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nooon · 02:11 PM

edit: fixed image size.

chris v · Jan 8, 2005, 09:40 AM

It's a Kernel Panic. That'll happen once in a great while. I'd reccommend running Disk Utility from your install CD, or if you're comfortable with command line stuff, run FSCK by holding down command+s when you re-start, then at the prompt, type /sbin/fsck -yf. When it's done, type "exit" to get back to the GUI.

I wouldn't sweat it though, unless it happens frequently, then you mighrt want to try to track down the cause, which could be bad RAM, or another hardware problem.

Nexus5 · Jan 8, 2005, 10:01 AM

Originally posted by chris v:
It's a Kernel Panic. That'll happen once in a great while. I'd reccommend running Disk Utility from your install CD, or if you're comfortable with command line stuff, run FSCK by holding down command+s when you re-start, then at the prompt, type /sbin/fsck -yf. When it's done, type "exit" to get back to the GUI.

I wouldn't sweat it though, unless it happens frequently, then you mighrt want to try to track down the cause, which could be bad RAM, or another hardware problem.

Never heard that KPs are caused by bad disk structures. So doing an fsck will not help. In most cases this is triggered by bad RAM, broken and/or incompatible USB/FireWire devices.

nexus5.

Ghoser777 · Jan 8, 2005, 10:45 AM

I can also be caused because there's a problem in the kernel code and some series of random events demonstrated the error.

chris v · Jan 8, 2005, 11:58 AM

Originally posted by Nexus5:
Never heard that KPs are caused by bad disk structures. So doing an fsck will not help. In most cases this is triggered by bad RAM, broken and/or incompatible USB/FireWire devices.

nexus5.

I wasn't suggesting that the panic was caused by bad directory info, but actually have seen the opposite-- the panic can cause directory probs. I've had "orphaned nodes," whatever they are, after panics.

nooon · Jan 8, 2005, 12:29 PM

But if it's bad RAM, why does it suddenly occur now - 3 months after he bought it? (It's my friends Powerbook btw)

tooki · Jan 8, 2005, 01:26 PM

On occasion, a piece of hardware is barely-OK, and passes initially and then wears out quickly.

Of course, the only way to definitively diagnose bad RAM is to take it out and see if the computer works fine without it. If removing the RAM fixes the problem, then it's bad RAM; if it doesn't, it's something else.

And of course, sometimes kernel panics just happen on occasion. If it only happened one time, it's no big deal, and doesn't mean the hardware is failing.

tooki

OpenStep · Jan 8, 2005, 01:53 PM

Originally posted by nooon:
[removed oversize image of kernel panicked PowerBook. --tooki]

Come on tooki, if you at remove the image can you at least leave the link to it?

Mithras · Jan 8, 2005, 02:02 PM

Originally posted by OpenStep:
Come on tooki, if you at remove the image can you at least leave the link to it?

That's been discussed before, and the answer is no, because it would be a sufficient deterrent.

nooon, you might want to read Apple's information on kernel panics. And I'd also advise your friend to gather the log of the panic and post it here or in the Apple OS X discussion.

If the Powerbook came with a Hardware Test CD (which it should have) it can't hurt to give it a go.

CharlesS · Jan 8, 2005, 02:05 PM

Originally posted by Nexus5:
Never heard that KPs are caused by bad disk structures. So doing an fsck will not help. In most cases this is triggered by bad RAM, broken and/or incompatible USB/FireWire devices.

nexus5.

I encountered a machine once that was reproducibly panicking on startup. Running fsck fixed it. Also, in the old OS 9 days, I have on several occasions noticed machines that crashed more often than usual when the disk structure was bad. So while bad disk structures are not the only cause of kernel panics, and it certainly isn't a given that that's the problem, it's still possible and it certainly isn't going to hurt anything to try running fsck.

However, you are correct about the most common cause being bad RAM. That doesn't mean that checking the disk isn't a good first thing to try, though, since it's easy and doesn't involve opening the case or buying any new hardware.

tooki · Jan 8, 2005, 02:11 PM

Originally posted by OpenStep:
Come on tooki, if you at remove the image can you at least leave the link to it?

There was no more information in the picture than in my description. Nobody gained anything from seeing a photo of that particular kernel panic, since you couldn't read any of the panic text anyway.

tooki

Mithras · Jan 8, 2005, 02:24 PM

nm

OpenStep · Jan 8, 2005, 04:45 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
There was no more information in the picture than in my description. Nobody gained anything from seeing a photo of that particular kernel panic, since you couldn't read any of the panic text anyway.

tooki

Actually the picture is helpful because we can see where the system crashed, either running an app, sitting idle at the desktop or during startup. Now that I can see the picture it looks like the system is crashing on startup. I would recommend as someone else pointed out running fsck because the system may be panicing when trying to mount the root file system.

CharlesS · Jan 8, 2005, 08:31 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
It's a Kernel Panic. That'll happen once in a great while. I'd reccommend running Disk Utility from your install CD, or if you're comfortable with command line stuff, run FSCK by holding down command+s when you re-start, then at the prompt, type /sbin/fsck -yf. When it's done, type "exit" to get back to the GUI.

You know, instead of 'exit', I'd type 'reboot'. If fsck makes significant changes to the disk, it's probably safer to reboot afterward.

chris v · Jan 8, 2005, 09:46 PM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
You know, instead of 'exit', I'd type 'reboot'. If fsck makes significant changes to the disk, it's probably safer to reboot afterward.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Hadn't considered that before.

CharlesS · Jan 8, 2005, 09:51 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Hadn't considered that before.

Another thing worth mentioning is that if anyone is uneasy about going to the command line, you can boot from the OS X install CD and run Disk Utility from there, which does the same thing as fsck (it actually uses fsck under the hood).

chris v · Jan 8, 2005, 09:53 PM

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Another thing worth mentioning is that if anyone is uneasy about going to the command line, you can boot from the OS X install CD and run Disk Utility from there, which does the same thing as fsck (it actually uses fsck under the hood).

As you quoted me saying, two posts ago!

Toyin · Jan 10, 2005, 07:56 AM

Why the old school KP screen? What version of OSX are you running? I haven't seen that screen since 10.1 or so.

nooon · Jan 10, 2005, 10:25 AM

It's OS X 10.3.7

He has tried replacing his RAM with a new chip, but the problem remains. After an hour with the new chip he got a new KP, and now his computer won't even start.

Goldfinger · Jan 10, 2005, 10:58 AM

Originally posted by Toyin:
Why the old school KP screen? What version of OSX are you running? I haven't seen that screen since 10.1 or so.

Sometimes the system doesn't get a chance to draw the KP image in the different languages. So you get that dump of unixy text.

CharlesS · Jan 10, 2005, 11:47 AM

Originally posted by chris v:
As you quoted me saying, two posts ago!

Heh, whoops. Sorry about that.

Originally posted by nooon:
It's OS X 10.3.7

He has tried replacing his RAM with a new chip, but the problem remains. After an hour with the new chip he got a new KP, and now his computer won't even start.

Did he try fscking the drive? Sounds to me like it's most likely to be either a HD problem, or needing an archive and install.