More and more random kernel panics

Hey all,

Since a few weeks my MBP (Mid 2010 15", Lion) is experiencing kernel panics, at seemingly random times. I've been through all the guides to solve these, but it's really hard to troubleshoot when it's not structurally happening.

Some observations:
- Not tied to the use of a specific application (although I doubt that's even possible with panics).
- OS X sometimes heavily lags shortly before it happens.
- No hardware changes were made before the panics started happening.
- Also happens with no external devices connected.
- It seems to be happening increasingly often.
- Added: There are also random "freezes" (only mouse moving), not being labeled as kernel panics, but forcing me to do a hard shut down.

When the Mac wouldn't start yesterday after a panic, I started to panic myself . It turned out to be a corrupted directory on the system drive, which was luckily solved using the wonderful DiskWarrior software by rebuilding the directory.

With kernel panics it's usually a hardware problem (correct me if I'm wrong). Does the corrupted drive directory mean it's a problem with the drive, or could it still be anything else? It's a non-standard drive: Crucial C300 SSD with latest firmware. I also have third-party RAM installed (100% compatible), which hasn't given any trouble after installing it a long time ago.

A few reports (also containing system info): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

What are your recommendations to troubleshoot any further? If more info is needed, ask away! A lot of thanks for all the help!

 

True. But judging by the sad smiley you know it's not a fun thing to do...
How can it be so hard to find the problem causing a kernel panic .

Edit: I could try using safe mode for some time, to see if it would still happen. Would that rule out software related causes too? Because it only uses the default system files which are the same as on a clean install, right?

 

Just had another kernel panic, and this time it was obviously triggered by starting my parallels virtual machine. It was starting at first, but after a few seconds the Windows 7 VM showed the scary blue screen of death, after which the Mac kernel panicked too.

If I am correct Parallels uses many forms of kernel extensions, which could be causing the problems. I am for now deinstalling Parallels while keeping my VM backed up, to see and try if the problems are gone.

 

Hadn't been able to try that so far, because I needed the OS dvd. Done it now, gave me Ram errors: 4MEM/9/40000000. I tried switching/reseating the Ram in the slots, without result. After removing the chips one at the time it's now obvious one of the chips is faulty. Will contact supplier for replacement.

Does this mean it wasn't Parallels' fault? Is it safe to be using it again?
Also, the SSD seems to be fine, so it must have been the RAM corrupting the drive directory.
Thanks for all the advice!

 

You are correct, read my last post

 

I had another crash, with only the good RAM installed. Not with the kernel panic notice overlay, but a freeze with only the mouse still moving. Could this have another cause? Parallels is still uninstalled.

 

Even the extended AHT doesn't show any errors on my RAM. So I don't think the other module is faulty too. Is there any good software around for checking my SSD? I've already used DiskWarrior which did not find any hardware problems. Also Techtool Pro 5, which scans for bad blocks (is that even relevant for SSD's?) and checks the SMART status of the drive. No problems whatsoever.

There are no logs of this last crash by the way. But this type of crash has never given me any reports, only the ones with the kernel panic overlay. Maybe it has a totally different cause, but how to find it?

 

Still crashes happening. This is what the console logs at crashes:

Seems to have something to do with the GPU then, doesn't it? I do have the mid-2010 macbook pro which was said to have trouble under Lion (1, 2, updates are installed), but I never had any problems before.

I'm not having the issues the support document describes, so I'm not sure if this is it...

 

Will do so asap. If I restart from the recovery partition, can it do a fully clean install, or will it leave files around? I can also format the system partition first from the recovery, right?