My first Mac crash ever!

You had a kernal panic. There are many causes for it. The only causes that I have had for it are when memory has gone bad, or been improperly installed. That doesn't sound like your problem though, unless you've just recently added memory. But there are many more reasons why kernal panics happen, and perhaps someone else who has had them more often than I can help you with that. If you warrenty has not yet expired, you can still purchase AppleCare, which I highly recommend, as it has payed for itself several times over for me over the years. Hope the kernal panic doesn't get you again. Good luck.

 

You must be running a version of OSX prior to 10.2. 10.2 and later have a much different notice for kernel panick. Also 10.2 and later are normally more stable when it comes to kernel panicks then the prior versions.

 

he said he ran a clean install of panther tho

 

Actually, the NSA has used their T-Ray long range surveillance equipment on the innards of your Mac (through your windows/walls/body) after they detected you downloading all those anti-military-industrial-complex image files from cryptome, and THAT induced the kernal panic.

 

Re: My first Mac crash ever!

First off welcome to the real world where computers, be it Windows or Mac, CRASH.

Secondly Kernel panics happen in any OS. My personal experience is to reboot, spend a little time seeing if you can figure out what went wrong, and just go on with your life. Something obviously went wrong when your system came back from sleep. You might want to go about checking your log files to see if there are any obvious error messages there. *shrug*

If it happens again anytime soon then there is cause for alarm. Otherwise its I'd owe it up to a random error and move on. Can I ask how long you've had your Mac? You say this is your first crash. How long has this been?

 

I would also not recommend antivirus programs. They seem to cause more problems than they're worth, especially on the Mac.

 

Something is seriously wrong if you are running 10.3 and you got text down the screen. 10.2 and later dims the screen and puts an image of a power button in the screen. It also puts text in the middle of the screen in 3 languages explaining that you need to restart by holding the power button.

Did you do an update install of 10.3? Have you been messing around in the terminal? Have you installed any software recently that required you to enter your password for installation?

 

I had a series of kernel panics once under the infamous update to Jaguar that caused USB crashes (10.2.7?).

Give you are using a PB I guess you have nothing connectes, but it might be worth disconnecting anything and see if the problems are there and then reinstall drivers. It is also worth checking that your Airport card (if you have one) is properly seated.

 

The most common reason for KPs are crappy kexts, eg 3rd party drivers for USB devices. Also, unplugging a FW device while in use is an easy way to create a KP.

Maybe this helps.

 

Sorry to hear about your second KP but I wouldn't get too worked up about it. It could be nothing.

What were you doing at the moment it happened? Both times.

Did you copy any old prefs over from 10.2? What did you copy over from 10.2 in general.

A KP can be software or hardware. How old is your system? Have you installed RAM or anything? Do you use it on a network? Do you have iDisk mounted on virtually or do you use the iDisk backup so you have all the data physically on your disk?

Sorry if this seems like a lot of questions but a KP can really be a lot of things and I'm just trying to narrow it down.

 

I have only had kernal panics when Ive had hardware issues (not trying to alarm you). My iBook suffered from the dreaded "video/screen" problem, and as I would type (thereby putting pressure on the keyboard, etc) it would cause a Kernal Panic. If your still under warranty, call Apple.

 

My iMac has a Kernal Panic with any flash cards if it hasn't been done in a while, a restart after a KP sometimes lets me access the card. This is with no software installed for the reader. It only happens when you put the card in though so probably not your problem. Of corse I don't know what causes this though.

 

I must disagree here. MOST kernal panics on 10.2+ are 'civilized', but get the occasional 'hardcore' white text w/ black background over GUI panics. I get both on my iMac with Jag, due to Bad memory I think.

 

Re: Three times and counting!

Since there appears to be no recurring instance related to software I would have to say it's most likely a hardware problem.

If it's still under AppleCare I would give them a call and at least get a problem report filed. On one hand you could have ram or an Airport card that has become on the other hand it could be related to a motherboard issue. Since it's easy to access the airport and one of the ram slots on your machine I would try removing and reinstalling both and then using it a while to see if you continue to have the problem. In any case I would report the problem to Apple if you still have AppleCare.

 

getting them on the daily

I have been getting the text thing over the GUI pretty much every time i start up my computer, i have to restart it again and then i will start back up, it always says something about "corrupt stack on cpu 01", i have a dual 800 G4. and it's been going on for about a week now, before it was less frequent So what has happened to your problem david? i defragged the hard drive and check it for problems with norton utilities and fixed permission and it still comes up, im gonna play around with the RAM when i get home.

 

It would be terribly useful if you (each) could attach your panic log.
/Library/Logs/panic.log

 

cool

hey thanx for posting the location of the log, i actually didn't know where it could be found. i'll post it up when i get to my comp at home.

 

Apple

If it is under warranty I would just take it to your local apple store and let them fix it. It is free if under warranty and it is better to have the problem fixed by them and have them order new parts than to sorta fix it and have problems down the road. My G5 has the no video on the screen on boot. I took it down to the store and they recalibrated my thermostats. It was fine for about a week then had problems again. They replaced my graphics card. It was fine then had problems after a week. I took it down and they replaced my logic board and power supply. I havent had a problem since. I bought the extended warranty a little after that. just to be sure but so far 100% good.

Warranty I belive is 12 months for repairs and 90 days for phone support. If you get the extended apple care it extends phone and repair to 3 years.

 

well people, i've experienced something which i haven't experienced in 6 months yesterday. My computer crashed. When i say crashed, I mean stopped responding, no kernel panic. i could see my desktop and move the mouse but couldn't do anything else. Even 10 minutes later, i still couldn't do anything so i had to force restart