Hello Cathy,

Thank you very much for this.  I will read up on it and make some decisions.  I 
am not sure that I am in a position to make any purchases for a temporary fix, 
considering I do own a monitor and will not typically be in this position, but 
I will read the information and see whether or not it is something that I feel 
I absolutely need to do.  

I am very tempted to, considering even as I write this e-mail, if I write too 
quickly, mail is even telling me "busy", but we will see.

Again, thank you so much for your help!

Best,

Amber

On Jun 16, 2013, at 11:14 PM, Cathy <flowersandhe...@gmail.com> wrote:

> hi Amber,
> 
> I have a mac mini and had the same complaints about busy signals as you 
> describe. Ester wrote a good explanation and gave some links that were very 
> helpful to me. so I am quoting her message in part for you.
> 
> Cathy
> 
> Ester wrote:
> 
> 
> The most complete answer that I've seen on how to use a Mac mini without a 
> monitor is written up at John Panarese's "Adventures with My Mac Mini" blog 
> article at his Macfortheblind.com pages:
> http://macfortheblind.com/?p=591
> 
> The key piece of information is the link to the Sewell Direct "Sewell TVdeck 
> PC to TV Converter (VGA to Composite)":
> http://sewelldirect.com/pc-to-tv.asp
> Sewell Part #:  SW-23000   Mfg Part #:  SW-23000
> Price: $29.95
> 
> John used that in combination with an Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor 
> (I think the current product model number is MB572Z/B but you should check 
> that out for yourself -- the Apple Knowledge Base document on video adapters 
> and connectors that was last updated on March 1, 2013 indicates that the 
> MB572Z part number series works world wide for all Mac Minis dating from the 
> Early 2009 model and later, except for machines sold in China,Taiwan, and 
> Korea, which use the MB570FE part number series.) For that solution you need 
> to buy the two adapters -- the Apple connector and the one from Sewell 
> direct.  There are also hand-made solutions that involve soldering connector 
> pins on the output adapter, but this is  an off-the-shelf solution you can 
> buy for a total price of about $60 that is less cumbersome than carrying 
> around a monitor.
> 
> Like the others, I do not own a Mac Mini, so I can only summarize the 
> information that I have read several times on various mailing lists.  (I can, 
> however, if necessary, link you to the original posts by people who owned Mac 
> Minis and stated what did and did not work for them.)
> 
> The issue is not that the Mac Mini cannot be used at all without a monitor 
> connected, but that when it is used with VoiceOver without a monitor, it is 
> sluggish, preferences are not remembered, such as automatically starting up 
> VoiceOver at login, and particularly when internet access using Safari, 
> iTunes, etc. is activated there is a noticeable performance hit in terms of 
> busy messages and lack of responsiveness.  I've only read of one recent Mac 
> Mini user, not on this list, who claims that his Mac Mini runs perfectly well 
> without a monitor.  Since this is someone who ordered a fully loaded system 
> (maxed up on memory, etc.), and is also a new switcher who could not give 
> comparison performance of his system or any other Mac system's performance 
> with a monitor connected, I'm not sure how to evaluate this.        
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