Crashing issue

[janzy21]

My first generation 17" MacBook Pro crashes quite frequently.
The screen turns darker like a shade closing down and then tells me to restart.
Is anyone having this problem?
I had to format the drive once already when It wouldn't start again and looked like the hard drive was gone.

 

[robbieduncan]

You are seeing kernel panics. These happen when the kernel (the heart of the operating system) reaches an error that it can't recover from and has to stop the whole machine. 9 times out of 10 these are caused by hardware problems. Have you run the hardware test?

 

[janzy21]

I'm not familiar with the hardware test, can you tell me how to do this.
Thanks

 

[deadpixels]

usually usb stuff can cause kernel panics or bad ram. do you have some usb stuff plugged all the time?? if yes, try to unplug them to see if that helps. hardware test is on your install dvd, put in, start you mac kepping 'D' key pressed i think

 

[janzy21]

I have an external usb hard drive hooked up.

 

[deadpixels]

I have an external usb hard drive hooked up.

it does not mean it is the problem but you can unplug it for a while and see if te problem is still there. i personally never had a problem with external hdd.