You need to restart your computer

I have had my white macbook just over a year now. Twice over the last week, I've got a black screen and a "you need to restart your computer"
I understand it maybe a kernel issue, but dunno how to fix it. can someone please explain in very simple terms how to fix it please and is it easy to do. Many thanks

just done disk utility>vertify disk

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”

Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 22098409 instead of 22098609)
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

Have you recently changed any hardware issues? And what version of OS X are you running? Here is some advice I have found about this issue that may be of some help:

1. Repair permissions form the Disk Utility in the Utilities folder in you Applications folder.
2. Reset your PMU. (Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU))
3. Maybe reinstall the OS, but wait, because hopefully we'll fix it before that becomes a proper option.

Click to expand...

A) Bad hardware
B) Some serious incompatibility with a driver or kernel extension or haxie sort of thing
C) Corrupted system files or corrupted HD format.

Click to expand...

being the causes.

This is known as a Kernel Panic, so that would probably give you more return on a google search.

If this is something that you can't really fix on your own, and nobody here has any advice to offer that works, then certainly take it into an Apple store near you. A lot of the time these panics are caused by RAM issues, and so if you'd like to give it a shot, maybe remove the RAM and then reinsert it?

This is about as much advice as I can give personally.

Hope it helps!

Zep

Info about kernel panics

I've never had the result that the OP got where I didn't have to end up reformatting the disc or at least reinstalling the system.

tinavisions said:

just done disk utility>vertify disk

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”

Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 22098409 instead of 22098609)
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

Click to expand...

Did you do this while booted on your original install disk? If not, try that. fsck doesn't work too well when the filesystem is r/w mounted.

The OP was only verifying the disk. He/She needs to actually perform the repair.

Thanks guys for your support I'm using Leopard. It doesn't happen for days, and i can use the computer normally. When it happens, I reboot and it's ok again for awhile. All the suggestions are great, but way over my head/capabilities

To do what XStep and others suggested, put the OSX DVD #1 that came with your Mac in the drive. Restart and right after the Startup Sound press and hold the C key till it starts to boot from the DVD. When it gets to the install menu, look at the bar up top for utilities and click on the Disk Utility. Then do the repair and see if it fixes the errors.

Great thank you

Oh man, the great kernel panic. I completely forgot about those.

fixed it As I didn't have my disks to hand (most of my stuff is in storage) I saw another thread on here about kernel panics and they suggested pressing shift + power which seemed to boot me up in safe mode (said safe something when I booted up on my login screen) I then ran disk utility>verify disk and it was fine. Logged it as normal, ran it again, and was fine. I seemed to have lost my background image I made in presentation on open office, but everything else seems ok
You guys are the greatest

Look in the Trash for the image. There is small chance it is there. I'm not sure how, but sometimes OS X placed recovered files there.