You guys are referring to the external drive or the actual mini itself?

OK this is driving me mad. I am using my Mac Mini M4 with a M7 Samsung 4K monitor. The very first C-C cable that i use to connect them together works perfectly but I felt it was a bit short at 0.5 meters. BTW this is the description of this cable on the shopee page that I bought it from - USB C to USB C Cable 100W USB 3.2 Type C Gen2 20Gbps Data Transfer Cable PD Fast Charging 4K Video Monitor Thunderbolt 3.

Since it was a bit too short I decided to buy a longer cable. This are the specs - 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C to Type C Cable PD 100W Video 8K@60Hz. However when I try to connect it, there is no signal. So my conclusion is that it is not comaptible.

I bought a 3rd cable - USB4 Cable with 240W Fast Charging 1m 8K Monitor 40Gbps Compatible with USB 4 Thunderbolt 4 Type C. It does not work! No signal!

What specs should I be looking for in the cable? Is it really so difficult to find a compatible cable?? Please help.

In hind sight, when I was looking to buy the 1st cable it never crossed my mind that it was such a big deal. I just selected the cheapest C-C cable and it just worked. Now with all these subsequent cables, I am even more confused as to what I am supposed to be looking for.

You are using this now?

Just to be clear the usb c to display port cable has usb c on one end and hdmi on the other, right?

My monitor only has 2 hdmi ports and one usb-c port.

For now, rather then going further down into the rabbit hole, I will just settle on the HDMI to HDMI route.

After weeks of buying cables online and finding out that they don't work, I may have finally found the one that actually does. The link to it : https://shopee.com.my/Thunderbolt-4-5-Cable...9c-a73bb897f07a

It is marked as TB 4 and as soon as I plugged it in, it works. In fact the display now looks better than the HDMI connection that I was using prior. Hope this is a lesson to someone and they find it useful. Always look for TB 4 when buying a cable to connect your base M4 Mac Mini to a non-retina, non-Apple monitor. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions and input to my issue.

This post has been edited by hellfried: Dec 30 2024, 05:56 AM

Yep found that 2560x1440 is the best resolution to set for clear fonts. I am using betterdisplay and a 32" Samsung M7 monitor with my base mac mini m4.

I have not had any issues since getting the unit mid-December. I connected hubs and ext SSDs to both the front and back ports.