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Aramas · Dec 21, 2004, 12:06 AM

I've heard it mentioned here often enough, usually along with 'spinning beach ball'. Is that the little spinning coloured thing on the cursor? If so, I get that a lot.

awaspaas · Dec 21, 2004, 12:25 AM

Pay attention, on MacNN it's spelled "kernal"

CharlesS · Dec 21, 2004, 01:12 AM

A kernel panic is what happens when OS X crashes. If you get one, you'll get a gray screen with text in several different languages explaining how to reboot your computer.

Needless to say, this does not happen very often at all. Most people have never seen it.

Catfish_Man · Dec 21, 2004, 01:43 AM

The spinning beachball just means that something is being slow, it's nothing to worry about. A kernel panic means that the core of the system ran into an unrecoverable error.

CaptainHaddock · Dec 21, 2004, 03:12 AM

If you ever see a kernel panic, be sure to show someone or take a picture! It's a rare beast, I've only seen it once.

The only thing rarer is a Windows peecee that doesn't give the BSOD once a month!

CharlesS · Dec 21, 2004, 04:15 AM

If you want to see a kernel panic, you can go into /System/Library/Extensions, randomly delete stuff, and then reboot.

Just make sure you have the install CDs handy.

RedHerring · Dec 21, 2004, 04:43 AM

Originally posted by CaptainHaddock:
If you ever see a kernel panic, be sure to show someone or take a picture! It's a rare beast, I've only seen it once.

The only thing rarer is a Windows peecee that doesn't give the BSOD once a month!

Hey... if anyone does this... post the picture! I've never seen one!

On a similar note, does anyone have a legit picture of the Yetti?

new newton · Dec 21, 2004, 06:04 AM

Do you guys actually use your computers? Kernel panics, while not common, aren't so uncommon as you make them out to be.

Big Mac · Dec 21, 2004, 06:30 AM

Maybe you need to fix your Mac(s), newton. Kernel panics are quite uncommon, thankfully.

Grrr · Dec 21, 2004, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by new newton:
Do you guys actually use your computers? Kernel panics, while not common, aren't so uncommon as you make them out to be.

This PowerBook im using now i've had for over a year, and I use it daily, often for many hours at a time. It has not crashed once

larkost · Dec 21, 2004, 09:51 AM

Most of the time people see kernel panics it is because of flakey/bad hardware... or the drivers for it. I occasionally see it on my Cube when I really overburden the processor (watching large mpegs while compiling code...), but that is because the sound system on the Cube was badly designed, and the USB driver panics when there is too much data flowing and it gets interrupted... really a corner case, and even though I regularly abuse it, I see one panic every other week.

For most people it is probably just-out-of-spec ram, or a bad USB/FireWire HD. Or there are a few scanner drivers that I am highly suspicious of...

Aramas · Dec 21, 2004, 10:33 AM

Ah, okay

I actually have had one of those. It was during a period when I was installing and deleting heaps of freeware. Some of that stuff is a bit dodgy.

Angus_D · Dec 21, 2004, 01:00 PM

Apple Support - What's a "kernel panic"?

PacHead · Dec 21, 2004, 02:17 PM

Originally posted by new newton:
Do you guys actually use your computers? Kernel panics, while not common, aren't so uncommon as you make them out to be.

Really ? I've used a ton of macs over the years (24-7), and I've never ever seen one. So I'd say, as far as I'm concerned they're pretty damn uncommon.

new newton · Dec 21, 2004, 04:05 PM

Given the fan-boy attitude of some of the posts, I just tend to doubt their veracity. 24/7 for years? Yeah, there's no hyperbole there.

tooki · Dec 21, 2004, 08:16 PM

But Mac OS X is that stable. Many people do use their systems for months without rebooting and never experience panics.

tooki

moki · Dec 22, 2004, 06:47 AM

I haven't seen any kernel panics for quite some time... not since Apple fixed the various nasty USB sound issues a while ago.

The last one I saw was on an old G3 SmurfTower that we used as a developmental box to beat on. It kept on kernel panicing, and I was puzzled as to why.

As it happens, we'd just moved into a new office, so I went downstairs to check on where the SmurfTower was sitting. Then an idea hit me: it was just getting cold enough that time of year that the heat in the office was turning on... I looked over, and sure enough, there was a huge heat vent pointing straight at the poor SmurfTower, only inches away.

Needless to say, I moved the machine... and it's been fine ever since.

Anubis IV · Dec 23, 2004, 01:29 AM

I actually ran into about a dozen kernel panics in the last four months or so, but I'd say that it was due to repeated bad installations of OSX on an old Beige G3. It's a great OS9 machine, but it seems to hate OSX. Anyway, on the PowerBook that I normally use I rarely encounter kernel panics. I run enough beta (and sometimes alpha) software that I do get them from time to time, but no more than one incident a semester usually, and I'd say that's pretty good, considering how little I really know and how much I'm tinkering.

