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Jbroad572 · Mar 19, 2004, 04:10 AM

I've been getting this frequently lately. My background will go gray and a big box will come up and say You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for several seconds...... blah blah! Is there anything I need to look for that could be causing this? It's happened maybe 3x a week. I guess this is the Mac's blue screen of death? I've never had problems like this before and one reason I came to Mac is for stability and minimal crashes. So what do you guys think it could be?

Ω · Mar 19, 2004, 04:17 AM

Check your consoles to see if they say anything.

I believe this a kernal panic. Have you installed any RAM lately?

JKT · Mar 19, 2004, 05:53 AM

Usually these are caused by hardware problems such as bad RAM, dodgy USB connections (if you have any devices or hubs attached, try disconnecting them for a while to see if the problem goes away and/or are all your drivers up to date?). But it is possible for some software to do this too. Is there anything you installed that may have caused it? E.g. Norton software (not the anti-virus software, but the disk/system maintenance stuff).

Big Mac · Mar 19, 2004, 06:07 AM

These are indeed kernel panics, which are abnormal occurrences that normally happen very rarely. If you're experiencing them often, you have some significant software or hardware problem. If you post the panic logs as a previous poster suggested someone may be able to determine the cause of the issue. Be sure to check your drive with Disk First Aid or a better disk utility like Disk Warrior. If that doesn't cure the problem, you may need to reinstall OS X, or you may need to pull out third party RAM installed.

JMII · Mar 19, 2004, 11:12 AM

A co-workers of mine had the same "restart box" problem on her new Mac (single processor G4 MDD running Jaguar)... it turned out to be a bad processor. She had to take it to an Apple service center to get it fixed. They replaced two processors and a motherboard, but the problem still remained so she sent the computer back to the place were she bought it (a Mac reseller, not Apple directly) and got a refund.

I too thought "bad RAM", but it had this problem from day 1 with the factory RAM in there

so in her particular case it WAS a hardware issue. So, I'd look into this issue ASAP because something is very wrong with you Mac if that box is comming up sorry to say

- John

ryju · Mar 19, 2004, 11:56 AM

Originally posted by JMII:

I too thought "bad RAM", but it had this problem from day 1 with the factory RAM in there so in her particular case it WAS a hardware issue.

The factory RAM is not always perfect it can also cause problems, try taking one stick out at a time to find out which stick (if any) is causing kernel panics. Otherwise call Apple.

cambro · Mar 19, 2004, 12:38 PM

As mentioned....

kernel panics in OS X (10.2 and higher anyway) are almost always a sign of some hardware problem. 3rd party hacks and kernel extensions can cause problems, but they are not as likely to cause panics.

It sux when it happens to you, but the good news is that when you have solid hardware, you can count on X never tanking. Ever.

mbryda · Mar 19, 2004, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by cambro:
It sux when it happens to you, but the good news is that when you have solid hardware, you can count on X never tanking. Ever.

Amen! I'm sitting on 70 days uptime on 10.3.2 on the iMac and I beat the living something or other out of this machine. It just doesn't go down. Ever.

CharlesS · 09:33 PM

While a KP can indeed point to hardware problems, I wouldn't panic (har har) just yet. If this is the only one you ever get, no big deal. If you start getting them more frequently, though, then you've got a problem.

EDIT: never mind! I guess I didn't read your post very carefully. Don't listen to me. If you've been getting the KP three times a week, I'd check for bad RAM.

Big Mac · Mar 19, 2004, 07:21 PM

Frequent kernel panics suggest hardware issues of some sort. But one isolated KP doesn't mean it's hardware. I experienced a KP while playing the original Unreal Tournament in Classic, and I surmise it occurred because UT relied on some direct hardware access hack that wasn't properly shielded against by OS X's hardware abstraction layer. Suffice it to say I stopped trying to play UT in Classic. That was my second personal KP; the first one I ever experienced was with 10.0 and iDisk the first day I installed the OS.

Jbroad572 · Mar 19, 2004, 11:46 PM

Ok, well I don't have any other mempry at the time. How do I get to the panic logs so I can post them?

CharlesS · Mar 20, 2004, 03:01 AM

Originally posted by Jbroad572:
Ok, well I don't have any other mempry at the time. How do I get to the panic logs so I can post them?

There should be something at /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/panic.log.

bradoesch · Mar 20, 2004, 10:11 PM

Originally posted by mbryda:
Amen! I'm sitting on 70 days uptime on 10.3.2 on the iMac and I beat the living something or other out of this machine. It just doesn't go down. Ever.

Woah. 70 days with 10.3.2 on an iMac here too. Weeeird.

Tyre MacAdmin · Mar 20, 2004, 10:48 PM

I would try holding down the reset button on your mobo for about 40sec... unplug the AC cable first. Then reset the nvram. If youve added some type of card to your system like a firewire card, sometime the hardware gets confused... things like the onboard firewire not working (or other similar hardware that's been added)

Check to see if all your I/O's are working also... if you find something acting strange, it's more than likely part of the issue.

Ω · Mar 21, 2004, 01:09 AM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Woah. 70 days with 10.3.2 on an iMac here too. Weeeird.

Meet your bizarro twin, mbryda!

bradoesch · Mar 21, 2004, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by _?_:
Meet your bizarro twin, mbryda!

I sure hope it's like the Bizarro Jerry episode.

ryju · Mar 21, 2004, 06:04 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
I sure hope it's like the Bizarro Jerry episode.

Goodbye!

Stinkysteve · Mar 22, 2004, 10:31 AM

Is there a utility that can test the RAM?
I have an iBook G4 800 and had two restart problems last week. About three weeks ago I maxed out the RAM and have had more applications running at the same time, Usually iChat, Safari, Mail, Photoshop, and Apple Works.... And that monitor spanning hack.

absmiths · Mar 22, 2004, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I experienced a KP while playing the original Unreal Tournament in Classic, and I surmise it occurred because UT relied on some direct hardware access hack that wasn't properly shielded against by OS X's hardware abstraction layer.

As far as I know, Classic's hardware layer is implemented with OS X's hardware layer, so this wouldn't really be possible (otherwise any app could bypass the kernel altogether and monitor say a restricted ethernet port, or access an unauthorized file). It is more likely that UT in Classic triggered an unstability in the kernel or an unimplemented trap and that caused the panic. After all, panics by definition are initiated by the kernel . . .

mbryda · Mar 22, 2004, 12:46 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Woah. 70 days with 10.3.2 on an iMac here too. Weeeird.

Unfortunately, my streak ended @ 72 days. The POS Iomega peerless drive I plugged in to the firewir eport to transfer some files caused a meltdown of the system when I ejected a disk and then unplugged it. It was strange - it wouldn't let anything mount on the FW bus until I did a complete power off, wait 30 secs and power back on.

Oh well - at least I got those pesky system updates out of the way - now @ 10.3.3.

SuperHard · Mar 22, 2004, 02:26 PM

On the lighter side, could this be a practical joke. A "friend" might have placed a script on your computer to flash a message, "restart", just to make your day more exciting.
Ok, probably not, but better than a hardware problem.

apollo11 · Mar 22, 2004, 03:53 PM

My numerous KP's lead to replaced mother board,
replaced RAM, replaced AE card and replaced Super drive over 4 months and 4 returns-all to no effect

Solved when the firm ware on the AE card was updated

bradoesch · Mar 23, 2004, 06:51 PM

Originally posted by mbryda:
Unfortunately, my streak ended @ 72 days. The POS Iomega peerless drive I plugged in to the firewir eport to transfer some files caused a meltdown of the system when I ejected a disk and then unplugged it. It was strange - it wouldn't let anything mount on the FW bus until I did a complete power off, wait 30 secs and power back on.

Oh well - at least I got those pesky system updates out of the way - now @ 10.3.3.

Hrm, no Iomega products here and still going strong at 73 days. This is the best uptime I've ever had. I'm kinda itching for 10.3.3 though, hopefully it fixes the networking like it's supposed to. And the latest Safari would be nice too. :/