09-16-2007, 02:08 AM

Just got my first mac for college a little while ago. 3 weeks ago from today to be more precise. It's the 15 inch, 2.4ghz 2gb ram 160gb hd model. I love this thing, it's awesome. It was what I expected from a mac, and I was happy to have switched from a pc to it. However starting September 8th with the first kernel panic, and 5 more after that one. The last being 2 days ago actually (the 14th). I've been developing a headache. I've spent the past 30 minutes or so maybe more searching these forums hard for kernel panic errors. I checked the panic log, and although I'm not too sure where to look, I couldn't find "Airport Atheros" anywhere, so I don’t think my airport is the problem. I also found this article about the possibility of a ram problem. I have not done anything that the article recommends as of yet. I guess I'm just waiting for someone to tell me specifically to run the software and see what’s up, because I'm new to this stuff, and have no idea what I'm doing. To help classify the problem if possible, it's only happened upon waking it up from sleep. I'll leave the computer open, come back and press the spacebar. And it will take unusually long to come back, and when it does the screen goes dim and I get the beautiful kernal panic screen. I think one time it also happened, when I opened the computer(still on) and it kernel panicked, I don’t know if there is a difference between pressing the space bar to wake it up and opening it, so I threw that out there. I hope this post isn't a serious nuisance to any of the regulars on here. I come from other forums, and I know the regulars get very frustrated when new people come in and post questions, that everyone else knows has already been answered. Anyways, all problems, aside I still love this computer to death, and am praying I can figure out what's wrong with it. I just feel a little cheated, I was PRAYING that my problems would be over when I made the switch, oh well. Thanks again, if anyone can point me in the right direction, and sorry for this profusely long post.

EDIT: I hope this is the right section, I guess this could be a hardware or software problem?

09-16-2007, 07:59 AM

I think the ongoing Airport issues have been mostly resolved - my own problem which it sounds like you read was, I believe, resolved by one of the updates. At least I went from having a KP about once every 4-5 days (all related to the Airport Atheros driver) to none since mid-July.

Think on a new machine would call Apple or give a call to set up an appointment at your local Apple store. Sounds like yours is at least semi-reproducible - they should know what to do. You could run the hardware tests you found in the other threads - but ultimately if it is a hardware problem - Apple will need to fix it.

And, as you've found out, hardware issues are not relegated to Windows - all manufacturers will have some percentage of their product that fails. At least most of the software and driver issues of the "other side" are, for the most part, gone.

09-16-2007, 08:14 AM

First of all, welcome! You sound like you have diagnosed it very well. Waking from sleep can trigger panics if the power management unit is screwy, it can also be from other software installs and possibly other hardware problems most common is bad ram. Kernel panics are notoriously difficult to diagnose.
The 'Book is so new that you should let Apple deal with it. Make sure you backup your home directory before you send it off. Best of luck!