Well, I think one of my 2011 minis is officially broken

[Omnius]

I‘ve been updating older machines in the house, which were historically used for retro games, watching movies, and random home server type tasks. While taking apart one of the 2011 minis to replace a SSD that had bricked inexplicably years ago and replace the HD with a new SSD, the IR connector (the entire connector) came off the logic board with virtually no effort when I went to disconnect the wire. I’ve opened minis before (including this one) and I’ve never seen this particular piece rip right off the board. A google search shows a few people complaining of it over the years but nothing making it sound common. Is this a common defect that I’ve just never really seen or just that minis aren’t serviced as much as some other machines so it’s not something that’s easily searched online?

The price of a replacement mini on eBay is sub $100 but I’m not exactly looking to buy a 12+ year old machine. It’s a fun hobby toy but not worth buying another 2011.

In any event, I suppose I’m now going to have to look for a new or new-ish mini.

 

[Fishrrman]

Just use it without the infrared.

 

[Omnius]

Is there a heightened risk of a short?

 

[chrfr]

Is there a heightened risk of a short?

It’ll be fine. Tearing that connector off the board is not all that rare. It’ll also affect the power LED but the computer should operate fine without both. If you were going to buy another replacement old mini, I’d suggest moving to a 2012, which gets you USB 3.0 and a pretty decent performance improvement.

 

[Omnius]

Well gentlemen, you were right. Works perfectly fine without it and if it’s not a safety issue, I guess I’m sticking with this machine a bit longer. Covers my bases pretty well for the time being.