Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How often can kernel panics happen...

S

skiltrip

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 6, 2010
2,899
268
New York
...or should they happen at all if there is no problem hardware?

On my new 2011 MBP 15", I put in 8GB of Crucial RAM, proper specs, about 4 days ago. No problems since I put it in, until a few minutes ago, I got a kernel panic telling me to shut down.

Can these things just randomly happen infrequently, or is this a sign that my replacement RAM might be bad?
 
This may not answer your question, but I've been a mac user for 3+ years and have never experienced a Kernel Panic (Not once). I also use aftermarket ram in my systems (Gskill, corsair, or crucial) and again, have never had a problem.

That said, from what I've read here in the forums, aftermarket ram is a fairly common culprit.
 
Ieo said:
This may not answer your question, but I've been a mac user for 3+ years and have never experienced a Kernel Panic (Not once). I also use aftermarket ram in my systems (Gskill, corsair, or crucial) and again, have never had a problem.

That said, from what I've read here in the forums, aftermarket ram is a fairly common culprit.
Click to expand...

You should never get Kernel panics.

If you are there's a fault somewhere.
I'd consider testing your RAM 1 stick at a time with memtest.org or even if you purchased Apple Care there should of been a diagnostic disc with it.
 
Kernel panics can have lots of culprits, and yes, bad software can cause one too. if software is the issue, though, they're usually reproducible and rare.

If you get them often, though, that's almost certainly a hardware problem. Try running Apple Hardware Test or something like memtest.
 
I'm running rember now. But to play it safe, I might just return it anyway. Last year I had some OWC ram that tested perfectly in rember but I was still gettin kernel panics and weird hangs on shutdown and bootup.
 
Well, it passed Rember. I only did one loop, but it passed completely.

Not sure if I can pass it off as a fluke or what.
 
I dont know what Rember is, but Id run the Apple Hardware Test for the most accurate assessment.
 
ECUpirate44 said:
Just hold D when you boot. No disks needed.
Click to expand...

OK. Ran Apple Hardware Test (shorter version). Everything passed. No trouble found.

Maybe my kernel panic was a fluke? I mean, in the past when I had bad RAM my kernel panics were much more frequent than this.

But I hate have any ? marks hanging over my head. My 2010 13" ran rock solid and I want nothing less with my 2011 15".
 
Just did my real-world test by repeatedly loading and unloading Superior Drummer presets in and out of the RAM. some presets are as big as 2GB worth of samples. No hiccups.

I'm thinking maybe it's not the RAM, and could have been a fluke caused by software. At least Crucial is covered for it's life, so if I find kinsman the road it's bad I'll just replace it.

There's no reason this shouldn't be compatible right...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=ddr3_1333_8gb_crucial-_-20-148-345-_-Product
 
skiltrip said:
...or should they happen at all if there is no problem hardware?

On my new 2011 MBP 15", I put in 8GB of Crucial RAM, proper specs, about 4 days ago. No problems since I put it in, until a few minutes ago, I got a kernel panic telling me to shut down.

Can these things just randomly happen infrequently, or is this a sign that my replacement RAM might be bad?
Click to expand...


I posted the same thing the other day....hrmmm
 
I've had a PowerBook, a MacBook Pro, a Mac Mini, and now a Mac Pro.

To date I've had zero kernel panics.
 
I had never experienced a Kernel Panic with my old 2.4GHZ Black MacBook, but on the first night of owning my 2011 13" i5, I got two Kernel Panics back to back (within 15 minutes of each other). But I've had it for almost a week now, and I haven't had anymore problems. It was weird and scared the crap out of me to say the least.
 
iBLAKEE said:
I had never experienced a Kernel Panic with my old 2.4GHZ Black MacBook, but on the first night of owning my 2011 13" i5, I got two Kernel Panics back to back (within 15 minutes of each other). But I've had it for almost a week now, and I haven't had anymore problems. It was weird and scared the crap out of me to say the least.
Click to expand...

Weird. So maybe it's not the ram but the 2011 itself. I guess I'll just keep an eye on things. Wondering though if I should return the ram just in case while I'm still in the return window. Then if I have another kernel panic I can call Apple cause I'll know it's in their ballpark cause I'll be running stock again.
 
skiltrip said:
OK. Ran Apple Hardware Test (shorter version). Everything passed. No trouble found.
Click to expand...

Last time I had a series of kernel panics, I ran the Apple Hardware Test (short version), and it pointed that one RAM-brick was defect. I had 2 x 2 GB that were 2 years old. I replaced the defect one with an original Apple 1 GB, and all's been well since then.

In other words, if your RAM was wrong, the Test would've probably found out, at least on the second run if the not the first time.

If I were you, I'd just use the MBP normally, but I'd install a clean new system on a new volume (only for occasional use with Disk Warrior). Then if the kernel panic comes back:
1. Run the Hardware Test again.
2. Reboot from the clean system. Run Disk Warrior anyway. If the panic re-appears while in the new system and the Test said all RAM was OK, I'd return the Mac and ask for a replacement.

My 2 cents, good luck.
 
I've had my 2011 MBP since release and I've gotten a few kernel panics one day. This never happened to me on my old uMB, so I was pretty scared, but realized it was only happening when I was tethering w/ my iPhone 4 via USB (Bluetooth worked fine). I googled it, and sure enough there were multiple people having issues with USB tethering in 64-bit mode. Haven't experienced any more kernel panics yet. Anyone else experience this problem?
 
StandardMeth0d said:
I've had my 2011 MBP since release and I've gotten a few kernel panics one day. This never happened to me on my old uMB, so I was pretty scared, but realized it was only happening when I was tethering w/ my iPhone 4 via USB (Bluetooth worked fine). I googled it, and sure enough there were multiple people having issues with USB tethering in 64-bit mode. Haven't experienced any more kernel panics yet. Anyone else experience this problem?
Click to expand...

Faulty hardware and buggy device drivers are the two most likely things to cause kernel panics, this would appear to be the latter case.. so hopefully apple will fix it for 10.6.7 or an itunes update soon.
 
StandardMeth0d said:
I've had my 2011 MBP since release and I've gotten a few kernel panics one day. This never happened to me on my old uMB, so I was pretty scared, but realized it was only happening when I was tethering w/ my iPhone 4 via USB (Bluetooth worked fine). I googled it, and sure enough there were multiple people having issues with USB tethering in 64-bit mode. Haven't experienced any more kernel panics yet. Anyone else experience this problem?
Click to expand...


Exact same problem I have except my phone is a 3GS. Bluetooth works fine but USB tethering causes kernel panics without fail. Sometimes it happens immediately after it boots up. Other times it happens when I'm loading a SC2 map.

This did not happen in my 2009 MBP ever.
 
I did the extended Apple Hardware Test and sure enough, it's going back to newegg. I'll keep the stock hynix in there for now and maybe get some OWC later.
 
Just FYI

I just noticed a few days ago that using my iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.2 while sharing internet over usb repeatedly caused kernel panics. It even reported something like the error was caused in something like ioNetworking.kext..

Would probably be solved by updating my iPhone..
 
I've had five Macs and have only had a kernel panic once -- and I think it had something to do with running Windows in a virtual machine.
 
This is related to the iPhone tethering.

This dated back in June 2010

It only happens when the machine runs with the 64bit Kernel.

It didn't get noticed by a lot of people before because the older Macs are default to boot with 32 bit Kernel.

The MacBook Pros 2011 are default to boot to 64 bit mode and now this problem surfaces.

Switch back to 32 bit mode will prevent this from happening.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13223670&tstart=0
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back