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Computer Forces a Restart - Normal or virus?

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ezsober

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2003
33
0
Recently, after being on for about two hours, my 15" powerbook, running OS X 10.3 (with updates) froze itself, made the screen dark, and gave me a recantgular message in white letters on a black background in four languages tell me that I must immediately restart my computer by force booting. I've never seen this before, and hence it makes me suspicious.

Why would the system require a force boot that way? Is the computer installing something without my knowledge? Was there simply a malfunction that needed immediate correcting? Has anyone else encoutnered this, and if so, in what context?

I'll admit that my question arises out of increased paranoia about spyware on the mac, but nonethless, this does seem odd.

Thanks
 
Mitthrawnuruodo

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,432
1,073
Bergen, Norway
What you (or rather your Mac) encountered was a Kernel Panic. A serious system failure that can be compared to Windows dreaded Bluescreen of Death.

Kernel Panics are rare but most often caused by failing hardware or the occasionally bad software (my only Kernel Panic on my current 2 years old iBook was caused by BitTorrent).

There's a chance that this was a one time occurrence, and that you will not see another, but there's also a chance that some hardware component are on the verge of failing (or even already has), so be sure to backup all your important stuff in case it happens again (maybe even followed by a complete breakdown). If it does it's time for service, I'm afraid.
 
E

ezsober

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2003
33
0
Programs used at the time

Thanks for the response.

Actually, I was using Azareus at the time. Only recently started using azaerus, and have used other clients in the past with no problems.
 
varmit

varmit

macrumors 68000
Aug 5, 2003
1,830
0
ezsober said:
Thanks for the response.

Actually, I was using Azareus at the time. Only recently started using azaerus, and have used other clients in the past with no problems.
Click to expand...
Yep, that program has been known to be a little buggy, so it probably is your source of the kernel panic. I prefer the regular bittorrent client myself, but Azareus does have some nice features. If you can do without them, I would go with the main bittorrent client.
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,665
1,250
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Question on the Azureus: Are you using the latest version? Versions prior to the current one basically exposed a nasty bug in Apple's Java that caused kernel panics, freezes, and all manner of nastiness. The new one largely fixes all of the above, though, and I've run it for weeks without issue.

If you've been using the built-in updater, you might even try downloading a fresh version of the latest, just to be sure you've got what's the newest.
 
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