iBook owners - please advise.

[DaveWonders]

Hey guys, my girlfriend has the last updated 12" iBook (1.33 ghz) and a coworker has a late model 15" PowerBook. Both of them last night got the same error. It's when that scary grey box pops up with 3 different languages that basically says something bad happened, hold the power button to turn off the computer. Forgive me for not knowing the exact name or text of that message.

Anyway - 2 things...

1)what does this error mean? (I believe both got it off and on repeatedly)

and

2) Is it a coincidence that they both got the same problem the same night, and are any other G4 laptop owners experiencing it?

Thanks.

 

[applefan1997]

It's a kernel panic, and can be caused by a bunch of things, but it's probably a coincidence it happened at once to both. Are they both on the same network? Might be a network error, but if they arent, probably coincidence, unless they are both running a program that gave errors. What were both computers doind at the time?

 

[DaveWonders]

I know specifics help. Let's just say neither are computer savvy and can't give straight answers about anything, haha. My girlfriend was probably playing MahJong in Safari. I asked if both had done software updates, like Safari and the security updates yesterday. They didn't really know what I was talking about.

But no, they were not on the same network, we just happened to talk about it today at work during conversation.

PS - Since you gave me the term I was looking for, "kernel panic," I had something to search for and came across the applicable Apple document: (just in case anyone else needed it, too)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25392

 

[NIPRING]

Did she recently upgrade to leopard?