You Need to Restart Your Computer

I've received a message starting with these words about ten times now. It says this in 5 different languages, the screen freezes and the only solution is to shut down and open the Mac again. The incidences are becoming more frequent and I'm wondering if (shock, horror) I have managed to do the impossible, pick up a virus on my Mac
Has anyone else experienced this?
I am running Mac IOS X 10.7.5 on my iMac, which is 2 years old

What you are experience is a Kernel Panic which means something has gone wrong.

Follow the link to learn more and see if you can get more information.

First, make sure your backup is current and you have saved all of your information..

You might first try to boot in safe mode to see if the issue persists. Also you should run Disk Repair through Disk Utility to ensure that things are working OK.

Next, you should run a program like OnyX to do some cleaning to see if that clears things up.

Finally, you might want to consider upgrading to OS X 10.9 Mavericks which is a free upgrade..

No Virus.

Try all that Ashwin suggested. If nothing he suggested helps it might be hardware like the RAM.

Have you installed any new RAM since the machine was new? Is all the RAM stock from Apple?

And it is still impossibel that virus for Mac OS X. As the Mods suggest most KPs are hardware related hence the questions about memory and running Repair Disk via Recovery mode.


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Thanks to all for your prompt replies. It wasn't just a kernel panic, it was a chrbyr one also! I'll follow the steps suggested by Ashwin and see how I get on. I've not added or replaced any hardware since I bought my Mac. I'm very low tech and wouldn't dare!

Chris

Sometimes a kernel panic can be so severe that you cannot boot your Mac at all, as happened to mine recently. If it comes to that, I hope you are near an Apple Store. They helped me get my Mac back to working order.

Raz0rEdge

When you said boot in Safe Mode to see if the problem persists, did you mean run my iMac in that mode for a few days? I tried for a few hours but sound didn't work and it seemed a bit strange so I restarted in regular mode. I've run Disk Repair a couple of times but received the message that everything seems OK on the hard disk. I ran Onyx and received the same message. I will now try it in Safe Mode for a few days until KP strikes again! What if it runs happily in that mode for the next week? What would that signify?

Since I first posted on 20 May the Kernel Panic screen has appeared on 23, and 30 May and 1, 3, 5 June and again today. I started to download OS X Mavericks 10.9 but then realised that I run Parallels to provide a Windows partition and that I had had an email from Parallels warning me that my current version was incompatible with Mavericks and recommending that I download their latest version.

As my experience with Parallels is absolutely awful, the last thing I'm going to do is give them any more of my hard earned loot! I've been waiting for my daughter to give me her laptop so that I can run the three programs that will only run on Windows on that and then I'll hold a champagne reception to celebrate the uninstallation of Parallels and the reclamation of my iMac uncontaminated by any Windows partition/programs! Fingers crossed that that happens before the dreaded KP shuts my iMac down permanently without the intervention of the Apple shop

Try running Apple Hardware Test (AHT) over your iMac. Here is how to do that with Lion and later and select the full diagnostic tests:-


Using Apple Hardware Test