SSharon · Dec 23, 2004, 01:47 AM

I have never had a KP on my ibook, but I have had quite a few on my MDD. In the days of 10.1 and 10.2 I could get a KP on demand by browsing some SMB shares on the network. Since Panther though the MDD has only frozen a few times and only after its been going 24/7 for 3-4 weeks.

sailor41 · Dec 23, 2004, 02:12 AM

Since 10.1 to 10.3 (3 years?), no panics in 40 hour/week use.
Did have to force restart once in 10.1 due to a bad flash card. I think.

I would have to agree its stable.

jac · Dec 23, 2004, 05:21 AM

Originally posted by awaspaas:
Pay attention, on MacNN it's spelled "kernal"

Howsabout callin' him Colonel Pannick from now on?

Tyre MacAdmin · Dec 23, 2004, 06:01 AM

Kp for short... also known as Keepdevelopers Paid... a well known deviant.

PacHead · Dec 23, 2004, 04:23 PM

So doesn't anybody have a screenshot of this kernal panic ?

It would be nice if you could post it.

(edit):NVM: I saw they had a picture on the apple link.

Nope, I never saw anything like that before, and hope I don't get to see it either on my own machines.

Wiskedjak · Dec 23, 2004, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by Aramas:
I've heard it mentioned here often enough, usually along with 'spinning beach ball'. Is that the little spinning coloured thing on the cursor? If so, I get that a lot.

It's nothing at all like the other kind of OSX crash where everything but the mouse freezes ...

itai195 · Dec 23, 2004, 06:13 PM

I think I've maybe had one kernel panic since 10.3... Panther has definitely been rock solid for me. But back in the 10.0 and 10.1 days they were much more common. In 10.1 I knew at least two methods guaranteed to cause a kernel panic. Even in 10.3 you can probably cause one if you install some crummy third party software that hooks into the kernel, but I no longer use such software.

Ron Goodman · Dec 23, 2004, 07:11 PM

I've been running OS X since the Public Beta. The only panic I've ever seen is when I tried to install some long-forgotten version of Norton Futilities.

Phoenix1701 · Dec 24, 2004, 02:52 AM

Hey guys; in that screenshot of a 10.0 - 10.1.5 kernel panic in the Apple knowledge base, is it just me, or does the happy Mac appear to have feet...?

ClaraT · Dec 24, 2004, 02:28 PM

If someone wants to step me through I'll post my picture of a kernel panic. Thought I could do it by clicking insert "image" in the menu below but nothing happens when I do that. The jpeg image is on my desktop, but can't figure out how to get it in this message.
(What is Instant vB Code?)

My kernel panics started happening about a month after I got my ibook last Jan. The problem, I discovered several months later, was the Crucial memory that I had installed the minute the ibook arrived. Have taken the memory out and have not experienced the spinning ball or a kernel panic since.

I am now awaiting the replacement from Crucial and haven't noticed much difference with running on only 256mb. . .but then again I don't do much heavy work.

clarat

waffffffle · Dec 25, 2004, 05:07 AM

Originally posted by moki:
I haven't seen any kernel panics for quite some time... not since Apple fixed the various nasty USB sound issues a while ago.

I wouldn't say that Apple has completely fixed those USB audio problems. I still have issues. I have my iPod and Soundsticks on the same USB hub and removing my iPod from its cradle can cause my Soundsticks to "die" requiring me to re-plug them to get audio back. However this beats the 10.1 days when I would get a kernel panic and have no choice but to restart. I still use my Soundsticks, now on a newer PowerBook, but sometimes I regret the purchase. It was such an impulse buy back in the summer of 2000. When I saw them at Macworld I couldn't resist, but my sister's $50 Logitech speakers are dramatically louder and have a fuller sound.

xenu · Dec 25, 2004, 05:16 AM

I get them 2 or 3 times a day. Bloody annoying.
As soon as the fan comes on, I know my 14 month old powerbook is about to fail.

Sometimes I get the multiple language message, and other times writing all over the screen. That's when it doesn't simply freeze.

waffffffle · Dec 25, 2004, 05:21 AM

Originally posted by moki:
I haven't seen any kernel panics for quite some time... not since Apple fixed the various nasty USB sound issues a while ago.

