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srfdriver22 · Dec 7, 2003, 04:58 PM

I have OS X 10.3.1 and recently I've been getting kernel panics. I usually leave my machine on all the time (doesn't sleep either), sometimes a week at a time.

Well, about a day or two go I would wake up and turn on my monitor to find out that the screensaver had locked up. So, I power off the machine, wait, power it back on. I'd use it for a minute or two then get a kernel panic (sometimes it would be an hour or two). So, I put in the OS X cd and use disk utility to repair the permissions and repair the disk. Some permissions are off but nothing is said to be wrong. But it'll happen again later.

Is there something I should be looking into? I've set the PRAM but I've forgotten how to reset the other thing..something about holding a few keys down and it power cycles 5 times and it's supposed to clear something. I had to do this a year ago on this machine before I had had to eventually replace the motherboard.

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

NYCFarmboy · Dec 7, 2003, 05:39 PM

Dual 1.42 G4... running 10.2.8..

Mine does the kernal panic thing about once every other week.... I leave it on sleep mode..and then I come back and when I reboot it has the kernal panic(screen half darkened).

davidflas · Dec 7, 2003, 07:32 PM

Dual 1.25 fw 800 MDD here... running 10.2.8. I've had it for about 5 days and have seen 1 Kernal Panic so far. First time I've seen one of those since I was running X public beta on my Digital Audio G4 466...

passmaster16 · Dec 7, 2003, 07:56 PM

Originally posted by srfdriver22:
I have OS X 10.3.1 and recently I've been getting kernel panics. I usually leave my machine on all the time (doesn't sleep either), sometimes a week at a time.

Well, about a day or two go I would wake up and turn on my monitor to find out that the screensaver had locked up. So, I power off the machine, wait, power it back on. I'd use it for a minute or two then get a kernel panic (sometimes it would be an hour or two). So, I put in the OS X cd and use disk utility to repair the permissions and repair the disk. Some permissions are off but nothing is said to be wrong. But it'll happen again later.

Are you sure it's not overheating? I would guess that if the CPU(s) got a bit too hot, it might cause it to kernel panic. I only say that because you're letting it run all the time. Have you run the diagnostics cd to check you system RAM? Bad RAM can could cause erratic behavior. Good luck

srfdriver22 · Dec 8, 2003, 07:25 PM

I formatted my drive last night because it was still happening. Now, it's almost certain to happen. But instead of a kernel panic, now it's just freezing. So, if I turn it off then turn it back on again, it won't find OS X (it'll show the crossed out circle on boot), so I turn it off, reset the PRAM and reboot and it's fine. Though, it will lock up again (wondering when it'll happen this time). Any ideas?

I did the hardware test and everything passed. I hope it's not the motherboard again because I don't have applecare anymore.

aloner · Dec 12, 2003, 05:20 PM

Same problem here. Random kernel panics when waking up from sleep.
It turned out the panics were caused by bad RAM. The faulty module was recognized OK by Panther and Apple Hardware Test showed no issues, but once I replaced the faulty RAM module with one from Crucial, all kernel panics were gone. (Machine running 24h non stop for two weeks now).

robo74 · Dec 12, 2003, 06:46 PM

from working with the MDD and 10.3, I have a learned a couple of things about the panics.

1) if you purchased a MDD and didnt get the Superdrive, but purchased one and put it in, the make sure you have the superdrive as your master and the combo drive as the slave. the computer really has a problem with this. DO NOT use Cable select

2) Also with the superdrive, if you have one installed, then dont allow the computer to put the hard disks to sleep. For somereason, osx (assume 10.3) tries to put the super drive to sleep and has a issue with this.

Also, this is my experience with these things, and the above said superdrive is a Pioneer 106.

Hopefully this can help someone.

Rob

srfdriver22 · Dec 12, 2003, 07:45 PM

I don't have a superdrive, but if you'd like to donate one so that I can test it...i'll be more than happy to "accept" one.

In all seriousness though, so far my system has been running ok. No kernel panics for a few days now. I formatted my HD and reinstalled the OS thinking something within OS X was messed up (I do apply themes and played with some dock hacks). I still received some kernel panics and hard crashes after doing the format-reinstall. However, I haven't touched anything and it all seems to be ok.

Weird.

dagmar · Dec 12, 2003, 10:36 PM

robo74:

I have a 1ghz MDD into which I installed a Superdrive (Pioneer), upper bay, moved the combo drive to the lower bay, and have both set to cable select. I also have it on all the time, it sleeps fine, wakes up fine, I have yet to have kernel panic, even though my drives are set at whatever the default is. I'm running 10.3.1.

I'm more inclined to suspect that the ram may be the issue in this case

robo74 · Dec 12, 2003, 11:44 PM

Putting the Superdrive in the top bay with cable select makes it master, no issues :-)
These guys were looking for solutions, so I thought I would throw my past issues out there.

Rob

techtrucker · Dec 14, 2003, 10:44 PM

I installed a Superdrive (Pioneer 106D) about a week ago in my 1 Ghz SP MDD, got one kernel panic awaking from sleep with a disc in the drive, otherwise all is fine. Left the drives at Cable Select. I seem to recall reading something about KPs being caused by sleep w/disk in drive, can't recall where...

nagha · Dec 20, 2003, 03:36 PM

Important to include specs:

Dual G4 1ghz (MDD)
768 MB RAM
Superdrive
CD-RW (3rd party)
10.2.6 -> 10.3.2
PCI Slot Fan

I was also a victim of random acts of kernel panics.

