hi Amber, I have a mac mini and had the same complaints about busy signals as you describe. Ester wrote a good explanation and gave some links that were very helpful to me. so I am quoting her message in part for you.
Cathy Ester wrote: The most complete answer that I've seen on how to use a Mac mini without a monitor is written up at John Panarese's "Adventures with My Mac Mini" blog article at his Macfortheblind.com pages: http://macfortheblind.com/?p=591 The key piece of information is the link to the Sewell Direct "Sewell TVdeck PC to TV Converter (VGA to Composite)": http://sewelldirect.com/pc-to-tv.asp Sewell Part #: SW-23000 Mfg Part #: SW-23000 Price: $29.95 John used that in combination with an Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor (I think the current product model number is MB572Z/B but you should check that out for yourself -- the Apple Knowledge Base document on video adapters and connectors that was last updated on March 1, 2013 indicates that the MB572Z part number series works world wide for all Mac Minis dating from the Early 2009 model and later, except for machines sold in China,Taiwan, and Korea, which use the MB570FE part number series.) For that solution you need to buy the two adapters -- the Apple connector and the one from Sewell direct. There are also hand-made solutions that involve soldering connector pins on the output adapter, but this is an off-the-shelf solution you can buy for a total price of about $60 that is less cumbersome than carrying around a monitor. Like the others, I do not own a Mac Mini, so I can only summarize the information that I have read several times on various mailing lists. (I can, however, if necessary, link you to the original posts by people who owned Mac Minis and stated what did and did not work for them.) The issue is not that the Mac Mini cannot be used at all without a monitor connected, but that when it is used with VoiceOver without a monitor, it is sluggish, preferences are not remembered, such as automatically starting up VoiceOver at login, and particularly when internet access using Safari, iTunes, etc. is activated there is a noticeable performance hit in terms of busy messages and lack of responsiveness. I've only read of one recent Mac Mini user, not on this list, who claims that his Mac Mini runs perfectly well without a monitor. Since this is someone who ordered a fully loaded system (maxed up on memory, etc.), and is also a new switcher who could not give comparison performance of his system or any other Mac system's performance with a monitor connected, I'm not sure how to evaluate this. <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
