Kernel Panic help

Hey guys!,

I have a power mac g4 agp graphics and I have a kernel Panic Happening. Heres whats going on.

I haven taken out the memory in all slots except for one and have switched them around and checked them all out. Nothing wrong here.

Next. I firewired the power mac to a macbook pro to run disk utility because I can not run it on the power mac. I verified the disk, cleaned it, erased it, and even installed a clean version of Mac OSX Leopard straight to the drive. So nothing is wrong with the drive.

I have taken all back panel cards from the power mac. only left the monitor card. Nothing wrong here.

When I start up the power mac with no cd/dvd in the drive I end up at a gray background with the folder icon with the smiley face and question mark.

When I put in the OSX operating disk into the cd drive it starts to load but goes straight to the kernel Panic. Saying Please restart you computer box with four languages and unix text in the background

I have tried to start up the computer and press option which brings up the screen that should have your hard drive on it, but only shows the OSX operating cd. I have tried to load from this screen the OSX disk and it goes straight to the kernel panic.

I have reset the PRam on more than one occassion. No problem here.

I have even tried another blank hard drive to see if I can install the operating system. No luck here. It goes to a kernel panic ONLY when the OSX disk is in the drive.

I have started up the computer while pressing command + s even command +v sometimes there isnt much on the screen to talk about except the Mac OS is not verified.

What do I do if I cant run the OSX disk from the computer?

Please help

Is it a Black/purple retail DVD or a gray specific-model DVD?
Systems installed from wrong DVD will have kernel panic.

You are correct it is a Retail black/purple Installation DVD. What to do now?

What do I do now?

What do I do now? Ive tried everythnig I can think of. Anyone have any suggestions? I need help. Please read other posts to know the situation. Thanks, Ive waited almost a week without a reply.

FYI: The installer installs the version of drivers and files for the Mac the installer runs on - not what the Target Mode target is. That won't start up your G4. Put the good computer in Target mode - if possible...

What is the version of this operating system you are trying to install? If the machine is an AGP G4, it will install up to Tiger OS X>4only. Too slow for later releases.

When you hear the start up sound, hold down all together:



Alt Command P R


Do you have a pci usb card? If so, take it out and try again.


Check that your hard drive and cd drive is working (Is the hard drive clicking or crunching?)

The cpu might not be aligned properly, take the heat sink of and the daughter card and then put them back.


Next thing is the press the pmu reset on the motherboard. I can't recall where exactly it is put it is a little black button - when the start the computer, press it (The computer with turn off)


Make sure you have not touched the gold part of the ram (If you do, it puts static in it, which wrecks it)