac mini with 2 GPU (Intel HD Graphics 3000, AMD Radeon HD 6630M). This is a company computer. Is there a way to switch from AMD to Intel? Thank you

I installed centos 7 without gui, it is a perfect mini server, i have django/postgresql apps working flawlessly.