WTF is this? I need to restart my computer?

[EdSchouten]

I was just using my Apple like normal, mounting a SMB-share, checking my mail, using iTunes, blablabla.

My screen got gray (a sort of gray shade went over my screen) with the message that I had to press the restart button or hold the power button.

What does that mean? Is my OS X messed up? :eek:

[Daveman Deluxe]

Congrats. You just recieved your first kernel panic. They don't happen often, and all you have to do is restart the machine. OS X is not messed up at all, unless you recieve a large number of these. Then you probably have cause for concern.

[EdSchouten]

I have to complain about very much instability. I had to reset my Powerbook almost 10 times in just 5 days :( Fresh install

My System prefrences often hangs for 30 seconds and sometimes I can't launch any program's anymore (mostly after coming out of sleep)

[patrick0brien]

-EdSchouten

Was your SMB share mounted every time?

Jaguar can panic when an SMP share does something funny.

[EdSchouten]

Yeah, I was mounting my documents HD from my parents' Windows XP machine :(

[patrick0brien]

-EdSchouten

Ok then. I'd say that you should only mount the SMB share when you need it, and disconnect when done.

I've found that the cause of this lies with the Windows machine, they have their quirkyness, and it's a shortcoming in Jaguar that Apple hasn't built the error trapping into server connections yet.

I can reproduce this panic at will. All I have to do is connect to my Win98 machine, and crash it. Bingo, OSX panics.

Let us know if it helps. Frankly, I've never heard anybody - not even developers - panicing as often as you describe. You just could be a record holder. :D

[EdSchouten]

Maybe it's better that I reinstall OS X, because I'm really getting nuts :D

In the shops they told me that Apple was very good, stable, etc. and I was lucky that Medal of Honor was released for the system.

Now I have it and MOHAA only runs at 25 FPS and it's not as stable as Windows 95 :o

[Schiffi]

25fps? What type of Mac do you have?

[EdSchouten]

PowerBook 12"
G4 867 MHz
640 MB DDR memory
60 GB harddisk
Airport Extreme :o
etc. etc. :)

[iJon]

well the game part doesn surprise me, but your kernal panics are a problem. usually with that many kernel panics is that your hardware is bad, or your system just needs a fresh install. we all can assure you that that isnt normal. not even panther gave me that many. reinstall os x and see how things work. what powerbook do you have, i want to see if 25fps is normal.

iJon

[Foxer]

remove and reconnect your airport extreme card. My 12-inch PB had several kernal panics when I first used it. I found that many people were having this problem and it is related to the AE card not being securly connected. If you move the PB in just the right (or wrong) way it causes the problem. There is a thread about this somewhere on MR and another on the Apple Support pages.

Since I tried this fix (about 2 months ago) I havn't had another such incident.

[mnkeybsness]

this happens if the windows computer you are trying to access has norton firewall running on it. i've seen it many times. the norton program sends out a signal that locks down your computer because it thinks that your unix machine (Mac OS X)may be trying to cause a ruckus on the windows system.

Originally posted by Daveman DeluxeCongrats. You just recieved your first kernel panic. They don't happen often, and all you have to do is restart the machine. OS X is not messed up at all, unless you recieve a large number of these. Then you probably have cause for concern.

no, this is NOT a kernel panic. a kernel panic looks like a black screen with a little bit of white text at the top that looks like jibberish. (almost DOS prompt-ish)

[Wano]

this happened 2 times to me the same day, but since that i haven't had any problems...does it mean i have some bad hardware?

[patrick0brien]

Originally posted by mnkeybsness
no, this is NOT a kernel panic. a kernel panic looks like a black screen with a little bit of white text at the top that looks like jibberish. (almost DOS prompt-ish)

-mnkeybsness

Actually, that was what a panic looked like before Jaguar and the Mach Kernel update. Now it's exactly what EdSchouten describes. The screen dims, with a grey window - more of a mini-screen - in the center, with nicely formatted text that tells you that you need to restart.

EdSchouten, I'd like to use mnkeybsness's reply as an example as to how many kernal panics you should be seeing: maybe one a year. Your amount is rediculous and highly rare, we'll keep helping you out.

[iJon]

yeah pat is right. and its a good thing they did that. many people would really freak out when a bunch of tex would go over their screen. the nice white windows with english is much better.

iJon

[MacFan25]

Where did you buy your RAM from? Because I believe bad RAM can cause kernal panics.

