Mac Mini Issues

[fatjames]

Hey all,
Wondered if anyone might know what my problem is.
I've got a mac mini that lives under the telly, I use it mainly for internet (inc youtube and netflix) as well as kodi + downloads which I either play in vlc or kodi.
The problem I have is that occasionally videos won't play. They'll buffer up and the play/pause button is showing play, but it just doesn't start. When this happens, I won't be able to play a video from any source / using any application.
In the past, a hard restart has fixed this.
Last night I tried to watch soemtihng on netflix and the picture was terrible - like watching an old pirate vhs tape. Youtube wouldn't play and not would kodi.
I did a soft restart with no joy, then a hard restart with no joy. Just to cover all bases I also restarted the modem and router, but still nothing.
I unplugged it and held the power button down while plugging it back in, but it wouldn't boot properly. The light came on and the cooling fan was running at full speed but no output.
...
Please note, this has happened before and it went to the apple shop, but they couldn't find a fault and when i got home it was working fine (for about a month)

I'm really not tech competent on the mac. I did learn how to force quit applications the other day (kinda like ctrl+alt+del).

Any thoughts? I would like to avoid going back to the apple shop if I can help it. I really don't like it in there.

[RhynoCZ]

If it's HW related, then I bet my money on faulty RAM sectors. Can you perform a RAM check test?

If it's SW related, then I'd perform a fresh install of the OS. Before that, try to update your codecs and drivers.

Now, I have no idea if you can do a fresh OS install on a Apple device, without performing some magic or notifying the authorities.

Side thought, if you need an streaming device, there are cheap alternatives, that actually work. Raspberry Pi with xbmc, for instance.
EDIT: How the RPi xbmc works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L5GCmXgHK8
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[MarJay]

The quality of video playback is more often based on the network connection speed rather than the power of the machine doing the decoding (unless the machine is incapable of course). Modern web based video streams are automatically adjusted based on the speed of the connection. Assuming the video was not dropping frames and running smoothly, I'd be looking more at my internet connection than the Mac itself.

However, it's a Mac, they are a pain in the backside to troubleshoot.
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[fatjames]

Thanks, I'll see if I can get it to boot up and see what checks I might be able to perform. - Not to sure about reinstalling the OS, I don't have a copy and it does't have an optical drive, so might be a bit of a pain.
Regarding streaming devices.. I have alternatives, so watching something wasn't a problem. But I'd still like to work it out. It's also not very old, so covered by apple but I really can't stand their shop. (although, if you go in, standing is the only option..!)

[fatjames]

[P.]

Do you have any firewall installed on the Mac, its built in one isn't great but RTMP often falls back to 80, sometimes it'll use its native TCP 1935, make sure its allowed with no issues.

My Mac wouldn't entertain many Twitch streams, but turning off FW sorted it, closed again, enabled RTMP...sorted.

[Seb]

I'm hazarding a guess that you have the ~2.5 i5 dual core unibody with the Radeon GPU and that it's failed due to overheating (Something certain unibody mac minis are very good at).

The easiest test is to try and play something locally with VLC.
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