What in the World is a Kernel Panic?

[FF_productions]

I got my first kernel panic on my Mac Pro yesterday at about 2 in the morning.

I was surfing the web and chatting on iChat, before I saw my screen just turn grey with the grey screen of death.


I just shut off my Mac Pro, and went to sleep hoping nothing happened because I didn't feel like realizing my Mac Pro was broken until I woke up the next day.

Well I turned it on today and it appears to be working just fine, when I booted up I got a message saying "OSX recovered from serious system error, report it?" (something like that).

I'll ignore this little kernel panic, as I don't know what the hell would have caused it.

 

[SMM]

kernal panics are apples version of windows crashes. since changing to apple i have never had so many crashes. sometimes 4 a day. they have replaced the logic board, repaired a faulting ram module, i have reinstalled osx twice and nothing has helped. i have a 3 year old Imac G5. now my powerbook has started the same thing though not as often. goodluck, as I have decided the reboot is the easiest. gets to stressful

I would look at the software you have installed. Personally, I have 7 macs. They range from MBs to MPs. Most are Intel, but three are PPC and G4. At work my department manages/supports many more. We do not have kernel panics and that follows the 10.3.0 to 10.4.10 migration path. So, you may have a misbehaving app that is causing your woes (if you have eliminated potential hardware issues).