Odd hardware reporting issues plague some Mac minis
Posted by Lab Rat
We have received several reports of odd hardware profiling issues in the new Mac minis. A report over at TUAW claims their Mac mini solo incorrectly states it is a duo in the “about This Mac� dialogue box, yet correctly says it is a solo in the System Profiler. Additionally they claim while connected to the internet via Airport, their system claims to also be connected via Ethernet. They also report Bonjour trouble when streaming certain types of media, but it is unclear whether this is a Mac mini or a Bonjour related issue.
Meanwhile, we have also gotten word from Macenstein reader Jeremy that upon a visit to the Apple Store, he found all the minis claimed to have 256MB or VRAM, but was assured by an Apple sales rep that the machines all had 64MB of shared VRAM.
While Apple fans certainly appreciate good-looking industrial design, with computers it is ultimately what’s INSIDE that counts. It looks like the new minis may be having a bit of trouble deciding who they are.
We expect to receive our Mac mini duo (currently in Alaska) early this week, and we’ll let you know our experiences.
I just got a Mac mini Solo. There is some confusion on what is inside the box. Check my website for some screen shots.
The mini has on board video, it uses a maximum of 64 Mb of your entire RAM available, i think 😉
Apple is saying that it is a 64Mb of video ram, but they also state that it will use up a total of 80MB of system memory. I still only have 512MB of ram, but the graphics card still runs pretty good. I am able to watch HD video with only a few frames dropped and it runs great with frontrow and the dashboard
the actual VM is 64MB, but depending on how much system RAM you have installed, it can theoretically be 256MB in total.
Ok, I buy the 256MB of vram potential, but how do you adjust the thing to get the extra usage? is there a firmware update, or perhaps a terminal command set or the like? If you find out please share!
Clint