*You Have to Restart Your Computer* Notice

[Danyell]

I was running Firefox and iTunes and not downloading anything and my screen froze and a notice in grey popped up that said "you need to restart your computer" and told me to hold down the start button to shut down. But nowhere did it say what kind of error was occurring or what to do about it.

Should I be worried?

 

[72930]

This is a Kernel Panic, it shouldn't happen often, if it does then you have a problem...

 

[Shotgun OS]

Thats an odd way to Kernel Panic. I've only gotten them when disconnecting my iPod or when waking from sleep.

 

[Danyell]

What is a Kernel Panic?

Now that I think of it, it happened right after I unplugged my headphones. Why would that have affected it?

 

[neoserver]

A Kernel Panic is a System Failure. It is similar to a Blue Screen Of Death seen on Windows. Again, it shouldn't happen often, but if it does, you need to investigate it.

 

[Danyell]

How would I go about investigating it?

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Basically, a Mac should never get kernel panics. They usually result from either unusual OS bugs or faulty hardware. My Macbook Pro has never had one; my iMac G4 had two during the years I owned it.

Using the Console app (it's in Applications/Utilities), you can view system logs and see what kind of errors came up at the time of the kernel panic.

If they happen often and randomly or under heavily system load, bad RAM is a possible culprit.