You need to restart, panic report assistance
Hello and welcome to my User Tip
If you have a "You need to restart" message and presented with a kernel panic report, here is some partial assistance to see if you can begin solving it yourself.
Look at a section of this sample Console > System Diagnostic Reports here, notice the bold ones?
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 11.2.0: Tue Aug 9 20:54:00 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.24.8~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 59275DFA--30B3--
System model name: MacBookPro8,2 ()
System uptime in nanoseconds: 484199457832
last loaded kext at 57366454814: com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic 7.0 15054.722853 (addr 0xffffff7f8225a000, size 20480)
last unloaded kext at 144420025047: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 4.4.5 (addr 0xffffff7f80cae000, size 65536)
loaded kexts:
com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic 7.0 15054.722853
com.parallels.kext.prl_netbridge 7.0 15054.722853
com.parallels.kext.prl_hid_hook 7.0 15054.722853
com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor 7.0 15054.722853
com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect 7.0 15054.722853
net.telestream.driver.TelestreamAudio 1.0.5
com.serato.usb.kext 2.3.0
com.senstic.driver.PocketAudioDevice 1.2
com.ShapeServices.driver.HSAudioDevice 1.0.5
com.squirrels.airparrot.framebuffer 3
com.squirrels.driver.AirParrotSpeakers 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.4d0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0
com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.8
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.59
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 122
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.1.3f7
com.apple.driver.AGPM 100.12.42
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 2.1.3f7
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.9
....
~the rest after this are all Apple's
These are third party kernel extension files that "hook" into the kernel of OS X and if they are outdated, broken, defective or a OS X update occurs, they can be causing your system to malfunction.
If your not up to date on OS X, make sure to do the Apple Menu > Software Update fully until clear, it's designed to fix issues and provide stabiity and security updates that might be causing your issues, then focus on getting updates or uninstalling third party software to find the cause.
If you can't boot, hold the Shift key down on a wired or built in keyboard for "Safe Mode" this will disable these kext files from loading at boot time.
If the machine gets further stuck at the Gray Screen, then see this: Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, spinner/progress bar
If you get into the machine, quickly backup just your users files to a external storage drive. Most commonly used backup methods
There is two methods to solve your problem.
A: Go around and find out who and what third party software all these kernel extension files belong too and update all their relative software. Some third party software uses another party kext files, so if you see something like Pace (copy protection) or SoundFlower (sound driver) that's being used for many other third party softwares.
B: Do a #8 Reinstall Just OS X over itself to not only fix the problem if it's a OS X one, but also kick out any and all third party kext files in OS X.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Sometimes the A works, but the B usually does unless it's a further hardware issue. However with B you need to reinstall software again, which you might not be able too if you didn't save the original installer someplace.
There is a last option for those who can't do B because they can't reinstall original copies of software for their OS X version because they can't get it anymore.
C: Open the System/Library/Extensions folder and find the third party kext files and move them to the Desktop. If you remove the one's Apple needs for OS X, the machine may refuse to boot, so if you can find the name of these files from the developer, then you can manually remove then and reboot without them loading.
Also check your log in items and any programs that auto launch when your log back in (like what occurs with 10.7+)
If this doesn't assist, or you don't have any third party kext files, or the #8 Reinstall Just OS X doesn't work, then paste the kernel panic report in a post and ask for further assistance as it might be a hardware issue.
Tip: If you can boot normally and use Terminal and paste this command and press enter
kextstat -kl | awk ' !/apple/ { print $6 } '
It will give a list of non-Apple kext files currently loaded into memory, including all kext files, not just the at boot time ones.
This of course will not work in Safe Mode obviously as it's designed to not load them for a stable bootable OS X.
You can also just run through the Steps systematically: ..Step by Step to fix your Mac
Good Luck. 🙂