Recurring Kernel Panic - Please Help!

[Par Avion]

Greetings,

Recently my 2-year old iMac (20inch (2Ghz, 320GB, 4GB RAM, OSX Leopard) has been crashing every day. The way to temporally "fix" the kernel panic is to restart the machine and boot into the instal disc, and run the disk utility (repair permissions, then repair disk).

If I do not run the disk utility daily, the computer will begin crashing again over and over.

Below you'll find the the crash data (which is always the same):

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 0 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 1
Anonymous UUID: A60F4F7D-F369-40E4-96F1-F2810273F105

Wed Dec 2 19:09:18 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00194B15): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x542600 cpus_to_respond=0x2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.15.4/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5af16ac8 : 0x12b4c6 (0x45f91c 0x5af16afc 0x13355c 0x0)
0x5af16b18 : 0x194b15 (0x465c58 0x542600 0x2 0x17f429)
0x5af16b88 : 0x195cc2 (0x542600 0x4672d000 0x0 0x16e859)
0x5af16c28 : 0x1750ec (0x146d5 0x0 0x5af16c48 0x1a436f)
0x5af16cc8 : 0x16ab90 (0x6a90e38 0x0 0x0 0x8000)
0x5af16de8 : 0x16b18d (0x46735000 0x0 0x1 0x0)
0x5af16e28 : 0x16538f (0x18c4e88 0x4672d000 0x0 0x46735000)
0x5af16e68 : 0x12fe84 (0x18c4e88 0x4672d000 0x7ff8 0x46797000)
0x5af16e88 : 0x3f9c0d (0x4672d000 0x7ff8 0x5af16f38 0x4672d000)
0x5af16ea8 : 0x3f9460 (0x5af16ecc 0x6aa2fc0 0x5af16ee8 0x4)
0x5af16ef8 : 0x3f98a9 (0x68fbfc0 0x1 0x10 0x3f171f)
0x5af16f38 : 0x3f99e7 (0x68fbfc0 0x709c340 0x5af16f68 0x3f9a78)
0x5af16f68 : 0x3f4acc (0x709a610 0x0 0x70a1f40 0x5af17d0c)
0x5af16f88 : 0x3fc187 (0x70b4c00 0x709c1e0 0x70a1a00 0x8029)
0x5af17d28 : 0x4432a7 (0x5b0a9020 0x0 0x6cfbfb0 0x11e7de)
0x5af17d78 : 0x18bddc (0x6898460 0x1 0x6cfbfb0 0x2df695)
Backtrace continues...

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kextd

Mac OS version:
9L31a

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:55:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac7,1 (Mac-F4238CC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 15150601001
unloaded kexts:
(none)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 3.4.6 - last loaded 7703366737
com.apple.driver.CSRUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.9f10
com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver 2.1.9f10
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 3.5.2
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.1.1
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 2.7.91
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 3.4.9
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 3.5.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.2.2
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 1.5.3
com.apple.iokit.AppleYukon2 3.1.13b2
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx 366.91.21
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 3.9.7
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 1.7.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.0.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 3.4.6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 3.5.2
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 1.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.2.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPCI 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.security.seatbelt 107.12
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 1.6.77
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 76.2.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 199
com.apple.BootCache 30.4
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.9f10
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.1.9f10
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 216.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 3.4.9
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 1.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 3.5.2
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.5.6
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.2.5
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6


I honesty don't know what to do to stop the crashing (other than runing disk utility every day). This is never happened before now. Please help.

 

[patrick0brien]

Could it be overheating a bit?

Kerel Panics are very bad and should never happen - usually they are due to a hardware issue.

Check to see how well your machine breathes now, and has been breathing up until then. Also check for dust - take it apart and blow it out if you need to.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Take a look at this, Isolating issues in Mac OS X specifically the section titled, Can you isolate to a hardware device?

 

[ahm]

Check the system profiler and see if the mem self test passed or failed. It could be your RAM. I say that a lot but I've seen it happen often. If it is, replace it with something good like Crucial or or something.

I had a G4 iMac for a while with kernel panics from bad RAM. I replaced it and it never happened again. My latest Macbook (1st gen) has a bad RAM slot. There were kernel panics, sometimes it wouldn't even start. I don't know what the previous owner did to it, but the thing is messed up. Anyway, so I put a new 2gb module in the good slot and it works.

...everyone loves a good slot.

 

[Par Avion]

Thanks guys. I think it was the overheating suggestion (I had a space heater near the mac).