Screen flickering with 2009 Mac Mini: overheating issue?

[FrenchKheldar]

Hi,

Just moved to a new place and so I reinstalled my HTMacMini (2009 nVidia 9400M model) in a slightly different configuration. My wife wanted it more out of sight so I put it in a drawer which had some ventilation but maybe not enough. After a week, tonight, it became impossible to wake up the display with the keyboard. I connected to the Mini via screen sharing and everything seemed fine. I rebooted the Mini and while I got a signal on TV, the picture was now flickering pretty regulary (as much as once per second). Again, connecting to it via VNC/screen sharing works fine. Did I screw it all up by not allowing enough ventilation in the new setup? Any way I can diagnose exactly what's going on? Could it just be the miniDP connector? Could I replace this? If indeed the display output is fried, how could I still put my Mini to good use? Would airplay to a new Apple TV be a solution (my TV is 1080p)? I know it can replace my Mini to watch netflix but I have a pretty large collection of mp4 and mkv videos. Could these be streamed by the Apple TV if a HD is attached to the Airport Base? Thanks !

[Smithcraft]

Insufficient ventilation is definitely bad. However, have you considered opening it up and making sure it's not full of dust?

SC
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Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[marv777]

[mooblie]

As well as making sure the vents/ducts are all clear, I stand my 2009 mini on a CD case, to raise it another 10mm off the deck - which must help the ventilation too.
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Martin at HeadSpin HD now on Blu-ray

[FrenchKheldar]

Thanks a lot for your help. Turns out it was my HDMI adapter (a complicated one with the audio coming from the USB) that crapped out. Since I now route the audio to an AV receiver, I just replaced it with a regular HDMI cable and all is back to normal !