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Macs4u

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 19, 2008
387
352
Stoke on Trent
Any idea why my Mac Mini 2018 is booting with a purple screen?

Mac Mini 2018 i5
Catalina
Quad HD Monitor
Connecting via HDMI
 

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Macs4u

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 19, 2008
387
352
Stoke on Trent
Think it’s something to do with Catalina and it not being compatible with my cable or monitor as Mojave was perfect. Going get a usb c to DisplayPort cable and see if that solves it.
 

strat59uk

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2016
14
15
London
I have the exact same issue as you.
On Catalina 10.15.1 my Mac mini 2018 with an HDMI connection to an Acer HD monitor boots with a purple screen. Has only been doing this since the upgrade from Mojave.

Once I get to the login screen everything's fine.

I have a Mac Mini 2014 running Catalina with the exact same HDMI connection to an Acer HD monitor which does NOT have the purple screen size ?
 

Macs4u

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 19, 2008
387
352
Stoke on Trent
Put the new cable in and tbh I don’t even see a boot screen. The monitor I have (Acer 31.5 1440p) has always gone through the different connnections such as hdmi/dvi/DisplayPort, to probably check for video on them and when it isn’t sensed it, moved onto the next. Its always done the other 2 that it isn’t connected to first. Now it does hdmi, dvi and then by the time it gets to DisplayPort it’s on the login screen.
 

NewMacUser2019

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2019
2
0
I can also say I have purple screen as in picture of OP.
This started only after updating to Catalina, running on Mac mini 2018 on Philips Screen.

Edit: I see that this happens to me only when booting up from a shutdown, when restarting the Mac the boot window and apple logo are normal colors. Can anyone tell me why that might be ?
 
Last edited:

iGeek2019

macrumors 6502a
Jul 26, 2019
675
1,491
No Selection
I suspect it's a bug within macOS Catalina as I've had the same since upgrading on my former Acer 1080p monitor and my newer 4K UHD monitor.
 

G4DPII

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2015
401
544
Has nothing to do with Catalina, it's been present in Mac OS for years, my 2014 mini has had it since day one, there are reports of MacBook Pro's having it for years as well. It's more likely to be a hardware issue than a software one.

Apple are aware, and like many other issues they just don't give a fluff.
 

-texan-

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2010
37
5
Have the same issue, after update to Catalina.

(Mac mini (2018), 3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7, 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB)
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,241
12,388
This sounds like a "synch'ing issue" between the display and the Mini at bootup.
My guess is that the cable is "the culprit".
Suggest anyone experiencing this try different cables.
And if you're using HDMI-->HDMI, try a different output/input scheme.

Sometimes, the only way to the solution is "trial and error".
 

Toonartist

macrumors 6502
Sep 19, 2017
442
403
Newcastle Upon Tyne
I received a Mac mini 2018 the other day. I hooked it up to one of the monitors that is currently connected to a Mac Pro 2013 (also with Catalina). I get the initial purple screen with The Mac mini but not the Mac Pro. It only stays for a few secs then changes to black.

The mini went back as I want a different spec but it would suggest it's either software or Mac mini hardware as it never happens with the Mac Pro.
 

frou

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2009
1,287
1,786
Would it be more accurate to say it's certain versions of Boot ROM causing this, rather than the OS?

In recent times, I've seen purple lines (on that boot phase only). This Mini '18 has so far never ran Catalina.

Code:
Boot ROM Version:    1037.40.124.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.11081.0.0,0)
 
Last edited:

-texan-

macrumors member
Dec 8, 2010
37
5
Changed from HDMI - HDMI to USB-C - DisplayPort and have not seen the purple boot any more.
 

mbrna

macrumors newbie
Apr 9, 2015
3
0
Our new Mac mini (purchased june 2020) worked fine out of the box using Catalina 10.15.4.
We are connecting via HDMI cable.

In the first hour of use, it wanted to upgrade to 10.15.5 , so we did.
After that upgrade, the splash screen went purple at the first boot, and a purple hue stayed.

The solution in post #7 of this thread fixed it.

Thank you so much to the people who share this kind of knowledge!!
 

StellarVixen

macrumors 68040
Mar 1, 2018
3,171
5,621
Somewhere between 0 and 1
Our new Mac mini (purchased june 2020) worked fine out of the box using Catalina 10.15.4.
We are connecting via HDMI cable.

In the first hour of use, it wanted to upgrade to 10.15.5 , so we did.
After that upgrade, the splash screen went purple at the first boot, and a purple hue stayed.

The solution in post #7 of this thread fixed it.

Thank you so much to the people who share this kind of knowledge!!

I'm glad I was of any help. :)
 
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