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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