[arogge]

I had two kernel panics that were only a few days apart. One occurred while logging out of OS X and appeared as the dimmed screen and gray window. The other occurred while waking the system from Sleep and was the white text on a black background. I repaired the permissions on the boot disk and the kernel panics stopped.

[EdSchouten]

I now reinstalled Mac OS X, I had a few problems after the installation (because of downgrading from 10.2.6 to 10.2.3) but after downloading the combo update with Mozilla (Safari was malfunctioning) I could reboot and download the updates from the System prefrences.

He's running a bit faster now, especially in games (I get 50-60 FPS @ 1024) :eek:

[wirewyrm]

I have also got maybe 3 kernel panics in the past 18 months, using 10.2.3, on a G4 400, 320mb, 60GB+10GB, Combo.

HOWEVER

I work at John Lewis in the UK and I see that the new 12" and 17" Powerbooks do crash and kernel panic on a regular basis. (the 12" in particular) understand that they are used daily by thousands of customers, so their workload is more than most, but they do crash more than all of the other Macs put together. It seems unfortunate, but recent updates have fixed some of the problems so hang on, it seems Apple are working on them. In particular, opening and closing the screen activates sleep mode, and they will kernel panic when they come out of sleep. This does not seem to happen when they are PUT to sleep, only when you close the lid!!!!

Wirewyrm

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by EdSchouten
I now reinstalled Mac OS X, I had a few problems after the installation (because of downgrading from 10.2.6 to 10.2.3) but after downloading the combo update with Mozilla (Safari was malfunctioning) I could reboot and download the updates from the System prefrences.

He's running a bit faster now, especially in games (I get 50-60 FPS @ 1024) :eek: why didn't you just use the software update in sysprefs to update?

anyways, it probably was a good idea to reinstall your system after 10 or so kernel panics, but you will more than likely find that if you toy with SMB very often, it's likely to happen again. apple has apparently put a lot of work into SMB in panther, so that should help, but as of now, jag is notoriously bad about SMB sharing. i have all kinds of quirky problems when connecting to my own XP boxes, especially if i turn them off without unmounting my mac from the folders.

just something to deal with eh?

[EdSchouten]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
why didn't you just use the software update in sysprefs to update?

That wasn't possible anymore, I had to download it manually. The update bar stopped around 80% and gave an error :p

[mnkeybsness]

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-mnkeybsness

Actually, that was what a panic looked like before Jaguar and the Mach Kernel update. Now it's exactly what EdSchouten describes. The screen dims, with a grey window - more of a mini-screen - in the center, with nicely formatted text that tells you that you need to restart.

well if that is the case, then smb shares like to cause kernel panics.

and why, in jaguar, have i gotten the black screen with white text in the past?

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by mnkeybsness
well if that is the case, then smb shares like to cause kernel panics.

and why, in jaguar, have i gotten the black screen with white text in the past? perhaps that's a variant of the KP for when the graphical side of things goes down. who knows? but the grayscaled-dimming thing with the ominous text is a kernel panic as well, and it's well established that SMB will do that to you.

[hugemullens]

I just sent my 12 inch powerbook in to apple today cause of the kernal panic. All i had to was so much as put any pressure on the left side, i mean just breathe on it, and it would crash. Tech guy thing logic board might be screwy there, or somehow something is grounding out. All i know is i had 10 kernal panics in 24 hours with mine. So DONT BE AFRAID TO CALL APPLE! They were super to me and i must say i was pleased with the tech support guy. Hopefully it'll be a good repair too.

[janey]

heh your first kernel panic...congrats!

btw, this is what a kernel panic looks like in jaguar, in panther it's slightly darker and a little different. i get tons. :rolleyes:

[shadowfax]

did you just post your MAC address, babe?

[janey]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
did you just post your MAC address, babe?
nope. that was someone else's pic on MR, for some reason I had it and i couldn't find a link so i just uploaded it.

[Wardofsky]

Seems the kernal panic is like the first kiss in here :D

Oh well, I get them once in a while...

[Foxer]

Originally posted by hugemullens
I just sent my 12 inch powerbook in to apple today cause of the kernal panic. All i had to was so much as put any pressure on the left side, i mean just breathe on it, and it would crash. Tech guy thing logic board might be screwy there, or somehow something is grounding out. All i know is i had 10 kernal panics in 24 hours with mine. So DONT BE AFRAID TO CALL APPLE! They were super to me and i must say i was pleased with the tech support guy. Hopefully it'll be a good repair too.

