Mysterious kernel panic

[rborden]

Hello all,

I am working on a customers Powerbook G4 which has been shutting down. After a great deal of research and testing I have hit a wall as to what steps to take in determining the cause of this problem. I have tested the RAM with memtest, ran permissions repair, and run stress tests.

When I received the computer on Monday the very first thing that I noticed was the date and time were off by 30 years. I have corrected that and have not seen a switch back, so I am assuming the Bios battery is in functioning conditions. Since I have had the computer it has kernel panicked once, and I will be attaching that log. The customer threw away her installation disc, so I am unable to do a proper HDD check to see if there are bad sectors. However, the fact that I have been running a stress test over night with no freezing or crashing tells me that the HDD is functioning. (The stress test was having the computer playing Chess against itself at the highest difficulty. This causes a high load on the system due to the complex mathematical algorithms)

She need her computer back (or declared dead) by Sunday. Any help that you folks could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

PANIC LOG

Tue Oct 6 11:33:13 2009


Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x700 - Program DAR=0x00000000E0101E30 PC=0x0000000000036BD4
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x00A3C000)
PC=0x00036BD4; MSR=0x00089030; DAR=0xE0101E30; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x000ABBAC; R1=0x173DBF30; XCP=0x0000001C (0x700 - Program)
Backtrace:
0x000ABCB8 0x59417467
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x00A3C000)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x2D520C80)
PC=0x9002CB48; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0xE0101E30; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x90001C80; R1=0xF0305D90; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.0.0: Sat Mar 26 14:15:22 PST 2005; root:xnu-792.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic(cpu 0 caller 0xFFFF0007): 0x700 - Program
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0x00095564 0x00095A7C 0x00026838 0x000A8184 0x000AB880
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x00A3C000)
PC=0x00036BD4; MSR=0x00089030; DAR=0xE0101E30; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x000ABBAC; R1=0x173DBF30; XCP=0x0000001C (0x700 - Program)
Backtrace:
0x000ABCB8 0x59417467
Exception state (sv=0x2D520C80)
PC=0x9002CB48; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0xE0101E30; DSISR=0x0A000000; LR=0x90001C80; R1=0xF0305D90; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.0.0: Sat Mar 26 14:15:22 PST 2005; root:xnu-792.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC#
*********

[chscag]

For one thing, I would change the PRAM battery. Pretty good indication of a weak or non functioning PRAM battery is the date being incorrect. If the machine is shutting down unexpectedly, it could be due to an overheat problem or power supply problem. Although you would think either should show up in any kind of stress test.

Make sure the fans are functioning and none of the exhaust ports are blocked with dust or dirt. As for the power supply, it could be intermittent.

Regards.