Symptoms:
Kernel panic on wake from sleep.
Random freezes
Failure to startup (random)

I went so far as to reformat the drive, reinstall 10.2.6 (now 10.3.2), remove my CDRW (left Superdrive in place) ... continued to have intermitten freezes, panics.

After seeing reports of problems with RAM, I decided to see if that might be the problem. It turned out that the RAM wasn't seated properly. I took it out and reseated it - fixed all of the problems.

na

PS, I highly recommend the PCI slot fan. My louder fans almost never go on (unless processors involved in heavy Photoshop tasks).

nerd · Dec 23, 2003, 12:00 AM

This was happening to my friends dual 867. I did a format and install from the CD and it still panicked. Removed 3rd party RAM, then Apple RAM, etc. I finally got it to stop panicking from one of these two things. I formatted and installed Jaguar using the Jaguar CDs and not the Software Restore CDs (I used those the first time) or it was the Apple mouse. I had read somewhere that the keyboard or mouse could be bad can cause a panic so I gave her a Logitech mouse. I have it here for the week so I'll be putting Panther on it and see how that goes. I could never get it to panic when I had it but she said it was 95% of the time when she woke the machine from sleep.

Brad

JB72 · Dec 23, 2003, 11:45 AM

I had a ton of KPs on my MDD. It turned out that in my case, is was a memory issue. I switched to Crucial RAM and all has been good since.

Angus_D · Dec 26, 2003, 01:07 PM

Originally posted by JB72:
I had a ton of KPs on my MDD. It turned out that in my case, is was a memory issue. I switched to Crucial RAM and all has been good since.

It's almost always a memory issue.

srfdriver22 · Dec 27, 2003, 11:57 AM

Well, after getting back from vacation I turned on my machine to receive a lovely text error on the bootup screen. Something about CPU1. Uh oh I thought, I don't have applecare anymore and now one of my CPU's went bad? I turned it off,reset the PRAM, then turn it back on. It booted fine this time, but locked as before. No warning, just a hard lock on the desktop. So, I did a hardware test CD And one of the sticks of ram said 0/256MB and was in red. So...I took that one out and it was running fine for about 5 minutes, then it froze again.

I've replaced my logic board roughly 10 months ago and I do not want to go through that again, as I shouldn't have to. Any ideas? I'll try the hardware test on the other 2 sticks of ram (apple ram) when I get home to see if those are ok. But other than that and resetting the PRAM, what can I do? I've already tried formatting. That just seemed to delay the inevitable.

srfdriver22 · Dec 27, 2003, 10:40 PM

Ok that's it. Now I'm pissed off. It keeps crashing! Now the grey curtain will just start to come down then it'll freeze. Or it'll freeze for no reason while it's just sitting there with iChat open. Everything passes the hardware tests now. Damnit Apple. I need a computer and I can't afford a new one. I shouldn't have to buy a new one either...

Scotttheking · Dec 27, 2003, 10:50 PM

Checklist:
Make sure all your fans are spinning.
Try a different keyboard and mouse.
Make sure your room is cool enough.
Make sure the power coming in to the system is clean. Good surge suppressor or battery backup? What model? Are they still working properly?

Ram test:
Take out all the ram in the system.
Try booting. No, it won't work.
Put in one stick of ram.
Try booting. If it works, let it run, use the system, and see if it KPs. If it does, try another stick. Repeat until you run out of sticks.
If all cause KPs, try the same sequence again, but in a different slot.
If this fails, well, you are probably screwed.

Side question: Is there anything for the mac like memtest86?

bimmerphile · Dec 28, 2003, 12:02 AM

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Side question: Is there anything for the mac like memtest86?

There was with the G4 Firmware ram-killing fiasco, but it only works in OS9, which you cant boot from in his case.

Otherwise you can use Techtool Pro 4.

Kenneth · Dec 28, 2003, 01:51 AM

DP 1.25Ghz (FW800)
2 HDs (120GB on the ATA/100 and another 120GB on ATA/66 bus)
1280MB of RAM (stock 256MB + two Crucial 512MB)
AirPort Extreme Card
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
Televio PCI TV card
17" Studio Display
Mac OS X 10.3.2
Panasonic Panaflo L1A 12cm fan.
stock Apple Pro mouse and keyboard

No KP or freeze on any version of 10.3

nerd · Dec 28, 2003, 11:57 AM

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Checklist:
Try a different keyboard and mouse.

I've got to stress this one, I'm sure this is what did it for my friends Dual 867. I had done 2 clean X installs without luck before swapping out the mouse.

Brad

srfdriver22 · Dec 28, 2003, 01:03 PM

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Checklist:
Make sure all your fans are spinning.
Try a different keyboard and mouse.
Make sure your room is cool enough.
Make sure the power coming in to the system is clean. Good surge suppressor or battery backup? What model? Are they still working properly?

Ram test:
Take out all the ram in the system.
Try booting. No, it won't work.
Put in one stick of ram.
Try booting. If it works, let it run, use the system, and see if it KPs. If it does, try another stick. Repeat until you run out of sticks.
If all cause KPs, try the same sequence again, but in a different slot.
If this fails, well, you are probably screwed.

Side question: Is there anything for the mac like memtest86?

How do I check that all of my fans are running?

I have the original mouse that came with my machine and the new wireless MS Intellimouse. It happens with both. Unfortnately I don't have another keyboard to test it with.