[Ayrostatik]

Hi all, n00b here I did a search and tried to see if this topic has been covered before, but so far I don't think anything has matched my exact problem... but if it has been mentioned, sorry in advance.

Lately, I've been having consecutive kernel panics. Since updating to 10.3.3, I have a kernel panic whenever I start up. They're pretty recent... I didn't have a panic since November of last year. They just started coming up at around mid to late March, and haven't gone away since. I checked my panic logs, and it seems that the problem is always the same. They usually strike at the blue screen after the boot panel finishes loading. What's weird is that after a force restart, the system works fine, like nothing happened at all. I've never had a problem like this before. Just yesterday, I erased the disk and did a total clean install. I thought it'd solve the problem, but the computer panicked again today. I don't know what's wrong. I just put some old data (nothing much, just music and documents, etc.) in from my external Firewire drive and I haven't installed any third party drivers since reinstalling, so I don't think they should be the problem. I've got a 1GHz 17" iMac G4 and here is the panic log:

Mon Apr 5 09:24:12 2004

Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access DAR=0x0000000000000004 PC=0x000000000008D37C
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
___Exception state (sv=0x2E491A00)
______PC=0x0008D37C; MSR=0x00001030; DAR=0x00000004; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x0003759C; R1=0x120B3D50; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
______Backtrace:
_________0x016B7C00 0x0021DE94 0x00215930 0x002157B0
Proceeding back via exception chain:
___Exception state (sv=0x2E491A00)
______previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
___Exception state (sv=0x1D1CCA00)
______PC=0x9000B30C; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0xE181D200; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x90196BD0; R1=0xF0090CF0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0:
Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC

panic(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
______Backtrace:
_________0x000834B8 0x0008399C 0x0001EDA4 0x000909C0 0x00093C8C
Proceeding back via exception chain:
___Exception state (sv=0x2E491A00)
______PC=0x0008D37C; MSR=0x00001030; DAR=0x00000004; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x0003759C; R1=0x120B3D50; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
______Backtrace:
_________0x016B7C00 0x0021DE94 0x00215930 0x002157B0
___Exception state (sv=0x1D1CCA00)
______PC=0x9000B30C; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0xE181D200; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x90196BD0; R1=0xF0090CF0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0:
Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC

********

Is it a hardware/software problem? Any tips?

Help would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks

[someone_else]

I'd say you have some bad RAM. A DAR is a data access panic, basically the kernel tried to access a bad address. I don't see any drivers involved in the panic, so it looks the the kernel proper triggered the problem. Since that should basically be impossible, it has to be some kind of hardware problem. It may be that 10.3.3 now has a different mem. access pattern, and this has triggered the bad RAM.

I'd start by pulling any non-apple RAM and running like that for a few days. If things work, then you've found the problem (bad RAM). It you still have a problem, then the root cause may be a bad logic board. At that point I'd call AppleCare.

HTH.

[Ayrostatik]

Originally posted by someone_else:
I'd say you have some bad RAM. A DAR is a data access panic, basically the kernel tried to access a bad address. I don't see any drivers involved in the panic, so it looks the the kernel proper triggered the problem. Since that should basically be impossible, it has to be some kind of hardware problem. It may be that 10.3.3 now has a different mem. access pattern, and this has triggered the bad RAM.

I'd start by pulling any non-apple RAM and running like that for a few days. If things work, then you've found the problem (bad RAM). It you still have a problem, then the root cause may be a bad logic board. At that point I'd call AppleCare.

HTH.

Thanks for the prompt reply! I purchased my iMac from an Apple reseller, not an official store, so it could be that when I requested extra RAM, whatever was installed was probably third-party memory. I'll try taking out the memory and see what happens. Thanks a lot!

[Ayrostatik]

UPDATE: Sorry about reviving this old thread, but I didn't have time to take out my RAM until today. I removed the RAM and booted the computer back up and the first thing I saw was the same old kernel panic. I'm not exactly sure if this is a logic board problem and I want to try everything I possibly can do to save it before I have to take it to the store to get it repaired. I've posted at the Apple discussions, but I still haven't gotten a very specific answer. I was wondering if it could also be a corrupted hard disk or maybe a bad peripheral, such as an iSub, which I have. I have another Mac (an old Graphite slot-loading iMac) which has also been showing similar kernel panics, though not at startup. As I mentioned, these all started happening after the 10.3.3 update. Could it just be the update itself and should I downgrade to a previous update? Any suggestions to fix this problem for good?

Thanks!