Kernel Panicks Bonanza

[Ron Jon]

Have recently bought a 12" Powerbook that is constantly crashing with kernel panicks. I recently put in an extra 512mb ram - total is now 768. Kernel panicks started happening before this went in... Prior to sending it back to apple I started backing up some files and the machine just turned itself off. When I turned it back on the date had reset to April 1976 and I had lost some icons in the dock. What the **** is up with this thing!?!?!?

 

[TylerMoney]

Well, all I can say is try taking the memory back out....and if it still does it, call make. They will just tell you to take the memmory out anyways. I also upgradedd my memmory, but haven't had any problems. I mad sure to ask which memmory would not have any problems on mac. for some reason alot of third party memmories just don't like mac...or vis versa. So, if the kernal panics stop. Try and switch out you're memmory....either apple memmory (not much warranty) or you can try what I have: corsair. The only things I've heard causing kernal panics on powerbooks is the 3rd pary memmory...but if it was heppening before the memmory, I don't know what to say. But try this anyways...if it works..it's better than sending the computer back to apple.

 

[Ron Jon]

Thanks... tried removing the memory this morning - back to 256. Opened about 8/9 apps and it froze. Was assisted by a seasoned mac user who also has a 12" PB. He said that it should just get slower, but never freeze.

I think it's completely screwed and will be going back a second time... **** it... I should have bought a normal laptop. It would have cost me half the price and worked better

I'm kidding, I guess. I just really want to get it working the way it should.

Thanks.

 

[TylerMoney]

Yeah. It always sucks when stuff like this happens. The problem is there are always bad apples in the buch, no pun inteded. Wheather it be pc or mac, there will be some with problems. But I must admit, there are more taken back in the pc world. My friend has had a dell for about a year...and his hatch for lcd screen has already gone bad. I don't know....mac will help.

 

[PowerbookG417]

have you tried reloading the font that it gave the error about, i believe that im right in saying that arial is a system font if that font has gone corrupt when a application ie photoshop, illustrator it loads all the fonts and if it has an issue with one it will probably cause a kernal panic
does the panic come when you open certain applications or just random ones ?

 

[Ron Jon]

I find the kernel panics happen randomly... but it does freeze at times when I open an application. The laptop is now with Apple and they are looking at it. I actually stuck several pieces of paper in there to get their attention and briefly tell them what the problem is so that they check it properly this time.

It frustrated the **** out of me cos the OS seemed to be sooo unstable. iCal, Address book and such would just unexpectedly quit on me etc. People that I work with have been going on about macs being really stable and hardly ever crashing. It just doesn't sound right.

We'll see what happens when I get it back from Apple - again. Let's just hope that they do a better job this time... it took me 50 seconds to crash the machine the last time it came back from being "repaired"

Do you know of any places in the UK where I might be able to order something to go over the keyboard for when I close the laptop. I'm currently using the sheet that came with it. I heard about something called the iSkin???

Thanks.

 

[Ron Jon]

For anyone keeping track. My laptop is now with Apple UK for the 3rd time - boy they really suck. The good news is that after a week of having it, I called up to ask its status and was told that it is currently "awaiting parts". Could it be that Apple has finally found the problem that has been driving me insane since getting this bloody laptop!? We'll just wait and see...

I was recently sent an Apple questionairre and answered that I was very dissatisfied with their service. I have also contacted BBC Watchdog - who try and look after people that have been done wrong by companies, as I feel I have.

I hope I get to expose how terrible they really are to customers.

 

[trpnmonkey41]

Watch the language Ron Jon

http://marware.com/keyboardcovers.html

that is a great keyboard cover and they ship to the UK

 

[Ron Jon]

Happy ending!

Got my laptop back from Apple with new hard drive and RAM and, I'm pleased to say, it's been rock solid. This is much better and really enjoying what the machine can do. Am going to start getting pics, music and videos into the thing.

Am still not very happy with Apple's customer support though as they've really made this out to be a bad experience for me. The person who fixed my laptop left his details on there - which I couldn't really delete, as it had admin rights and a password. How stoopid. Luckily I had someone at work sort it out for me.

I'm really looking forward to doing things with my MAC.

The fun really starts here for me

 

[trpnmonkey41]

glad to hear you got it sorted out

 

[gitboxnat]

How does a kernel panic look like? Because this morning my Powerbook's screen turned all blue, and the screen had white lines and dots. I'm just wondering if this is a kernel panic, cuz I was really freaking out this morning. Thank goodness that my PB is okay now, I pressed the 'on' button to shut it down, and rebooted it. But yeah, does anyone know what kind of problem is it?

Thanks in advance.

-Nat

 

[StarManta]

That sounds more like a video problem to me than a kernel panic.

The thing with a kernel panic is, the computer doesn't just grable stuff, it actually gives you a message. On Jaguar, I believe the display froze and it overwrote console-style text. On Panther, the screen dims and it tells you to hard shutdown and restart in several languages.

 

[TylerMoney]

what seems to be your problem..could be vram, or logic board problems....I'm guessing...or a freak accident.

 

[hype.it]

You'll know what a kernel panic looks like when it happens... Although with Panther they seldom happen. You'll get a box asking for you to restart your mac often it's multi-lingual, incase you don't understand. At worst you'll get a black screen with text at the top. with kernel panic somewhere on hidden in the text, as you mac tries to explain what happened. Reminds you of Doz but they don't give explanations...

There's no such thing as a blue screen... only if you got doggie vram or a dying video card, even then it's rarely blue!