Improve the Performance of your Headless Mac

In my office, I use an older Mac Mini as a document and media server. Because screen sharing is so simple on OS X and Splashtop with my iPad, I decided to set up the Mac Mini without a monitor (that’s what makes it “headless”). While I could easily connect to the Mac Mini using my screen sharing programs, the computer seemed to be running sluggishly and strange black artifacts would build up over time on the virtual screen. After doing some research, it seems that when no monitor is connected, the Mac Mini’s GPU is unable to start by default, causing the computer to lose processing power. The general fix is to create a “dummy plug” (or “dummy dongle”), which will trick the Mac into believing there is a monitor attached and allow the GPU to start up. There are numerous variations of this trick, but for me, the easiest option was to start with a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA connector that I picked up at Micro Center for $15. Then, all you need to do is place a 50-150 ohm resistor in two of the VGA sockets (sockets 1 and 6, as shown in the picture below). I used a 68 ohm, ¼ watt resistor that I bought at RadioShack for under $2.  After connecting the dummy plug, I restarted my computer;  When I connected to the computer from my other Mac, no artifacts appeared, and processing performance improved immediately.

Special thanks to the macminicolo blog for the idea!