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Random OS X Crashes - New Macbook Pro

H

Hornblower

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 6, 2006
16
0
I'm almost 2 weeks in with a Macbook Pro, and its still crashing at random times. The crashes happened more frequently with only 512mb RAM, and its been better lately with 1.5 gigs.

I've had crashes while playing with Adobe Lightroom, Firefox, Safari, iTunes, etc. I can't explain them beyond that the screen starts greying out, and I have to reset, no other options. I don't seem to be pushing the computer hard at the times, and sometimes its not even to warm. Last night with Firefox I was reading a forum, though the battery was getting low.

What bothers me, is for all Windows problems, it seems much more stable then OS X so far. At least when Windows apps crash, they very, very rarely bring down the OS itself. Usually the rest of the applications run fine. I very rarely see OS X applications crash without being forced into a reboot.

I'm skeptical its a memory problem, as the problem has occured less since I put in extra Crucial RAM (instead of the Apple provided 512).

This is a refurbished Macbook Pro that I ordered. I really like OS X in general, and the laptop, and want to go forward with it, but I think unless I can find a good way to solve the issue in the next day (before the return period is up), Apple may lose a convert.

So, ideas? How do I debug? Is my laptop just bad?
 
Hornblower said:
So, ideas? How do I debug? Is my laptop just bad?
Click to expand...

You're right, it's not supposed to bring down the system. Usually that means it's BECAUSE of the system that the apps crash. I think I'm safe from flamming when i say that there have been a few problems with the newest portable line of computers from apple. Do problems persist in another account? If so, would it be much of a pain simply to re-install everything?
 
Hornblower said:
I'm almost 2 weeks in with a Macbook Pro, and its still crashing at random times. The crashes happened more frequently with only 512mb RAM, and its been better lately with 1.5 gigs.

I've had crashes while playing with Adobe Lightroom, Firefox, Safari, iTunes, etc. I can't explain them beyond that the screen starts greying out, and I have to reset, no other options. I don't seem to be pushing the computer hard at the times, and sometimes its not even to warm. Last night with Firefox I was reading a forum, though the battery was getting low.

What bothers me, is for all Windows problems, it seems much more stable then OS X so far. At least when Windows apps crash, they very, very rarely bring down the OS itself. Usually the rest of the applications run fine. I very rarely see OS X applications crash without being forced into a reboot.

I'm skeptical its a memory problem, as the problem has occured less since I put in extra Crucial RAM (instead of the Apple provided 512).

This is a refurbished Macbook Pro that I ordered. I really like OS X in general, and the laptop, and want to go forward with it, but I think unless I can find a good way to solve the issue in the next day (before the return period is up), Apple may lose a convert.

So, ideas? How do I debug? Is my laptop just bad?
Click to expand...

it could be a few things

first, verify disk permissions, see if anything shows up.

also, it could still be a memory problem. Take out the 512mb ram and see if your apps still crash.

Your OS shouldn't be crashing like that.

I think I'm safe from flamming when i say that there have been a few problems with the newest portable line of computers from apple.
Click to expand...
perhaps, but with the problems he's describing it has nothing to do with the fact that it's a newer laptop.
 
It is most likely the RAM. The screen going dark and telling you to restart is a kernal panic. What is also coincidental yet likely is that the Apple 512 and your Crucial are both bad sticks, and you need to send them back. Sorry bud.:(
 
You should check the crashreporter logs, to be found when you open console.app (in utilities, if I am not mistaken). They often contain useful information on what is causing the crash (post your last three here). I am not an expert but it has sometimes helped me understand what is going on, and here there are several very knowledgeable people.

BTW, this is not normal at all, I have an average of one app per month crashing on me, and kernel panics every year or so... Moreover an app crashing should not require a restart, since OS X uses protective memory. Definitely not normal.
 
frenetic said:
You should check the crashreporter logs, to be found when you open console.app (in utilities, if I am not mistaken). They often contain useful information on what is causing the crash (post your last three here). I am not an expert but it has sometimes helped me understand what is going on, and here there are several very knowledgeable people.

BTW, this is not normal at all, I have an average of one app per month crashing on me, and kernel panics every year or so... Moreover an app crashing should not require a restart, since OS X uses protective memory. Definitely not normal.
Click to expand...

That's exactly why I think it's a RAM issue. I'm assuming he left the 512 meg RAM in that was causing problems beforehand.
 
I have a MBP. The Intel Mac OS X is the most unreliable OS I've ever used. I thought the "Microsoft applications purposly crash OSX" quotes were a joke but their actually true. Thank god for it's looks.

I think the main problem is that lots of applications that have just been made universal are in a testing stage and lots of developers don't have a access to Intel hardware.

Are your crashes by any chance frequent after sleeping? Mine seems to die in it's sleep after having a temperature.
 
imacintel said:
It is most likely the RAM. The screen going dark and telling you to restart is a kernal panic. What is also coincidental yet likely is that the Apple 512 and your Crucial are both bad sticks, and you need to send them back. Sorry bud.:(
Click to expand...

