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blackstar · Sep 15, 2009, 08:19 PM

Hi everybody,

I am the proud owner of a 6 year old Powerbook G4 12" 867mHz (Yes I grow attached to my computer). I updated Leopard to 10.5.8 over the weekend and today I got the error screen that is commonly referred to as the Kernel Panic screen, while I was surfing the net with Safari. Now, I looked in to /Library/Logs and the folder /PanicReporter doesn't exist. I also looked through all other logs and there is none pertaining to todays date. Now, I am starting to think that it wasn't a Kernel Panic afterall.

However since the crash, my computer is acting different. I would say speed is the same, but I can't play iTunes anymore as it 'stutters' and the same happens if I speak to somebody on Skype. Now, I am thinking that something is wrong with my sound devices and I try to play a .mov using Quicktime, but this one plays back fine and the sound is good.

I was hoping that somebody could help me troubleshoot this as this trusted friend remains my primary and only computer. Thank you.

blackstar · Sep 15, 2009, 10:01 PM

The only thing that I have done so far is to repair permissions. I didn't help at all.

cgc · Sep 16, 2009, 09:51 AM

Remove any Safari add-ons and see if that helps. Maybe one of them in incompatible with 10.5.8

Have you looked at your Console logs? Console is in your Applications/Utilities/ folder.

blackstar · Sep 16, 2009, 10:32 AM

9/15/09 3:40:15 PM Skype[523] SkypeSound::setAudioDeviceUID: cannot find audio device with UID (null), trying to use default system output device instead

During the time of the crash, I have a whole lot of these:
9/15/09 12:44:12 PM [0x0-0x23023].com.apple.Safari[1201] >><<
9/15/09 12:44:12 PM [0x0-0x23023].com.apple.Safari[1201] /JS (AFSpecial_KeystrokeEx\("999-9999"\)

9/15/09 12:44:12 PM [0x0-0x23023].com.apple.Safari[1201] /S /JavaScript

They are at least in the 100's and different variations of what follows /JS (AFSpecial_KeystrokeEX/ with different numbers etc...

I don't get this error with iTunes and I don't run any Safari Add ons. If something is wrong with my sound driver, how can I fix it?

Spheric Harlot · Sep 16, 2009, 10:41 AM

Ding-dong.

Googling "AFSpecial_KeystrokeEX" turns up this page:
Text Field Formatting - GroupBrowser

Please throw away Adobe Reader and all its plug-ins and children - I'm willing to bet you have it installed even though you might not be aware that it's a "Safari add-on".

Big Mac · Sep 16, 2009, 10:43 AM

Picking out random console messages won't tell you what your problem is - they happen all the time on functional systems.

There are a number of possible causes of your problem. When you first install an updated OS Spotlight usually (maybe always) Spotlight reindexes, which could possibly cause iTunes to stutter.

Now did you do a straight upgrade to Leopard or an Archive and Install? Have you done any drive diagnostics lately? (Repairing permissions doesn't count.) It's hard to diagnose without more information.

blackstar · Sep 16, 2009, 11:25 AM

@Spheric Harlot
Yes, I have Adobe Reader installed. I will try to get rid of it.

@Big Mac
I upgrade from 10.5.7 to 10.5.8
I understand that picking out random console messages won't solve the problem, but I figured that it would be better than doing nothing. On the other hand I don't believe it to random that I have a problem with my sound and console tells me that one of my sound devices has a problem.