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

Mac forcing me to restart

smallnshort247

smallnshort247

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 23, 2010
531
8
It seems like at the most random times my MacBook Pro gets a gray shade that goes down the screen with a message 4 or so different languages that says in short that I must turn off my mac with a hard restart. I no longer have control of my mouse or keyboard and everything freezes. The computer isn't even a year old so I'm not sure as to why its doing this. I'm considering taking it to the apple store sometime this week. Any opinions would be great!
 
That is called a Kernel Panic. Check your console log for any recent problems. If it happens during boot up you can start in verbose mode with Command-V on startup and it will tell you what you need to know.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I called my local Apple store and setup an appointment for tomorrow.
 
smallnshort247 said:
It seems like at the most random times my MacBook Pro gets a gray shade that goes down the screen with a message 4 or so different languages that says in short that I must turn off my mac with a hard restart. I no longer have control of my mouse or keyboard and everything freezes. The computer isn't even a year old so I'm not sure as to why its doing this. I'm considering taking it to the apple store sometime this week. Any opinions would be great!
Click to expand...

Out of curiousity, what browser do you use? I've found often times when I run Chrome I get panics. Also, sometimes with Adobe Flash...
 
I'm using Safari. I sometimes use Firefox too but mainly just Safari. It happens whenever I am using Safari but that doesn't say much since 95% of the time I have my Mac on, Safari is running along with many other programs whenever the Kernel Panic occurs.
 
I hate Kernel Panics..

Hey guys,

So I've posted on here a few times about my MacBook Pro getting Kernel Panics at least once a week. Right before I went out of town a week ago, I took my MBP to the Apple store so they could hopefully figure out what caused the problem. They told me they would need to keep it a few days to run some tests. A few days later they said nothing on their tests showed any problems..which is confusing. I have upgraded the RAM and I just upgraded the hard drive about a week ago BUT these Kernel Panics have been happening well before I opened my computer up at all. Plus, their tests would of said if it were hardware related. Their advice was for me to just do a clean install. I really don't feel like doing it for two reasons. 1, its a pain to do a clean install and have to manually drag applications and files over. And two, I don't know if that will actually fix the problem..and if it doesn't it would of been a big waste of time to do the clean install. Any advice?
 
If you use Time Machine it will backup all your applications, files and preferences. Then do a clean install of OS/X and use the Migration Assistant to restore all your applications, files and preferences.

Once all done, it will be as if you never re-installed, except hopefully the kernel panics.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
If you use Time Machine it will backup all your applications, files and preferences. Then do a clean install of OS/X and use the Migration Assistant to restore all your applications, files and preferences.

Once all done, it will be as if you never re-installed, except hopefully the kernel panics.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did that last week after I installed a new hard drive. I thought all was well because there were about 2 weeks of be not having a kernel panic but BAM..just got one about 1 hr ago :( I also ran techtooldeluxe and everything passed the test
 
I always called these fatal errors...but kernel panic sounds a lot cooler and less depressing.

When you did the install, did you do it in the form of a 'cold install' from the original OS X disc included with the comp sale, then update OS X from online, then add all other programs?

How did you add the programs? I ask this because if something was corrupted and you brought it over using migration assistant, TM or CC, you are still going to have a corrupted file which is producing something OS X does not recognize and gets confused by.

Are you using any unusual or '3rd party' software?

When it happens, are there any processes that have consistently been opened at the time?

If it keeps happening, I would try a cold install of OS X only and no additional programs to try to get an idea of the source. If it does it then, either way it is on Apple as you have a bum copy of OS X or something is indeed wrong hardware wise. If you ship it to them, put the normal RAM back in and HD because they may replace them by default and that would suck if they tossed your higher end HDD.
 
NickZac said:
I always called these fatal errors...but kernel panic sounds a lot cooler and less depressing.

When you did the install, did you do it in the form of a 'cold install' from the original OS X disc included with the comp sale, then update OS X from online, then add all other programs?

How did you add the programs? I ask this because if something was corrupted and you brought it over using migration assistant, TM or CC, you are still going to have a corrupted file which is producing something OS X does not recognize and gets confused by.

Are you using any unusual or '3rd party' software?

When it happens, are there any processes that have consistently been opened at the time?

If it keeps happening, I would try a cold install of OS X only and no additional programs to try to get an idea of the source. If it does it then, either way it is on Apple as you have a bum copy of OS X or something is indeed wrong hardware wise. If you ship it to them, put the normal RAM back in and HD because they may replace them by default and that would suck if they tossed your higher end HDD.
Click to expand...

When I did the install the first time, I just used the OS X install DVD and reinstalled the OS but used migration assistant to bring my stuff over. The kernel panics still happened (probably like you said..due to me bringing over whatever corrupted software or files to my fresh install). Once I installed a new hard drive, I figured that would be the best time to do the "cold install" but halfway through dragging all my files and applications over manually from my external hard drive, I gave up and reinstalled the hard drive and just used migration assistant.

As for the unusual or 3rd party software. I'll be honest, I've torrented some applications like Office for Mac 11', vmware..etc. I'm sure one of those torrents probably is causing the issue but its hard to say which one it is. Whenever the kernel panics happen, I'm usually using Safari though. Whenever those kernel panics happen, the only stuff I'm usually running are Adium, Safari, Mail, Activity Monitor, Skype, iTunes, and Echofon. Thats what I consider my basic light computer using..and none of those applications were downloaded from torrents.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for the advice!
 
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