Mac Mini won't boot. Is it the monitor or the Mac? I just bought an old Mac Mini to start developing for iOS. The Mac Mini has a DVI port, so I connected it to my Dell 24" display which has a DVI connection. But it appears that my Mac wont boot. I dont even know if it is booting or not because my monitor does not show anything, as it did not get any signal and went to standby mode immediately. My questions are:


Do I have to connect a keyboard and mouse to the Mini in order to boot?
Even if I don't connect a keyboard and mouse to the Mini, will I still see something on the monitor? Maybe like an error message telling that no keyboard was found? To be clear, my display works fine with my PC.
I tried with my Microsoft USB keyboard and an IBM USB mouse, but I did not see any difference, i.e. nothing could be seen on the display.
Does this mean I have to buy a keyboard and mouse from Apple to make it work?


Can someone help me and give me some hints? Thanks a lot in advance!
The Mac will boot with or without a mouse and keyboard, and you should see something on the monitor either way.
You do not need to use Apple mice and keyboards.

So, the problem has to be either the monitor or the Mac Mini.

You can look at the power light to see if the Mini is running. If it is steady white, the computer is on. If it is pulsing, the computer is sleeping. If it is off, the computer is off.

If the computer is on but nothing is coming up on the monitor:
Check all connections. Try with a different monitor, if possible. Make sure the correct input is selected on the monitor.

If the computer won't turn on:
Check all connections. Make sure it's plugged in. Make sure you've pressed the power button all the way, without holding it down too long.
If you can't get it to turn on at all, take it back to the people who sold it to you and get your money back; they sold you a broken machine.