Did BitTorrent (Azureus) crash my Mac?

oceansizeoceansize
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I was downloading a few shows at a time and left my Mac unattended during the day. When I returned the Mac had crashed and the fans were going at full blast...I couldn't get it to boot trying several methods AppleCare couldn't remedy the problem after an hour on the phone with them. I took it to Genius Bar where they ran a hardware test. Got an error message regarding memory.



Is it defective RAM or did the BitTorrent screw my Mac?



My Mac is only two months old. It was working like a charm, with the exception of the intense fan activity after I upgraded to 10.3.8, but would faulty RAM have taken two months to cause this problem?



I guess I'll have to wait for further diagnosis from Apple, but does anyone have an idea of how BitTorrent could have caused this? Was the Azureus configuration not set right?







Every time I turn on the Mac I get the same message, which is referred to as kernel panic



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    audiopollutionaudiopollution Posts: 3,226member
    I expect that it wasn't Azureus that crashed your machine, directly. It may have been making extensive use of the memory which exposed the faulty RAM.



    I've had Azureus freeze my machine before, but it was always something that a reboot could cure.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    johnrpjohnrp Posts: 357member
    I agree with audiopollution it used to do pretty much the samr thing to me.. The last jaa update seemd to fix it..



    The erroor message does look like a ram problem.. had the same prob when going to jag on my powerbook. swap out the ram until you find the bad stick



    j.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I've had serious issues with Azureus crashing my G5 almost a year ago. But that was fixed and hasn't happened since. I would run another test to see if it happens again.



    Boot off the apple hardware test disk to check for problems with your RAM.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    oceansizeoceansize Posts: 22member
    Thanks for your replies! You've reassured me but I feel letdown that a brand-new (2-month-old) PowerMac G5 could crash so bad where it's now being repaired by Apple.



    For the record, it was Apple RAM and was installed and configured by Apple before it was shipped to me...Does anyone know how frequent faulty RAM is shipped by Apple? It has to be rare...yet I have to be the one who gets it(sorry for the vent--I'm just frustrated and anxious to get my Mac back).



    While we're on the subject of Azureus, what are the proper configurations so that it doesn't strain the Mac? I still feel that I didn't configure it properly when I installed it. Plus, I had three torrents going at once (though, that doesn't seem to be an issue as Azureus is designed for multiple torrents).
  • Reply 5 of 5
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    It COULD be the RAM, but it doesn't have to be. Kernel panics like that are almost always due to hardware, but it could be a Firewire or USB peripheral, a loose graphics card, or even loose RAM in the socket.



    What is usually recommended is to disconnect ALL peripherals except the Apple keyboard and mouse. Apple probably already told you this though. Also resetting the PRAM and the NVRAM are first steps.



    Otherwise, the next step is to swap out one stick at a time as mentioned above.



    It could be a bad kernel extension, if you have installed any software that messes with the system. Will it boot with the Shift key down?
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