Our Hangout: Kernel Panic on a Mac

January 26, 2009

Kernel Panic on a Mac

If you end up here, because you did a search on Kernel panics, I hope this helps you - if not, this post will not matter to you.

If you've ever turned on your mac to the find the above message on your mac. You've began a frustrating day. This happened to me last week. I should say that my system is an iBook G4 14" 1.42Ghz

The above is called a Kernel Panic. The problem, however, is that once restart your computer you will pretty quickly be met by the same message.

A quick (not really) read over many, many forums will tell you, you've got a serious problem on your hands. And in the end will likely not result in your fixing your problem. More often than not, the conclusion in the forums and from apple seems to be, you've got a bad logic board. A costly repair.
However, from what I can tell, a lot of the time, that's the conclusion people arrive at because they can't figure out what the real problem is. by the way, read the whole thing before doing anything.

I had my Ibook G4 completely dismantled two times in as many days. I'm hoping I can save you some of that, although if have the same issue as I did, you'll need to disassemble your mac. Don't do this if you're under warranty, try the easy and basic steps and if they don't work, sent it to Apple. However, if your system is older and warranty is long gone and you have the guts, have fun.

The first thing I suggest you do, which I only did second day after having my system in pieces twice is to find and check your panic log found in your library/logs/panic logs. Every time your computer has one of these panics it logs it. Open up your last few logs and read them. Look for keywords. There's lots of computer mumbo jumbo you won't understand, but in mine, and as I'm finding in many other cases, you'll find one or two occasions in the very long log where the words Airport Extreme come up. If that's you the answer is simple, take out your airport extreme card. That was my issue. I've now been using my computer for one week without a hint of these kernels.

The problem, your card is built into your system, right beside your hard drive. And you'll have to dismantle the whole system. Several pages online to guide you through this. In the near future I'll be getting a new card, for now, I just keep a direct line to my modem, like the old days.

If that's your issue, you'll be happy with the fix. I not read on. Hope you had your infomation backed up. This time, fortunately, I had. So, with the exception of time, I lost nothing.

Simply put most sites will tell you to reset your pmu, vram, and pram... if you haven't already tried that, I would start there. Many sites out there that explain these processes, and you can find it easily. So open another window and try that, if it works, wonderful.

If that doesn't work, the next step is your disk utility. Do permissions and disk repairs. If you can get into your mac using safe mode press apple key+shift on start up - keep the two keys pressed down until start up. You are now in safe mode if you go to applications and to your utilities folder you'll find the disk utilities app. (if not there, just search for it) Once there, just follow directions and let the disk repair do just that repair your disk and disk permissions. If you can't do this, you can do this from your original disk by loading from them (apple key+C) at startup. Instead of doing an install you can go to the menu bar on top and find Disk Utilities and run the same process.

If none of that works, then you might just have a bad logic board. And if your system is more than 3 years old, that's not a worthwhile investment in my opinion.

If you're under warranty send your computer back, they'll go as far as replacing it. If you open it yourself, you're likely to do something that voids the warranty. If like me, warranty days wore out years ago, but your 4 year old mac still runs better than a new PC, the fix is worthwhile. After all, it's already not working.

Hope that helps somebody. I know I spent many hours reading many forums without too much help.

Posted by ed

Comments

Sounds like a fun project! I am sorry to hear that it happened, but am impressed with the detective work!

Posted by: Keith

All that and only one screw left over :)

Now I know why this thing hasn't broken after all the falls and drops....

they are built like a tank and reinforced like one too.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

so you have a back up career as a Mac technician :-)

Posted by: Ian

I own 3 PCs and all these years I've never had any blue screen or kernal panic. The days of MACs are in demise according to the recent edition of PC mag. It's time to cash in your chips or cut your losses and come home to mother PC.

Posted by: Trish

I'm glad you've had such a great experience with PC's Trish.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

I was trying to tease you haha! But it's true PCs are better in the long run. :P

Posted by: Trish

Let me tease you back then...

