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KERNEL ERROR upon POWER "ON"

Z

zthree

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2007
9
0
Hello. Has anyone experienced upon "first" power-on your desktop mac a prompt "kernel error blah blah blah...and series of codes appears or just hangs?" (just like a DOS prompt)

I have to power up my powermac for a continuous 20-30 mins or so...then power "off" then "on" just to let the apple logo appears at start-up.

worse when i leave my mac idle for 10 mins...even if theres screensaver it just hangs...

tried to test the memory in other units...works perfectly
also replaced the battery. would it be the processor or the video card?

Appreciate your help.

Thanks much in advance!

Ted

POWERMAC DUAL 867
 
KERNEL ERROR upon POWER "ON"

Never had tried. Though I tried reformatting the 250 HD. partitioned. Still the same. Transferred the RAMs and video card to another slot. No luck.
Thanks.
 
KERNEL ERROR upon POWER "ON"

none. well maybe 2 hard drive bays. an 80 and a 40. are those considered as 3rd party components?
Thanks again!
 
You didn't by any chance delete any hidden files called "mach_kernel"? I just went through that with my brothers G5. He decided to delete files that he thought were crap. For some reason the hidden files were suppose to be hidden and they weren't so he deleted them. Then he had similar symptoms to yours. We had to put the install discs back in and "Archive and Install" all over again. Wasn't too bad, but the machine works well again.
 
KERNEL ERROR upon POWER "ON"

Thanks. will try it soon. Hoping to end all of these problems.

Thanks again.

Ted
 
IJ Reilly said:
Dollars to donuts, it's a RAM problem. And please, let's not suggest that he reformat and reinstall again.
Click to expand...

He tested the RAM in another system and it works fine. He showed same symptoms as my brothers G5 after he deleted the "mach_kernel" file by accident. Wasn't suggesting he reformat again, was simply telling the problem I ran into. Cause that was a pain in the ass problem to deal with.
 
yellow said:
That's the best way to transform dollars!
Click to expand...

Mmmm, RAM!

darthraige said:
He tested the RAM in another system and it works fine. He showed same symptoms as my brothers G5 after he deleted the "mach_kernel" file by accident. Wasn't suggesting he reformat again, was simply telling the problem I ran into. Cause that was a pain in the ass problem to deal with.
Click to expand...

I got you, but in post #3 he also said that he'd already reformatted the drive, so I thought we could dispense with that advice.

Testing the RAM in another system -- I'm not sure that cuts it as as evidence of much. It could still be a motherboard issue, but not even getting to the kernel panic screen tells me that the problem is probably low level. Might even be worth resetting Open Firmware.
 
KERNEL ERROR upon POWER "ON"

oh oh....

Thanks for your advice. Will keep you posted.
 
Also try booting from the install media and repairing permissions in Disk Utility. Worked for me once when it was kernel panicing within a few minutes of boot. Turned out to be something wrong with the permissions in /Library with relation to the bluetooth driver.
 
My guess at this point assuming the archive/install fails would be the logic board followed by the processor(s) If that is the case I really hope you have apple care else you'll find yourself looking at a new computer
 
A reinstall has already failed to fix the problem, as they nearly always do.

I would not make any rash assumptions about the health of motherboard just yet. If it was me, I'd beg/borrow some new RAM to try in this Mac. I would also go through it completely and make sure all the connector are plugged in firmly.

A dual G4 867 is too old to still be covered by AppleCare.
 
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