Mini Mac Crashed?

[cubixcrayfish]

So Yeah today I was working on my mini mac, stats in sig, I had Firefox, Word, Adium, and iTunes going, the beachball appears on the finder bar, and on the dock, and I can't open or close anything, I use force quit to close them, they close the beachball is still there, and then I see a gray screen appear, saying please press the power button to restart your computer.


This is the first time it has told me to restart, but it has gotten very very very slow before.


Only think I can think of is my D-link wirless connector thing,but I got the current driver, and been using it fine for a few days


CCF

 

[tech4all]

So Yeah today I was working on my mini mac, stats in sig, I had Firefox, Word, Adium, and iTunes going, the beachball appears on the finder bar, and on the dock, and I can't open or close anything, I use force quit to close them, they close the beachball is still there, and then I see a gray screen appear, saying please press the power button to restart your computer.


This is the first time it has told me to restart, but it has gotten very very very slow before.


Only think I can think of is my D-link wirless connector thing,but I got the current driver, and been using it fine for a few days


CCF

Probably was the "friendly" version of a kernal panic. It was in different languases right?

(Friendly as it tells you what to do rather than display a lot of UNIX code)

 

[cubixcrayfish]

Probably was the "friendly" version of a kernal panic. It was in different languases right?

(Friendly as it tells you what to do rather than display a lot of UNIX code)

Yes there were like 5 languages...

 

[mkrishnan]

Try this, just for fun: launch the console program in the utilities folder, and click on the logs icon. Then expand /Library/Logs and click on panic.log. There should be an entry in there for the kernel panic that you experienced (that's what the crash with the grey screen is called). See what programs are referenced in the backtrace from the point of crash. Those programs *might* be involved. But then again, for most of the KP's I've had, the trace leads back to Symantec AV.... Which seems like it might just be up because it runs in the background and had a coincidental call.... Hmmm. But then again, I haven't really had one since I uninstalled it.

You can also see this same log from the terminal by going to the /Library/logs folder (not ~/Library/logs).

 

[angelneo]

Actually in my own personal experience, I found that OS X is not so kind towards network error or connection problems. I have met with only a few kernel panics and all of them are caused by network error. For example, when I connect a OS X to a system 7 via atalk and when that system 7 crash, it would bring the OS X along with it as well if they are still connected (That system 7 is prone to crashes even when its on standalone)

 

[ravenvii]

From what I read around here, it seems kernel panics, if they happen routinely, signal hardware problems. My iBook, and the iMac G4 before that, never kernel panic'd on me before. In fact I've never seen a kernel panic, except in photos.

*knocks wood*

 

[tech4all]

Just for FYI

Here is a page from Apple regarding Kernel Panics: Link

 

[cubixcrayfish]

I can't find how to open the logs..

why are KP's happening, something defective?

 

[cubixcrayfish]

It was caused by my network...

Well how do I solve this, I can still take my thing back, it's a d-link wireless B WL-122, with the updated 10.3.7 driver

Edit: Got the logs open, saw the word network and prism(Wireless)

 

[mkrishnan]

I was kinda curious, and I found these googling:

http://macintouch.com/macmini07.html

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15997

Sounds like what you're seeing is a known issue. And like your first bet is to check if you have this version of the driver, and upgrade if you don't.

 

[cubixcrayfish]

I have the updgraded driver, but I installed the CD first, should I un-install it all, and then just download the driver>

 

[applebum]

Only think I can think of is my D-link wirless connector thing,but I got the current driver, and been using it fine for a few days


CCF

You nailed it - I have used a couple of wirless adapters (plugged in the USB port right?) on my Macs, and they have always caused kernel panics. I think they somehow overflood the USB port. I have recreated this several times. This is the only time I have ever had a kernel panic on any of my Macs.

 

[numediaman]

Yes, it's got to be related to the USB ports. Plus I believe there is a FW issue, as well.

I've lost communication with my printer (USB) and I've had Photoshop crash on my a half-dozen times when accessing the scanner (I've never had Photoshop crash on me in the 12 years I've used it!). I've also gotten the beach ball of death when accessing files in Photoshop (FW external drive) and have had iDVD crash (when working with movies located on the FW external drive).

Seems like a pattern to me, right?

 

[cubixcrayfish]

How do I un-intstall it?