New M4 Mac mini susceptible to low temperature?

TidBITS Talk
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I quickly checked a random set of Mac desktops and laptops produced over the last 15 years. The operating temperature specification for all of them was 50 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If you operate outside those limits, they may or may not work.

The new MacMini adheres closer to the specs than the previous ones, and I doubt Apple will change that spec. Others have suggested keeping the computer warm by sleeping it overnight so that it generates some heat on its own. If you want to turn it off, I recommend covering it to keep some of the day’s heat. The cover doesn’t need to be fancy; an old winter jacket would do.

Also, is MacMini sitting on a surface that conducts heat well, such as metal or glass? If so, insulate it from the surface. Something as simple as sitting the computer on five sheets of paper could help. You could use something more elaborate, like a desk pad or a section of a corrugated box.

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Mark is running the MacMini in a room where the temperature is kept at 39 Fahrenheit and the MacMini is speced at 50 to 95 degrees. I think we have a cultural problem. US engineers assume homes and offices are kept within a comfortable range of 50 to 95 degrees, but users in other countries keep parts of their homes at temperatures outside that range. I discovered that when I had a Zoom with an editor in the UK who was working in what looked like a barn and wearing a heavy coat and mittens. Brits are used to a wider temperature range and think we’re spoiled. :wink:

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Google says that’s the risk of damage, but there’s also other reasons why a computer may not work at cold temperatures. One is that the capacitors don’t have the same properties.

I found advice to leave the computer on and inside a cardboard box so it retains heat.

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I’d go with if it works fine at 50F, but not below 45F, then its operating as designed. While I am used to some computer rooms that run at 65F, and without condensation, I suspect The Mini doesn’t like the cold.

Also, came here about reading the M4 Mac Mini and the USB ports problem and some think its the rear USB-C/thunderbolt 5 ports not recognizing devices or needing power. Front ports with USB-C or adapters for USB-A to C are fine.
If your keyboard is wired and using the rear ports, can you move to front ports? Or if its wireless, then its not so much that.

My macs are in the house and never below 60F. Not helpful, but a Dell AIO in my garage (low 40Fs) turns on and works. Now, ask me about my Mazda that starts in the cold weather but 2 minutes later, and moving, Carplay wonks out. Have to unplug phone and replug in and wait for the Infotainment to see it. Only when cold out.

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Can your heat pump accept a thermostat with program/schedule set to raise the temperature 15 minutes before you go to work in the morning?

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The problem I reported on Dec.28, 2024 seems to be solved, and I now know the likely cause: in one word, PPPoE.

The new M4 Mac mini (2024) arrived on Dec.26, 2024 (3 months ago.)

The symptom part one (Dec.28, 2024 - Jan.28, 2025):

  • In a cold morning, the Mac mini doesn’t recognize my key input, thus cannot wake from sleep.
  • If I use the mouse to log into the ‘guest’ account (which doesn’t require a login password) Mac starts working, but shows a dialog saying ‘Unable to connect to the Internet.’

This symptom appeared 4 times (4 early/cold mornings) in the month, but I have never seen it in February and March.

The symptom part two (Feb, 2025 - Mar.7, 2025):
In February, I started nightly Carbon Copy Cloner backup. CCC starts its work at 1 AM, and automatically sends an e-mail after that. (The Mac is sleeping at 1 AM.)

  • About once in 2 nights, CCC reports an ‘Unable to connect to SMTP server’ error, and fails to send the report e-mail.

  • In the morning that I see the CCC error, when I wake up the Mac mini, I notice the ‘Unable to connect to the Internet’ dialog shown on screen. I need to open System Settings > Network > PPPoE, and click the ‘Not connected’ button to re-start the PPPoE connection.

Background:
In 2018, I started using this office room with a newly purchased iMac (2017, Retina 5K, 27-inch, Intel Core i5), with newly-installed ‘eonet’ power-line fiber-optic Internet communication. At the install time, the technician told me that I can choose between (1) ONU (optical network unit) only (directly connect the ONU and the Mac with an Ethernet cable) and (2) place a router between the ONU and the Mac (which is required if I use Wi-Fi for other devices.)

Since I don’t have any smartphone, the iMac was the only device that need to connect to the Internet, I chose the method (1) ONU only. Therefore my iMac started to use a PPPoE connection, with self-addressing (AutoIP).

The AutoIP PPPoE connection worked flawlessly since 2018 on my Intel iMac 27-inch.

Then, 3 months ago, I switched to the M4 Mac mini, and the problem started to appear.

An Apple support person suggested me to ask the eonet service provider to install a router between the ONU and the Mac.

Last week, a router was installed. Since then, CCC has never reported the SMTP error any more, but a new problem started to appear every morning, or rather, each time I wake up the Mac from sleep:

The symptom part three (Mar.7 - Mar.10):

  • each time I wake up the Mac mini from sleep, a dialog appears, saying ‘Unable to connect to the Internet.’

I called the Apple support person again, and he solved that problem for me:

Now that the router handles the IP assignment, PPPoE is not used any more, so the error dialog is issued by the PPPoE service that can’t find the connection.

Thanks to his suggestion, I opened System Settings > Network > PPPoE, and used the button there to ‘Remove the PPPoE service’.

Since then, two days have passed. NO PROBLEM any more! Everything is fine now.

I thank you, everyone, who helped solve the problem.

The moral of the story: Intel Macs may tolerate the ONU-Mac direct connection, but Apple silicon Macs rmay require the ONU-router-Mac routing. - cheers, Mark

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Glad to hear you found a fix. It’s still definitely a macOS bug if it isn’t re-establishing the PPPoE connection after waking from sleep, but since you have found a workaround, it’s now somebody else’s problem :slight_smile: .

In general, however, I would recommend that everybody using broadband have a router between their computer and their service provider network. There are many reasons for this, including:

  • Network Address Translation. Which allows you to connect multiple devices to your feed, all sharing a single IPv4 address - so you don’t need to pay for multiple addresses.

  • As a side effect of NAT, you also get some security. Unsolicited inbound packets (that is, those not part of an active session) get discarded because the router can’t figure out what to do with them.

    Although IPv6 is generally not translated, IPv6 is not really insecure. This is because most ISPs issue a 64-bit block of addresses to each customer, and your computers pick random addresses from within the block. So simple port-scanning attacks (used on IPv4 address blocks to look for vulnerabilities) are impractical, since you’re only using a small number of addresses from a pool of 18 pentillion (that is 18 million trillion) addresses, a port-scan capable of a million addresses per second would still take over 500,000 years to find your computer.

  • Most routers have some degree of firewall capability, although that will vary from model to model.

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