I put off doing these for a few days because I felt like they had run their course, but I'm in a bit of a typing mood again, so here we are.
My monitor has been cutting out lately and I need to figure out if it's the monitor of if it's the Mac mini. If it's the former, then I'll take it as a sign to upgrade to an ultra wide. If it's the latter, then that puts me in a rough spot. I suppose I can try to have it fixed, but I'm not sure what that's going to involve. I thin it if it was the Mac mini that was cutting out, there would be other issues. I'm wearing headphones right now and listening to music while I write. Of course, that's coming out of the headphone jack on the Mac rather than out of the monitor. The only true test would be to plug another device into the monitor and wait and see if it will cut out again. It's reminding me a little bit of when I would look down at the keyboard while writing (getting into a frantic groove), only to look up and see that my app locked up and the last two or even three paragraphs are basically gone. That happened back on a Macintosh IIsi, though I don't remember if the app in question was MacWrite II or Corel WordPerfect. I learned to type in either the 7th or 8th grade. It was sort of an odd arrangement; there were very few classes that were only half a year. In fact, the only ones I knew about were the computer classes, one general knowledge and one specifically for typing. I tried to talk my parents out of putting me in the typing class because I was anxious about how well I would do. Some kids could get waivers from their parents. I suppose the thinking was they already knew well enough to not need the class. My parents insisted, however. So, first was the computer class, which I still think was unnecessary (and my parents probably did, too), but like I said, it was a weird arrangement with the half-year classes. I had a bit of fun in it. The curriculum was concerned mostly with general knowledge. We literally played 3D Tic Tac Toe and DinoPark Tycoon throughout the entire class for weeks on end in order to demonstrate we knew how to use the mouse and navigate menus. We even had a section on typing, which was awkward because I was supposed to take that class in a few months. It wasn't graded as harshly or anything, but it still gave me a little anxiety. What was funny was that we learned on Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing on Macintosh LC III's while the typing class learned on what I believe were Apple IIe's or at least something similar in form factor. This was the early to mid 1990's, so CD-ROMs were fairly new. I don't even think I was playing Myst by then. The IIsi only had a SCSI input for the CD-ROM drive, and clicking between any two locations in the game took several seconds. You'd know an animated sequence was coming up because you'd hear the drive get louder just before the scene change. I just reached up and behind the monitor to see if the HDMI cable was loose or something like that. I barely touched the power cord and the screen got some horizontal black lines for a moment. I unplugged the HDMI cable and plugged it back in. I'll keep typing to see if it cuts out again. It doesn't seem to cut out long enough to get the "no signal" warning on the monitor, which leads me to believe the issue may well be with the Mac, which I'm calling the worst case scenario. If I have to send it in to get fixed, it's not like getting my phone fixed where I'd have to find a replacement device while it's away. Still, it would be an inconvenience. According to Apple's website, it looks like I'd have to call in to even find out if I can send my product in for repairs. It's showing an Apple Care icon, which I thought would have given out by now since I've had the device for close to 2 years by now. The only difference really is whether it's covered by the Care package or if I'd have to pay something out of pocket. Since it's likely something with the HDMI output, I doubt it would come to very much. Most of the cost would likely be shipping it back and forth. Maybe while it's away I'll get one of those Pi-based computers. There's one directly from Raspberry Pi, and the other is called an Orange Pi. They're very similar devices, essentially thin keyboards that house full single board computers. They evoke the old microcomputers like the Commodore 64 or the ZX81. They run and ARM-based version of Linux and can supposedly run some Android apps. I'd essentially treat them like that old Chromebook I used to use once upon a time before the Mac mini. I plugged a mouse and keyboard into it and used its display output on an external monitor. Both its internal display and built-in keyboard were atrocious to use. There was no contrast control for the screen, only a display setting that might as well have been a toggled labeled either "eye strain" or "way too bright." I suppose if the worst case scenario were to happen and I'd have to replace the Mac mini, I would finally get to try out one of the new M1 or M2-based versions and see how they stack up. I know there's some apps I wouldn't be able to use anymore, but the majority of them haven't been used in some time, so I'd hardly miss them. I never had one of those microcomputers. My first was an Apple IIgs. I guess I was spoiled, given how pricey those things were. Now that I'm confronted with the possibility of being without my Mac mini, I'm looking at cheap alternatives rather than making the investment. That the cheap alternatives would be a stop gap rather than a final solution is what makes it worse. Apple no longer sells an Intel-based Mac mini like I've got. There are two in their clearance and refurbished section. One's decently spec'd out with a larger hard drive than mine, and the other has got 4 times the RAM and a full terabyte of storage. It's also about 3 times the price of my mini, which tracks with Apple's pricing scheme. In my experience, though, I've never had serious hardware issues with my past devices. At worst, they were just a little underpowered. If there's a problem with my Mac mini's display output, it would be the first serious issue I've had with an Apple product. I've been lucky.
Goodnight, and good luck.
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