Why do you assume that the Crucial stick is bad?
If you leave in the bad 512, if the sector in that stick is accessed that's bad, it'll still crash.

You can only determine if the Crucial is bad by leaving it in there by itself.
 
Thanks for the responses. I think the Macbook Pro is going to go back. It was refurbished, and with the issues, I'm not sure I trust it. Reading everything online about all the problems scare me as well. And the heat on the unit sucks, I can't put it on my lap, ruins some of the portability for me.

Unfortunately, I really think I like OS X and some of the Mac apps, and want Aperture now. I may get the base iMac for now (17"), and hook it up to my 20" LCD and have a nice duel setup. Should run Aperture fairly well, and enjoy all the other nice apps.

Thank!
 
Hornblower said:
I'm almost 2 weeks in with a Macbook Pro, and its still crashing at random times. The crashes happened more frequently with only 512mb RAM, and its been better lately with 1.5 gigs.

I've had crashes while playing with Adobe Lightroom, Firefox, Safari, iTunes, etc. I can't explain them beyond that the screen starts greying out, and I have to reset, no other options. I don't seem to be pushing the computer hard at the times, and sometimes its not even to warm. Last night with Firefox I was reading a forum, though the battery was getting low.

So, ideas? How do I debug? Is my laptop just bad?
Click to expand...

Looks like your Macintosh has hardware problems. Whether it is memory or something else doesn't matter. The additional memory might reduce the number of crashes if (1) some bits of memory are bad, and because you have more memory, that specific bad bit is used less often or (2) your harddisk has a problem, and because you have more memory, the harddisk is used less.

I would reinstall just the stuff that the Macintosh shipped with, remove any extra hardware that you might have, and see if it still crashes. If it does, then return the Mac.
 
Hornblower said:
Thanks for the responses. I think the Macbook Pro is going to go back. It was refurbished, and with the issues, I'm not sure I trust it. Reading everything online about all the problems scare me as well. And the heat on the unit sucks, I can't put it on my lap, ruins some of the portability for me.

Unfortunately, I really think I like OS X and some of the Mac apps, and want Aperture now. I may get the base iMac for now (17"), and hook it up to my 20" LCD and have a nice duel setup. Should run Aperture fairly well, and enjoy all the other nice apps.

Thank!
Click to expand...

dangit.. and I wanted to know whether it was the memory or not :(

Good luck, and hope the imac works out for you
 
Natsus said:
dangit.. and I wanted to know whether it was the memory or not :(

Good luck, and hope the imac works out for you
Click to expand...

From my experience, 99% of the time you get BSODs (or kernel panics) the RAM is at fault. This is of course assuming you didn't put in any new hardware the day before ;)
 
vv-tim said:
From my experience, 99% of the time you get BSODs (or kernel panics) the RAM is at fault. This is of course assuming you didn't put in any new hardware the day before ;)
Click to expand...

And that you don't have apple supplied ram.
 
I have the same problem

I have the same problem, I have the Intel Mac Pro 2gb of ram, 2.67ghz, 500gb memory. Worked really well, since I bought it about 6 months ago. Never crashed in the 6 months I had it.
Recently, it's been giving me daily crashes.
"mac ox needs to restart, hold the button, or press the restart button"

It crashes when I'm not running many programs. I was only using firefox, 10 minutes ago, and the restart message popped up.

Perhaps, I need to reformat my mac? Any suggesstions?
 
I've decided to bring this back from the dead.

Recently I've been having this problem too, and I would love it if someone could help me solve this problem.
 
hi ive gotten alot of random crashes lately...like 2-4 times a day! Grey screen and restart all the time..:( Ive honestly no idea why. Sometimes its with heavy apps while saving/rendering and sometimes its with the slightest mouse gesture in itunes or whatever normal program..my mouse hangs alot at times (is this related?) heres a log (actually a crash happened while i tried to copy paste this from the console ffks!!)

Wed Jan 23 14:42:45 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x003E6C56): "IOService::_RESERVEDIOService46 called\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.0.2/libkern/c++/OSMetaClass.cpp:816
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x424f7d88 : 0x12b0e1 (0x455670 0x424f7dbc 0x133238 0x0)
0x424f7dd8 : 0x3e6c56 (0x494f04 0x4969f8 0x4969f8 0x2e)
0x424f7df8 : 0x40d288 (0x52f3e4 0x2e 0x424f7e38 0x1991e5)
0x424f7e18 : 0x74f63f (0x6bef500 0x424f7e40 0x1388 0x0)
0x424f7e58 : 0x740f24 (0x5e12400 0x0 0x424f7e88 0x7c65700)
0x424f7e98 : 0x74e33c (0x5e12400 0x5e12400 0x424f7ec8 0x1a677c)
0x424f7eb8 : 0x74fc8c (0x5e12400 0x0 0x424f7ed8 0x1298d4)
0x424f7ed8 : 0x412c9c (0x5e12400 0x3 0x5e12400 0x5e12400)
0x424f7f48 : 0x413033 (0x5e12400 0x41300e 0x424f7f78 0x19ccc1)
0x424f7f78 : 0x13e987 (0x5e12400 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x424f7fc8 : 0x19e2ec (0x0 0x0 0x1a10b5 0x4c035d0)
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTrackpad(1.5.6f3)@0x73f000->0x757fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.0.5)@0x60d000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily(1.5)@0x6b7000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
9B18

