Mac Mini - Low Battery Warning?

sgould

sgould

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I have an early Intel Mac Mini. Use it as my main desktop machine running 10.6.5. It's about two and a half years old (I think!).

This morning on startup a brief "Low Battery" warning box appeared on the screen. The box did not have a Cancel box and quickly faded away.

Has anyone else seen this warning? Is it an internal battery for the clock etc. in the Mac Mini? Is it something else? If it's an internal battery is it user changeable?
 
It's either the internal battery in your mini, or, if you use a UPS with a USB controller line, then it may be a message telling you that your UPS battery is failing.
The mini's battery could be user replaceable - if you know how to get inside the case. All you need is a couple of blades, resembling a putty knife (which is what Apple service uses)
 
Thanks! :)

No UPS.

I've seen a picture of the putty knives opening a Mac Mini. I may go in and have a look. I'll have to get a new knife, my working ones are covered in putty and cement!

[edit]

Just found a guide to replacing a battery in an older Power PC Mac Mini. Is the battery the same in the Intel one?
 
I don't know if the battery is the same - but the location and replacement is the same. The battery will be marked, so replace with the same one.

BTW, I've never seen a 'low battery' message on any Mac that wasn't a portable. Are you sure that's the exact message that you see?
 
That why I posted the question, it threw me, as I've been using a Mac of some sort for nearly 30 years and I haven't seen a message like that before. And I've never had an internal battery go low on me before I changed the computer. I may have mistaken the message, but before it went away, it definitely said something about a low battery. Unfortunately I was looking elsewhere and it faded before I could take it all in.

It appeared soon after start up. Maybe even during the start up process check. But it wasn't there when I did the start up this morning.

I was wondering if it was something that's in the later system software.

Anyway, it's still working OK and the message hasn't reappeared yet.
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!!

It's not the internal battery warning. It's the Magic Mouse battery warning.


Just now, I got a traditional pop-up alert box appear warning that the Magic Mouse batteries were getting low. It stayed on screen until I clicked the OK button.

I had a play with the mouse and switched it off and on and a translucent grey box appeared at the bottom of the screen, similar to the one I saw before, saying "Connection Lost". This box fades quickly. I turned the mouse back on and it came up with the same box saying "Connected" This also faded. Then the same box appeared saying "Low Battery".

The Low Battery alert box appears at start-up. But all of the translucent grey boxes stay on screen for exactly 2 seconds!! You haven't got time to take it all in but above the message is a plan view of a Magic Mouse (I think) - it's a white rectangle in a translucent grey square and looks like a "1" in the second you have to look!! No wonder I couldn't work it out....

Thank for the help. Hopefully I won't need to go out in the snow and get a putty knife!
 
Glad you found out what is giving the warning...
The Magic Mouse actually has pretty good battery life, but you may not get more than a couple of months, if that. Your Bluetooth menu does show the battery remaining, so might be good to click on that menu once a week or so, just to check up on your battery.
 
Will do!

I've had the mouse about three weeks now, still getting used to it. The batteries were in it and seemed charged when I got it home from the local Apple Store.

But a faint translucent warning saying "Low Battery" that lasts 1 sec, and fades over the next 1 sec, is a bit difficult to notice as i'm usually doing something else while waiting for the startup to finish. :)
 
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