I wouldn't say that Apple has completely fixed those USB audio problems. I still have issues. I have my iPod and Soundsticks on the same USB hub and removing my iPod from its cradle can cause my Soundsticks to "die" requiring me to re-plug them to get audio back. However this beats the 10.1 days when I would get a kernel panic and have no choice but to restart. I still use my Soundsticks, now on a newer PowerBook, but sometimes I regret the purchase. It was such an impulse buy back in the summer of 2000. When I saw them at Macworld I couldn't resist, but my sister's $50 Logitech speakers are dramatically louder and have a fuller sound.

chris v · Dec 25, 2004, 11:40 AM

Originally posted by xenu:
I get them 2 or 3 times a day. Bloody annoying.
As soon as the fan comes on, I know my 14 month old powerbook is about to fail.

Sometimes I get the multiple language message, and other times writing all over the screen. That's when it doesn't simply freeze.

That is unacceptable. Have you done any troubleshooting?

waffffffle · Dec 25, 2004, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by xenu:
I get them 2 or 3 times a day. Bloody annoying.
As soon as the fan comes on, I know my 14 month old powerbook is about to fail.

Sometimes I get the multiple language message, and other times writing all over the screen. That's when it doesn't simply freeze.

Iwas getting hard freezes (not KPs) with my PowerBook and I sent it back to Apple to get the mobo replaced. No more problems for me.

xenu · Dec 25, 2004, 08:14 PM

Originally posted by chris v:
That is unacceptable. Have you done any troubleshooting?

Every thing I can think of. Given the horror stories I read about people sending their computers back for service, I hesitate to do so, but probably will in the new year.

Angus_D · Dec 25, 2004, 08:33 PM

Originally posted by ClaraT:
If someone wants to step me through I'll post my picture of a kernel panic. Thought I could do it by clicking insert "image" in the menu below but nothing happens when I do that. The jpeg image is on my desktop, but can't figure out how to get it in this message.

You need to have the image publicly available on-line, MacNN won't store it on their servers for you. But since the image is probably big, you'd be violating the image guidelines if you posted it in-line.

(What is Instant vB Code?)

Have you tried, oh, I don't know, clicking the "help" link?

chris v · Dec 25, 2004, 10:24 PM

Originally posted by xenu:
Every thing I can think of. Given the horror stories I read about people sending their computers back for service, I hesitate to do so, but probably will in the new year.

My powerbook and G4 tower have both been in under Applecare twice, and I've had great turn times, and no difficulties directly related to the repairs. You've tested the RAM, (including pulling 3rd party chips, if any) I presume, as that would be the first thing that comes to mind here as the culprit.

If you've got Applecare, I would really make Apple make it right.

bergy · Dec 26, 2004, 03:24 PM

Originally posted by xenu:
Every thing I can think of. Given the horror stories I read about people sending their computers back for service, I hesitate to do so, but probably will in the new year.

Have you ever looked at this troubleshooting site .. if you've done everything here, I guess you will have to bring it in as it's probably hardware related ..

Resolving Kernel Panics
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html

Bad Ram & Kernel Panics
http://www.macattorney.com/panther.h...r-Kernel-44484

Dr Mac Kernel Panics and Disk Warrior
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/r...20030912.shtml

Ram could be Loose

kremmit · Dec 28, 2004, 04:28 PM

here is what one looks like:

xenu · Dec 31, 2004, 12:27 AM

An update.

After going through the above links, and doing even more tests, I decided to consider the possibility that software was my problem.

So, I zeroed my hard drive (after a major backup), re-installed the OS, and am now into day 3 without a KP. I haven't even heard the fan come on recently.

Thanks people.

Tyre MacAdmin · Dec 31, 2004, 12:41 AM

Originally posted by xenu:
An update.
I haven't even heard the fan come on recently.

Your fan should only come on when you're computer is doing something cpu intensive... it's supposed to come on and it's perfectly...ehm, "natural" NLE editing, photoshop, videogames, Itunes visualizer..etc

Just an FYI if you did not know.

xenu · Dec 31, 2004, 07:39 PM

Originally posted by Tyler McAdams:
Your fan should only come on when you're computer is doing something cpu intensive... it's supposed to come on and it's perfectly...ehm, "natural" NLE editing, photoshop, videogames, Itunes visualizer..etc

Just an FYI if you did not know.

I know, that's what would normally happen. But in my case, as soon as the fan came on, I knew my powerbook was about to crash. Happened every time.

So, still no fan, and still no crashes.

The Oracle · Dec 31, 2004, 10:52 PM

Originally posted by new newton:
Given the fan-boy attitude of some of the posts, I just tend to doubt their veracity. 24/7 for years? Yeah, there's no hyperbole there.

I've been using os x since the public beta. Kernel panics were more common with the beta, 10.0, and even 10.1, but in the years since 10.2, I have probably had one kernel panic, itself associated with a wonky pc card.