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.1.0: Wed Oct 31 17:46:22 PDT 2007; root:xnu-1228.0.2~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro3,1 (Mac-F4238BC8)


thanx
 
It seems USB related... If you take out all of your USB devices does it still crash? And have you recently added a new USB device?

Will be offline soon, and it might take some days to be online again, so I hope other people chime in during my absence.
 
frenetic said:
It seems USB related... If you take out all of your USB devices does it still crash? And have you recently added a new USB device?

Will be offline soon, and it might take some days to be online again, so I hope other people chime in during my absence.
Click to expand...

Hi thanx for your reply:) I currently and did not have any USB devices while this last crash.

Here´s another log: (still no usb dev.) It happened just 5 min ago while browsing in Camino for guess what issue!

Wed Jan 23 15:06:00 2008
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A7BED): Kernel trap at 0x00745a1a, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x00000000, CR3: 0x013c6000, CR4: 0x00000660
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x06a9bc00, ECX: 0x00000040, EDX: 0x06ee9d80
CR2: 0x00000000, EBP: 0x4363fbe8, ESI: 0x4363fca0, EDI: 0x4363fca0
EFL: 0x00010202, EIP: 0x00745a1a, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x06ee0010
Error code: 0x00000000

Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4363f9f8 : 0x12b0e1 (0x455670 0x4363fa2c 0x133238 0x0)
0x4363fa48 : 0x1a7bed (0x45ea20 0x745a1a 0xe 0x45e1d4)
0x4363fb28 : 0x19e517 (0x4363fb40 0x531500 0x4363fbe8 0x745a1a)
0x4363fb38 : 0x745a1a (0xe 0x47f0048 0x43630010 0x10)
0x4363fbe8 : 0x75007e (0x0 0x6ee9d80 0x4363fc18 0x40)
0x4363fc08 : 0x74e427 (0x6a9bc00 0x4363fca0 0x40 0x0)
0x4363fc68 : 0x750d1d (0x6a9bc00 0x4363fca0 0x40 0x40)
0x4363fd38 : 0x750f7b (0x6a9bc00 0x0 0x0 0x619161)
0x4363fd68 : 0x6125c1 (0x6a9bc00 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x4363fdf8 : 0x8bf2c7 (0x4282000 0x43e5100 0x0 0x0)
0x4363fe68 : 0x8c07ec (0x4282000 0x43da880 0x0 0x0)
0x4363fed8 : 0x8c0824 (0x4282000 0x0 0x0 0x135b0f)
0x4363fef8 : 0x8c3705 (0x4282000 0x2 0x5366a0 0x423a5cc)
0x4363ff18 : 0x41d149 (0x4282000 0x4393200 0x1 0x19ccc1)
0x4363ff68 : 0x41c2a6 (0x4393200 0x4c72c80 0x4363ff98 0x1368db)
0x4363ff98 : 0x41bf88 (0x4399480 0x4813ec0 0x4363ffc8 0x4c72c80)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTrackpad(1.5.6f3)@0x73f000->0x757fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.0.5)@0x60d000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily(1.5)@0x6b7000
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI(3.0.5)@0x8b9000->0x8c6fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4)@0x63c000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.0.5)@0x60d000
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily(3.0.5)@0x60d000->0x634fff

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
9B18

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.1.0: Wed Oct 31 17:46:22 PDT 2007; root:xnu-1228.0.2~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro3,1 (Mac-F4238BC8)

I would very much like to be able to understand all this my self, but i honestly didnt expect that this was part of bying my otherwise lovely mbp..
thanx
 
So if you are not using a mouse it could be your trackpad (I think that on my powerbook the trackpad is connected to an internal USB bus but I am not entirely sure it is like that on a macbook). Anyone else more knowledgeable?
 
do a memory test from the disk that came with the computer and see if the ram is bad. That does sound like a ram issue.
 
frenetic said:
So if you are not using a mouse it could be your trackpad (I think that on my powerbook the trackpad is connected to an internal USB bus but I am not entirely sure it is like that on a macbook). Anyone else more knowledgeable?
Click to expand...

yeah ive been thinking that this might be connected to my trackpad (same thing as mouse pad right?)..since crashes happens a lot when im doing simple mousepad gestures...i also experience frequent problems where a gesture will
provoke my mbp to try and do a eject or turn on my backligths (keyboard)..on/of..
 
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