What happened!?!?

[Chimera-se]

I was on my MBP and a window just popped up saying "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button, blah, blah, blah...". Is this bad? I've never seen a window like this, and everything is totally frozen I'm on my iPad now. Any help is appreciated.

 

[MacDawg]

It is a kernel panic

 

[Jaffa Cake]

That would be a kernal panic – you say that your MacBook Pro is completely frozen, didn't holding down the power button work? That should restart it.

 

[stridemat]

If it happens again then report back. Sometimes (very rarely) they happen for no apparent reason. If they keep on happening it could mean an underlying fault with your Mac.

 

[celticpride678]

Kernel Panic - nothing horrible.

 

[Chimera-se]

I haven't tried the power button yet. I just wanted to know that I wouldn't inadvertently install anything if I restarted. It's a window I've never seen before, so I didn't know if it was legit.

 

[ECUpirate44]

I haven't tried the power button yet. I just wanted to know that I wouldn't inadvertently install anything if I restarted. It's a window I've never seen before, so I didn't know if it was legit.

Its legit. Built into OSX. It's similar to the blue screen of death on windows, but not nearly as severe. Just restart your computer and your good to go. It may never even happen again.

 

[Chimera-se]

Ok, thanks guys. Everything seems fine now! *breathes sigh*

 

[tkermit]

It's similar to the blue screen of death on windows, but not nearly as severe.

What do you mean by that?

 

[mrgraff]

What do you mean by that?

It means that unlike a PC running Windows, you can expect your computer to start again and work as normal on the next restart, as opposed to a series of blue-screens until you either fix it or re-install the OS.

 

[Fuchal]

It means that unlike a PC running Windows, you can expect your computer to start again and work as normal on the next restart, as opposed to a series of blue-screens until you either fix it or re-install the OS.

Unless the kernel panic is caused by a hardware problem, then it won't work until your computer is repaired

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

It means that unlike a PC running Windows, you can expect your computer to start again and work as normal on the next restart, as opposed to a series of blue-screens until you either fix it or re-install the OS.

Except whenever I get a BSOD, it always starts back up normally. In fact, at the HelpDesk at the college I worked at, that was the norm. We did, of course, run into chronic BSODs, but more often it was a random BSOD and then the computer worked fine.

In my experience, the Windows BSOD and the OS X kernel panic are roughly equivalent in terms of severity.

 

[jasmine84]

I've been having these way too often. And when I repair disk permissions there is one that can't be repaired or something. I think I need to visit an Apple store.