I have two other PC's in the home. I've had a PC for more years than I've had my mac. I've worked extensively with both. I've had 1 problem with my mac, even after I dropped it many times, as you know. I lost count of how many times I've had to reload my PC's from scratch over the years.

So, like I said, glad you're experience has been great, and continues to be so. As for me. It isn't even close.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

...my two cents ... I own a iMac cause an XP service pack killed my PC :-)

Posted by: Ian

You too eh?

It's kind of hard to argue with it...
-no viruses
-no killer service packs
-amazing applications out of the box
-built like tanks

But what do we know?

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

PCs rock. Macs suck!!!! My friends broke 4 days after she bought it and the warranty covered it but the second one crashed after she transferred all her files.

Posted by: Sheila

there will be no agreeing on this one, especially if you're a diehard mac or pc user.

Whatever system you use and whatever you like, doesn't really matter, if it works well for you, great.

Having said that, this was a post to help someone with a specific computer problem, that might need the help to fix it. Not really a discussion on which system is best, even though I got caught up into it a bit as well....

Hope your system, whatever it is, works well for you for a long time...or at least until it's not compatible with present standards anymore, which with PC's happens a lot sooner than later....oops, just did it again... (just kidding people).

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

there will be no agreeing on this one, especially if you're a diehard mac or pc user.

Whatever system you use and whatever you like, doesn't really matter, if it works well for you, great.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

there will be no agreeing on this one, especially if you're a diehard mac or pc user.

Whatever system you use and whatever you like, doesn't really matter, if it works well for you, great.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

there will be no agreeing on this one, especially if you're a diehard mac or pc user.

Whatever system you use and whatever you like, doesn't really matter, if it works well for you, great.

Posted by: Edmundo DeFreitas

Thanks for this. It took a long while to find this info, and I appreciate your posting it.

Posted by: Joan

I had a kernel panic on my G5 Dual 2Gb desktop this morning. I have back-up Macs on my network, and immediately googled the issue on my Ti Book, I wound up restarting with shift key down which got me into 'safe mode'. Did the 'fix permissions' thing with DiskUtility, then restarted from DiskWarrior disc and fixed other stuff. Now running sweetly again.

Last night I had run 'Shred It' (Mirith) to zero free space; I figure it screwed something... although, I've run Shred It before successfully on this and other Macs before without incident

@trish Why would you comment about PCs, this thread is about panic attacks on Macs. I don't care about PCs. Do you just surf around, trolling? Go away.

Posted by: Bill

I bought my first mac and after 3 months it crashed. Things kept failing on it right up until the warranty was up, and they finally agreed to replace the entire mac after the logic board, memory, graphics, optical drive, and hard drive all failed. Now, 3 weeks into my second mac, I get these kernel panics. I'm done with macs forever.

Posted by: Laura

Laura....

I gave up on PCs because of computers that quit working, and viruses and the like, so I get your feelings on this. And why you'd go away after that, I might too.

It's very unusual for me to hear of someone who gets to lemons when buying a mac, there is a reason they are more expensive.

If you got a new mac, it should have come with a new warranty, no? I'd make a case for it and just ask for another replacement. (Be heard).

Although I'm fine with whether you choose PC's or Mac's (I'm not a diehard mac fanatic) we have several PC's in our home, can't beat the price. But there's a reason they're cheaper. And depending on what you are doing a PC might be fine. But if you live and work on the creative end of the spectrum, I don't know how anyone could use anything else.

When I got my new macbook pro about a year and a half ago, I had some problems about 3 months into it, made a little noise, got a replacement which has worked fine ever since. And I expect like my last one it will last me another 7 years, and then I can pass it on to my kids to last another few years.

I'm picking up a iPad2 to complement my Mac experience. I use the creative capabilities of Garageband, iMovie, Keynote a lot and there's just nothing on the PC that even comes close. Not out of the box, and to buy comparative stuff, you end up paying as much as you would for a mac, or more.

I am sorry that has been your experience, all the best whatever you choose to do.

Posted by: ed

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