This is EXACTLY the problem that I (and many others) had with the 12-inch PB. If you're using an airport extreme card, all you need to do to solve this problem is remove and SNUGLY reattach the AE card.

Many, many KP's before (especially when touching/holding the left front side (above the AE card)). Not one in the two months sicne the "fix."

[hugemullens]

Originally posted by Foxer
This is EXACTLY the problem that I (and many others) had with the 12-inch PB. If you're using an airport extreme card, all you need to do to solve this problem is remove and SNUGLY reattach the AE card.

Many, many KP's before (especially when touching/holding the left front side (above the AE card)). Not one in the two months sicne the "fix."


I tried that, a couple times and it wouldnt fix it. But i bet thats the problem. Hopefully they can get it fixed for me. I am off to cedar point for 4 days so i'm hoping i wont have wait long when i get back for it.

[Foxer]

Originally posted by hugemullens
I tried that, a couple times and it wouldnt fix it. But i bet thats the problem. Hopefully they can get it fixed for me. I am off to cedar point for 4 days so i'm hoping i wont have wait long when i get back for it.

Four days is a long time to spend at Cedar Point, dude.

[janey]

i crashed my iBook while it was starting up...it was awesome...it went all weird and gave me all these error messages, then gave me the kernel panic with the grayed background, then kept going with the error messages until it stopped and i restarted...it was after i tried crashing loginwindow by doing the screensaver thing...

[iShater]

Originally posted by Foxer
Four days is a long time to spend at Cedar Point, dude.

Not if you see some of the lines over there!!!

Besides, it is a nice resort isn't it?

Back to kernel panics. I had at least two that I remember with my iBook, one happened with an SMB mount, I shutdown the windows machine and forgot to remove the mout from OSX, it wasn't happy. The other time which I might still be able to replicate happens when the modem is setup to prompt you if you are receiving a phone call. The moment the msg box shows up to inform me of an incoming call, BOOM, the panic happens.

But other than that this baby has been very stable, 12 days up and counting, I am hoping it will beat my Linux record of 30+ days, and Windows NT record of 50 or so days.

[e-coli]

Originally posted by EdSchouten
I have to complain about very much instability. I had to reset my Powerbook almost 10 times in just 5 days :( Fresh install

My System prefrences often hangs for 30 seconds and sometimes I can't launch any program's anymore (mostly after coming out of sleep)

You have a hardware problem.

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by e-coli
You have a hardware problem.

Maybe an external device not communicating correctly when the computer wakes from sleep. Try unplugging all peripherals before putting it to sleep and then see if it still hangs.

[utilizer]

Anytime this ever happens to me is when I connect to an SMB share and forget to disconnect it when I'm through with it or if I have bad RAM ordered from, and I don't mind saying it, Mohawk Industries I believe (found them off of pricewatch). Next time it'll be Crucial; I don't know what of RAM I have now, whatever the ServiceNet guys put in it. But regardless, I've had six kernel panics so far this year:
One was b/c there was a thunderstorm that shut down power, and I have a FireWire HD connected to the laptop so the HD shut down and I unplugged, then plugged it back in too quickly. BAM! KPed on me!
The other five times have been while trying to connect to my roommate's Windows machine through SMB; when it works, it's flawless. But when it gives you an error during the connection process, may as while as restart rather than waiting for a KP, unless you really want to!:p

[fenevad]

I'm glad I found this list. I've got a G4 12" and was running into frequent kernel panics. I think six in one day was the max, but I could have had more if I hadn't been extra careful not to touch the left side of the machine or to move the machine abruptly by even the tiniest amount. I had just about concluded that I was going to have to bolt the machine down to a desktop and use an external keyboard for the rest of its life. :mad:

I was on the verge of sending my machine to Apple when I found this thread. Based on it I looked at the Airport Extreme Card and, sure enough, it was almost 2 mm prowed - it was so loose it was almost ready to fall out.

I pushed it in and now I can grap this puppy by the left side and do anything I want and no kernel panic. :cool:

Thanks a bunch!

Fenevad

[Powerbook G5]

You know...the 12" PowerBook at the Apple store I go to gets quite a few kernal panics if you play around with it for more than a few minutes...it's quite odd, considering they should easily have the resources to fix it after all these months.

