Why Is My iMac Restarting?

[ghsDUDE]

Lately my iMac has been "forcing" me to restart the computer because of "some problem."

I sent the report to Apple...but how do I fix this?

 

[stridemat]

Can you post any more information? What are you doing when it happens? What do the error messages say?

 

[Ccrew]

It's called a Kernel Panic. Start here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742

 

[ghsDUDE]

It's called a Kernel Panic. Start here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742

Yeah that's what it looked like.

 

[Butler Trumpet]

You should run Apple Hardware Test (AHT)

To do this, turn your computer on while holding the "D" key. Then, you can run either a quick (probably 5 minutes) test or an extended test (over an hour... sometimes more depending on how much RAM you have)

This will test some major components in your computer... but most importantly RAM. The RAM failing is the most common reason for a kernel panic, but not the only reason it can happen.

Here's some more info on AHT: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Good luck!