Kernel Panic - Help! (Can't boot)

[iJED DV]

I woke up this morning and discovered my macbook pro frozen. I did a hard restart and was greeted with a dark gray shade with a "You need to restart" message. I restarted, again, and was greeted with the same message. I decided to power it down and let it set.

Fifteen minutes later, I powered the laptop back up and it booted up fine. I decided to let it set and watch it for a bit. Not very long after, the computer froze again and I have been unable to get it to boot regularly since. I tried to boot via the OSX Leopard install disc, but I get the same restart message. The only thing I can successfully do is boot into Safe Mode.

I repaired the disk permission in safe mode and reset the PRAM. I also got a report that reads "Kernel Trap at 0x3d908612, type 14 = page fault" and some other numbers.

However, I'm still stuck in this loop of restarting, seeing the gray apple and the pinwheel, the pinwheel freezing and the shade and restart message appearing.

Can anyone help?

Operating System: OS X 10.5.6
17-inch Macbook Pro (mid-2007)

Also, not sure if this is related, but my trackpad seems to be acting up, as well. It selects everything and you have to hit the mouse button very hard to get it to respond.

 

[ppc750fx]

Have you screwed around with (or used any software that messed with) your kernel extensions lately?

If so, try reverting your changes and seeing if that fixes the issue.

 

[lostngone]

I would first check the hardware with a product like Techtool or something else. Then try a clean install.

You could boot off the install disk and try to look at the system log.

Also....

You didn't download iLife off a torrent site by chance?

 

[MrM]

You didn't download iLife off a torrent site by chance?

I'll add Adobe CS4 to that as well.

 

[iJED DV]

I have not installed the new iLife or CS4 nor have I messed with any of the kernel information. Can I do a clean install from Safe Mode? As I said in my original post, I get the kernel panic when I try to boot from the install CD, too.

I will give Techtool a try. Also, if there is another piece of software that might be causing this, will simply deleting it fix the kernel panic?

Also how do you reset the kernel extensions as suggested above?

 

[ppc750fx]

If you get kernel panics when booting from CD, you're probably looking at a hardware issue, most likely bad RAM.

 

[iJED DV]

Here's an update:

I downloaded a program called Leopard Cache Cleaner and loaded it while in Safe Mode. I did a basic cleaning, which cured my trackpad issues from before, but did not cure my kernel panic problem.

I restarted back into Safe Mode and did a medium cleanse of all the caches and was able to get it to boot back into OS X in normal mode. I'm running a TimeMachine backup now, but noticed when I tried to empty the trash beforehand, it took a long time to delete the 30 items in the trash, so I'm not sure if the machine is back up and running properly yet.

Crossing my fingers...

 

[sushi]

This is beginning to sound like a problem that I had with a HD before it failed. Well, actually it happened twice. HD failed. Apple replaced it. A couple of months the replacement went bad as well.

Both times, I experience similar indications. Not booting from the CD reminded me of that experience.

My guess is that your Hard Drive or Hardware Driver is going bad. Save what you can.

 

[iJED DV]

This is beginning to sound like a problem that I had with a HD before it failed. Well, actually it happened twice. HD failed. Apple replaced it. A couple of months the replacement went bad as well.

Both times, I experience similar indications. Not booting from the CD reminded me of that experience.

My guess is that your Hard Drive or Hardware Driver is going bad. Save what you can.

Sushi,

Were you getting a kernel panic that wasn't letting you get past the initial gray boot screen?

 

[iJED DV]

I got the backup finished. Just reactivated the screen saver, so we'll see if it freezes again.

For those who know more about this than I do, this is the report generated from my last kernel panic:


panic(cpu 1 caller 0x001A9C68): Kernel trap at 0x3dfcba73, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x000000bc, CR3: 0x00d0f000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x35991630, EBX: 0x03eb8004, ECX: 0x03e1d000, EDX: 0x00000000
CR2: 0x000000bc, EBP: 0x35991668, ESI: 0x00000000, EDI: 0xffffffff
EFL: 0x00010246, EIP: 0x3dfcba73, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x03e10010
Error code: 0x00000000

Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x35991408 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x3599143c 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x35991458 : 0x1a9c68 (0x464700 0x3dfcba73 0xe 0x463eb0)
0x35991538 : 0x1a038d (0x35991550 0x9 0x35991668 0x3dfcba73)
0x35991548 : 0x3dfcba73 (0xe 0x48 0x35990010 0x3e000010)
0x35991668 : 0x3dfd39ff (0xc1d00005 0x1000000 0x1000003 0x40)
0x359916c8 : 0x3dfc61ed (0x35991858 0x6 0x0 0x0)
0x35991828 : 0x3dfb73e2 (0x0 0x600d600d 0x7027 0x35991858)
0x359918e8 : 0x3e1a46b5 (0xc1d00005 0x1000000 0x1000003 0x40)
0x35991918 : 0x3e1aee01 (0x23dc6000 0x1000000 0x88100090 0x3e)
0x359938a8 : 0x3e18bb3e (0x23dc6000 0x1000000 0x15 0x23dc601c)
0x359939a8 : 0x3dfb2b09 (0x23dc6000 0x0 0x35993ab2 0x80)
0x35993a08 : 0x2e5eb69d (0x3e76400 0x0 0x35993ab2 0x80)
0x35993b38 : 0x2e5ecf44 (0x3e76400 0x2e5f062c 0x35993bec 0x4)
0x35993c08 : 0x2e747bf0 (0x3e76400 0x1 0x0 0x13)
0x35993c68 : 0x2e740be6 (0x3e76400 0x35993d2c 0x4a956a8 0x3e76400)
0x35993c98 : 0x411791 (0x3e76400 0x4a956a8 0x4a956a8 0x0)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.NVDAResman(5.3.6)@0x3dfaf000->0x3e20bfff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0x2e5e5000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0x2e5e5000->0x2e5f2fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000->0x2e754fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

Mac OS version:
9G55

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro3,1

 

[Catfish_Man]

That log says that the WindowServer is doing something involving the graphics card drivers that triggers the issue (could be a driver bug, could be bad hardware, could be ???).

 

[sushi]

Sushi,

Were you getting a kernel panic that wasn't letting you get past the initial gray boot screen?

Yes, on my PowerBook 15 running Tiger.

Apple replaced 2 Hard Drives.

They also ended up replacing the logic board after the second one went bad. The root cause may have been the Hard Drive IO on the logic board was bad.

In both cases, I could not boot from the install DVD. In one case, I could use TDM but in the other I could not even use that.

Note, I also had bad memory. It caused trouble with the HD, but after the memory was replaced by Apple, that problem went away.

 

[Stachelsk]

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.NVDAResman(5.3.6)@0x3dfaf000->0x3e20bfff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0x2e5e5000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0x2e5e5000->0x2e5f2fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.7.1)@0x2e738000->0x2e754fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.5)@0x2e639000

IONDRVSupport > IOPCIFamily > IOGraphicsFamily

I'd say your video card is on it's way out the door. Try and download a utility to control the fans and run those suckers at full blast. Or try running the MacBook somewhere really cold. If it doesn't crash, you're going to have to get your logic board replaced.

 

[iJED DV]

Well it worked for about two days without issue. Last night I opened Boxee on the computer and it ended up freezing up part way through and went right back into the kernel panics. (Two reports again describing the WindowServer)

Once again, rebooting into safe mode and running the Leopard Cache Cleaner on Medium Clean made it boot normally.

If it's the logic board, would a cache cleanse fix it? Is there any other diagnostic tools I should run to help locate the problem?

 

[ppc750fx]

If it's the logic board, would a cache cleanse fix it? Is there any other diagnostic tools I should run to help locate the problem?

No. If your logic board or GPU is dying, there is absolutely no software that you can run that will fix it.

 

[iJED DV]

Update

Took my MBP to the Genius Bar to see what they thought. They ran some tests and determined it was either the Hard Drive or the Logic Board as some of your postings indicated. Unfortunately, I'm outside of the warranty period, and I don't have AppleCare.

I decided to check the hard drive situation, so I installed OS X on a firewire drive and tried booting my laptop from it. I once again got a kernel panic. I tried the firewire drive on another mac, and it worked fine.

I assume this means my logic board is the problem. For the price it would cost to fix it, I might as well get a new laptop. Is there anything else I should try/consider before throwing in the flag?