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First Kernel Panic...

MacOG728893

MacOG728893

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
1,716
114
Orange County CA
Okay guys, I have a late 2009, 27" iMac: i5 2.66GHz, 16GB 1333MHz RAM, 1TB Seagate HDD (was replaced by AppleCare late october from a WD Black), ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB, running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E53). I just thought I'd give this information so you know what I'm working with.

Over the last month, I've actually been having some major issues with the OS. For instance, trying to change the name of a folder would not work unless the computer was restarted. My computer would not wake from sleep, powering it off would turn off the computer, but powering back on would take multiple attempts, just to name a few things.

I decided I would boot into the recovery partition and fix permissions to see if that would solve my problems and in turn, it actually did. I went error free for nearly a week up until right now.

I was watching Steve Nash highlights on YouTube (I know that's unimportant, but he's purple & gold now, so I just had to ;)) and about 2 minutes in to the video, my computer experienced it's first ever kernel panic.

I snapped this shot real quickly and then turned it off for a bit, turned it back on and did not experience a kernel panic on boot.

I have Apple Care and I'm pretty experienced with computers to say the least, but I'm not sure why this occurred especially with a pretty new HDD inside, given that kernel panics normally occur from outside sources other than the Mac.

If anyone has input, it would be greatly appreciated and thank you for baring through this long post of mine!

PS, heres the photo... Even though I know it's really not that important because it's standard for a kernel panic, but I'll include it nonetheless.

img0717nn.jpg
 
Without seeing the KP report it's a little difficult. I would first post the latest report in it's entirety, you will find it at /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

KP's can be difficult to track down as they can be caused by failing or failed hardware such a RAM, a HD etc or software. For example if you use any antivirus applications that can be a cause or a version of something that is way out of date. I would STRONGLY recommend reading the XLab's article on KP's which you will find at http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html

If it is RAM it can be any of the following:

Incorrect RAM (did you recently upgrade it?)
Unseated RAM (remove and re-install)
Failed RAM (yes RAM can and does fail)
 
Thank you guys so much for the replies. So far no major panics yet! I tried to grab those diagnostic reports, but I was not able to find a report the properly corresponds with the date and time the kernel panic occurred.
 
Keep this in mind.. passing hardware tests doesn't mean there's no bad hardware. An authorized repair center found no hardware issues on my computer while testing it for a full week. Apple had it over a full week and mine passed all tests.. it ended up being a bad video card.
 
Well I just received two more today. One again while watching a YouTube video and another simply while it was just sitting there not in use. I'm going to uninstall cinch and see if that was the cause of all these kernel panics.

By the way, I know the RAM was good when I put it in, been almost a year now. Also, I know how to install RAM, everything is seated properly. It also displays 16GB in the system profiler. Would it do this if the RAM was bad?

Also, if I take it in to AppleCare, how should I go about explaining the situation most accurately so that I receive adequate help?

Last thing, if it's a bad logic board (I know this is kind of dumb) but would it be smarter if I waited to the end of month to take it and see if new iMacs are released? Maybe they'll upgrade me for free? Long shot I know, but a practical question nonetheless.
 
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You also might try running in Safe Mode for awhile to see if the KPs stop. That would suggest that a software add on is at fault. Not definitive, but useful information.
 
My suspicion would be the RAM too - I'd suggest pulling half out, testing, if still unstable swap for the other half. Ram can go bad over time - not as often as hard drives, but more so than the main board / processor.


For testing the RAM, there's a couple of options I know of (I'd recommend probably one of the first 2 for you)

1> Prime95

This application has a torture test mode that's very good at exposing hardware flakiness - plus you can run it inside OSX. It won't tell you whats bad (memory, cpu, etc), but you can pull some of the memory, run, pull the other memory, run again, etc.

2> Apple's Diagnostics

I think you put in the install or app disc, hold down command-D to boot into it. I didn't know about this last time I had a memory issue, so not sure how effective it is, but you should already have it. It might be able to tell you which slot has the bad memory if it detects a failure, but not sure.

3> Memtest86

This I've been using for years on my PC's and macs. Its pretty barebones - you burn it onto CD/DVD, boot from that. Not very user friendly, it'll take a while, and it won't tell you what slot is bad, but it is generally pretty effective.
 
omvs said:
My suspicion would be the RAM too - I'd suggest pulling half out, testing, if still unstable swap for the other half. Ram can go bad over time - not as often as hard drives, but more so than the main board / processor.


For testing the RAM, there's a couple of options I know of (I'd recommend probably one of the first 2 for you)

1> Prime95

This application has a torture test mode that's very good at exposing hardware flakiness - plus you can run it inside OSX. It won't tell you whats bad (memory, cpu, etc), but you can pull some of the memory, run, pull the other memory, run again, etc.

2> Apple's Diagnostics

I think you put in the install or app disc, hold down command-D to boot into it. I didn't know about this last time I had a memory issue, so not sure how effective it is, but you should already have it. It might be able to tell you which slot has the bad memory if it detects a failure, but not sure.

3> Memtest86

This I've been using for years on my PC's and macs. Its pretty barebones - you burn it onto CD/DVD, boot from that. Not very user friendly, it'll take a while, and it won't tell you what slot is bad, but it is generally pretty effective.
Click to expand...

Apple hardware test won't come up when using OS X Lion 10.7.4, I'm not sure what to do.
 
I got an Apple Care appointment tomorrow night. Anyone have some input on what I should say specifically just to make sure the problem gets addressed?
 
**Bump** Sorry didn't want to start a new thread for this question.

Hey guys, I cannot for the love of god get AHT to start on my computer!
(Specs on 1st post)

- Holding D down does not work
- Holding Option D down does not work
- I cannot access /System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics from my install disc because it is severely damaged and won't read.
- The internet based AHT also does not start up, connected through a hard connection btw.

Any suggestions?
 
If you have AppleCare, and problems with a late 2009 Mac, then your AppleCare runs out "late 2012". Go to the nearest AppleStore as soon as possible and let them fix the problem. That's what AppleCare is there for, so you don't want to wait until it runs out.
 
gnasher729 said:
If you have AppleCare, and problems with a late 2009 Mac, then your AppleCare runs out "late 2012". Go to the nearest AppleStore as soon as possible and let them fix the problem. That's what AppleCare is there for, so you don't want to wait until it runs out.
Click to expand...

I finally got Apple Hardware Test to work! Im running into all sorts of errors. I'm copying each error code down to be able to present it to the "techs" over at the genius bar. I have everything ready for them because I've learned many of them really don't know as much as they'd like us to think.

Anyways, I have AppleCare till January 2013.

Here's the errors reporting back:

4MEM/ 4/40000000: 0xb791c598

4MOT/ 4/40000003: HDD- 1343

4MOT/ 4/40000003: HDD- 1345

4MOT/ 4/40000003: HDD- 1241

Those are the newest errors...
 
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