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by mnkeybsness


no, this is NOT a kernel panic. a kernel panic looks like a black screen with a little bit of white text at the top that looks like jibberish. (almost DOS prompt-ish)

Acually apple has a couple sceen panic screens, but the latest one is in many langues telling you you need to shut down.

Anyway I would run some software to repair your disk, disk warrior or disk util atleast.

[jadariv]

So let me get this straight. If my computer ceases to work, puts up a weird screen with jibberish, and then i have to reboot.

I call this a Kernal Panic.

Is this because OS X does not crash?

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by jadariv
So let me get this straight. If my computer ceases to work, puts up a weird screen with jibberish, and then i have to reboot.

I call this a Kernal Panic.

Is this because OS X does not crash? no. it is crashing. it's just prettier than having your computer just freeze where it is or getting a monochrome BSD.

[SubGothius]

BTW, what with all the talk here of poorly-seated AE cards and possibly-bad RAM, I thought I'd take a moment to plug a contact-enhancer I discovered called Stabilant-22 (http://www.stabilant.com/).

No, I'm not a shill, don't work for them, not getting paid by them, haven't even met any of 'em; I just think it's an amazing product and want to spread the word. The Canadian mfrs don't even distribute directly to consumers in the US (they mostly contract large orders directly to industrial and gov't/mil. concerns), but you can get it from a few US resellers who buy in bulk from the factory. Amusingly, the easiest US source to locate is the parts desk of your local VW/Audi dealership (part # ZVW 186 001)! That's how I found out about this stuff, specified to solve multi-pin/card-edge electrical contact problems in the factory repair manual for my (late, lamented) Audi 5000 wagon.

In a nutshell, Stabilant-22 is a polymer designed to "fill the gaps" between electrical contacts with a substance that is only conductive in the presence of an electrical field within a very close range, so when used on multi-pin or card-edge contacts, it enhances conductivity only across each physical contact (almost as good as a soldered joint!) while insulating in-between the contacts. The mfrs used to set up their trade-show booth running their computer with its mobo fully submerged in the stuff, and it ran perfectly fine, allegedly even more stably. A highly-diluted form of this same stuff was once resold by another distributor in audiophile shops as "TWEEK" a few years ago, but the redistributors' over-dilution of the polymer gave that version of the product a bit of a mixed reputation, but many audio geex absolutely swore by the stuff while it was available. However, the over-dilution debacle made the mfrs gun-shy about dealing with the consumer market or resellers/remarketers ever again. Another pro-audio shop in NY is selling it in normal-dilution strength nowadays, but it's just plain easier to get it from your local VW/Audi dealer. :)

When I was cobbling together my Frankentosh, an 8600/200 tower with RAM, PCI cards, and drives salvaged from several other abused and deceased Macs in my then-employer's boneyard, I was having some frustrating drive and stability problems early on. I wondered if the card-edge contacts on the RAM or PCI cards, and/or SCSI pin contacts on the drives (the box and drives had seen a lotta drive swapping in their history) were as good as they outta be. I figured trying Stabilant was cheaper than buying new RAM, hi-grade SCSI ribbons, new drives, etc. -- at least as a first resort, couldn't hurt to try it, no? I ambled down to the VW/Audi dealer to get the goods, stopped by Wal-Mart for some cosmetic applicators (foam-tip swabs like used to apply eye-shadow, since I didn't wanna use the cotton swabs that came in the Stabilant kit), and I went to work treating and un-/re-seating all my RAM, PCI cards, and SCSI connectors (which I'd done before without the Stabilant, and without positive results). Bam! Problems solved.

A few notes: Stabilant is only a contact enhancer, not a contact cleaner. You'll wanna use a real contact cleaner first if your contacts are already dirty or tarnished, then you can apply the Stabilant on clean, shiny contacts. Also, don't use it across unlike-metal contacts (e.g., aluminum RCA jacks w/ gold RCA plugs = gunky buildup over time, but gold-to-gold or alum.-to-alum. etc. is all good). The stuff also dries kinda gummy-sticky, so it may not be a good idea if a lot of dust/debris/cat hair is likely to enter your case. Oh, also remember to let the Stabilant's alcohol solvent evaporate before you power up your gear (I waited overnite, just to be sure), so that unevaporated alcohol won't cause a short!

I love this stuff... :D :cool: