I'm getting kernal panics like crazy!!!!

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Geez....... what a horrible week....... it's like I've caught a mac plague in my house. My wife's iMac won't quit freezing (explained in another thread ) , my kidz old powermac kept crashing over the weekend, and now MY mac is having kernal panics like mad! I have never had any kernal panics on my mac, and all of the sudden I've had @ 6 in the last 2 days. I haven't installed any new software or hardware, so what can I do? iPhoto has crashed at least 3 times, I.E. 5.2 has crashed once, Omniweb crashed 10 minutes ago...... mail crashed once........pointers, tips, anyone?



Todd

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Dude, don't get me started... <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



    ... To late ...



    The first of my troubles started when a 27Gb hard drive crashed. That was OK, since I thought the computer was acting funny and backed up. The next week, the 80Gb drive I backed-up to died. It is still waiting it's $350-$2,100 data recovery. (With no grantees) That was a month ago, and the computer is still out of commission. Two days ago, my other 80Gb drive hooked up to my laptop over firewire, died. Well, I shouldn't say died, but is so screwed up TTPro can't do anything. This is after I saved my main laptop hard drive from a similar problem. (I ruled out viruses, have 2 virus scan programs on each computer.)



    Other problems:

    Printer can't print large files. When printing a web page, only 3-4 images are printed.



    HP OfficeJet G85 software crashes after first print. (Different printer than above)



    STILL BEING HACKED!!! This has been going on for years now. They are looking for files called cmd.exe and Root.exe. Does OSX have a file called Root.exe? :confused: I know OSX is based on unix, and I know unix has root accounts, but that is about all I know on unix.



    Well, I have a list of 14 problems, but I won't bore you. Be glad you have it so easy. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    [ 07-09-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 7
    I can only tell you my KernelPanic (KP) experience...

    (iMac 266, OS X.1.5, 256MB)



    I had been running X since day one. About a month ago I got my first KP and within a week it was happening EVERY time I tried to boot any substantial program (IE, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail...)



    After much nashing of teeth and (unintentionally) teaching my children some new words, I traced the problem to a funky RAM chip. ... In figuring out which chip it was, I removed the good one first (Murphys Law), at which point even the finder would cause a KP. I put that back and removed the other RAM chip and the computer ran for over a week on 128MB and never KP'd once. (now i'm back up to 192MB ... seems to be adequate for OS X).



    So ... apparently the RAM was good enough to be accepted by the system self-test (happens at start-up in OS9 and I assume OS X does the same), but when I got enough programs running that it actually tried to use that RAM... it would KP. At least that's my theory, I could be way off, but in any case there have been no KP's since that RAM chip was removed.



    That could be your problem... your symptoms sound similiar to mine, and chips DO go bad occasionally.



    Good Luck .... mabey next week I'll get to replace this old iMac with a new G5 ????
  • Reply 3 of 7
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    only time i ever had KP's was when i took apart a new G4 iMac to install RAM. turned out the ram was fine, problem was that you had you reapply thermal paste to the heat exchanger after taking it apart, and make sure to tighten the torx screws tight enough.



    can you think of anything that is different now from what you had before? except for that one week with the overheating CPU, i haven't seen a single KP in almost a year now.



    that many in such a short time span is doubtless a symptom of a serious problem.



    1. what kind of machine do you have?



    2. have you written down what the KP's actually say? that's useful information that's spewing across the screen there, should tell you exactly what the problem is. try copying it down, and see if it's always the same. also, check apple tech articles, or post the info in this thread and see if an OS X guru can give you a hand.



    3. as i mentioned, triple check the hardware issue. that's the only thing i've ever run across that causes kernal panics, although you could be the exception.



    4. have you added any USB hubs, that kind of thing externally? there's a chance that could have been a problem.



    sorry about the wife's iMac, similar problems or just plain lock ups?
  • Reply 4 of 7
    fishboifishboi Posts: 22member
    Well, I was beginning to wonder if panics could be software related.....earlier tonight I switched back to I.E. 5.1 (from 5.2) and I haven't gotten any panics since. However, it did freeze/lock-up on me 10 minutes ago when I tried dragging a mounted disk to the trash while the computer was downloading......groan....if I can just make it to 10.2, maybe the new install will straighten things out. I hope! BTW I have a g3/233 with sonnet g4/500 upgrade card +768 megs ram. Only usb devices are a cdrw zipcd650, and a kodak camera. Now I have just recently started using the camera, so that sounds like a good possibility there.

    As far as my wife's computer goes, it has been consistently freezing up when we've tried playing games.....starcraft, galactic battlegrounds, warcraft 3 etc. So I've taken out one of her ram chips, and is has only locked up once in the last 2 days..... ordered a 512meg chip this evening. I'm hoping that will fix her iMac prob, because I've already done a complete reinstall......next step would be to take it in for a lookover.



    Thanks again to you guys for your input!



    todd



    [quote]Originally posted by alcimedes:

    <strong>only time i ever had KP's was when i took apart a new G4 iMac to install RAM. turned out the ram was fine, problem was that you had you reapply thermal paste to the heat exchanger after taking it apart, and make sure to tighten the torx screws tight enough.



    can you think of anything that is different now from what you had before? except for that one week with the overheating CPU, i haven't seen a single KP in almost a year now.



    that many in such a short time span is doubtless a symptom of a serious problem.



    1. what kind of machine do you have?



    2. have you written down what the KP's actually say? that's useful information that's spewing across the screen there, should tell you exactly what the problem is. try copying it down, and see if it's always the same. also, check apple tech articles, or post the info in this thread and see if an OS X guru can give you a hand.



    3. as i mentioned, triple check the hardware issue. that's the only thing i've ever run across that causes kernal panics, although you could be the exception.



    4. have you added any USB hubs, that kind of thing externally? there's a chance that could have been a problem.



    sorry about the wife's iMac, similar problems or just plain lock ups?</strong><hr></blockquote>
  • Reply 5 of 7
    pastapasta Posts: 112member
    [quote]Originally posted by Ebby:

    <strong>STILL BEING HACKED!!! This has been going on for years now. They are looking for files called cmd.exe and Root.exe. Does OSX have a file called Root.exe? ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Those are windows problems. A simple script that continuously scours the 'net looking for prone windows boxes to infect. You don't have to worry, you're immune (from those ones, anyway) on a Mac.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    [quote]Originally posted by fishboi:

    <strong>Geez....... what a horrible week....... it's like I've caught a mac plague in my house. My wife's iMac won't quit freezing (explained in another thread ) , my kidz old powermac kept crashing over the weekend, and now MY mac is having kernal panics like mad! I have never had any kernal panics on my mac, and all of the sudden I've had @ 6 in the last 2 days. I haven't installed any new software or hardware, so what can I do? iPhoto has crashed at least 3 times, I.E. 5.2 has crashed once, Omniweb crashed 10 minutes ago...... mail crashed once........pointers, tips, anyone?



    Todd</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Weird stuff. Maybe your power has been screwing your machines. Have a power conditioner/surge protector on each machine? Are they old? Because a lot of surges can cause a lot of ram chips to fry, and all these machines at once is a bit coincidental....doncha think?



    --TAK1
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Sorry...double post...grrr



    [ 07-11-2002: Message edited by: The All Knowing 1 ]</p>
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